- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJames Edward Barton
- James Barton was born on November 1, 1890 in Gloucester City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950) and Yellow Sky (1948). He was married to Kathryn M. Mullin and Ottilie Regina Kleinert. He died on February 19, 1962 in Mineola, Long Island, New York, USA.
- SpousesKathryn M. Mullin(November 3, 1933 - February 19, 1962) (his death)Ottilie Regina Kleinert(1912 - 1933) (divorced)
- One of the first genuine jazz dancers in America, he was a genuinely versatile performer: adept at Struts, a Mooche, a knock-about dance, Military drill, a dying Swan burlesque, Ballroom dances, Ballet, Tap, Pedestal dances, Black face comedy, imitations like Charlie Chaplin, Buck and Wing, Acrobatic dance skits, challenge dances, waltzes and more.
- Cited by Bing Crosby as one of his all-time favorite ten performers.
- Befriended fellow dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
- Screen, vaudeville, and burlesque actor.
- Introduced Babe Ruth to Claire Merritt Hodgson (then Claire Hodgson) before a New York Yankees-Washington Senators game in Washington. Hodgson was on tour with Barton at the time with the Broadway-bound musical "Dew Drop Inn".
- I am proud of my ancestry, and that it was of the theater and the American theater too, but I am far prouder of the fact that neither my father nor my grandfather handed down a joke. And it is my ambition to follow their example in this respect. Each of us wanted and wants all his jokes in his own generation if not entirely of his own generating.
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