Description: This photograph of African American members of the Federal Theatre Project was taken in Cincinnati in 1936. It measures 8" x 10" (20.32 x 25.4 cm). The Federal Theatre Project, organized under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), was created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The program employed out-of-work actors, directors writers, crew and entertainers, most of whom were out of work after the stock market crash of 1929. Divisions of the Federal Theater Project were established in Cleveland and Cincinnati. An African American adaptation of MacBeth by Orson Welles was one of the most controversial productions of the Federal Theatre Project. Although it ran in several other cities, the play was not produced in Cincinnati because local officials insisted the audience would have to be segregated, a violation of WPA policy. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3165_3780166_001
Subjects: African American Ohioans; Arts and entertainment; Entertainers
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Zint Family Orchestra, ca. 1919. Pictured left to right are Lucille, Beulah, Frederick, Raymond, Kermit, and Arthur Zint. Members of the orchestra are the children of Jacob Christian Zint of Wapakoneta, Ohio, a local businessman who owned a saloon, shoe store, and candy store. Frederick, the eldest sibling, and his wife, Pearl Olsen Zent, performed with an opera company, vaudeville groups and tent and tableau shows until their first child was born in 1927. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05893
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture; Entertainers; Musicians; Wapakoneta (Ohio)--Biography--Pictorial works
Places: Wapakoneta (Ohio); Auglaize County (Ohio)
 

Description: A group portrait of the Harry Shannon Orchestra, ca. 1923-1925. The image includes one woman and seven men attired in formal dress. Some of the performers are posing with their musical instruments. Frederick Joseph Zint, a native of Wapakoneta, Ohio, and his wife, Pearl Olsen Zent, performed with the Harry Shannon Orchestra. Zint was the eldest son of Jacob Christian Zint, Wapakoneta businessman who owned a saloon, shoe store, and candy store. Frederick Zint and his siblings formed the Zint Family Orchestra. Another image in this photograph series, a photo of the Zint Family Orchestra, identifies Frederick Zint as a violinist; presumably he is the violinist in this image. The woman likely is his wife, Pearl Olsen Zint. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05894
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture; Entertainers; Musicians; Wapakoneta (Ohio)--Biography--Pictorial works
 

Description: Photographic reproduction of a poster for the Sells Brothers Circus, depicting a parade of circus performers. It reads "Sells Brothers' Enormous United Shows--An Imposing Scene in the Grand Spectacular Pageant as Produced at Every Performance." In the 1870s the Sells brothers, led by Peter, became involved in the circus business. Other brothers working with the circus were Ephraim, Lewis, and William Allen. The winter quarters for the circus initially were at the current location of Brookside Country Club in Linworth, Ohio. When the circus became larger, winter quarters moved to an area which became known as "Sellsville" in Columbus, bounded by Fifth Avenue, Queen Avenue, Chambers Road and River Road. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02917
Subjects: Circuses; Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture; Posters; Entertainers;
 

