Vincent James Silk
Birth: 13 May 1902, San Francisco, CA
Death: 28 Mar 1992, San Francisco, CA
Spouse: Charlotte A Ade
Birth: 14 Sep 1908, Jasper, Missouri
Marriage: 5 May 1972, San Francisco, California
Death: 21 Dec 1980, San Francisco, California
Vincent James Silk was born on May 13, 1902. He was a rambunctious and active child whose grandmother referred to as “full of the Divil.” Vince was an extremely talented musician and singer. According to a Chronicle article in 1941, he got his start “in the old Tent Theatre which was erected at Mission and 24th Streets, just after the Earthquake and Fire of 1906.” As a child of eight, he sang in Father Finn’s Paulist Choir and became know as the “Boy Soprano of the Mission.” The Paulist Choir toured around the country with the famous Irish tenor John McCormack. Child acts were very common in Vaudeville at the time, especially boy singers who could tug at the heartstrings of the female audience members. He also became an excellent drummer and played on the Barbary Coast in such places as the Hippodrome, Garibaldi Hall, and Mike’s Pool Hall.”
When not working, Vince went to school at St. James’ grammar and high schools. He continued working in theatre and was a stock player at the Alcazar Theatre on O’Farrell Street (before it moved to 650 Geary Street) where, in 1916, he was onstage with William Boyd and Anthony Smythe. After graduating in 1920, he went on the Chautauqua Circuit full time. The Chautauqua was a highly popular adult education movement that usually toured during the summer. The first Chautauqua assembly was held in 1874 near Lake Chautauqua, New York, and the circuit expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. A Chautauqua Assembly brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day. Former President Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America."
In 1924, Vince joined a five-piece jazz band as the drummer and they entered the Keith Albee Vaudeville Circuit. The Keith-Albee-Orpheum was one of the largest vaudeville chains of the twentieth century and owned theatres all around the country. Keith-Albee-Orpheum later became RKO Pictures and was a cornerstone of RCA radio. They traveled from San Francisco to New York and from Sante Fe to Portland (both Oregon and Maine). In Detroit, he switched to serve as Master of Ceremonies for the show. He eventually played the Palace in New York City, the Monte Marte in Paris, and headlined for four weeks in London. According to an article on May 6, 1933, in the Oregonian, his “forte is hilarious comedy with vocal interpretations.” He developed a comic character named Professor Sourpuss McGoogle, a satire of radio quiz shows. The character was a long-running success and Vince later brought him to both radio and television. From 1934 to 1939, he headed the shows at the Embassy Club in San Francisco.
Vince, like his father, was a union man and he was active in the actors’ guilds. He was in SAG (the Screen Actors’ Guild), the Extras Guild, and the American Guild of Variety Artists. He served as Executive Secretary of the San Francisco local of the AGVA and, in 1941, was elevated to the post of West Coast Rep of the organization. He spearheaded the opening of a Seattle branch of the Guild. He continued to work state fairs and elsewhere into the late 1950s.
The coming of World War II brought an interruption in his career. Vince enlisted in the US Army and was stationed at McClellan Airfield in Sacramento. While there, he served in the Military Police and as part of the field fire department. After the war ended, he headed the government investigation into theft of surplus materials in the US and Mexico. It led to the recovery of over $1 million in property.
After the War, Vince went back on the road, but Vaudeville was dying. His experiences in the Army, especially the theft investigations, gave him a new career opportunity. He became a private investigator for the famous San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli. Known as the “King of Tortes” for his many personal injury cases, Belli had constant need to an experienced investigator and this gave Vince a steady income. Later, Vince would switch firms and work for Hoberg and Finger. During this period, he was living at 555 Post Street (over his offices), a block and a half from Union Square. After 10 years in personal injury investigations, Vince moved into the public sector and worked as an investigator for the City Hall Assessor’s Office. He retired in 1967 at the age of 65. In 1972, at the age of 70, Vince married his long-time friend, Charlotte Ade.
Charlotte was born on September 14, 1908, in Jasper Missouri. Her father’s name is unknown, but mother was Ola (or Olga) G. Rusk, an insurance agent. The 1910 Census shows them living with Olga parents and sister in Jasper. Olga was listed as married, but the husband was not present. In 1920, Charlotte was living with her grandparents, but her mother had moved to Jasper for work. By 1930, Olga and her mother were living in Evanston, Illinois, and they were both widowed, but Charlotte was not with them. She was on the road already.
