Vernon Hoff doesn't sound like a made-up stage name. He could've called himself something sexy like Tawny Hide, but instead he was Vernon Hoff. So we're looking for an actual Vernon Hoff who matches the basic age there. Not that I would really bother Vernon, were he still to be alive. Because I wouldn't.
The first ad I discovered on this list of graphics was the "WANT FEMALE IMPERSONATOR" ad for the Ring Cafe, which is from Billboard, 9-27-47, p. 42. I was thinking, Why do ads have to go out of date? I could print the page, take it to the Ring Cafe (assuming it might've existed this long), and say, "What's this all about? What kind of act are you looking for?"
Grandma's got some reasonably good clothes I could probably fit in. And she definitely has some things from the '40s, among her newer stuff. It's all a matter of whether I want to go as a scrub woman or a grange matron. But I can swing both ways.
A lot of Grandma's old clothes have grass stains from picking dandelion greens over the years. And of course the grandkids getting sick, urping after being fed. Anyway, I get there, and because I can't get the stains out of the clothes, I incorporate them into the act, which is of a hard working middle-aged gal, '30s-'40s vintage, recalling no one in particular, going about her daily routine of drudgery. It's sexy, in an esoteric, working class, 'we're all living in a two room house and still having five kids' kind of way. It worked for Grandpa!
The guy at the Ring Cafe says that was an ad printed by the grandfather of the former owner in 1947 and that they're not looking for anyone in that line of entertainment at this present time. But he offers to take my information and promises he'll get back to me if they are ever looking for someone.
Yeah, right! "We'll get back to you..." I've heard that before! But I need to eat today!
1 comment:
One 1949 Billboard story lists his home address as 850 Cuyahoga Street, Akron. The Akron City directories are on line. All that's listing in the '49 directory at that address is the Akron City Workhouse. 1950 adds "H J Perrodin, farm."
Last thing I spotted about him is that he was emceeing at the Pussycat Club in Los Angeles in 1966.
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