Frank Lawton (? â€" 1914) was an American vaudevillian entertainer
whose popularity extended far beyond his country’s borders.Like so
many 19th- and early 20th-century actors who made their living
traveling from town to town often under assumed stage names, Frank
Lawton’s past is difficult to trace. What evidence does exist tells
us he was an American born in the late 1850s probably at Harford,
Connecticut. Some sources state his birth name was Frank Mokeley, a
claim that seems to date back to a 1933 New York Times article about
his son, film actor Frank Lawton. This may be true, though it has
proven difficult to locate any public record or contemporary newspaper
article that supports this assertion. In later editions of "Whose Who
in the Theatre" his full name is listed as Frank Mokeley
Lawton.Lawton’s professional debut was in 1874 with the Eureka
Minstrels as one half of a song and dance duo with Lew Dockstader. He
would go on to team up at one time or another with players Joe Sparks,
Billy Mitchell and others before joining in the early 1880s Charles
Hale Hoyt’s Hole in the Ground and Milk White Flag companies. He
later received praise for his role as Spartacus Hubbs in the 1887 Cal
Wallace play Pa with the Sol Smith Russell Company. By then Lawton had
refined his talents as a singer, dance comedian, bones player and
amazing siffluer. The latter talent would one day earn him the title,
bestowed by at least one British critic, Champion Whistler of the
World. In 1898 Lawton’s whistling act was recorded by Fred Gaisberg,
one of over a thousand sides of recordings Gaisberg made for Berliner
Gramophone and later Gramophone Company of artist working in London.
Lawton would spend the greater part of the last twenty-five years of
his life touring New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain where he was
well received. After a successful run playing Blinky Bill in the
musical comedy The Belle of New York with actress Edna May, Lawton
chose to stay in London after his company returned to New York in
1899. Frank Lawton died there on April 18, 1914, after a long illness
and the collapse of a spectacular production planned for London’s
Earle’s Court had left him in financial ruin. A few weeks later the
London theatre district put on a benefit show to raise money for his
widow, former dancer Daisy May Collier, and their four
children.Lawton's first known marriage in 1894 to actress Virginia
Earle ended in divorce eight years later.
whose popularity extended far beyond his country’s borders.Like so
many 19th- and early 20th-century actors who made their living
traveling from town to town often under assumed stage names, Frank
Lawton’s past is difficult to trace. What evidence does exist tells
us he was an American born in the late 1850s probably at Harford,
Connecticut. Some sources state his birth name was Frank Mokeley, a
claim that seems to date back to a 1933 New York Times article about
his son, film actor Frank Lawton. This may be true, though it has
proven difficult to locate any public record or contemporary newspaper
article that supports this assertion. In later editions of "Whose Who
in the Theatre" his full name is listed as Frank Mokeley
Lawton.Lawton’s professional debut was in 1874 with the Eureka
Minstrels as one half of a song and dance duo with Lew Dockstader. He
would go on to team up at one time or another with players Joe Sparks,
Billy Mitchell and others before joining in the early 1880s Charles
Hale Hoyt’s Hole in the Ground and Milk White Flag companies. He
later received praise for his role as Spartacus Hubbs in the 1887 Cal
Wallace play Pa with the Sol Smith Russell Company. By then Lawton had
refined his talents as a singer, dance comedian, bones player and
amazing siffluer. The latter talent would one day earn him the title,
bestowed by at least one British critic, Champion Whistler of the
World. In 1898 Lawton’s whistling act was recorded by Fred Gaisberg,
one of over a thousand sides of recordings Gaisberg made for Berliner
Gramophone and later Gramophone Company of artist working in London.
Lawton would spend the greater part of the last twenty-five years of
his life touring New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain where he was
well received. After a successful run playing Blinky Bill in the
musical comedy The Belle of New York with actress Edna May, Lawton
chose to stay in London after his company returned to New York in
1899. Frank Lawton died there on April 18, 1914, after a long illness
and the collapse of a spectacular production planned for London’s
Earle’s Court had left him in financial ruin. A few weeks later the
London theatre district put on a benefit show to raise money for his
widow, former dancer Daisy May Collier, and their four
children.Lawton's first known marriage in 1894 to actress Virginia
Earle ended in divorce eight years later.
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