Tydeman & Dooley were a pair of comedic acrobats who starred on the B.F. Keith vaudeville circuit in the 1900s and 1910s.
Tydeman & Dooley
Tydeman & Dooley
Tydeman & Dooley
Tydeman & Dooley
Vincent A. Tydeman grew up in Camden, and also had a long career as a minor league baseball player. After retiring from baseball and the stage he remained a Camden resident until his passing in 1975. The Tydeman family lived in North and East Camden through at least the late 1970s [1990’s!—Ed.], and were on Howell Street for many years.
Billy Dooley
Billy Dooley
The Dooleys were a family act, and at least one of the Dooley brothers lived in Camden for many years. The family name was originally Dool. As of this writing, I’m not sure which of the three Dooley brothers was Vincent Tydeman’s partner, but I suspect it was either Johnny Dooley or Billy Dooley, pictured above. Billy was the oldest, and is the more likely of the two. The third brother, Gordon Dooley, would have been too young. It may well have been that Tydeman’s partner was the Dooley father, Robert Rogers Dool, which would explain the clown makeup in the photograph above.
The Dooleys collectively had been a huge success for a brief time in vaudeville, and after the family act broke up several of the family went on to careers individually, with varying degrees of success.
Journalist Dan McConnell, who had grown up in the same neighborhood and had worked as a publicist for the Keith circuit in the 1910s, wrote about the Dooleys in the late 1930s, as did Gordon Mackay, while working for the Courier. North Camden barber Pat Iarossi, who had a shop for many years at North Third Street, told the following to Mackay in early 1938:
“I used to cut Ann Pennington’s hair when she was a child,” Pat recalled. “And the Dooleys always made my shop their headquarters. Billy Dooley worked for me. The kids, six [FIVE to be correct—PMC] of them, trained in a patch we called the ‘cow lot’. Rae and Mae were the two girls, while Johnny was the big shot of the boys.
“They used to turn cartwheels right out in the lot there and come into my shop to do a little vocal rehearsing. Ann Pennington was always dancing, you couldn’t keep her feet still. I remember one day Ann, Johnny Dooley and a girl named Moore went over to Lubin’s in Philadelphia, trying to break into the movies.
“Lubin wouldn’t handle them and they all came crying into my shop.
In March of 2007 an e-mail came to this website from John Vaughan, grandson of Mae Dooley and great-nephew of Ray Dooley and the Dooley brothers. John wrote at length about his family’s show-business legacy.
The Dooleys came to America in the late 1800’s from Glasgow, Scotland and settled in Philly. The boys were named Johnny, Billy, and Gordon. The girls were named Ray and Mae. Their father, (my great grandfather) was named Robert Rogers Dooley, he was a famous Irish circus clown, and he married Mary Dool, from Glasgow, who was nicknamed Mumsie.
The five kids all had an act, all did comedy, and the girl Mae, also sang. They went out on the road and toured a lot. Once, when they were all older, they played in Portsmouth, Virginia. Mae fell in love with a man she met there. They decided to get married, Mae dropped out of show business, the two of them moved back to Philly, and they had a baby boy in May of 1917. They named the child William Jonathan Dooley Vaughan. That child would grow up and become my father. That is my connection to the Dooley family.
The boys continued as a group and were headliners in their day. Doing mainly slapstick comedy. They starred in many comedy plays plus The Ziegfeld Follies, George White Scandals and The Earl Carroll Vanities. We are talking early 1900’s till after WWI into the early 1920’s.
The girl, Ray (also spelled Rae sometimes), split off on her own and became a very big star, also on Broadway as an actress and a comedienne. She performed in many musicals and also in the Follies and Vaudeville.
Ray Dooley
Ray Dooley
Her greatest fame came when she did a “kid act” together with W.C. Fields in The Ziegfeld Follies in 1920 & 1921. It was based on this act that W.C. Fields got his reputation as a “kid hater.” The actress, Fanny Brice, who also worked with Ray and W.C., later stole the act for herself and called it Baby Snooks. Among other stars of the day, Ray Dooley later went on and performed together with Bob Hope (then called by his real name, Lester Hope) in the smash hit Broadway musical “The Sidewalks Of New York” in 1928.
