> Did they continue to perform as “singles” after the break-up?
I don’t believe Dewey Barto did, but his daughter Nancy Walker, who traveled with them on the road, became a stage and movie actress. On television, she played Rhoda’s mother, McMilllan and Wife’s housekeeper and a waitress promoting Bounty paper towels. George got bit parts in several movies, but nothing to equal the success he had with Dewey Barto in vaudeville. He did have a fun gig toward the end of his life as the image on the box and character actor for the breakfast cereal, King Vitaman.
> I gather that you have some personal connection with Barto & Mann.
George Mann is my father. He and my mother were divorced not long after I was born in 1941. We were re-connected and became close friends when my mother and stepfather were divorced in 1955. George died in 1977 leaving an amazing collection of photographs he had shot while performing in vaudeville. My wife, a commercial photographer, has gone through the collection and selected about 1,000 photographs to place with akg-images.
> For how long was the team active?
For a little over 15 years. Dewey Barto and George Mann worked in the same Fanchon & Marco productions in early 1926 and joined together as a comedy dance team in September 1926. They were an immediate hit on the west coast and traveled east to play the Palace Theatre on March 14, 1927 to the following revue in Zit’s Theatrical Newspaper, “Ten minutes before they went on at the Palace last Monday afternoon nobody thought very much about Barto & Mann; ten minutes after they came off stage, the whole Broadway world was talking about them…. Acts like these only come along once in a while.†In October 1927, “The Jazz Singer†opened at the Warners’ Theatre, which was the beginning of the end for vaudeville. Barto & Mann were headliners throughout the late ‘20s and ‘30s, increasingly sharing their performances with motion pictures. As vaudeville wound down in the ‘30s, they were fortunate to join the Broadway show, “Hellzapoppin†from 1938 to 1942. They broke up as a team in December 1943.
Thanks for your good words, Tinseltoes. Did you happen to notice that Barto & Mann were also on stage in the 1935 photographs from the New York Public Library Digital Library you posted last month?
Click on the year for photographs of Loew’s State Theatre taken in 1930, 1938, and another photograph in 1938 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Thank you for your good words Life’s-too-short. Click here for another photograph of the Paramount Theatre taken in 1937 by George Mann. As in Tinseltoes' entry above, Martha Raye is again on screen, this time in “Double of Nothing” with Bing Crosby.
Thank you for your good words, Hank. I haven’t had time to link specific Cinema Treasures' theaters to corresponding photographs yet, but I should be able to do that within the next week or two.
Your mention in an earlier post of elephants falling through to the former YMCA swimming pool suggested to me posting a couple of photographs of vaudeville elephants at the Palace Theatre in Chicago in 1937. You can see the first photograph by clicking here and the second one by clicking here. Both of the photographs were taken by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
This photograph of the Desert Theatre was taken in 2010.
This photograph of the Niles Theater was taken in 2010.
I wasn’t sure this was a photograph of the Kinema Theatre. If not the Kinema, is it possible it’s the White Theatre?
> Did they continue to perform as “singles” after the break-up?
I don’t believe Dewey Barto did, but his daughter Nancy Walker, who traveled with them on the road, became a stage and movie actress. On television, she played Rhoda’s mother, McMilllan and Wife’s housekeeper and a waitress promoting Bounty paper towels. George got bit parts in several movies, but nothing to equal the success he had with Dewey Barto in vaudeville. He did have a fun gig toward the end of his life as the image on the box and character actor for the breakfast cereal, King Vitaman.
> I gather that you have some personal connection with Barto & Mann.
George Mann is my father. He and my mother were divorced not long after I was born in 1941. We were re-connected and became close friends when my mother and stepfather were divorced in 1955. George died in 1977 leaving an amazing collection of photographs he had shot while performing in vaudeville. My wife, a commercial photographer, has gone through the collection and selected about 1,000 photographs to place with akg-images.
> For how long was the team active?
For a little over 15 years. Dewey Barto and George Mann worked in the same Fanchon & Marco productions in early 1926 and joined together as a comedy dance team in September 1926. They were an immediate hit on the west coast and traveled east to play the Palace Theatre on March 14, 1927 to the following revue in Zit’s Theatrical Newspaper, “Ten minutes before they went on at the Palace last Monday afternoon nobody thought very much about Barto & Mann; ten minutes after they came off stage, the whole Broadway world was talking about them…. Acts like these only come along once in a while.†In October 1927, “The Jazz Singer†opened at the Warners’ Theatre, which was the beginning of the end for vaudeville. Barto & Mann were headliners throughout the late ‘20s and ‘30s, increasingly sharing their performances with motion pictures. As vaudeville wound down in the ‘30s, they were fortunate to join the Broadway show, “Hellzapoppin†from 1938 to 1942. They broke up as a team in December 1943.
Thanks for your good words, Tinseltoes. Did you happen to notice that Barto & Mann were also on stage in the 1935 photographs from the New York Public Library Digital Library you posted last month?
Thank you, Tinseltoes. I will update the caption to reflect this fact.
Click here for a photograph of the Kinema Theatre taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of the Loew’s Jersey Theatre taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of the Regent Theatre taken in 1929 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click on the year for photographs of Loew’s State Theatre taken in 1930, 1938, and another photograph in 1938 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of the Indiana Theatre taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of the Loew’s State [Landmark] Theatre taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of the Loew’s Oriental Theatre taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of the Metropolitan [Wang] Theatre taken in 1929 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for photograph taken of Loew’s Pitkin Theatre in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph taken of Fox’s Great Lakes (Paramount) Theatre in 1931 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Thank you for your good words Life’s-too-short. Click here for another photograph of the Paramount Theatre taken in 1937 by George Mann. As in Tinseltoes' entry above, Martha Raye is again on screen, this time in “Double of Nothing” with Bing Crosby.
Click on the year for photographs taken of Loew’s Paradise Theatre in 1930 and 1932 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of Loew’s United Artists Theatre taken in 1931 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click on the year for photographs of the Paramount Theatre taken in 1932 , 1935 and 1939 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Thank you for your good words, Hank. I haven’t had time to link specific Cinema Treasures' theaters to corresponding photographs yet, but I should be able to do that within the next week or two.
Your mention in an earlier post of elephants falling through to the former YMCA swimming pool suggested to me posting a couple of photographs of vaudeville elephants at the Palace Theatre in Chicago in 1937. You can see the first photograph by clicking here and the second one by clicking here. Both of the photographs were taken by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Click here for a photograph of the RKO Shubert taken in 1936.
Click here for a photograph of Poli’s Palace taken in 1929.
Click here for a photograph of the Academy of Music taken in 1931.