by Mike » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:10 am
I and a hospitalized friend watched the 1st show yesterday while I was visiting. It was quite a good show, with a lot of vaudeville history thrown in. Jack was mentioned and shown quite a few times. It made me think back to a conversation I had with my late father not long before his death at age 93 about 2 years ago. I had never thought to ask him before, but for some reason I thought to ask him if he had ever gone to vaudeville shows in his younger days. He was very cantankerous usually, and hard to have a conversation with, but on this subject he brightened up and told me that yes, when he was a youth he would sometimes go to vaudeville shows in San Francisco where his sister lived then. (He was from a small town with no theaters). He seemed to have a pleasant recollection of the vaudeville days. I asked him why he thought vaudeville died out, and one of the reasons in his opinion was that the musicians wanted too much money. I thought to ask him about vaudeville because it seems like an antique curiosity now, (to me, anyway), only hinted about in movies like "Gypsy." Anyway, I thought the TV show gave a nice overview of Jack and other performers' early vaudeville days before they were on radio and TV. Mike in L.A.