Charlotte was a longtime friend from Vince’s vaudeville days. She had been a dance—a member of the Chicago Civic Opera, the New York Metropolitan Ballet, and the Okransky Troop Ballet. She had known Vince while they both worked the Keith-Orpheum Circuit. According to her friend Verna Warner, their oldest friend, Charlotte had waited all her life for Vince to ask her to marry him. But Vince did not believe in vaudeville marriages because he had seen too many of them collapse. Verna and Harry Warner’s 40+ year marriage was one of the few that lasted. It is unknown why he finally decided to take the plunge, but they did and were very happy together.
In 1971, Charlotte moved to San Francisco and they married the next year. They moved into her apartment at 1551 – 9th Avenue, in the Inner Sunset, though Vincent kept his office and apartment on Post Street. The 1974 Polk Directory listed Vince and Charlotte as students. Vince was always curious and inquisitive. He had a sharp mind and it was always going a mile a minute. He always knew who was doing what. It was no surprise to anyone who knew him that, late in life, he went back to school at SF State, nor that he was in the theatre department.
Death: 28 Mar 1992, San Francisco, CA
Spouse: Charlotte A Ade
Birth: 14 Sep 1908, Jasper, Missouri
Marriage: 5 May 1972, San Francisco, California
Death: 21 Dec 1980, San Francisco, California
Vincent James Silk was born on May 13, 1902. He was a rambunctious and active child whose grandmother referred to as “full of the Divil.” Vince was an extremely talented musician and singer. According to a Chronicle article in 1941, he got his start “in the old Tent Theatre which was erected at Mission and 24th Streets, just after the Earthquake and Fire of 1906.” As a child of eight, he sang in Father Finn’s Paulist Choir and became know as the “Boy Soprano of the Mission.” The Paulist Choir toured around the country with the famous Irish tenor John McCormack. Child acts were very common in Vaudeville at the time, especially boy singers who could tug at the heartstrings of the female audience members. He also became an excellent drummer and played on the Barbary Coast in such places as the Hippodrome, Garibaldi Hall, and Mike’s Pool Hall.”
When not working, Vince went to school at St. James’ grammar and high schools. He continued working in theatre and was a stock player at the Alcazar Theatre on O’Farrell Street (before it moved to 650 Geary Street) where, in 1916, he was onstage with William Boyd and Anthony Smythe. After graduating in 1920, he went on the Chautauqua Circuit full time. The Chautauqua was a highly popular adult education movement that usually toured during the summer. The first Chautauqua assembly was held in 1874 near Lake Chautauqua, New York, and the circuit expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. A Chautauqua Assembly brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day. Former President Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America."
In 1924, Vince joined a five-piece jazz band as the drummer and they entered the Keith Albee Vaudeville Circuit. The Keith-Albee-Orpheum was one of the largest vaudeville chains of the twentieth century and owned theatres all around the country. Keith-Albee-Orpheum later became RKO Pictures and was a cornerstone of RCA radio. They traveled from San Francisco to New York and from Sante Fe to Portland (both Oregon and Maine). In Detroit, he switched to serve as Master of Ceremonies for the show. He eventually played the Palace in New York City, the Monte Marte in Paris, and headlined for four weeks in London. According to an article on May 6, 1933, in the Oregonian, his “forte is hilarious comedy with vocal interpretations.” He developed a comic character named Professor Sourpuss McGoogle, a satire of radio quiz shows. The character was a long-running success and Vince later brought him to both radio and television. From 1934 to 1939, he headed the shows at the Embassy Club in San Francisco.
Vince, like his father, was a union man and he was active in the actors’ guilds. He was in SAG (the Screen Actors’ Guild), the Extras Guild, and the American Guild of Variety Artists. He served as Executive Secretary of the San Francisco local of the AGVA and, in 1941, was elevated to the post of West Coast Rep of the organization. He spearheaded the opening of a Seattle branch of the Guild. He continued to work state fairs and elsewhere into the late 1950s.
The coming of World War II brought an interruption in his career. Vince enlisted in the US Army and was stationed at McClellan Airfield in Sacramento. While there, he served in the Military Police and as part of the field fire department. After the war ended, he headed the government investigation into theft of surplus materials in the US and Mexico. It led to the recovery of over $1 million in property.
After the War, Vince went back on the road, but Vaudeville was dying. His experiences in the Army, especially the theft investigations, gave him a new career opportunity. He became a private investigator for the famous San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli. Known as the “King of Tortes” for his many personal injury cases, Belli had constant need to an experienced investigator and this gave Vince a steady income. Later, Vince would switch firms and work for Hoberg and Finger. During this period, he was living at 555 Post Street (over his offices), a block and a half from Union Square. After 10 years in personal injury investigations, Vince moved into the public sector and worked as an investigator for the City Hall Assessor’s Office. He retired in 1967 at the age of 65. In 1972, at the age of 70, Vince married his long-time friend, Charlotte Ade.
