The father of MGM contract player Gloria de Haven was an old vaudeville and stage star himself. Born Francis O’Callaghan today in 1886, he started out in vaudeville at age 9, and thereafter alternated vaudeville and Broadway bookings, including several shows of Weber & Fields (and, after their split, Fields himself).
He later broke into films, frequently co-starring with his wife Flora Parker, acting with many of the great silent comedians, assistant directing Chaplin’s Modern Times and appearing in The Great Dictator. He later did lots of television, especially in the western genre. His last role was a 1965 turn on Bewitched. He passed away in 1977.
To find out more about show business past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
(Travalanche) 