Dave Apollon * One of the most successful Mandolin Players in the World * 1943 - 1953

Auf dieser Seite geht es um Dave Apollon, einer der erfolgreichsten Mandolinenspieler des 20. Jahrhunderts in den USA.

Biographie Über Dave Apollon bei dawgnet: http://www.dawgnet.com/acd_html/artists/apollon.html

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Die Quellen für alle diese Zeitungsausschnitte findet man hier:

Old Fulton NY Post Cards

Teil 1 (1921 - 1926) * Teil 2 (1927 - 1932) * Teil 3 (1933 - 1942) * Teil 4 (1943 - 1953)

Extra Added Attraction DAVE APOLLON And his Filipino Boys

Dave Apollon to Do International Vaudeville

ROCHESTER DAILY RECORD, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1943.

Dave Apollon, Russian star, and his Filipino boys head the list of stars, who include Bobby May, a juggler; Billy Wells and the four Fays and others. 

EVENING RECORDER, AMSTERDAM, N. Y., THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1944.

Lights Of New York

by L. L. Stevenson

If vaudeville is really dead, then obviously Dave Apollon, the Russian-born mandolin maestro currently at the Latin Quarter, either doesn't know about it or doesn't believe it. For 30 of his 37 years Apollon has been making a tidy sum as a vaudevillian. Last week. he threw a party to celebrate the end of his third decade working in a field that isn't supposed to exist. That's nice going. Apollon was a moppet of seven when he first invaded vaudeville in Russia as a dancer. A few years later, he'd organized a full-fledged revue and was trouping with it from Volocjisk to Vladivostok. At 15, he was drafted into the Army. The minimum age was supposed to have been 18, but it appears there was an error in his birth certificate which no one had bothered to correct. 

"So," as Apollon himself puts it in the accent which he once had insured for $100,000, "Apollon, the vaudevillian, became Apollon, the warrior."

EVENING RECORDER, AMSTERDAM, N. Y., FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1944.

. . . Dave Apollon, the Russian man-about-the-mandolin, In giving an interviewer his recipe for his success in show business over a span of years,declared, "It took plenty of plunk" ...

EVENING RECORDER, AMSTERDAM, N. Y., FRIDAY,' APRIL 21, 1944.

 . . . Dave Apollon, the mandolin-massager from Minsk, sampling ukeleles in a  Madison Avenue music shoppe . . . 

THE NEWS of the Tonawandas, Thursday, April 13, 1944

That Paying Accent

Dave Apollon Scores Hit with Russian Brogue in Latest Debut

By JACK GAVER

New York (UP)—A few years back there used to be a prominent vaudeville act headed by a fellow who had a Russian accent you could use for a blanket and a mandolin that did everything but double for a singing teakettle. In the act were about a dozen Filipino boys playing stringed instruments and a girl who was agood eccentric dancer.

I met the accent, or Dave Apollon, again this week and in no time at all had committed the faux pas of the week. I noticed that Apollon had only three of "his boys" in his night club debut at the Latin quarter and asked him about the others. "In the sarviss," he said proudly. "Army, navy, mureensss. Vundarful fallows."

She's Not Away

"But what became of that girl dancer — Danzi Goodell? How'd you ever come to let her get away from you?"

"Led her gat avay! I can't gat avay from herd I married her." 

To keep the record straight, he was only kidding about "gatting"away. They have a five-year-old son, Michael, and constitute quitethe happy family in which Miss Goodell is only too glad to remain in the background as wife and mother.

This Apollon is quite a character. He started as an entertainer when he was a kid of seven in Russia. He fought in the first world war but got out of the country when the revolution broke. He went to Shanghai, then to Manila, where he landed with 40 cents in his pocket and a vacancy under his belt. He got up an act with a couple of girl dancers and played around Manila while waiting for a permit to enter the United States. Before this came he went to Hong Kong and finally back to Russia.

Staked To Carfare

 But eventually he arrived in San Francisco, was staked by a friend to carfare to New York. He starved here in genteel fashion for a while and then attracted attention as a member of a continental type revue that a bunch of Russians put on at the Belmont theater. He was soon in vaudeville with his big act and it's been happy hunting ever since.

Apollon at one time carried a $100,000 insurance policy against losing his accent. He paid out premiums for quite a while before he got hep to the fact that he couldn't lose his accent if the company paid him a hundred grand to do it.

New York Post, Saturday, November 16, 1946

The Variety Stage

Doesn't Want His Son Bald—Mugging's Good for the Face

Let's tour the vaudeville theatres, backstage:

"My son's studying piano," says Dave Apollon, at Loew's State. "But I don't want him to be a musician and then some day get fired because he's bald. I'd rather he be his own boss . . . Did you get my new Manor album. "Modern Gypsy Melodies" featuring my mandolin solos?. . .Mandolin playing is rare in this country, because there are no mandolin teachers. Some day I'll open a mandolin school . .
My two Filipinos have been with me for 20 years. They speak fine English, maybe with a bit of Russian accent, like me . . ."

