Grandpa Otto Worked the Burlesque!

Here’s 5 photos of the theater at the link. It was beautiful! Theres a photo from 1919 showing the coming attractions at the front door. Grandpa Otto must have walked right by this every evening when he came to blow his horn!

Here’s Grandpa Otto when he played for the legitimate theater in 1920.

Blow, Grandpa, blow! Blow your horn!

I just learned Grandpa Otto’s mother’s name, Sophie Marie Friedrike. No last name yet. From Prussia!

I enjoyed your options in the poll OP. Will there be a moose?

OP, my mother's father abandoned her after her mother (his wife) died. I'm sure it had something to do with my mother's big Irish Catholic NYC family wanting to raise her but he never came back into her life in any way and died when she was a teenager.

I also found his (my grandfather's) full name on the WWI registry. New York City and New York State have fabulous online ancestry and historical resources. Now the Census data and actual documents are online - I've reviewed 1910, 1920, 1930 for New York City and now I can't remember if 1940 is online or not. It has lead me to my grandparent's marriage license info, my grandmother's death certificate information (she died when my mother was 9 days old). I also recently found that FindAGrave - which used to be about celebrity graves - now has incredible detailed ancestry information allowing me to discover my grandfather's entire family including his parents and his siblings and even his first wife, the mother of my mother's 2 half-sisters. They even list obituaries and newspaper clippings.

OP, great story. I learned a very long time ago from my mother that one of her Irish uncles through marriage ran bootleg liquor with Owney Madden.

I like the goodest dog.

Can he do dishes?

Your Grandpa Otto wasn't the one who worked with the burlesque lady with fake paraffin tits was he?

I seem to recall someone's relative having to massage them thoroughly to heat them up - then the dancer would weld them into shape before she went on stage...

Early tit jobs, aye?

Next week: at the Second Battle of the Marne, Otto finds himself shooting at his brother, Christian, deployed with the Hun.

R4, I’m still negotiating with the William Morris Agency of Beverly Hills for a Moose appearance. We’ll see!

Interesting, R5! Yes, 1940 is online. I find it fun to try to learn about the details of their lives. What they did, and why they did it. Such as: After Otto died, my Grandmother had to put her three kids in an orphanage. They were really poor.

R6, Otto is my grandfather, not my dog. Thank you.

R7, that story was not passed down to me, but the Internet holds many secrets. More will be revealed!

I was kidding in R8 about Otto firing on his brother Christian in WWI. Otto never served in WWI. It was ironic, though, since he arrived not too much earlier from Germany, then gets a draft card to go fight them!

Oh, Gram’s first two kids were not Otto’s. We don’t know who the father was. And we have no record of my grandparents actually marrying, either.

Woe!

What was grandma’s name?

Based on your information I found a musician named Otto Beckendorf who died 22 January 1927. Is this him?

Death record says he is son of Karl Beckendorf and Freida Schultz, which may be a variation of Frederike.

This guy is buried in Calvary Cemetery.

God, you're an old frau.

Damn, R12, you are GOOD! Thank you!

I have a note from my Mom from 1985 where she wrote someone saying she thought her grandmother’s last name “might be Schultz”, so it seems that you are correct. And his father’s name was listed in Otto’s WWI draft card as “Charles”, which is an English form of Karl, I think.

R12, please tell me how you found this info! Thanks!

Yes, R13, I am old, in DataLounge terms. I take exception to the Frau comment, though. Genealogy is history, family, soap-opera, art, and money, all lumped together.

OP — R12 here. I can’t reveal my sources. Just kidding. I have access to NYC death certificates — all the information comes from that record. You can order a copy from the NYC Archives if you want the original. It also states that his wife was Mary. And, yes, Karl is indeed a German variation of Charles.

I’ll see if I can find his marriage record for you when I have the chance.

Did he know Miss Mazeppa?

R16, yes, please! If you found a marriage certificates I would be surprised, but thrilled. I think I will order the death certificate.

My sister just sent me a huge pack of papers she got from my Gram’s estate after she died. I’ll look there first, for the death certificate. I think I saw it once, but haven’t seen it since 1996, if ever. I recall seeing Gram got a $600 death benefit which she used to buy a for coat. I suppose it was an investment in the 2nd husband-seeking business.

Thanks, R17, but I do not think Grandpa Otto knew Miss Mazeppa, but I am still at the beginning of my research. I am afraid it was something more like at the link, starting at 1:15 when Joel Grey introduces the band.

In a later Cabaret scene, there is the poor boy who is courting the “very rich jew”-ish girl. They are having tea, and he becomes self-conscious of his frayed cuffs. He casually hides the cuffs by pulling them into his jacket sleeve. I’m now imaging Grandpa Otto doing that. (I can’t find that scene on YouTube.)