Ray married a man named Eddie Dowling in 1931 (I think that was the year). He was famous in the business…a song and dance man, actor, director, producer, song writer (among other hits, he wrote “On The Side Walks Of New York”), and Pulitzer Prize Winner. He also introduced Tennessee Williams to Broadway in The Glass Menagerie.
My father’s mother, Mae Dooley Vaughan died in 1947 in Philly. My father, who died in 1993, never knew how old his parents were for some strange reason! Ray died in 1984 in East Hampton, New York, she was 88 [Newspapers say 93—pmc]. The three boys all married show girls and all died young. Johnny died in 1928, he was 41, Billy (William) died in 1921, he was 39, and Gordon died in 1930, he was 31. Gordon Dooley was the only one of the five kids who was born in America, in the year 1899. The others were all born in Glasgow.
W.C. Fields and Ray Dooley in the "Back Porch" scene from Ziegfield's Comic Supplement, January 1925.
W.C. Fields and Ray Dooley in the "Back Porch" scene from Ziegfield's Comic Supplement, January 1925.
Eddie Dowling and Ray Dooley at LaGuardia Airport, 1945
Eddie Dowling and Ray Dooley at LaGuardia Airport, 1945
Their father, Robert Rogers Dooley, also died young, of apoplexy just after son Gordon Dooley’s marriage in 1922. That same year, Johnny Dooley was featured in the movie When Knighthood Was in Flower. Starring Marion Davies, it was the leading movie at the box-office of the 1922–1923 movie season. At the time it was produced it was the most expensive movie ever made, with an estimated cost of $1.8 million. The film was the pet project of the famous media magnate William Randolph Hearst.
On the bicycle is Johnny Dooley. This photograph was shot on the set of When Knighthood Was in Flower in 1922. My best guess as to the actor dressed in black is that it is Downing Clarke, then 53, who played the role of Lord Chamberlain in the film.
On the bicycle is Johnny Dooley. This photograph was shot on the set of When Knighthood Was in Flower in 1922. My best guess as to the actor dressed in black is that it is Downing Clarke, then 53, who played the role of Lord Chamberlain in the film.
Interestingly enough, the Dooley family is still involved in show business. John Vaughan, who has been living in Berlin, Germany, for many years, is a singer, songwriter, and composer. You can find out more about John at his website www.john-vaughan.com.
Camden Courier-Post, January 5, 1938View transcription
THOSE of us who knew and esteemed the late H. Bart McHugh, Sr., recall the many-fold fine attributes of the man who was the heart and spirit of the annual Mummers Parade in Philadelphia for so many years.
Our memories of the pageant, of the buffoons, comedians and gaudy-garbed participants marching to the accompaniment of countless bands and musical aggregations dates back to early boyhood.
A few of the original mummers organizations have survived. Many of the vintage mummers organizations failed to withstand the financial scourge of the depression and like the Arabs the members seemed to fold up their tents and vanish.
String bands add the musical embellishment of originality in the annual Broad street procession of mirth, music, merriment and color.
Camden had the honor for many years to contribute its clubs, marchers and musical organizations. The local entrants many times walked off with coveted prizes.
Perhaps one of the first musical outfits from Camden to walk those long, long miles on New Year's Day was a fife and drum corps we called "The Foggy Dudes." For that type organization the "Dudes" were considered tops away back there in our less opulent years.
Every member of the organization had a mascot — a small boy who proudly marched to the strains of the fifes and the beat of the drums. And more than one youngster upon his weary return to home was administered a sound thrashing by an irate pater.
The famous Dooley family of stage fame was reared in the neighborhood where "The Foggy Dudes" were organized—North Front street and "Frog Row."
THE DOOLEYS
In the years that followed, the late H. Bart McHugh opened a vaudeville booking office. The variety show flourished throughout the nation, in Canada and sections of Mexico.
Booking agents were paid good commissions, and McHugh was about the most successful of all bookers in the Quaker City. He, too, started many young artists on the road to fame. Among them was Camden's famous Dooley Family.
It was McHugh who "discovered" the Dooleys. He organized the "Twentieth Century Minstrels." Ray Dooley, now the wife of Eddie Dowling, famed New York producer and former musical comedy star, was a member of the minstrel aggregation which toured the country.
The most successful of the Dooleys was Johnny, who once was the husband of Yvette Rugel, famous prima donna in musical comedy.
