Charles Ahearn in the N.V.A. Burial Grounds.
Kensico Vaudeville Project #2
Name: Charles Ahearn
Act: Cyclist
Born: 5 April 1886
Died: 26 April 1940
Charles Ahearn was “The Racing Man” – a comedian on a bike. His fame took him to play London’s Hippodrome in 1909, where “the smartest and most amusing wheel acts America has ever sent us.” He returned to New York and took out a full-page ad in Variety to hail his triumph. Ahearn appeared with Anna Held at The Casino and toured the country from coast to coast as an actor and comedian. He placed a half-page ad in Variety in 1913 that read:
“Happy Hearn’s Wheelmen, The Funniest Act On Wheels Ever Produced, Under The Direction Of Charles Ahearn now playing for Marcus Loew. The Charles Ahearn Troupe of Cycle Comedians in “The Speed King” with Miss Gertrude Hoffman in “From Broadway to Paris” at American Music Hall, Chicago, Indefinitely.”
1909 Variety Ad
In 1915 he made headlines when he voluntarily cancelled 40 weeks of bookings on the U.B.O. Circuit and went to the Ludlow Street Jail (“the alimony club”) to serve six months. He refused to pay his ex-wife, Vesta P. Ahearn, $655 in alimony because he said she left him for Sime Silverman, founder and publisher of Variety.
When he registered for the World War I draft, he was living at the Princeton Hotel, which used to be at 116 W. 45th Street. He was tall with a medium build and blue eyes. He didn’t go into the army.
In 1918 Variety reviewed Charles Ahearn’s Cabaret, appearing at the Fifth Avenue Theatre.
The familiar comedy bicycle act of Charles Ahearn, with its many freak wheels, “race” accessories, mostly props, has been materially altered in the latest edition, at the Fifth Avenue the first half of this week, where it indicated some lack of work, preparation and thought… The freak wheels, at one time Ahearn’s mainstay and often the subject of dispute as to original stage ownership, have almost entirely disappeared, leaving the opening section a matter of comedy riding by Ahearn on an ordinary safety bicycle…
Ad from N.V.A. souvenir book. Courtesy of American Vaudeville Museum.
When he died on 26 April 1940 in Bellevue, he earned a nine-line obituary in the Times, calling him “an old-time burlesque actor and a vaudeville artist.” He was 54. His remains were interred in the National Vaudeville Association burial grounds a few days later.
Kensico Vaudeville Project
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