Ken Murray

He wasn't a natural, accustomed aptitude but amateur Ken Murray had solid ancestry to await on. Born in 1903 in New York City, his ancestor was a amphitheater banana and Ken accomplished himself to dance, sing, acquaint jokes, and even accomplish braiding tricks to try and get ahead. It paid off. Touring in an act with his aboriginal wife, Ken was anon headlining the Palace during the crumbling canicule of vaudeville.

At aboriginal a hobby, Ken begin addition advantageous aperture if he went to Hollywood and bought a 16mm home cine camera to yield shots of home and family. As his name about boondocks increased, so did the superior of his subjects, which now included acclaimed cine stars who mugged agreeably for the camera. By the mid 1930s, his movies were getting utlized by Columbia in a abbreviate accountable alternation alleged "Screen Snapshots", clips that are still acclimated today for documentaries and retrospects. In 1942, Ken appeared as producer, brilliant and all-embracing agitator of the date appearance "Ken Murray's Blackouts", a aberrant alloy of risque humor, ample adolescent starlets, agreeable interludes and change acts that ran for abounding years. In fact, it set a almanac at the time for the longest active appearance in the history of Los Angeles (7 years, 3,844 performances). It became an complete must-see during WWII. He accustomed a appropriate Academy Award in 1947 for "novel and absorbing use of the medium". Ken hosted his own TV show, "The Ken Murray Show" (1950), amid 1950 and 1953. He formed in Las Vegas showrooms as able-bodied in the 50s, managing a few acting roles on the side, conspicuously The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). The showman with the audible crewcut bound his adventures "Life on a Pogo Stick" in 1960. In 1979 he edited his home movies into a blur album alleged "Ken Murray's Shooting Stars". He had three children, two girls and a boy -- the boy, Cort, was a able accompanist at one time. Ken died at age 85 in Burbank, California.