Billy Dooley started in burlesque, graduated to vaudeville, and later was featured in musical comedy extravaganzas in New York's famous Winter Garden.
Gordon Dooley, the youngest member of the stage-famed family, developed into an acrobatic comedian. He with his brother Billy were starred for two seasons with "The Count of Monte Cristo," a lavish production, which also featured the Watson Sisters, who, too reached Broadway from the stages of burlesque houses.
In his late years the father of the Dooleys, a circus clown, returned to the stage and achieved success in a big time vaudeville act with his two sons, Billy and Gordon. He died suddenly while playing a New York engagement.
Johnny Dooley died after an appendicitis operation. Billy was fatally hurt in a taxicab accident, and Gordon succumbed to pneumonia contracted while making motion picture shorts in the city where he was born—Camden.
The Dooleys were famed as stage "greats"—but only for a short span of years.
New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 9, 1915View transcription
IS IN VAUDEVILLE NOW.
Johnny Dooley Once Was Steward on Steamship Creole.
The passengers who made the first trip up the Mississippi river on the Creole, the first turbine steamer to navigate the river a few years ago, may wonder what ever became of the young-looking chief steward. He is back in New Orleans, but no longer a steward. He has followed in the footsteps of his brother, "Bill" Dooley, and his sister, Ray, for he is none other than Johnny Dooley of the team of Dooley and Rugel at the Orpheum.
Mr. Dooley was the youngest steward in the service of the United Fruit Company, running first out of Philadelphia and then from New Orleans to Bocas del Toro on the old Chickahominy, before shipping on the Creole.
He sailed out of this port for more than a year and while he had visions of commanding a boat, the glare of the footlights was too strong and he was lured to another fate. He is spending his leisure hours along the river front, and while he admits that those were the happy days, he is going to stick in vaudeville.
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 20, 1918View transcription
B. F. KEITH'S THEATRE
SOPHIE TUCKER
AND HER FIVE KINGS OF SYNCOPATION
JOHNNY DOOLEY THE ORIGINAL
George M[?]cFarlane: Al White, Jr., and Ruth Adams; Tarzan: Other Features.
St. Regis Theatre
Trenton Times, October 13, 1920
Trenton Times, October 13, 1920View transcription
ST. REGIS
Continuous from 1 to 11 P.M.
Organ recital with every show
Don't Neglect to See
[illegible]DAY AND TOMORROW
JOHNNY DOOLEY
[illegible]s first fun feature
SKINNING SKINNERS
[illegible] reels of laughter
and pretty girls
[illegible]'ll regret it if you do
Johnny Dooley Is Comin' to Town!
Baltimore Sun, April 7, 1921
Baltimore Sun, April 7, 1921View transcription
JOHNNY DOOLEY IS COMIN' TO TOWN!—
Funny Johnny Dooley—you all know him—the chap who created such a sensation when he appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies, is headed for CARLIN'S.
He tops off a crackerjack bill in The Arena next week and nobody ought to miss seeing him while he's here.
Incidentally, the show this week is certainly drawing the crowds. Little wonder, when one observes such names as Joe Jackson, the Belleclaire Bros., the Tony Cornetti Trio, Four Musical Lunds, Louise Walker, and Mata's Tropical Band on the programme.
Come out tonight—if you can. There'll be two shows—one at 8.15 and the other around ten o'clock.
The Ice Palace—a delightfully novel attraction at Carlin's—opens for the first time tomorrow night. Skaters of international reputation, headed by Edna Blue, Lemsire and Burke, Cathleen Pope, will perform artistic and daring feats on a rink of real ice. Don't fail to be on hand!
CARLIN'S LIBERTY HEIGHTS PARK
Ad Men Hear Johnny Dooley.
Johnny Dooley, comedian, entertained the Advertising Club at a luncheon at the Hotel Emerson yesterday. He was assisted by the Misses Constance and Daisy Madison. C. W. Price, general manager of the National Safety Council, of Chicago, spoke on the no accident campaign to be held next week.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 25, 1927View transcription
OHIO HOLIDAY WEEK ATTRACTION Beg. TONIGHT
Don't Miss TOMMY
A Delightful American Comedy
DIRECT FROM 8 MONTHS NEW YORK — 4 MONTHS CHICAGO
Direction George C. Tyler
Eves., Except Sat., 50c to $2.50; Sat. Night, $1 to $3.
