2023 Fall Newsletter

100 Years Ago The Miami Republic

Barrel two – Back to Show Business. The end of the Kansas City Star article carried from Detroit drops a zinger about Joe. “That year he was divorced from Viv ian Vance, screen and radio singer.” Yes – that Vivian Vance, better known to us as Ethel Mertz from the “I Love Lucy” TV show of the 1950s.

Paola, Kansas Friday Nov 2,1923

NEW CASES FILED IN DISTRICT COURT In district court Miss Lucy R. Mallory, for herself and also for Earl D. and Clare Mallory, minors, has brought suit against the City of Paola for $87,175. This suit is the result of the burning of the Mallory Opera House the night of October 27, 1921. The plaintiff asserts that the building was burned, by a mob of more than three persons and that the city is liable under the Kansas law existing at that time which provided that cities are responsible for acts of mobs, defining mobs as three or more persons. Amended law fixes a mob as five or-more people and plaintiff insists the city is liable under the amended law. Miss Mallory also claims the city is liable because wa ter pressure was not sufficient at time of the fire. She values the building at $67,001 and the rest of the prop erty burned is thus enumerated: diamonds, $10,000; life size paintings, $5,000; mother's engagement ring, $1,000; silver and cut glass, $1,000-' heirlooms $500; fur 'coats, $400; books, $400; clothing, $400; black fox furs, $300; sister's cut glass, $300; piano, $250; gold watch, $125; china, $125; stage scenery, $100. J. H. Brady and T. F. Railsback, of Kansas City, Kans., are lawyers for Miss Mallory and City Attorney Kari V. Shawver represents the City of Paola.

Vivian was born in Cherryvale, KS, in 1909. The family moved to Independence, KS, when she was six. The acting bug Bit in high school and afterward Vivian went to Tulsa where she got a part in “Broadway.” She met and dated Joe in 1927; they were married in 1928. They moved to Albuquerque, NM, where Vivian’s family had relocated. Joe pulled a disappearing act in 1930 and a divorce occurred after 2 ½ years of marriage. Vivian was very successful in show business and passed away of cancer in 1979. She detested being typecast as Ethel often quipping: “When I die, there will be people sending Ethel flowers.” The promising young entrepreneur Joe was not so lucky and ended up shot to death in Detroit. Mike Barnett // MCHM

The Mallory Opera House

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