Ken Murray

Ken Murray (born Kenneth Abner Doncourt, July 14, 1903 – October 12, 1988) was an American comedian, actor, radio and television personality and author. Many sources incorrectly give his birth name as Don Court. He was raised believing he had an older brother, Joseph. According to Murray's autobiography, Life on a Pogo Stick, as a teenager he learned that Joseph was actually his father and the couple who he thought were his parents were in fact his grandparents. The family withheld the truth from Murray because Joseph, who was also a vaudevillian, did not want the public to know that he had a young son. Joseph had divorced Murray's mother and decided that his parents would provide a more stable life than he was able to as a traveling performer. Murray also wrote of his quest to find his mother in his later years.

Career

Vaudeville and stage Murray got his start in show business on the stage in the 1920s as a stand-up comedian. He performed his comedy act on the vaudeville circuit and in burlesque. Following efforts to establish himself in Hollywood in the late 1920s, he found success on the New York stage after appearing in Earl Carroll's Vanities on Broadway in 1935.

In the 1940s, Murray became famous for his Blackouts, a racy Hollywood variety show featuring Marie Wilson (among others) staged at the El Capitan Theatre on Vine Street. The Blackouts played to standing-room-only audiences for 3,844 performances, ending in 1949. Later that year, the show moved to Broadway with Marie Windsor replacing Marie Wilson. It received devastating reviews (the revue was considered too ribald for more sophisticated New York audiences) and closed after six weeks.

Murray revived the Blackouts on the Las Vegas stage in 1956. The show was a hit and ran for three years. Murray's act during this period was a "fast patter" routine opposite his stooge Oswald, who would confound Murray with silly questions or snappy comebacks. Oswald was played by accordionist Tony Labriola. Murray and Labriola were so popular that they made a series of phonograph records for Victor, as well as a series of short movie comedies for Vitaphone in New York.

He later was the original host (1945–57) of Queen for a Day, on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio show, which was simulcast on KTSL (now KCBS-TV), Channel 2 in Los Angeles.

During World War II, Murray was one of the many celebrities to volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen.

In 1947, he produced Bill and Coo, a feature film using trained birds and other animals as actors. Bill and Coo won a special Academy Award for "novel and entertaining use of the medium of motion picture" and "artistry and patience" .

He was also the host of The Ken Murray Show, a weekly music and comedy show on CBS Television that ran from 1950 to 1953. The show was the first to win a Freedom Foundation Award.

Murray also persuaded silent-film actress Mae Murray, long retired, to be interviewed as a guest on his radio show. In 1950 he returned the former Our Gang star Darla Hood to prominence, hiring her as a singer for his Blackouts stage revue and his television show.

Murray was considered a Hollywood gadabout, friendly with most Hollywood celebrities. He often visited social affairs with his 16mm home-movie camera in hand. He began filming the footage to send back home to his grandparents in lieu of writing letters. His grandmother saved the footage, which featured Hollywood stars including Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Jean Harlow. Murray later assembled the footage in compilation films such as Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963). Footage filmed by Murray was used in several television specials, including Hollywood: My Home Town (1965) and the feature-length film Ken Murray's Shooting Stars. On July 4, 1941, Murray married model Cleatus Caldwell at the home of actor Lew Ayres in Hollywood. Edgar Bergen served as Murray's best man.

Murray married his third wife, Betty Lou Walters, in December 1948. The couple had two daughters and remained married until Murray's death on October 12, 1988, at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, aged 85. He was a Republican.

Selected filmography Half Marriage (1929) - Charles Turner Leathernecking (1930) - Frank Ladies of the Jury (1932) - Spencer B. Dazy Crooner (1932) - Peter Sturgis Disgraced! (1933) - Jim McGuire From Headquarters (1933) - Mac You're a Sweetheart (1937) - Don King Swing, Sister, Swing (1938) - Nap Sisler A Night at Earl Carroll's (1940) - Barney Nelson Swing It Soldier (1941) - Jerry Traynor Juke Box Jenny (1942) - Malcolm Hammond Bill and Coo (1948) - Ken Murray (Prologue) Red Light (1949) - Himself The Marshal's Daughter (1953) - 'Smiling Billy' Murray The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Doc Willoughby Son of Flubber (1963) - Mr. Hurley Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963) Hollywood, My Home Town (1965) - Himself Follow Me, Boys! (1966) - Melody Murphy The Power (1968) - Grover Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) - Souvenir Salesman (final film role) Ken Murray's Shooting Stars (1979, director)