Wed. Mat., 50c to $1.50; Sat. Mat., 50c to $2. Plus Tax.
SPECIAL HOLIDAY MATINEE TOMORROW, 50c to $1.50
Two Weeks Only, Starting Sun., Jan. 1—Seats Now
Buy Your Seats Early This Time! Remember "The Show Boat."
SIXTH EDITION ~ AMERICA'S GREATEST REVUE
EARL CARROLL VANITIES
ORIGINAL N.Y. CAST & PRODUCTION INTACT
WITH
MORAN & MACK as the "TWO BLACK CROWS"
JULIUS TANNEN JOHNNY DOOLEY NORMAN FRESCOTT
MOST IMPORTANT AGGREGATION OF STELLAR COMEDIANS AND FAMOUS BEAUTIES EVER ASSEMBLED
CO. OF 100 including 60 VANITIES BEAUTIES & 24 FOSTER GIRLS
SAME AS ALL LAST YEAR AT EARL CARROLL THEATRE
Eves., $2 to $4; Mat. Sat. Only, $1.50 to $3.50; Plus Tax
JOHNNY DOOLEY
Johnny Dooley, 41, comedian, died June 7 in the Homeopathic Hospital, Yonkers, of intestinal trouble. He had recently been operated upon for appendicitis. The comedian left "Vanities" on tour to enter the Yonkers hospital.
Dooley's real name was John D. Dool and he was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Johnny's father had been a circus clown. When Dool, Sr., wasn't with the "white-tops" he was serving as a cook on one of the boats of the United Fruit Steamship. On different trips to the U.S. the father first brought over another son, William, as sub-chef, and then Johnny.
William Dooley was the first of the Dooley family to enter vaudeville, although Johnny wasn't long in following. For a time Johnny saw stage services with medicine shows and circuses. His early experience was both varied and eventful.
In vaudeville he did a single, worked with his brothers, Bill and Gordon, and formed a double with Yvette Rugel whom he married. They were later divorced. He had been a comic with Winter Garden shows, Ziegfeld's "Follies," "Girl in the Spotlight," "Listen Lester," "Keep Kool" and "Vanities."
Dooley had married three times. His first wife was Florence Harris, his second Miss Rugel and his third, Maria Fruscella, known professionally as Constance Madison, whom he married in 1924. Miss Madison had worked in several of the former Dooley acts. When not playing stage dates the Dooleys lived in their own home at Ardsley, New York.
At his bedside when he died were his mother, Mrs. Mary Dool; his sister, Ray Dooley, and his wife.
William Dooley died several years ago while playing vaudeville dates. Body was shipped to Bywood, Pa., suburb of Philadelphia, where his mother lives, for interment in the Holy Cross Cemetery at Bywood.
WILLIAM DOOLEY
William Dooley, brother of Johnny, Gordon and Ray of the theatrical family of that name, died Sept. 29, at his home 308 west 97th street, New York. An autopsy performed by Dr. Hohmans, assistant Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, determined the cause of death to have been chronic nephritis (kidney disease), aortitis (heart disease), and cirrhosis of the liver (hardening of the liver).
Physicians called into consultation to attend Mr. Dooley, following a fall he received while leaving a taxi-cab Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 29, as he was returning to the Palace theatre, New York, where he left the bill that day, diagnosed the cause of death as concussion or compression of the brain.
In accordance with the law which necessitates the calling in of the Medical Examiner, an official which corresponds to the former Coroner of New York, in the event a patient dies who has not received medical attention for more than 24 hours, the Examiner's office was notified, and the autopsy later disclosed death to have resulted from the three diseases mentioned.
Mr. Dooley was 39 years old and born in Scotland. He came to America at the age of six, and settled with his family in Altoona, Pa. Later the family moved to Philadelphia. Mr. Dooley entered the show business at the age of 20. He was a member of the acrobatic trio of Elliot, Bellaire and Elliot. He played in burlesque for a season or two, following which he became associated with Bart McHugh, as manager of the Metropolitan Minstrels, a vaudeville act.
Mr. Dooley first attracted attention as an actor as a member of the cast of McHugh's "Lawn Party," also a vaudeville production. He was with Frank Orth in vaudeville, for a short time.
