In recent years, through the intrepid genealogical research of my sister Ada I discovered that a grandfather I never knew was an actor and among various parts was the stage manager for and actor in the role of Andy Oatman in George M Cohan’s production of “The Meanest Man in the World”, which opened at the Hudson, October 12, 1920 and closed in April of 1921 after 202 performances. Cohan himself portrayed the character Richard Clarke. In a review of the play in The New York Tribune of October 13, 1920. The supporting cast was given high marks and my grandfather Howard Boulden(stage name)was noted for a singularly good characterization of the country store clerk. How strange to discover in my senior years this world that I never knew. His daughter by his second marriage to Agnes Evans, broadway and burlesque star, Alice Boulden was a nightclub and broadway musical star of the 1920’s. My siblings and I only knew that my father had a half sister, Alice. She eventually married Joe Cook with whom she co-starred in “Fine and Dandy” in 1930.
In recent years, through the intrepid genealogical research of my sister Ada I discovered that a grandfather I never knew was an actor and among various parts was the stage manager for and actor in the role of Andy Oatman in George M Cohan’s production of “The Meanest Man in the World”, which opened at the Hudson, October 12, 1920 and closed in April of 1921 after 202 performances. Cohan himself portrayed the character Richard Clarke. In a review of the play in The New York Tribune of October 13, 1920. The supporting cast was given high marks and my grandfather Howard Boulden(stage name)was noted for a singularly good characterization of the country store clerk. How strange to discover in my senior years this world that I never knew. His daughter by his second marriage to Agnes Evans, broadway and burlesque star, Alice Boulden was a nightclub and broadway musical star of the 1920’s. My siblings and I only knew that my father had a half sister, Alice. She eventually married Joe Cook with whom she co-starred in “Fine and Dandy” in 1930.