New York Post, Saturday, October 5, 1946

Dave Apollon just cut his first record with a large musical group, for Manor Records. He confesses he "practiced 8 hours a day in the bathroom, for 30 days, just for that record."

BROOKLYN EAGLE, THURSDAY, OCT. 10, 1946

Dave Apollon, Russian mandolin virtuoso, 'will present a "Gypsy Festival," an entertainment of gypsy orchestral and choral music and dancing, at'Carnegie Hall this season.

BROOKLYN EAGLE, FRI., APRIL 4, 1947

COTILLION ROOM . . . In Dave Apollon, supported by two beautiful blondes, the Pierre has a star who matches the suave elegance of the dinner - and - supper- club. The girls are Lois Bannerman, harpist, and Laverne Gustafson, pianst.

New York Post, Tuesday December 30, 1947

Few People "top" Milton Berle

At a party at Stanley Garfinkel's. Berle was demonstrating his great meory to Dave Apollon-recalling all the acts that they played in a vaudeville show with them long ago in Denver.

"Weber & Fields headlined," Berle said. The Russian Apollon said "Veber & Fields? Dat I don't remember."

"Hugo Steinbeck's piano act," Berle said. Apollon said again "Dat I don't remember." Berle went on and each time Apollon said "Dat I don't remember."

"And then there was me." Berle said, "and I was lousy." "Dat," said Apollon,  "I remember!"

Schectady Gazette, Tuesday, March 14, 1950

TOPS IN TOWN: The new mysstery novel. "House Without a Door" . . . Steak Kew at Freeman Chum's . . . Dave Apollon's version of "The Third Man Theme" on a National disc . . . Toy and Wing's terpsichore at the China Doll . . . Pearl Bailey at the Greenwich Village Inn . . . Robert Montgomery's TV theater . . . Jerry Wayne's new Columbia platter, "Don't Say Goodbye." . . . Louis Prime's, trumpetnoise uptown at the Apollo.

* * *

Dave Apollon, the mandolin virtuoso who has had a fabulous career in this country and abroad as the most eminent mandolin expert of our time, will open a special four-week engagement at La Vie En Rose, chic supper-club at 123 East 54 Street, tonight, September 9

* * *

LOCKPORT. N. Y.. UNION SUN & JOURNAL. MONDAY. MAY 11. 1953

Dave Apollon Heads New Bill

STANDARD ACTS REPLACE KAYE AT THE PALACE

By Mark Barron

NEW YORK—After the "standing room only" fourteen straight weeks that Danny Kays has recently been playing at the Palace, the "critical chorus" assembled for the traditional Monday matinees opening of a new bill when Kaye had gone on his way. 

No Danny Kaye, no Judy Garland, no other big-name star was to appear this time in the royal command theater of the reviving vaudeville circuit. It was to be again, for the summer, a program of standard vaudeville acts.

Much to many people's surprise including myself, the first Monday matinee was a sell-wit and most everyone seemed to be having a good time. It seemed like the good old days of the 1920's before the then Palace headliners started hurrying to Hollywood talkies. Later many of those same stars came flying back east with the coming up of television and, more recently, they have been swinging west again for 3-D pictures.

In contrast to the Danny Kaye and Judy Garland one-star programs, the new bill is eight standard acts to be presented four times a day.

The new bill is headed by Dave Apollon, that mandolin expert with a pianist and guitarist. Apollon, like one or two other acts on this bill, had played at the Palace in previous years when a booking there was considered the highest honor a performer could win in any branch of show business.

Another act on the new bill is Buster Shaver and Olive, the latter being a tiny, good looking lady not more than three feet in height who has an excellent singing voice. I first heard this duo at the Palace about 20 years ago and they do not appear to have aged a year.

The general format of vaudeville hasn't changed in the years in which it has been more or less in oblivion. On this bill there are three acrobatic acts, one magician act and one animal act. Also there is a complete lack of anything suggestive of sex, improper armour or otherwise in any of the acts.

Frank Ross, a man who has a voice which can imitate hauntingly any musical instrument in a band and who also is a hilarious pantominist, cames nearest to that. His partner is Anita La Pierre, a nice looking, well stacked blonde who sings with a French accent.

While she is singing, Rosa goes into his pantomime which not only practically (ln your mind) undresses her from the beautiful gown she is wearing, but also dismembers her. His pantomime indicates that she is wearing a wig, has had her face lifted and has a wooden leg.

What gave this return of the palace to standard vaudeville an authentic flavor was the number of actors and agents standing at the back of the orchestra seats "Just to catch and act or two" before going about their business. And when I walked up to the door I was fumbling in my pocket for my pass. The ticket taker looked at me and asked: "Professional?" I nodded and he waved me in without a ticket.

Yes; the flavor of the "good old days" at the Palace seem to be back again.

THE LEADER - HERALD, GLOVERSVILLE - JOHNSTOWN, N. Y.

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1971

Remember vaudeville's Dave Apollon? You're old, too: Anyway Dave's had many months of physical agonies, but he's recuperating nicely. Dave's act was a musical Laugh-In: a thick-accented Russian, Dave led a large band of marvelously impertinent Filipinos.