Charlotte was born on September 14, 1908, in Jasper Missouri. Her father’s name is unknown, but mother was Ola (or Olga) G. Rusk, an insurance agent. The 1910 Census shows them living with Olga parents and sister in Jasper. Olga was listed as married, but the husband was not present. In 1920, Charlotte was living with her grandparents, but her mother had moved to Jasper for work. By 1930, Olga and her mother were living in Evanston, Illinois, and they were both widowed, but Charlotte was not with them. She was on the road already.
Charlotte was a longtime friend from Vince’s vaudeville days. She had been a dance—a member of the Chicago Civic Opera, the New York Metropolitan Ballet, and the Okransky Troop Ballet. She had known Vince while they both worked the Keith-Orpheum Circuit. According to her friend Verna Warner, their oldest friend, Charlotte had waited all her life for Vince to ask her to marry him. But Vince did not believe in vaudeville marriages because he had seen too many of them collapse. Verna and Harry Warner’s 40+ year marriage was one of the few that lasted. It is unknown why he finally decided to take the plunge, but they did and were very happy together.
In 1971, Charlotte moved to San Francisco and they married the next year. They moved into her apartment at 1551 – 9th Avenue, in the Inner Sunset, though Vincent kept his office and apartment on Post Street. The 1974 Polk Directory listed Vince and Charlotte as students. Vince was always curious and inquisitive. He had a sharp mind and it was always going a mile a minute. He always knew who was doing what. It was no surprise to anyone who knew him that, late in life, he went back to school at SF State, nor that he was in the theatre department.
After only nine years of marriage, Charlotte became ill and died on December 21, 1980, in San Francisco. She was 72 years old. The cause of death was pernicious anemia. Verna Warner believed that Charlotte had developed the disease by always dieting to stay thin for dance. Verna and Harry Warner were among the “good friends” listed in Charlotte’s obituary, as was Vince’s cousin Hazel Coogan Bradford. After a private service at AJ Sullivan & Co, Charlotte was entombed in the Holy Cross Mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery near Vince’s brother Charles.
Vincent was grief-stricken, but he slowly recovered. After a time, he was back to his jovial and inquisitive self. He outlived Charlotte by a dozen years. On March 28, 1992, Vince passed away. He was almost 90 years old. After a rosary and requiem mass, Vince was entombed in the Holy Cross Mausoleum with his wife, parents, brother, and sister-in-law. (One of the last vaults sold in the Mausoleum, it is as far away from the entrance and as high as possible.) Besides the theatrical guilds, Vince was a member of the Press Club, the San Francisco Peace Officers Association, and the Knights of Columbus.
The family remembered Vincent as a funny and very dapper gentleman. He had movie-star good looks and a hilarious double-take that always made people laugh. He was an easy-going relaxed individual. In his eighties, he was invited to Joanne’s mother’s birthday at Memorial Park in Pescadero. He had never been there, so he followed Joanne in his big Cadillac. Afterwards, as it was getting dark, Joanne’s mother Edith and brother Douglas ended up in his car. The light was fading and Vince lost sight of Joanne’s car and made a wrong turn, heading south on HWY 1. He got pulled over by the highway patrol and Douglas was told to drive home. They were an hour-and-a-half late and Edith was furious with Joanne for losing them. Vince was nonchalant about it. He said that if the police had not pulled them over, they would have just gone to LA. Like the rest of Vincent’s life, it just would have been an adventure.
The family remembered Vincent as a funny and very dapper gentleman. He had movie-star good looks and a hilarious double-take that always made people laugh. He was an easy-going relaxed individual. In his eighties, he was invited to Joanne’s mother’s birthday at Memorial Park in Pescadero. He had never been there, so he followed Joanne in his big Cadillac. Afterwards, as it was getting dark, Joanne’s mother Edith and brother Douglas ended up in his car. The light was fading and Vince lost sight of Joanne’s car and made a wrong turn, heading south on HWY 1. He got pulled over by the highway patrol and Douglas was told to drive home. They were an hour-and-a-half late and Edith was furious with Joanne for losing them. Vince was nonchalant about it. He said that if the police had not pulled them over, they would have just gone to LA. Like the rest of Vincent’s life, it just would have been an adventure.