Samuel Howard Ash (August 28, 1884 – October 20, 1951) was an American
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
performer, singer, and movie actor who appeared in minor roles in over 200 films, including ''
It's a Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas by medium#Films, Christmas Fantasy film, fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern se ...
''.
Biography
He was born in
Campbell County, Kentucky
Campbell County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 93,076. Its county seats are Alexandria and Newport.Biography by Eugene Chadbourne at Allmusic.com Retrieved June 5, 2013 of English-born parents who had immigrated to the US. By 1900 he was living with his parents and siblings in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
Sam Ash
Sam Ash (born Samuel Ashkynase) was a violinist, teacher, and entrepreneur, best known as the founder of the Sam Ash Music Store.
Life and career
Early life
Ashkynase was born to Moishe and Mottle Ashkynase in a small town in Austria-Hungary ...
, born Samuel Ashkynase (1897–1956), founder of the eponymous musical instrument store, despite some erroneous claims that they were one and the same person.
He first recorded as a
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
singer for
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
Elida Morris
Elida Mary Morris (November 12, 1886 – December 25, 1977), later Elida Morris Cooper, was an American vaudeville singer, comedian and actress.
She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
musical ''
Ziegfeld Follies of 1915
The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...
''. In December 1915 he appeared on the Broadway stage, in a leading role in
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
'' Katinka'', which ran for over 200 performances. Biography by Hans J, Wollstein at Movies.com Retrieved June 5, 2013
He recorded regularly for Columbia over the next few years. In 1915 he made one of his most commercially successful recordings, "America, I Love You", and in 1917 he recorded "Cleopatra Had a Jazz Band". Retrieved June 5, 2013 His regular appearances in Broadway revues included ''Doing Our Bit'' (1917), ''
Monte Cristo Jr.
''Monte Cristo Jr.'' was a Victorian burlesque with a libretto written by Richard Henry, a pseudonym for the writers Richard Butler and Henry Chance Newton. The score was composed by Meyer Lutz, Ivan Caryll, Hamilton Clarke, Tito Mattei, G. ...
'' (1919), and ''Oh, What A Girl!'' (1919) among others.Sam Ash at Internet Broadway Database Retrieved June 5, 2013 In the 1920s he continued to record for Columbia as well as for a number of other record labels, including Little Wonder,
Gennett
Gennett (pronounced "jennett") was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, United States, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoa ...
,
Grey Gull
The grey gull, also known as garuma gull (''Leucophaeus modestus'') is a medium-sized gull native to South America. Unusual among gulls, it breeds inland in the extremely dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile, although it is present as a non-bree ...
, and
OKeh
Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...
. He also continued to appear in Broadway musicals, including ''Some Party'' in 1922, '' The Passing Show of 1922'', and ''Houseboat on the Styx'' in 1928.
From 1929, he was based in Hollywood. He made his film debut that year, third on the bill as a suspect in the
Craig Kennedy
Professor Craig Kennedy is a character created by Arthur B. Reeve.
Description
Kennedy is a scientist detective at Columbia University similar to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Thorndyke. He uses his knowledge of chemistry and psychoanalysis to solve ...
mystery ''Unmasked'', starring
Robert Warwick
Robert Warwick (born Robert Taylor Bien, October 9, 1878 – June 6, 1964) was an American stage, film and television actor with over 200 film appearances. A matinee idol during the silent film era, he also prospered after the introduction ...
in his first "
talkie
A sound film is a motion picture
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, percep ...
". Over the next two decades he had hundreds of small parts in movies, playing characters such as waiters, news vendors, ship stewards, and reporters. In ''
Mad Love __NOTOC__
Mad Love may refer to: Books
*''Mad Love'' (French ''L'amour fou''), collection of poems by André Breton
*'' The Batman Adventures: Mad Love'', an Eisner and Harvey award-winning comic by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm
* Mad Love (publisher), ...