Well, now I am shocked. Grandpa Otto had a secret family in Germany, just as my mother suspected. He left his wife and daughter there. He left during WWI, almost a year after it started. Perhaps it was to avoid the German draft? Of all my genealogy research, this is the only one that shakes me. Maybe because my late mother was so interested in learning about her father and knew almost nothing about him.

Below is a map of the war at the time Otto left for the US.

Oh, Otto!

I don’t know why Grandpa Otto left Germany as things were better under the Kaiser, I hear.

[R12] here again ... I saw the same record that mentioned his wife Martha in Germany. Also found his christening record and the marriage record to Martha on ancestry.com — do you have that?

I found no record of his marriage once in nyc. But if he had a wife back home maybe he never legally married Mary.

OP/Gunther, please tell us that your Grandpa Otto provided some of the talent at the 1925 Western Electric Co. Christmas party! A French horn is so essential for a proper carol concert.

[quote] R22: ...do you have that?

Sort of. I’ve seen the summary, I have to join the international version of Ancestry to see the details, which I will do soon.

R22, Do you have the International Ancestry membership? Do you like it?

I’m afraid my Mom was a bastarderis and her parents were never married. Or, Grandpa Otto was a bigamist. Thank God Mom’s dead.

Gram got a death benefit. I wonder if they were more lax then, and she didn’t need to show a marriage license?

I have thought that Gram’s first two kids were fathered by a man named Roberts. But now I’m wondering if his eldest daughter might actually be his and Martha’s, brought from Germany. That would be a twist! I hope to have the basics to share with siblings at Easter.

Thanks for your info and tips! You’re a good egg!

[quote] R23: OP/Gunther, please tell us that your Grandpa Otto provided some of the talent at the 1925 Western Electric Co. Christmas party! A French horn is so essential for a proper carol concert.

This is not in my family lore; however, I like the story so much, I may adopt it anyway.

R4, There will apparently [italic] not [/italic] be a moose in this thread. Artistic differences, going in a different direction, yadda yadda. Actually, the CM’s agent drives a very hard bargain. But it explains all his bitcoins.

OP are you still with us?

Because you must be really fucking old.

Just checking in.

How would one go about finding the ancestry of a pig named Carl? His last name and current whereabouts are unknown. He is a reluctant pirate, and an entertainer at the Folies in Paris every Christmas.

Thank you.

The theater chain is spelled Loew's, named for founder, Marcus Loew. Correctly pronounced, Lo, but locals always called it Lo-weez.

[quote]It was supposed to be for the legitimate theater, but times were hard, and it fell as low as Burlesque.

Dear God!

The photo at [R2] is identified as the Rhode Island Symphony Orchestra. How does this jive with Otto living and working in NYC at the time ?

R27, I am still alive. Thanks for checking in. I do get a kick out of this quirk in time.

Grandpa Otto was 19 years older than Gram.

Mom had me late in life, at age 37. Youngest of 7.

So, I may seem “fucking old”, and am merely old.

[quote] R28: How would one go about finding the ancestry of a pig named Carl? His last name and current whereabouts are unknown. He is a reluctant pirate, and an entertainer at the Folies in Paris every Christmas.

Melrose, he’s in Vancouver. Check the Vancouver Mason lodge registration, I believe he’s a Shriner.

[quote] R31: The photo at [[R2]] is identified as the Rhode Island Symphony Orchestra. How does this jive with Otto living and working in NYC at the time ?

Very good question. The current RI Symphony is not related to this RI Symphony. I couldn’t find the Director, “I. Nagel” on the internet, either. So, I thought I’d track Grandpa Otto through the Musicians’ Union. No luck there, so far. I am guessing he worked the Burlesque in 1918 in NYC until he got fed up and got a better job, with a symphony, which happened to be in RI, [italic] about [/italic] 1920.

It’s amazing what is online these days. The search continues! Thanks for asking!

My Gram said that Grandpa Otto died by blowing his lungs out. I’m skeptical. Doesn't it look like he’s playing a string instrument? Maybe the base?

It's pronounced "burl-e-cue," OP.

What about that pesky “s”, R36.

I ordered Grandpa Otto’s death certificate, hoping to pass it around at Easter. Then I read it might take 8 months! Well, there’s always next Easter, haha.

R16, have you found anything interesting? Not that you are required to, just if you have.

This is the reason I come here. Thanks OP for a facinating thread.

Thanks, R39, I thought I might get a lot of hate here, actually, about this.

R16, did you see a cause of death? I don’t think Grandpa Otto really blew his lungs out, to death at only age 46.

FYI, Ancestry.com has a 30% discount for AARP members, for Ancestry’s world membership.

I just got Grandpa Otto’s death certificate in the mail. The only thing I can’t read, is what his last illness was. It looks like Leutie Aortitus....

Oh my GOD, it’s “Luetic aneurysms”, otherwise known as syphilis! Oh, I could cry. Thank God my mother’s dead, this would have killed her. Oh, Otto!

Tertiary syphilis. My Grandmother never seemed to have been affected, as far as I could tell.

