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Ernie Stanton

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Ernest George Stanton Burch
1912 photograph of Ernie Stanton
Born(1890-08-23)August 23, 1890
England, UK
DiedFebruary 6, 1944(1944-02-06) (aged 53)
Oakland, California
Occupation(s)actor, manager and athlete

Ernest George Stanton Burch (August 23, 1890 - February 6, 1944), known professionally as Ernie Stanton,[1] was an English actor, manager and athlete who played baseball and boxed. He was also a vaudeville performer and appeared in films.

Early life

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Ernest "Ernie" George Stanton Burch was born on August 23, 1890, in England, to Walter Stanton and Annie Burch.[2][3][4][5] He was baptized at St. Philip church in the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth on 21 September 1890 with his parents being listed as Walter and Annie Stanton Burch.[6] According to Ernie's United States passport application, the Stanton Burch family emigrated to the United States on February 18, 1899.[2] However, the family's record in the 1900 United States census states they arrived in 1898, and were at that time living in Chicago.[7]

Ernie's father was a comic actor who gained the moniker "The Giant Rooster" on the British stage prior to coming to the United States.[8] He was particularly known for his performances in pantomimes.[9] His father also worked as an acting teacher, and one his pupils was Charlie Chaplin.[8] Also, Ernie's mother who used the nickname "Tina Corri" was a opera singer from Dublin and was a member of the Tony Pastor Company.[10][11] In his youth, Ernie performed alongside his parents and brother in the vaudeville family act known as The Stantons.[12]

Boxing and baseball careers

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Stanton trained as a boxer with Jack McCarron in Allentown, Pennsylvania.[13] By 1910, he was working as a sparring partner to boxers Buck Falvey and Billy Allen while simultaneously performing in vaudeville with his family.[12] When he was in Philadelphia, he used the nickname Young George Erne and was also another sparing partner with Jack Britton and Mike Gibbons. [14] Known in the ring as George Ernie, a 1912 article in The Butte Daily Post described him as a "welterweight champion of Maine".[15] In 1942 he reconnected with an old opponent of his, Bill "Wild Bill" Fleming, and in a newspaper article about that meeting described Fleming as "one of the most powerful punchers ever to lace on the leather mittens".[16]

Stanton was also a baseball player.[13] He played professional baseball in 1912 for the Detroit Tigers and then for the Boston Braves in 1914. After this he played in the Pacific Coast League on various teams; including the Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons, San Francisco Seals and the Los Angeles Angels.[17] In the 1920s he managed a baseball team put together by the National Vaudeville Artists union.[18] Baseball legend, Babe Ruth was also a member of the N.V.A and became a good friend of Stanton.[19] Known as the N.V.A. Baseball Club, some of the team's players included comedy duo Van and Schenck, and actor Fred Stone. The team won the Tri-State and semi-pro championship.[9]

Ernie befriended Waite Hoyt and claimed that he was responsible for getting Hoyt's career started in the MLB by getting him his first job with the New York Giants.[20] In 1923 he spent two weeks playing with the New York Yankees in New Orleans during an exhibition tour.[9] In 1927 he participated in the Chicago Cubs spring training preparing to play in an N.V.A season.[21]

Vaudeville and acting career

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By 1910 Ernie and his brother Val Stanton had formed a comic vaudeville duo and were engaged for performances in the B. F. Keith Circuit in which they sang and exchanged witty dialogue.[22] They were sometimes billed as Val and Ernie Stanton, and other times as the Daffydils.[23] One of the comic sketches they performed was "Who Stole the Shoes?"[24]

In 1925 they recorded an eight-minute short in London which was an early Vitaphone project. In 1928 they preformed in the Vitaphone Varieties films produced by Warner Bros. The two shorts were English as She Is Not Spoken and Cut Yourself a Piece of Cake. In their act, Ernie played the harmonica, and Val played the ukulele. They were photographed together.[25] They were described as being "Undoubtedly one of the best comedy talking acts in vaudeville."[26]

Ernie would go on to play many roles in films but was most famous for The Case of the Black Parrot (1941), Stage Struck (1936), and Flippen's Frolics (1936). During his film career, he got to work alongside many famous legends including, Bela Lugosi, Errol Flynn, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., and Ralph Bellamy to name a few. Ernie also got to play with George M. Cohan in Harold's Vanities and on the Keith-Orpheum Circuit.