The combination of William, Gordon and Ray Dooley was then formed and the trio played with "Hitchy Koo," later joining Morris Gest's Century Roof Show. Ray Dooley dropping out of the act. William and Gordon played with the Shuberts in a Winter garden show and in other musical productions.
The two Dooley brothers played vaudeville last with the Morin Sisters. The funeral was in Philadelphia Oct. 1. Mr. Dooley was a member of the N. V. A. A mother, father, andd [sic] sister survive, in addition to his brothers, Johnny and Gordon, and sister Ray.
New York Times, September 30, 1921View transcription
WM. DOOLEY'S FUNNY FALLS CAUSE HIS DEATH
Knockabout Comedian Dies Soon After Collapse at the Palace From Injuries to Spine.
William Dooley, whose knockabout acrobatic antics with his brother Gordon have been familiar for many seasons in vaudeville and the roof shows, died early yesterday morning. According to his friends, it was his flair for knockabout comedy that killed him—both his spine and kidneys had become affected by the constant strain put upon them by his many tumbles, and his death followed a complete physical collapse. He was 39 years old.
He was a martyr to his stage work to the last, for he played with his brother Tuesday night at the Palace Theatre, and it was in his dressing room that he collapsed just before the matinée on Wednesday. He had known that he could not continue the strenuous knockabout work much longer, but had persisted in going ahead with the work that was killing him. On Tuesday night, when he gave his final performance, he remarked to his brother:
"Let's make it good—we haven't many more shows to give together."
He insisted on including in the performance, also, a burlesque of two well-known acrobats—a number that was not supposed to be a part of his act at the Palace.
It was evident after the performance on Tuesday night that Dooley was ill, but he reported as usual for the Wednesday matinee, although with difficulty. After his collapse he was taken to his home at 308 West Ninety-seventh Street, and he regained consciousness only at intervals before his death late at night.
Philadelphia Inquirer, September 30, 1921View transcription
BILLY DOOLEY KILLED IN FALL FROM CAB
Member of Noted Vaudeville Family Will Be Buried From Mother's Home Here
William (Billy) Dooley, born in Camden and a Philadelphia schoolboy, who was widely known among visitors at vaudeville theatres, died in New York yesterday following a fall from a taxi-cab on Tuesday. His body was sent to the residence of his mother, 6022 Locust street, and the funeral will be from the residence.
"Billy" was the originator of what became known upon the stage as the "Dooley fall." Leaping into the air he would fall, apparently landing with full force upon one ear. The trick was a difficult one and the secret was in the fact that the acrobat really landed upon his right hand, but with such a small margin that the hand never was visible to the audience.
John, Gordon and Ray, of the Dooley family, are all in vaudeville. Mary Dooley was an actress until her marriage several years ago. "Billy," Gordon and Ray were together several years in a team known as "The Three Dooleys."
It was while Billy was playing a small part with the Metropolitan Minstrels that his ability was recognized and he was jumped into vaudeville. He was 37 years old.
ROBERT DOOLEY, father of the Dooleys of theatrical fame, died in the Knickerbocker Hospital yesterday at the age of 52. His death was caused by apoplexy, said to have been caused by the excitement attendant upon the recent marriage of his son, Gordon Dooley. He was also the father of John and Ray Dooley and of the late William Dooley.
New York Times, August 5, 1922, pg. 11, col. 7
Robert Dooley, 52, father of Gordon, Ray, Johnnie and the late William Dooley, died Aug. 4 at the Knickerbocker Hospital, New York, where he had been rushed after being found unconscious in bed at the home of Johnnie Dooley, 254 West 84th Street, New York City.
Death was attributed to over-excitement following the marriage of his son, Gordon Dooley to Martha Morton, daughter of Sam & Kitty Morton.
The deceased came to this country 20 years ago from Ireland. He appeared on the vaudeville stages several times with William and Gordon Dooley, also assisted Johnnie in one of his two-a-day turns.
He is survived by a widow, two daughters and two sons. Burial was from Philadelphia, the original home of the Dooley family.
