Central Library

Guy Bates' acting career spanned over more than fifty years with a multitude of Broadway stage and Hollywood film productions. Some of his most memorable roles include Omar Khayyám in the 1914 stage and 1922 film productions of "Omar the Tentmaker" and Louis Napoleon in "Maytime" ( 1937) and again in "The Mad Empress"...

Ina Alcova was a Vaudeville ballet dancer known as "The Flying Alcova." Rather than the usual vertical portrait, Hixon has created a horizontal portrait of Ina flying through a whimsical landscape. She leaps into the light from the dark through the center of the composition. A bright ray of light shines downward upon h...

In this photograph stands an unknown woman against a stark black background holding an issue of Shadowland, a popular theater magazine that circulated in the 1910s-20s. The figure wears a tattered shirt and skirt and polka-dotted headscarf as a pirate-inspired outfit. She holds a large issue of Shadowland that covers h...

A number of Orval Hixon's photographs include figure studies and portraits of unknown vaudevillian performers. This portrait of a young unknown vaudevillian actor is a great example of Hixon's playfulness. The young man stares directly at the viewer. While his facial features and the decoration of the hat are well lit...

This unknown figure is meticulously dressed in a light herringbone suit jacket and matching vest. His attire is accentuated by his knit tie and watch chain, that stretches across his chest coming to a rest in his vest fob pocket. This dapper character is fastidiously groomed, as apparent with his clean shaven visage,...

Trixie Friganza was born with the name Delia O'Callahan in Grenola, Kansas. She was a comedian with a unique and gentle sense of humor. Trixie was a large woman and often used her weight as a subject of her comedy. In this 1919 photograph, Hixon has manifested the stoic beauty of Trixie as a vaudeville performer. She i...

Rita Gould was a Hollywood actress born in the Kherson Governorate of Russia. She was known for her roles in "Girls' Dormitory" (1936), "He Couldn't Say No" (1938) and "Kiss and Make-Up" (1934). In this portrait, Hixon captures Gould in an elegant pose, turning her cheek to the camera with one index finger resting on h...

This portrait of Lawrence Newman, depicts a very dapper figure. Newman attired in a very distinguished fashion wears a dark suit accentuated with a light colored pocket square. He wears a white button up shirt, black tie, and dark fedora. Newman is centered in this photograph gazing intently at the viewer, with his...

John and Winnie Henning were early vaudeville performers who comprised the Kill Kare Kouple. They adopted this name with a popular act they performed together wherein Winnie would play various instruments while John danced his famed "Grasshopper Dance", the two exchanging comedic banter all the while. They toured overs...

Nan Halperin appeared on the vaudeville stage at the age of fifteen performing impersonations and comedic musical numbers. Over the course of her career, she became known as America’s “Famous Satirist” for her impersonations of the life stages of ordinary American women as well as the "Wonder Girl" because of how fast...