Ernie Stanton

Ernest George Burch, known professionally as Ernie Stanton, was born on August 23, 1890, in England, and baptized at St. Philip Church in the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth on September 21, 1890. His parents were Walter Stanton and Annie Burch. The family emigrated to the United States, with records placing their arrival between 1898 and 1899, after which they settled in Chicago. Stanton died on February 6, 1944, at the age of 53.

Stanton came from a family deeply rooted in performance. His father, Walter Stanton, was a comic actor on the British stage who earned the nickname "The Giant Rooster" for his rooster chanticleer impersonations and was particularly recognized for his work in pantomimes. Walter also worked as an acting teacher, with Charlie Chaplin among his pupils. Stanton's mother, Annie, performed under the nickname "Tina Corri" and was a member of the Tony Pastor Company. She belonged to the Corri family of opera singers from Dublin. The family's artistic lineage extended further: Stanton's great-grandfather Haydn Corri was an organist in Dublin, and his great-great-grandfather Domenico Corri was an Italian composer. A cousin, Eugene Corri, was a prominent boxing referee in London. As a youth, Stanton performed alongside his parents and his brother Val in a vaudeville family act billed as The Stantons.

Stanton pursued parallel careers as an athlete and entertainer. He trained as a boxer under Jack McCarron in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and by 1910 was serving as a sparring partner to Buck Falvey and Billy Allen while continuing to perform in vaudeville. In Philadelphia he used the ring name Young George Erne and sparred with Jack Britton and Mike Gibbons. A 1912 article in The Butte Daily Post identified him as a welterweight champion of Maine, where he competed under the name George Ernie. In 1942, he reconnected with a former opponent, Bill "Wild Bill" Fleming, describing Fleming in a newspaper account as one of the most powerful punchers ever to compete in the sport.

His baseball career began with the Jackson club team of the New York State League, where he played first base before being drafted by the New York Giants. He played professionally for the Detroit Tigers in 1912 and the Boston Braves in 1914, and later competed in the Pacific Coast League with the Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons, San Francisco Seals, and Los Angeles Angels, making his Seals debut in 1923. In 1923 he also spent two weeks playing with the New York Yankees during an exhibition tour in New Orleans, and in 1927 he participated in Chicago Cubs spring training. During the 1920s, Stanton managed a baseball team organized by the National Vaudeville Artists union, known as the N.V.A. Baseball Club, whose roster included comedy duo Van and Schenck and actor Fred Stone. The team won the Tri-State and semi-pro championship. Babe Ruth, also a member of the N.V.A., became a close friend of Stanton's through this association. Stanton also claimed credit for helping launch the Major League career of pitcher Waite Hoyt by securing Hoyt his first position with the New York Giants.

By 1910, Stanton and his brother Val had formed a comic vaudeville duo performing on the B. F. Keith Circuit, where they sang and exchanged comic dialogue. The act was billed variously as Val and Ernie Stanton and as the Daffydils. One of their recurring sketches was titled "Who Stole the Shoes?" In the act, Ernie played harmonica while Val played ukulele. In 1925 the brothers recorded an eight-minute short in London as part of an early Vitaphone project. In 1928 they appeared in two Vitaphone Varieties shorts produced by Warner Bros.: English as She Is Not Spoken and Cut Yourself a Piece of Cake. Stanton also performed with George M. Cohan in Harold's Vanities and on the Keith-Orpheum Circuit.

In 1928, Stanton made his Broadway appearance in the musical Billie. That same year he married actress Florence Holt, known professionally as Flo Holt from her work on the KGU radio program. The couple had no children during their sixteen-year marriage. During World War II, they performed together in shows organized for American armed forces through the United Service Organizations, serving in USO Unit 27, with Stanton acting as the unit's master of ceremonies.

Stanton appeared in numerous films throughout his career. Among his most notable screen credits were The Case of the Black Parrot (1941), Stage Struck (1936), and Flippen's Frolics (1936). His film work brought him into productions alongside Bela Lugosi, Errol Flynn, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., and Ralph Bellamy. He also provided the parrot voice in the 1938 Disney animated short Mickey's Parrot and contributed as a writer on Here's the Gang (1935) and Flippen's Frolics (1936).

On February 6, 1944, Stanton and Val were scheduled to perform at the Orpheum Theatre in Oakland, California. Before the show, the brothers went to dinner at a restaurant near 20th Street and Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. Stanton had told his wife earlier that day that he was feeling unwell. At approximately 6 p.m., he suffered a stroke and lost consciousness at the table. He was transported to Highland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Val accompanied his brother in the ambulance and, after making arrangements with a local mortuary, went on to perform the scheduled show that evening. Stanton's funeral was held in Los Angeles. He was survived by his wife Florence, whose later credits included an appearance with Bob Hope in Son of Paleface.