Overture, curtain, lights,
This is it, the night of nights!
No more rehearsing and nursing a part,
We know every part by heart!
Overture, curtain, lights,
This is it, we’ll hit the heights!
And oh, what heights we’ll hit!
On with the show this is it!
Bugs Bunny wasn’t the only performer who knew how to put on a show. So did our 3rd cousin 3x removed on the Green branch, Archibald Silas “Rex” McCall. He was born in Ortonville, Minnesota, to Silas Malcolm & Sarah Emily (Robbins) McCall on July 13, 1881, the fourth of their seven children. (They were featured in this earlier post.)
Archie, as he was called in his youth, grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota. When he was 17 he enlisted in the US Army to fight in the 1898 Spanish–American War. What did he do? I haven’t found out yet; all I have is this photo he took with a friend at an Aberdeen studio.
Archie McCall (left) and friend in their army uniforms.
In the 1900 Census, McCall is listed back home, living with his parents in Aberdeen and working as a stonemason. But somewhere along the line—perhaps while traveling during his military service—he caught the acting bug, and in 1907 was part of the Two Macks vaudeville company. This ad in the Davenport, Iowa, Daily Times on April 2, 1907, shows Two Macks playing the Industrial Theatre.
McCall also found love within the troupe, an actress from Rockwell City, Iowa, named Hazel Ellen Van Hooser. The couple married on December 16, 1907, as reported in the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, December 19, 1907:
Archie McCall and Hazel Van Hooser, members of the “Two Macks” company, were married in Fort Dodge [Iowa] at midnight after the show by Justice Busby.
The marriage didn’t last long. Though I haven’t found a divorce record, Van Hooser married another man, Willis Drummond, in Freeborn, Minnesota, on December 10, 1915. They went on to have three children—a boy and two girls—and lived non-dramatic lives in various towns throughout Iowa and Minnesota.
Archie moved on as well, and remarried a year before Hazel did. This time it was to Evelyn “Eva” Kelley on September 4, 1914, in Delaware County, New York. Kelley was also a divorcée, having married sign-painter Carl Sevier in Coffeeville, Kansas, in 1909. They had one daughter, Vera, the following year, and as of 1912 were still listed in the Coffeeville City Directory.
Eva Kelley had a turbulent upbringing. Born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, to John William & Julia (Russell) Kelley in 1890, she was the youngest of their twelve children. Her father was a Civil War veteran who served in the US Navy, and her mother ran a bar that got her in trouble . . . a lot:
Scranton, Pennsylvania, April 23, 1874: “Commonwealth v. J.W. Rhoads, Robert Gaugh, Daniel Shillhammer, E. McCormick, Julia Russell, [and others]: Keeping tippling houses. . . [and] Selling liquor on Sunday.”
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, July 28, 1880: “Julia Kelley was sent to jail for six days by Alderman Donnelly for being drunk and disorderly.”
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1880: “The Oil City Derrick has exposed a Mrs. Julia Kelley, who, it says, has for eight years been making an annual tour of the oil regions collecting money to assist in rescuing a child who she claims was abducted in Titusville.” [No record of an abduction exists.]
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1885: “Mary Vincent and Julia Kelley, both stood in the dock this morning. They are both old timers who had imbibed too freely. They were ordered to leave town.”
But back to Eva. Sometime around 1913 she left her husband Carl and daughter Vera and ran off with Archie, who was now going by the stage name “Rex” McCall. His 1918 draft board registration lists him as a traveling actor, tall, medium build, with gray eyes and dark hair. Though he registered in Tuscola, Illinois, his permanent address was with the Billboard Company of Cincinnati, Ohio (Did you know Billboard started there? I didn’t!) and Eva is listed as his “nearest relative,” but she was living at 108 E. 1st St., Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Rex and Eva were rooming in Jacksonville, Florida, as of the 1920 Census. It was around this time that they decided to form their own troupe. Promotional flyers and cast photos were printed:
.jpg)
They also began placing ads in local newspapers, which they did wherever and whenever they needed a fresh actor, piano player, or vehicle during their many tours:
The Eva Kelley Stock Company, as they were named, played mostly in small-town theaters in Kansas and Nebraska. Here are four ads that ran in various papers in March 2025:
Norton (Kansas) Courrier Alma (Nebraska) Record
By the end of the month they needed a new pianist (Kansas City Times, March 24, 1925):
But still they continued touring:
Culbertson (Nebraska) Progress Hays Center (Nebraska) Times Republican Imperial (Kansas) Republican
By the end of the month, they still needed a new pianist and an agent with a car (Omaha World Herald, April 26, 1925):
The touring life seems to have worn on the couple, and Rex changed the company to the Rex McCall Players, which put on a curiously named production, as reported in the Butte (Montana) Gazette, June 18, 1925:
Rex McCall Players Here Three Nights
The Rex McCall Players arrived here today for a three-night engagement at the opera house. Tonight’s program is entitled “Should I Divorce Her?” This play, as well as the company of players, comes very highly recommended and you should arrange to attend their plays at the opera house tonight, tomorrow evening, and Saturday evening.
I haven’t found advertisements for later engagements, and I suspect the Great Depression eventually finished off the company. At some point Rex and Eva broke up, and around 1933 Eva married a man named Carl Weaver in Kansas City.
Rex ended up as a salesman in San Diego, where he died on July 30, 1939, 87 years ago today, at the age of 58. He was buried with his father and thousands of fellow actors at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
That's show biz!
No comments:
Post a Comment