Introduction
Don Langford’s real name was Henry Sharp. He worked at the Stanley Theater in Camden as a master of ceremonies in the 1940s. He led the Paradise Trio and Don Langford and His 12 Musical Moments, a 12-piece orchestra. After marrying Doris Klinger, he left show business and moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, and later to Texas.
Vaudeville Angel Came to Him
About 1936, just before my 17th birthday, my buddy George Klindinst and I finished school, took on the names Don (me) and Milt Langford and went into show business as a comedy act.
The next year, my family moved to Camden, New Jersey, where I worked as a master of ceremonies, with the Paradise Trio and as Don Langford and His 12 Musical Moments (an orchestra of 12). One theater, the Stanley, had vaudeville, and I worked there for a few years.
At another vaudeville theater in town, the Camden, Doris Klinger got a position—no experience, just beautiful. I happened to stop in to see whether one of the girls, and I met Doris, who swept me off my feet. I made a date with her right then.
Doris’ father didn’t approve of show people or had a rule that his children be home by 11 p.m. I’d finish work at 10 p.m., pick up Doris after she finished at 10:30 and drive her home by 11.
After about a year of dating, we decided to get married.
Doris decided not to tell her father. On our wedding night and the next three nights, I had her home with her family by 11 p.m.
Doris decided that she didn’t want to be running all over the country working in show business.
My father had gotten a promotion at a paper mill in Reading, Pennsylvania and promised me a job there at higher wages than I was making (about $40 a week, room, board and transportation).
So, on that fourth day following our wedding, we were moving and Doris told her family everything. Her father cried at the table.
In our 40 years of marriage, I don’t think we had 40 serious disagreements; I don’t recall Doris ever speaking badly about anyone or using bad words. If not an angel, she was a member of their family.
—Henry Sharp, Pottsboro, Texas