'', starring
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
, his role was one of the detectives seeking the murderer. In ''It's a Wonderful Life'', in 1946, he played the part of the nervous bank teller trying to calm the crowd when they demand their savings. Ash also featured in a number of popular
film serial
A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...
s such as ''
Dick Tracy
''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...
'', ''
The Masked Marvel
''The Masked Marvel'' (1943) is a 12-chapter film serial created by Republic Pictures, who produced many other well known serials. It was Republic's thirty-first serial, of the sixty-six they produced.
Plot
In ''The Masked Marvel'', a hero dress ...
'', and ''
Captain America
Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...
''. He appeared in 205 movies between 1929 and 1953; his last two films were released posthumously.
He died in Hollywood in 1951, at the age of 67, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
The Merry Widow
''The Merry Widow'' (german: Die lustige Witwe, links=no ) is an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt t ...
'' (1934)
* ''
Anything Goes
''Anything Goes'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap ant ...
'' (1936)
* ''
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
'' (1936)
* ''
Madame X
''Madame X'' (original title ''La Femme X'') is a 1908 play by French playwright Alexandre Bisson (1848–1912). It was novelized in English and adapted for the American stage; it was also adapted for the screen twelve times over sixty-five ...
'' (1937)
* ''
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
'' (1938)
* ''
Alexander's Ragtime Band
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a Tin Pan Alley song by American composer Irving Berlin released in 1911 and is often inaccurately cited as his first global hit. Despite its title, the song is a march as opposed to a rag and contains little synco ...
'' (1938) – Critic in Audience at Army Show
* ''
Some Like It Hot
''Some Like It Hot'' is a 1959 American crime comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder. It stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, with George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney and N ...
'' (1939)
* ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' is a 1939 American Political drama, political Comedy drama, comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold (actor), Edward Arnold. ...
'' (1939)
* ''
Young Mr. Lincoln
''Young Mr. Lincoln'' is a 1939 American biographical drama western film about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to ...
'' (1939)
*''
The Secret Seven
The Secret Seven or Secret Seven Society is a fictional group of child detectives created by Enid Blyton and based on the publisher’s children. They appear in one of several adolescent detective series which Blyton wrote.
The Secret Seven ...
'' (1940)
* ''
Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' (1941) – Man at Boat Dock (uncredited)
* ''
The Male Animal
''The Male Animal'' is a 1942 American comedy-drama film produced by Warner Bros., starring Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Leslie.
The film was based on a hit 1940 Broadway play of the same name written by James Thurber and Elliott N ...
'' (1942)
* ''
Roxie Hart
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional character. She is the main character of the 1926 play ''Chicago'' and its various remakes and derivatives.
Development
The playwright, reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, was inspired by the trials, both of which ...
'' (1942)
* ''
Mr. Skeffington
''Mr. Skeffington'' is a 1944 American drama film directed by Vincent Sherman, based on the 1940 novel of the same name by Elizabeth von Arnim.
The film stars Bette Davis as a beautiful but self-centered woman who has many suitors but marries Jo ...
'' (1944)
* ''
Cover Girl
A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a magaz ...
'' (1944)
* ''
George White's Scandals
''George White's Scandals'' were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modeled after the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W. C. Fie ...
It's a Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas by medium#Films, Christmas Fantasy film, fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern se ...
'' (1946) – Nervous Banker (uncredited)
* ''
Gilda
''Gilda'' is a 1946 American film noir directed by Charles Vidor and starring Rita Hayworth in her signature role and Glenn Ford. The film is known for cinematographer Rudolph Maté's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis's wardrobe fo ...
'' (1946)
* ''
The Killers
The Killers are an American rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingd ...
'' (1946)
* ''
All the King's Men
''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U.S ...
'' (1949)
* ''
Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah are Biblical
figures.
Samson and Delilah may also refer to:
In music
* ''Samson and Delilah'' (opera), an opera by Camille Saint-Saëns
* ''Samson & Delilah'' (album), released in 2013 by V V Brown
* "Samson and Delilah" (t ...
Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...