cemetery

Rudolph Carpos, the Clown of Vaudeville Days

Kensico Vaudeville Project #: 10 Name: Rudolph Carpos Act: Clown Born: 9 Sept 1875, Vienna, Austria Died: 4 Nov 1935, New York City There are two different gravestones for Rudolph Carpos, a professional clown who was beloved by vaudeville audiences. He was […]

Kevin FitzpatrickApril 30, 2015April 30, 2015

Exploring

Sig Mealey: From the Follies to Babe La Tour’s Bed

Kensico Vaudeville Project #: 8 Name: Sig Mealey Act: Acrobat Born: 20 June 1881, possibly Sweden Died: 1951 Sig Mealey was an accomplished acrobat who appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909, on the same bill with headliners Nora Bayes and Eva […]

Kevin FitzpatrickApril 16, 2015April 16, 2015

Exploring

The Kid Acrobat James Bird

Kensico Vaudeville Project #: 7 Name: James Bird Act: Acrobat Born: About 1875 Died: 21 August 1935, New York City In 1890 James Bird’s name appeared in the New York Times, and it wasn’t in the theater department. The headline says it […]

Kevin FitzpatrickApril 9, 2015April 8, 2015

Research

The Mysterious Soldier, Andrew Joseph Basso

Kensico Vaudeville Project #: 6 Name: Andrew Joseph Basso Act: None Born: 16 November 1892, New York City Died: 22 March 1943, New York City There is only one gravestone in the National Vaudeville Association plot that was given by the Veterans […]

Kevin FitzpatrickApril 2, 2015April 2, 2015

Exploring

From Mississippi to Stage and Screen with Charles Barney

Kensico Vaudeville Project #: 5 Name: Charles Barney Act: Actor-Writer Born: 12 October 1884, Columbus, Mississippi Died: 30 April 1929, New York City Comedy actor and writer Charles Barney (aka Charlie Barnes and Charles Burns) played the vaudeville circuit from New York […]

Kevin FitzpatrickMarch 26, 2015March 23, 2015

Exploring

Two Wheels of Hard-Living Fun for Charlie Ahearn

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 […]

Kevin FitzpatrickMarch 12, 2015February 22, 2017

Books

Condé Nast in Life and Death

Here is Condé Nast himself, the man who made Vogue & Vanity Fair a powerhouse before World War I. I’m talking about him Thursday, March 26, at the Drama Book Shop during Dorothy Parker Night. Last summer when I was at […]

Kevin FitzpatrickMarch 6, 2015March 26, 2015

Exploring News

The Kensico Vaudeville Project Launches

Project Updates and Biographies are posted here. Twenty-eight miles north of Forty-second Street is Kensico Cemetery. Interred there are hundreds—perhaps more than a thousand—stage performers and associates. These men and women were onstage in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. I stumbled […]

Kevin FitzpatrickFebruary 26, 2015January 27, 2017

Exploring

Visiting the Graves of Sara and Gerald Murphy

Today I visited the graves of Gerald Murphy (1888-1964) and Sara Wiborg Murphy (1883-1975) in South End Cemetery, East Hampton, Long Island, New York. Nearby are their sons Baoth Murphy (1919-1935) and Patrick Murphy (1920-1937). The inscription on Sara’s gravestone reads “…and […]

Kevin FitzpatrickDecember 26, 2014November 7, 2021

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