Oral Histories
Interview of Robert North
Vaudeville performer, comedian, and film producer.
- Subtitle:
- From Vaudeville to Hollywood
- Series:
- Interviews not in a series, part one
- Topic:
- Film and TelevisionTheater
- Biographical Note:
- Vaudeville performer, comedian, and film producer.
- Interviewee:
- North, Robert
- Supporting Documents:
- Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- Interviewee Retained Copyright
- Abstract:
- Family background; singing in parks for Joseph W. Stern; first show with Billy Jerome; in vaudeville as a Jewish comedian; joining the Bohemian Burlesquers; playing Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1904; Ziegfeld Follies of 1910 at the New York Theater Roof Garden; Mayor William J. Gaynor attempts to close the theater; on the road with Raymond Hitchcock and Merry-Go-Round; role in David Belasco's Just a Wife; the Metropole Hotel; camaraderie of actors; George M. Cohan's parties on the road; formation of Actors Equity Association; hit song "Get Out and Get Under"; traveling with wife and son; switch from theater to motion picture production; life in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, in the theatrical colony; move to Hollywood; work with Joseph M. Schenck and United Artists; relationship with D. W. Griffith; career with First National Pictures; producer of Dawn Patrol and Kismet; introduction of talkies and effect on silent screen stars; move to Columbia Pictures; casting Jean Arthur in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; move to Republic Pictures; retirement in 1945; theater today losing out to television, movies, books; lower quality of life today; feelings on show business as a career.