Saturday, March 5, 2011

Magic #3 -- March 5, 2011

To play the Palace in New York was the height of accomplishment in vaudeville. Le Roy-Talma-Bosco were a popular team of magicians. Servais Le Roy was a Belgian magician. Talma (Mary Ford) was his wife and an expert coin manipulator. Bosco was the rotund comic relief. There were several Boscos over the years. John Bosco is the patron saint of magicians.

Headliner Irene Franklin was a singer who performed for many years with accompanist Burt Green. Kathleen Clifford was a male impersonator.


The ad is from the New York Tribune 05-December-1915.   

2 comments:

ratatouille's archives said...

Hi! Joe Thompson...
I can just imagine...What was it that "killed" vaudeville? Films on the big screen? not radio?
Nice ad for the act(s) that was featured to appear in the show...also nice to stop by this Sunday morning for a visit...
DeeDee ;-D

Joe Thompson said...

DeeDee: Movies hurt vaudeville, but they managed to coexist for a long time. In the early days, many vaudeville theaters advertised movies as an added attraction. Later, many movie theaters included three or four vaudeville acts between features. Free radio, along with the Depression almost finished it off, although big movie theaters in cities still continued to book live acts between movies till after WWII. Perhaps television struck the final blow. Glad you enjoyed the ad. I have found a bunch more.