Kitty Doner
Kitty Doner | |
|---|---|
Los Angeles, California, U.S. | |
| Genres | Music hall |
| Years active | 1898–1952 |
Kitty Doner (born Catherine Donohoe, September 6, 1895 — August 26, 1988) was an American vaudeville performer. She was a male impersonator, actress, and dancer, specializing in boy roles, and later in life worked as a choreographer and television producer.
Early life
Catherine Donohoe was born in
Career
Kitty Doner was considered the best American male impersonator of her day, compared favorably to British acts such as Vesta Tilley and Ella Shields.[4] She was petite, and her characters were often youthful.[5] She was known for changing from masculine to feminine clothing on stage, in view of the audience, to demonstrate how much of her impersonation was skill rather than elaborate costume.[6] In 1921, she performed at a benefit for the Women's Auxiliary of the National Disabled Soldiers League at the Apollo Theater.[7] That same year, she also performed at a benefit for the American Committee for Relief in Ireland, at the Metropolitan Opera House.[8]
Her Broadway credits included The Passing Show of 1913, Dancing Around (1914, with Al Jolson),[9] Robinson Crusoe Jr. (1916, again with Jolson),[10] Sinbad (1918, again with Jolson), and The Dancing Girl (1923, appearing with her brother and sister).[2] Doner's act was preserved in an early sound short film, A Bit of Scotch (1928).[11]
In 1945 she co-produced a now-lost musical television series for
Personal life
Kitty Doner died in 1988, aged 92 years, in
References
- ISBN 9780415938532
- ^ ISBN 9780252050169
- ^ "Ted Doner Coming Back" New York Times (July 18, 1929): 14. via ProQuest
- ^ ISBN 9781617032509
- ^ "Born to Dance – And She's Doing It" New York Times (October 18, 1914).
- Newspapers.com
- ^ "Stars to Aid Soldiers" New York Times (May 7, 1921): 8. via ProQuest
- ^ "Stage Stars Raise $57,000 for Irish" New York Times (April 4, 1921): 2. via ProQuest
- Newspapers.com
- ^ "Clothes and the Girl" Green Book Magazine (September 1916): 545.
- ISBN 9781476606842
- ISBN 9780822308782
- ^ "Kitty Doner, Male Impersonator in Vaudeville" Los Angeles Times (September 3, 1988).
- ^ Guide to the Kitty Doner Papers, University of California Santa Barbara Library, Special Collections.
External links
- Kitty Doner at IMDb
- Kitty Doner at the Internet Broadway Database
- Kitty Doner at Playbill Vault
- 1923 photograph of Kitty Doner, from the New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library of Congress.
- A 1921 photograph of Kitty Doner, from the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections.
- Several photographs of Kitty Doner from the Los Angeles Times files, part of the "Mystery Photo" feature, Los Angeles Times blog (April 9, 2010).
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| National | |
