Wednesday, February 29, 2012

One day the circus came to Yarmouth. Mary's brothers, Larry and Harry had to go see it being set up with all the trained animals. Larry had a gift with animals, and after helping out a little, it wasn't a stretch to offer to help when one of the dogs would not perform. Within minutes, the dog happily role-played with Larry, and Larry got paid--his first job as a trainer.
      Not long afterwards, he went to New York and worked in theatre for awhile. He got married to Marie Louisa Githens,an opera singer, had a child Janet in 1912, and got custody of her when they divorced.* Sometime around 1913 Vitagraph Films moved to California, and Larry moved with them.
     He invited Ronald and Mary to come on out West in 1918 when he was making a film in Canada. And they did.
Larry introduced the first dog to film, but it was his dog Jean who became the "Vitagraph Dog" the darling of American Film. This picture is of Jean and Larry in California.

*Memories by Lawrence Curtis Raynes

3 comments:

  1. You have some great personalized stories of your ancestors. I hope to find more stories about my own relatives.

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  2. You are lucky to have some great photos. They always tell a story without words. It was probably a great blessing for Larry to have a job doing something he enjoyed. Animal trainer and opera singer are unusual careers that I have never seen in my histories.

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  3. That is an awesome picture. Like Peggy said, you have great personal stories about your ancestors. It is a great asset to finding out more about the people you descend from!

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