Variety Magazine, August 11, 1922, page 7
New York Times, January 30, 1984View transcription
Ray Dooley, Vaudeville Star And Comedienne, Dies at 93
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Ray Dooley, a star of vaudeville and a successful comedienne until she retired to family life in the mid-1930's, died early Saturday at home in East Hampton, L.I. She was 93 years old.
Miss Dooley, born Rachel Rice Dooley in Glasgow, took to the stage as a little dancing girl in a family act presented by her father, Robert Rogers Dooley, a well-known Irish-born circus clown. Her debut was made in a minstrel show in Philadelphia.
She went on to play babies and brats in the "Ziegfeld Follies" after World War I to such stage "parents" as W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, Leon Carroll and Fannie Brice. She tired of the act and its tantrums early on, but Florenz Ziegfeld kept her at it until she managed to escape the two-a-day world of vaudeville for the musical stage.
She was the widow of Eddie Dowling, himself an entertainer, director and award-winning producer who died in 1976. Miss Dooley had eloped to marry him at age 15 and from 1919 to 1934 often teamed up with him, from the Follies to Mr. Dowling's revue "Thumbs Up" in 1934, after which she devoted herself to her family.
Miss Dooley returned briefly to the stage in 1948 to tackle a straight dramatic role in one of three one-acters presented by Mr. Dowling under the title "Hope's the Thing." Appearing in "Home Life of a Buffalo," she played opposite Mr. Dowling, who portrayed a vaudeville ham unable to admit to himself or his wife that vaudeville was through.
Her baby impersonations began quite by chance in 1918 when Raymond Hitchcock, the actor-producer, put on "Kitchy Koo" and a baby buggy used for an incidental gag in a drugstore scene turned out to be too small for another performer. The elfin-faced Miss Dooley, 100 pounds and 5 feet tall, substituted and launched her comedic career.
She soon wanted out of the act, but—the story goes—Mr. Ziegfeld talked her into signing contracts with promises that she would be given another part. Once the show came together, he then devised some "emergency" and asked her to "help out" with yet another baby act.
Once free of vaudeville, Miss Dooley starred in Mr. Dowling's production of "Sidewalks of New York" in 1927. The following year, she appeared with W. C. Fields in the seventh edition of "Earl Carroll's Vanities."
Miss Dooley is survived by a daughter, Mary Maxine Dowling Clark of East Hampton, and three grandchildren.
The funeral will be private.
Edward Thayer Monroe
Ray Dooley as she appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Camden Courier-Post, January 30, 1984View transcription
Deaths elsewhere
Ray Dooley, 93, a vaudevillian who performed with W.C. Fields, Fannie Brice and Will Rogers in the Ziegfeld Follies during the 1920s, died Saturday at her home in Long Island, N.Y. Dooley was best known for her roles as a bratty child in the musical comedy productions. After leaving vaudeville in 1927, she starred in "Sidewalks of New York," produced by her husband, Eddie Dowling, and appeared with Fields in the "Earl of Vanities." She made a comeback in 1948 with a dramatic role in "Hope's the Thing."
Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 5, 1921View transcription
Pennington Was to be a Tragedienne
By William F. McDermott.
The sportive wing-footed roly-poly of the week's "Scandals," Miss Ann Pennington, known wherever there is dancing to be done and knees to be shown, has come to her present estate as the most celebrated of the dancing sprites largely against her will and without her consent.
It was the elfin Ann's idea in her salad days to be a great tragic actress and nothing else. To dance in one of Mr. Zegfeld's or Mr. White's eye-shows figured nowhere in her scheme of life until quite recently.
"Penny"—so they call her backstage—was born in Camden, N. J., and she lived within hailing distance of the Dooley Kids, Johnny, Ray, Gordon and William, all of whom turned out to be—after one fashion or another—dancers.
It was Pennington's habit when she was little more than an infant to take the ferry to Philadelphia on fair matinee days and view from a lofty perch in her favorite theaters the great actresses as they came and went in plays good and bad.
Here the minute Penny got her idea of becoming a great emotional actress. That ambition she held close to her heart until it became evident that nature was in a conspiracy against her. She stopped growing and stopped at a size, as everybody knows, that is not considered suitable for the great tragedienne. So, making the best of a perverse, but not altogether unkind nature, she decided to become a dancer instead.
She picked out as a professor a gentleman named W. G. Wroe, who was at that time initiating Philadelphians into the art of terpsichore. Ann became a prize pupil, and whenever her class appeared in a public performance she was the evening's star.