Personal life

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Ernie's life was mostly filled with his careers as an actor and athlete. In 1911 he married Mary Callan. They divorced a couple of years later. In the 1920s he met actress Florence Holt who was nicknamed "Flo Holt" on the KGU show. Ernie and Florence got married in 1928. They had no children during their 16 year marriage. During World War II, the couple performed together in shows put on for the American armed forced by the United Service Organizations; serving in unit 27 of the USO with Ernie working as that unit's master of ceremonies.[27]

Death

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Ernie passed away on February 6, 1944. It was that afternoon, Val and Ernie were scheduled to perform a show at the Orpheum Theatre in Oakland, California. Before the show, they went to eat dinner at a restaurant near 20th Street and Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. Coincidentally, earlier that day, Ernie had told his wife that he was feeling "funny". It was at the restaurant, around 6 p.m., that Ernie suffered a stroke and fell unconscious in his chair.[28] He was rushed to the hospital while Val accompanied him in the ambulance. Upon their arrival to Highland Hospital he was pronounced dead. He was only 53 years old. In the words of Val, "The show must go on". As the new hour approached, Val arrived at the theater and performed without Ernie. Among the hundreds of spectators who filled the theater to capacity, none of them knew the burden resting on Val's shoulders. He was still able to make the people laugh and smile. After the show, Val made the arrangements to send Ernie's body to a local mortuary. Then he fainted.[29] Ernie's funeral was held in Los Angeles.[30] He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) where currently stars such as, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Michael Jackson, Walt Disney and many more are laid to rest.[31]

Family

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Besides himself and his brother, His father Walter Stanton was a famous rooster chanticleer impersonator nicknamed "The Giant Rooster" and his mother, Annie, nicknamed "Tina Corri", was a male impersonator because her voice was so deep. She was also a member of the Corri family of opera singers from Dublin and for many years a member of the Tony Pastor Company.[32] [33] Not only were his parents famous on the stage, his great-grandfather Haydn Corri was a famous organist in Dublin and his father, Domenico Corri, a famous Italian composer. Along with that, one of his cousins, Eugene Corri, was a famous boxing referee in London.[34]

Filmography

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Discography

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References

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  1. ^ "Ernest G. Burch". The Los Angeles Times. February 10, 1944. p. 23.
  2. ^ a b Ernest George Stanton Burch in U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; 1922; Roll 2040; Certificate 196584, 23 June 1922
  3. ^ U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 for Ernest Stanton Burch; Serial Number 3958
  4. ^ Ernest G. Stanton Burch in California, Death Index, 1940-1997
  5. ^ Stanton-Burch, Ernest Stanton in "Births Registered in July, August, and September 1890, England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915, p. 494
  6. ^ Ernest Stanton Birch in London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906, Reference Number 3883393
  7. ^ Ernest Stanton in 1900 United States Federal Census, Illinois Cook County, Chicago, Ward 01, District 0002, June 2, 1900; sheet No. 1
  8. ^ a b "Cinesound at prince". The Daily News. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  9. ^ a b c "Vaudeville actor plays with yankees". Times Union. April 13, 1923. p. 21. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  10. ^ "Stanton's come from Theatrical Family". Vancouver Daily World.
  11. ^ "Tina Corri at the Orpheum". Los Angeles Herald.
  12. ^ a b "Buck Falvey Starts Training". Norwich Bulletin. February 5, 1910. p. 3.
  13. ^ a b "Actors Are Ball Tossers Too". The Morning Call. August 2, 1911. p. 11.
  14. ^ "Ernie Stanton Actor-Athlete Coming to Orph". The Capital Times. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  15. ^ "Eastern Champion Appears on Stage". The Butte Daily Post. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  16. ^ "Recalls battles with Bill Fleming". Bangor Commercial Sports. March 17, 1942. p. 10. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  17. ^ "Ernie Stanton Who comes here Sunday is Famous Athlete". The Daily Times. October 4, 1924. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  18. ^ "A trio of popular N.V.A's". The Vaudeville News. April 13, 1923. p. 5. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  19. ^ "Many cities after games with artists". The Vaudeville news.
  20. ^ "How Hoyt got started". Omaha World-Herald. May 20, 1928. p. 14. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  21. ^ "Ernie Stanton in Lineup". The Vaudeville News and New York Star. April 30, 1927. p. 22. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  22. ^ "Five Fine Acts at the Shultz". The Zanesville Signal. May 31, 1910. p. 3.
  23. ^ "Stageland Gossip". The Cincinnati Enquirer. November 30, 1911. p. 8.
  24. ^ "Empress". The Kentucky Post. November 30, 1911. p. 3.
  25. ^ "Ernie Stanton and Val Stanton – The American Vaudeville Archive — Special Collections".
  26. ^ vaudevilleamerica.org/performance/val-ernie-stanton-2/
  27. ^ Dorothy M'aulay (July 7, 1942). "Ernie Stanton's Back Home After Tossing His Gag At Soldiers, Coast to Coast". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 14.
  28. ^ "Ernie Stanton dies of Stroke". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  29. ^ "Actor carries on after brother dies". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  30. ^ "Ernie Stanton Burial to be in Glendale, Cal". Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
  31. ^ "Ernie Stanton Memorial". FindAGrave. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  32. ^ "Mr. Walter Stanton".
  33. ^ "The Giant Rooster and Tina Corri". Los Angeles Herald. March 2, 1896.
  34. ^ "Val and Ernie Stanton, cousin with Corri". The Butte Miner.
  35. ^ "Cast Member : Ernie Stanton". threestooges.net.
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