Theatre Register

Frank Tinney

Shows · Frank Tinney

Actor 1878–1940 On stage 19111923

Frank Aloysius Robert Tinney (March 29, 1878 – November 28, 1940) was an American blackface comedian and actor. Tinney achieved considerable success in vaudeville and on Broadway in the early 20th century. Comedian Joe Cook considered Tinney "the greatest natural comic ever developed in America." Tinney's career and marriage were ruined after he was accused of beating his mistress, Ziegfeld girl Imogene "Bubbles" Wilson in May 1924. Although he was never formally charged, the ensuing publicity destroyed his reputation. Tinney suffered a number of health problems after the scandal, and eventually had a nervous breakdown. He never regained his health and died in November 1940.

On stage 10 productions, 12 years

1911 The Revue of Revues Winter Garden Theatre · Original 55 perf.
1912 A Winsome Widow Moulin Rouge · Original · directed by Julian Mitchell 172 perf.
1913 Ziegfeld Follies of 1913 New Amsterdam Theatre · Original · directed by Julian Mitchell 108 perf.
1914 Watch Your Step New Amsterdam Theatre · Original · directed by R. H. Burnside 175 perf.
1916 The Century Girl Century Theatre · Original · directed by Leon Errol, Edward Royce 200 perf.
1917 Doing Our Bit Winter Garden Theatre · Original · directed by J. C. Huffman 130 perf.
1918 Atta Boy Lexington Theatre · Original · directed by Jack Mason 24 perf.
1920 Tickle Me Selwyn Theatre · Original · directed by William Collier 207 perf.
1922 Daffy Dill Apollo Theatre · Original · directed by Julian Alfred 71 perf.
1923 Music Box Revue [1923] Music Box Theatre · Original · directed by Hassard Short 273 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once12 names

Ruby Lewis 3 productions
Leon Errol 3 productions
Hazel Lewis 3 productions
Harry Kelly 3 productions
Elizabeth Brice 3 productions
Ted Wing 2 productions
Rose Dolly 2 productions
May Leslie 2 productions
Margaret Morris 2 productions
Lottie Vernon 2 productions
Lola Hilton 2 productions
Julia Beaubien 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 9 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

In the literature7 passages

  • Cast: Vernon & Irene Castle, Frank Tinney, Charles King, Elizabeth Brice, Elizabeth Murray, Harry Kelly, Justine Johnstoneebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • “There’s only one animal that throws a scent.”—FRANK TINNEY to a customer who threw a penny at him while performingebooks/Hadleigh, Boze/Broadway Babylon - Boze Hadleigh.txt
  • “Look at ’em doing it.” In Watch Your Step, Vernon and Irene Castle do the syncopated walk while others, including the blackface comedian Frank Tinney, look on. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations .ebooks/Magee, Jeffrey/Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater (Broadway Legacies) - Jeffrey Magee.txt
  • A Syracuse critic praised Fields’s “excellent fifteen minutes of inanimate [sic ] comedy,” 56 but with or without Fields, reviewers did not so much find Smith’s books lacking as simply inconsequential. In its opening night review of Watch Your Step , the New York Times paid Smith a compliment by claiming that “he was in good form when he…ebooks/Magee, Jeffrey/Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater (Broadway Legacies) - Jeffrey Magee.txt
  • IRENE CASTLE, VERNON CASTLE, FRANK TINNEY, ELIZABETH MURRAY in “WATCH YOUR STEP”theatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • Hardy, “Doing Our Bit” with Ed Wynn, Frank Tinney, Ada Lewis and the Duncan Sisters—Rosetta and Vivian, “Miss 1917” with Lew Fields, Vivienne Segal, Cecil Lean, Irene Castle, Bert Savoy, George White, Ann Pennington, Bessie McCoy, Van and Schenck, Charles King and Marion Davies, “Her Regiment” starring Donald Brian, “Over The Top” with Ju…theatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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