Notice the name of Jane Connolly, "The Dainty Comedianne", just below Houdini. I'm wondering if this is Jane Connelly, Houdini's co-star in The Man From Beyond? As I noted in my Leading Ladies profile, Connelly and her husband were vaudeville performers, and it's likely Houdini's friendship with the Connellys was behind the casting. (Mr. Connelly was also in The Man From Beyond.)
Of course, the name on this ad is spelled Connolly, not Connelly, so this could be a completely different Jane. But misspellings in newspaper ads are not unheard of, even for the most famous of headliners:
Related:
I think they are the same. The Variety listing for the engagement spells her name "Connelly" instead of "Connolly":
ReplyDeletehttp://archive.org/stream/variety37-1915-02#page/n152/mode/1up/search/connelly
And her obituary:
http://archive.org/stream/variety80-1925-10#page/n226/mode/1up
says that the vaudevillian who was in the "Cup of Tea" sketch (see your Rhode Island adv) was the actress married to Erwin.
Excellent! Thanks Bill.
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