This ad was the best image I could find recording the existence of vaudeville harmonica player Ted Waldman (1899-1987), who was born of a February 12. You can see him and his brother Al mentioned on this bill of acts, below silent movie comedian Al St. John, and a couple above the Garland Sisters (featuring a young Judy Garland). The Electric Theatre was in St. Joseph, Missouri; the year was 1934, after the collapse of the big time vaudeville, but as you can see, there was still some action to be had for the enterprising performer.
Despite the lack of photos posted online, Waldman enjoys greater visibility than a vaudevillian of his stature otherwise might because he was given in an entry for some reason in Anthony Slide’s invaluable Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. He played the New York Palace in 1927 and 1929, which means that he was at the top of his game. His game was playing the harmonica. He claimed to be the first to play blues on harmonica, which of course is preposterous. Waldman was white and surely that distinction belonged to a black musician. In any case, Waldman’s act was called “Blue-O-Logy”, and it was performed in blackface. He toured with his brother Al from the 1920s through the late 1930s, at which point his wife Priscilla became his partner on ukulele.
Waldman was originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and first gained notice for his harmonica playing at a joint called Brown’s Cafe in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1911 he joined a tab show called Yankee Doodle Doos which brought him into the vaudeville orbit. For three years he was teamed with Ned Norworth, who was married to Hazel Howell, and apparently no relation to Jack Norworth, which is funny, because Waldman first really made the big time as part of the act of Eva Tanguay, Jack’s one-time partner. He made good money touring with Tanguay for four years, before going out with his brother and “Blue-O-Logy”. Posterity better remembers Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals because they were on radio and in movies, but it sounds like Waldman’s act was similar in conception. He played harmonicas of all shapes and sizes, and he did all sorts of flashy stunts such as playing with no hands, which were the kind of show-stopping tricks that were the life blood of vaudeville. In the post-vaudeville era, he and his wife toured with the U.S.O.
For more on vaudeville history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.