Wroe selected four or five of his best pupils and got them an engagement at the local B. F. Keith's theater. Ann was one of the number, and she appeared for a whole week in a real theater as a bud in "Wroe's Buds."
That cured her of school. She soon went to New York, and after the usual divers tribulations, got a job in the chorus of "The Red Widow," wherein Raymond Hitchcock was starred.
The chorus held her very shortly. As always happens in these cases a star—Gertrude Vanderbilt, it was—conveniently developed something and dropped out of the cast, giving the waiting Ann her chance.
But though she did well enough in "The Red Widow," after the closing of that piece managers were not hotly contesting to give her a place. She was seen briefly in "The Polish Wedding" and in "A Barnyard Romeo," but was soon thereafter again looking, not too confidently, for a job.
Here it was that she saw Florenz Ziegfeld, who offered her a place in the chorus of "The Follies." She did not sniff at a job as chorus girl, but Julian Mitchell, Ziegfeld's stage director, soon found out that she had talent and gave her something more important to do. Soon she was one of the features of that frothy institution.
When George White organized his first "Scandals" company she was invited to become its star. This is her third season with the organization, and she is now beginning to abandon hope of ever being a great tragedienne.
Howell Street runs through East Camden from 20th Street to 30th Street, parallel to the Pavonia railroad tracks. Homes were built by the 1880s, and several businesses operated here during Camden's industrial years, including Nick's Auto Parts and the Pavonia Ice & Coal Company. The first Catholic parish in East Camden, St. Joseph Church, stood at 25th and Howell Street.
John Dooley was a comedic acrobat who starred on the B.F. Keith vaudeville circuit in the 1900's and 1910s. Amongst other performances, he was part of Tydeman & Dooley .
Vincent Ariel Tydeman was born in New Jersey on August 24, 1883, to Edmund and Sarah Tydeman, who emigrated from England to the U.S. in 1878 with their nine children. The Tydemans welcomed another child, Florence, just before the 1880 census.
Ray Dooley, 93, a vaudevillian who performed with W.C. Fields, Fannie Brice and Will Rogers in the Ziegfeld Follies during the 1920s, died Saturday at her home in Long Island, N.Y.
Ray Dooley, a star of vaudeville and a successful comedienne until she retired to family life in the mid-1930's, died early Saturday at home in East Hampton, L.I. She was 93 years old.
Gordon Mackay, Camden Courier-Post, February 8, 1938: "YOU can always rely on Camden to bring back the normal balance." Mackay talks with Mark Marritz and barber Pat Iarossi, who recalls the Dooley family and Ann Pennington.
Those of us who knew and esteemed the late H. Bart McHugh, Sr., recall the many-fold fine attributes of the man who was the heart and spirit of the annual Mummers Parade in Philadelphia for so many years.
Johnny Dooley, 41, comedian, died June 7 in the Homeopathic Hospital, Yonkers, of intestinal trouble. He had recently been operated upon for appendicitis.
Variety reported on August 11, 1922 that Robert Dooley, 52, father of Gordon, Ray, Johnnie and the late William Dooley, died Aug. 4 at Knickerbocker Hospital, New York.
The New York Times reported on August 5, 1922 that Robert Dooley, father of the Dooleys of theatrical fame, died of apoplexy at Knickerbocker Hospital at age 52.
William Dooley, whose knockabout acrobatic antics with his brother Gordon have been familiar for many seasons in vaudeville and the roof shows, died early yesterday morning.
William (Billy) Dooley, born in Camden and a Philadelphia schoolboy, who was widely known among visitors at vaudeville theatres, died in New York yesterday following a fall from a taxi-cab on Tuesday.
Johnny Dooley, comedian, entertained the Advertising Club at a luncheon at the Hotel Emerson yesterday. He was assisted by the Misses Constance and Daisy Madison.
The passengers who made the first trip up the Mississippi river on the Creole may wonder what ever became of the young-looking chief steward. He is none other than Johnny Dooley of the team of Dooley and Rugel at the Orpheum.
Camden Morning Courier - July 8, 1904 The Casson Brothers, a clever acrobatic team, have secured an engagement at Guvernator's pavillion theatre, Atlantic City, the last week in July.