I condole you, Gunther. But your grandfather had some fun in his time.

Thank you, R44. I keep thinking of the transvestite musicians in the movie “Cabaret”.

My father’s side of the family were all devout, boring, Anglo-Christian WASPs.

[quote] R29: The theater chain is spelled Loew's, named for founder, Marcus Loew. Correctly pronounced, Lo, but locals always called it Lo-weez.

As a weird coincidence, I learned at Easter that my family was friends with the Loews family. Not due to Otto, they apparently met decades after Otto died.

OP/Gunther,

I only just saw this thread because I wanted to let you know that you can find copies of the images of NYC death certificates through familysearch.org which is the LDS (Latter Day Saints / aka Mormons) site.

In Otto's case it would be in LDS Microfilm # 4157164 (Jan 20 -Feb 1 1927, certificate 2001-3000). However, to actually see the digital images, you have to access the microfilm directly at one of the LDS Family History Centers. I seem to remember that it is possible to download a copy of the certificate from their computer onto your USB drive. No charge.

Lots of records can be accessed from home, but there are restrictions on others per the contract with the owner of the records.

I hope you are using the resources at familysearch.org for your research as well. You must sign up for a log in, but it is free. There is some overlap with Ancestry, but there are also other records that are not on Ancestry.

You don't say where you live, but here is a link to a map of LDS Family History Centers as well as Public Libraries which act as Affiliates. Warning. To access the NYC Death records, you must go to a Family History Center. Affiliate Libraries will not allow you to see these images, but others might be viewable.

Familysearch.org has a huge selection of records from around the world.

Sounds like you have already found your family secret (most families have them) as well as your Black Sheep.

Good luck with your research.

Grandpa Otto!!!!!!

Thanks, R47!

[quote] My father’s side of the family were all devout, boring, Anglo-Christian WASPs.

Oh, I forgot my great uncle TR had a secret child that he left in Texas with his in laws after his wife died. I say “secret”, because the son in Texas was not mentioned in his father’s obit, where the other adult-children were listed.

I’m still stunned about Grandpa Otto. First, I learn that he left a wife and daughter in Germany, and he never married my Grandmother. Then, he was a musician at a Burlesque house. And now I find that he was treated for syphilis! What’s next, a stint in the Big House?

He had to have syphilis when my mother was conceived. Could she and my grandmother have been un-infected? Or would they have had to been treated for it?

Bump

Loew's

I was in Providence, RI on business, and visited Grandpa Otto’s mother-in-law’s grave. My Great-Grandmother, Rosina. She was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave in 1900, “gratis”, the record reads. The grave-keeper and I could only identify the general area.

I have a letter from 1935 where her son relates his search for her grave, and his subsequent orphanage after she died. My Great-Grandfather temporarily put all his kids in an orphanage after his wife died. His daughter, my Grandma Mary, also put her kids in an orphanage after Grandpa Otto died.

Fascinating!

This line of the family was extremely poor. Some of the kids went to the “RI Catholic Orphan Asylum, bettter known as St. Aloysius Asylum”; and some to the “St. Vincent de Paul Infant Asylum”, according to my Great Uncle Constuntino. The kids were there for a few years until their father, my Great-Grandfather, remarried. I can only think of the work house in Oliver!

[quote] R2: Blow, Grandpa, blow! Blow your horn!

I think this is hilarious. Even if I must say so myself, as it appears I must.

After WWII, people in Germany posted signs seeking lost loved ones, like New Yorkers did after 9-11, except with better handwriting, and in German, and by the millions.

I came upon this one in an old newsreel. Could this be Grandpa Otto’s mother, Friede Schulz? It’s weird that there’s another Günther out there, with his own Friede Schulz.

Somethin' wrong with STRIPPIN'?

Grandpa Otto’s German grandson was Erich, too.

No, no, R58, I have a great respect for your work ethic, especially at your age and all.

Thank you for a very fun--and fascinating!--thread, Gunther. I hope there will be more.

Thanks, R61! I hope to stalk, err, I mean find, my German Half-Brothers, or whatever they are called.

Read "Horrible Prettiness" by Robert Allen if you want to learn about the Burlesque scene. The bibliography might give you some ideas where to research your family further.

Thanks, R63!

OP, that's electrifying! And you're not even trying!

Thanks, R65. I never have to sweat, to get paid.

I don’t know if I mentioned this yet, but my step brother, or whatever he’d be called, Grandpa Otto’s German Grandson, fought in World War I. Isn’t that funky? He’s my peer. And It’s not like I’m Mr. Brontosaurus 🦕 or anything.

Thanks again, R12. I’m doing more research now. You inspired me!

I just learned that Grandpa Otto died in the “German Hospital” of NY, where Wikipedia estimates that 95% f the staff spoke German.

I don't know how to tell you this, OP, but Grandpa was one of the first stars of the NYC porn industry.