Description: Martha Steelman dressed in dance outfit, ca. 1920-1929. Steelman was a champion diver, swimmer, and Ohio Vaudeville performer. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00172
Subjects: Women entertainers; Cultural Ohio--Art and Artists
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Collage-style publicity poster for Loren and Ethel, contortionists known as "The Great Quillins" and "Boneless Wonders." This poster is part of the Eisenbarth Family Papers. Ellsworth Eugene Eisenbarth was born October 22, 1864, in Ironton, Ohio. The family later moved to Wetzel County, West Virginia. By 1889, Eisenbarth was traveling the mid-Atlantic states in "The Oregon Indian Medicine Show," which featured such entertainment as real cowboys and “Indians.” He next bought a floating store, which he refitted as a showboat and christened "The Eisenbarth Wild West & Floating Opera." The endeavor lasted from 1891 to 1895. By the late 1890s, Eisenbarth and his wife Julia had founded "The Eisenbarth & Henderson Mammoth and Combined Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company," complete with calliope, band and orchestra, which also traveled throughout the middle states by rail. In February of 1900, E.E. and Julia converted a glass barge named the E.V. Poke No. 2 into "The Eisenbarth-Henderson Floating Theatre, Temple of Amusement." This showboat and its successor ("The Eisenbarth-Henderson Floating Theatre-The New Great Modern Temple of Amusement")were devoted to bringing Shakespearean plays and other dramas, such as “Human Hearts” to the waterways. Eisenbarth also worked with a traveling company of players, perhaps to remain off the rivers during the winter months. The Temple cleared more money than almost any other boat on the Ohio River, even though it only played four nights a week and never on Sunday. Julia Eisenbarth died sometime after, and E.E. remarried in 1908 to Jennie Salina Brown. In 1909, he presented his last show on a riverboat, “The Castle.” He sold The Temple showboat to the Needham-Steiner Amusement Company that year, and although he made bids on other boats, these proved unsuccessful and The Temple ended up being his last showboat. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07559
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture; Showboats; Ohio River; Traveling shows; Theater--Ohio; Entertainers
Places: Ohio River; Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Movie actress and singer Judy Garland receiving the "Heart of Columbus" when she visited the city in March 1938. During Garland's visit she was initiated as sweetheart of the Alpha Gamma Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at Ohio State University and gave a singing performance at the Ohio Theatre. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00787
Subjects: Women entertainers; Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Singer and movie actress Judy Garland performing at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, March 1938. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00789
Subjects: Women entertainers; Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: The photograph shows a unicyclist riding on a spiral structure on East Walker Street in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, during a carnival. The spiral, connected to the ground by wires, rises high above the street. A net below the structure provides some safety to the performer. Men and boys stand in the street looking up at the spectacle and more onlookers peer from second floor windows. The Seider & Ludwig Buggy Works can be seen in the photo on the right side of the street. Photograph by Harry Evan Kinley (1882-1969), a native of Upper Sandusky. Kinley was active in local events and organizations, and spent his professional career as a clerk at his father's department store, and later as a traveling salesman for the Marion Paper & Supply Company (1934-1962). He was also an avid lifelong photographer, and the bulk of the Harry Kinley Collection is comprised of glass plate negatives documenting the Kinley family, the city of Upper Sandusky and Wyandot County and surrounding areas. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV30_B01F01_47
Subjects: Fairs--Ohio; Entertainers; Performers; City and town life
Places: Upper Sandusky (Ohio); Wyandot County (Ohio);
 

Description: The photograph shows two men identified as Oscar Veith and Frank Schwilk dressed in hobo costumes. Their clothes are torn and patched, and they both hold broken umbrellas and pose for the camera with their left hands on their hips. Photograph by Harry Evan Kinley (1882-1969), a native of Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Kinley was active in local events and organizations, and spent his professional career as a clerk at his father's store, and later as a traveling salesman for the Marion Paper & Supply Company (1934-1962). Kinley was also an avid lifelong photographer, and the bulk of the Harry Kinley Collection is comprised of glass plate negatives documenting the Kinley family, the city of Upper Sandusky and Wyandot County and surrounding areas. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV30_B01F01_53
Subjects: Arts and entertainment; Entertainers; Performers; Costumes
Places: Upper Sandusky (Ohio); Wyandot County (Ohio);
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Canal scene at Dayton." This is a photo of a group of musicians on a boat in the Erie Canal. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B12F01_011_001
Subjects: Canals--Ohio; Miami and Erie Canal (Ohio); Entertainers; Musicians; Boats and boating; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph of Al Jolson, 1920. Jolson (1886-1950) was a singer and entertainer, especially well known for the 1927 film, The Jazz Singer, the first talking picture. Jolson is addressing a crowd from Warren G. Harding's front porch in Marion, Ohio, during Harding's 1920 presidential campaign. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02781
Subjects: Marion (Ohio); Entertainers; Ohio History--Presidents and Politics
Places: Marion (Ohio); Marion County (Ohio)