Earl Carroll | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Carroll in 1916 | |
| Born | (1893-09-16)September 16, 1893 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | June 17, 1948(1948-06-17) (aged 54) Aristes, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park,Glendale, California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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Earl Carroll (September 16, 1893 – June 17, 1948) was an Americantheatrical producer, director, writer, songwriter and composer.
Carroll was born inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1893. He lived as an infant in the Nunnery Hill (Fineview) section of theNorth Side. Carroll later said he left the area "because there were too many tin cans and goats up there then."[1]
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Carroll produced and directed numerousBroadway musicals, including eleven editions ofEarl Carroll's Vanities,Earl Carroll's Sketch Book andMurder at the Vanities, which was also made into a film starringCarl Brisson,Victor McLaglen andJack Oakie. Known as "the troubadour of the nude", Carroll was famous for his productions featuring the most lightly cladshowgirls on Broadway.
Damon Runyon, in his short storyThe Brain Goes Home has the narrator remark, "Well, Mr. Earl Carroll feels sorry for Cynthia, so he puts her in the 'Vanities' and lets her walk around raw, and The Brain sees her, and the next thing anybody knows she is riding in a big foreign automobile the size of a rum chaser, and is chucking a terrible swell." In 1922, he built the firstEarl Carroll Theatre inNew York, which was demolished and rebuilt on a grander scale in 1931. He built asecond theatre onSunset Boulevard inHollywood, California, in 1938.
In 1926, Carroll became involved in a scandal following a party he threw in honor ofHarry Kendall Thaw, who 20 years earlier had murderedStanford White. During the private party, a bathtub was brought out in which reposed a nude young woman, Joyce Hawley,[2] bathing in illegal liquor, described in a news story of Carroll's death as champagne. One of the guests wasPhilip A. Payne, editor of theNew York Mirror. Although Carroll expected his guests would be circumspect about what happened at the party, Payne published a report. Federal authorities, apparently determined to learn the source of the illegal alcohol, subpoenaed Carroll to appear (with others) before a grand jury. Carroll denied the incident happened, but others at the party confirmed it. The federal government prosecuted Carroll for perjury, and he was convicted and sentenced one year and one day in prison. He served six months at theAtlanta Federal Penitentiary.
Carroll wrote the scores for Broadway shows, includingSo Long Letty,Canary Cottage, andThe Love Mill, for which he also wrote thelibretto. As a writer of popular songs, his credits includeIsle d'Amour,So Long Letty,Dreams of Long Ago,Give Me All of You,Just The Way You Are, andDreaming, for which he supplied lyrics to the waltz byArchibald Joyce.
A pair of mid-1940s musical comedy films,Earl Carroll Vanities andEarl Carroll Sketchbook, both starringConstance Moore, were inspired by Carroll's stage revues.
Carroll died in the crash ofUnited Air Lines Flight 624, which also took the life of his girlfriend,Beryl Wallace, on June 17, 1948, inAristes, Pennsylvania.[3][4]
