Vaudeville

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

Thomas Banahan, The Forgotten Stage Dad

Kensico Vaudeville Project #: 4 Name: Thomas Banahan Act: Juggler Born: 9 March 1883, Chicago Died: 24 April 1929, New York City The juggler Tommy Banahan was a star in the era before World War I and was the father of silent […]

Kevin FitzpatrickMarch 19, 2015March 18, 2015

Exploring

Meet the High Diver’s Mother, Anna B. Anderson

Kensico Vaudeville Project #: 3 Name: Anna Bylund Anderson Act: None Born: 31 July 1868, Salt Lake City Died: 26 Mar 1929, New York City This is the final resting place of a woman whose only tie to show business was her […]

Kevin FitzpatrickMarch 19, 2015March 18, 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

Exploring News

Don’t Try and Get One Over On Nettie Kelley Adams

Kensico Vaudeville Project #1 Name: Nettie Kelley Adams Act: Singer Born: 28 Feb 1887 Died: 8 July 1934 It is appropriate that the first name to be added to the Kensico Vaudeville Project is a female singer, since women were so vital […]

Kevin FitzpatrickMarch 5, 2015February 16, 2017

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

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