Joseph Santley

Joseph Mansfield Santley, born Joseph Ishmael Mansfield on January 10, 1890, in Salt Lake City, Utah, was an American actor, singer, dancer, writer, director, and producer whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television. He took the stage name Santley from his stepfather, actor Eugene Santley. His mother, Laurene Santley, was also an actress, and as a child he and his older brother Fred performed in live theatre, appearing in summer stock and touring productions alongside their parents.

Santley's Broadway career began in 1906 and extended through 1932. At seventeen, he co-wrote and starred in the Broadway play Billy the Kid, marking both his performing and writing debut on the New York stage. He went on to appear in the musical The Wild Rose and returned to Broadway multiple times in musical comedy productions. A skilled dancer and choreographer, he originated dances including the Santley Tango and the Hawaiian Butterfly. In 1913, he choreographed and starred in the Broadway musical When Dreams Come True, with music by Silvio Hein and a book by Philip Bartholomae, a production written specifically for him.

Following his marriage to actress, singer, and cabaret dancer Ivy Sawyer, the two performed together as a dance team beginning in 1916, appearing in Broadway musicals including Betty and Oh, My Dear!, as well as productions at major venues across the country such as the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. Their final joint Broadway appearance came in 1927 with Just Fancy, which Santley co-wrote, produced, and directed. He also appeared in the musical Lucky, the play Heigh-Ho, Everybody, and additional productions during his Broadway years. The couple had two children: a son, Joseph, born in 1916, and a daughter, Betty, born in 1928.

Santley's screen career began in 1907 when he acted in a silent Western short called The Pony Express, produced by the Kalem Company and directed by Sidney Olcott. He transitioned to directing in 1928 with a short talkie for Paramount Pictures featuring singer Ruth Etting. The following year he directed several additional short singing films for Paramount, including productions featuring Etting, crooner Rudy Vallee, and Broadway singer Alice Boulden in High Hat. He also directed A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, a musical film featuring Eddie Cantor and Eddie Elkins and his orchestra. In 1929, Santley co-directed with Robert Florey The Cocoanuts, the first Marx Brothers feature film, a musical comedy for Paramount based on the George S. Kaufman play with music by Irving Berlin.

Among his later directorial work, Santley directed Harmony Lane in 1935, a biographical musical about composer Stephen Foster. In 1940, he directed Melody Ranch, starring Gene Autry, a film subsequently selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress on the basis of its cultural significance. During World War II he contributed to the war effort, directing Remember Pearl Harbor in 1942. He directed his final feature film in 1950 and later produced the television comedy The Mickey Rooney Show for the 1954–55 season. In 1956, he assembled two segments of Jazz Ball, a made-for-television musical revue drawn from filmed performances by jazz musicians spanning the 1930s through the 1950s. Joseph Santley died on August 8, 1971, in Los Angeles.