Jimmy Conlin

JIMMY CONLIN was born James Patrick Conlin in Camden, New Jersey on October 14, 1884. He was one of nine children born to William Conlin and his wife, the former Catherine “Kate” Manning. His father was a shoemaker. The Conlins had come to Camden in the 1870s. Son Charles was born in Camden in January of 1876. The 1878 City Directory shows the Conlins at 233 Taylor Avenue. When Jimmy Conlin was born the family lived at 211 Taylor Avenue. His father had opened a shoe factory at 104 South 2nd Street. The Conlins moved to 521 Taylor Street shortly before the 1890 Camden City Directory was compiled, and remained there into 1895, when they moved to 836 Federal Street, where they stayed as late as 1897. In that year his father and brother John J. Conlin moved the business, now called William Conlin & Son, to 238–240 Liberty Street. William Conlin and family moved to 222 South 5th Street, then returned to the 800 block of Federal Street, where they are listed in the 1898, 1899 and 1900 City Directories at 822 Federal.

The Conlin family had been fairly well off. Young Jimmy was given piano lessons and, as his father wanted him to be a concert pianist, was studying at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. As Conlin himself related in an interview late in life, when the business failed, the lessons stopped. Jimmy Conlin’s next step was to seek out a career in show business.

The 1900 Census shows Jimmy Conlin and his family at 822 Federal Street in Camden. Six of the nine Conlin children were still alive, and four of them were living at that address. The family included his parents, older brothers Daniel and Charles, widowed sister Mrs. Margaret [Mary] Mullane and her son Leo, and a thirteen-year-old cousin, Catharine Manning. Older brothers John J. Conlin and Frank had wed and moved out on their own in the 1890s; they moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the 1900s and went into the shoe manufacturing business. 1903 and 1904 Directories show William and Kate Conlin at 43 North 21st Street in East Camden. By 1910 William Conlin had passed away and Kate Conlin had moved, along with son Daniel and grandson Leo Mullane, to Lancaster, where they lived with daughter Margaret, her husband Paul Steiner and their two sons. Kate Conlin died during the 1910s.

After learning his craft playing in traveling medicine shows, Jimmy Conlin graduated to better things. From the late 1900s through the 1930s he worked in vaudeville on the Keith-Albee and Orpheum circuits (Keith-Albee-Orpheum after 1927, Radio-Keith-Orpheum after 1928). In 1907 he married Lillian G. Steel, a fellow performer, and the two performed together for several years. When not on the road the young couple lived at 2026 South 7th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her parents, Josiah and Nellie Steel. The Conlins had two children, daughter Kathleen Grace and son James P. Conlin Jr., born July 25, 1908. Sadly, James Jr. died of “cholera infantum” brought on by Teething two days short of his first birthday. Funeral arrangements were handled by Camden undertaker Martin J. O’Brien and the young lad was most likely buried at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in East Camden. The 1910 Census shows them living with his wife’s parents, at 5545 Pemberton Street in Philadelphia.

From 1907 into 1910, Jimmy and Lillian, billed as “Conlin and Steele,” are known to have appeared at the old Broadway Theatre in Camden, on vaudeville stages in Philadelphia, central and eastern Pennsylvania, Trenton, and several cities in northern New Jersey, and may have worked farther afield. By the end of 1910 they had brought Eddie Carr into the act.

In the latter part of 1911, Jimmy Conlin and Lillian Steele toured the Western states with their partner Eddie Carr. Billed as Conlin, Steele and Carr, they appeared in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco in September, and in Salt Lake City and Denver in November.

Daughter Kathleen, who traveled with her parents as they played at theaters across the country, died in Kansas in 1915. The Conlins separated, and in 1916 Jimmy Conlin began working with Chicago-born singer Myrtle Glass. Lillian Steele was granted a divorce in Philadelphia in March of 1917.

Jimmy Conlin married Myrtle Glass shortly thereafter. Jimmy Conlin and his second wife continued to play the Keith-Albee and Orpheum circuits, billed as “Conlin & Glass,” a song and dance team. By the summer of 1928 they were making their home, while not on tour, on Long Island in the town of Freeport, New York. They appeared in Australia and most likely also in New Zealand in October of 1928, returning to the United States aboard the S.S. Sonoma, arriving in San Francisco on November 15, 1928. They also starred together in two short films, Sharps and Flats (1928) and Zip! Boom! Bang! (1929) for Vitaphone. Conlin made another comedy short without Glass in 1930 (A Tight Squeeze). Jimmy and Myrtle Conlin appeared in Europe in the winter of 1931, returning aboard the ocean liner S.S. Ile de France, arriving in New York on February 24th of that year.

Happily enough, Conlin’s first film has been restored as part of The Vitaphone Project. Two clips from Sharps and Flats are, as of May 2017, available for viewing on Youtube, and a quite interesting review of the film, The Forgotten Sharps and Flats, was written in 2014.

Scrawny, unprepossessing, and rustic-looking, the versatile comedian decided there must be some director who could use his gifts and he became a character actor. Mostly uncredited bit parts awaited him but occasionally there was a larger payday thanks to an occasional featured role.

His film career started for good in 1933, and for the next 27 years, with the single exception of 1951, every year saw the release of at least one film in which Conlin appeared — at the height of his career, often more than a dozen of them. Instantly recognizable by his small size and odd appearance, Conlin played all sorts of small roles, so many of them that while his name may not have been known to movie-goers of the day, his face certainly was.

For 30 years, from 1928 to 1959, Jimmy Conlin was cast as an actor for 150 projects for movies and television. He worked with many of the leading stars of his era.

In 1940 he appeared with Mae West and W.C. Fields as Squawk Mulligan, bartender, in “My Little Chickadee.” He played another bartender, Charley, 14 years later in the cozy Irish neighborhood saloon setting of “Duffy’s Tavern,” a TV series.

In the 1940s, Conlin was part of Preston Sturges’ unofficial “stock company” of character actors, appearing in nine films written and directed by Sturges. His roles in Sturges’ films were often sizable and often came with good billing. One of his best performances came in Sturges’ The Sin of Harold Diddlebock in 1946, when he played “Wormy,” the racetrack tout who convinces Harold Lloyd to have his first drink, setting off the events of the film. The loyalty between Sturges and Conlin ran both ways, and when the former golden boy of Hollywood fell on hard times, Conlin remained a friend, stayed in contact, and helped out in any way he could.

Jimmy and Myrtle Conlin were living full-time in Los Angeles by 1935. The 1940 Census shows them living at 16150 Camarillo Street in Encino, California. Myrtle Glass Conlin passed away in Los Angeles on May 13, 1945. Jimmy Conlin remained at that address into 1952.

Besides his work in movies, Jimmy Conlin continued to perform live on stage. In 1928 Jimmy Conlin and Myrtle Glass were working in Seattle when Myrtle took ill and was unable to go on stage. Also in Seattle that night was Dorothy Ryan of the sister act, Dorothy and Rosetta Ryan. Dorothy went on stage for Myrtle that night, and after her death, Jimmy Conlin revived his vaudeville act with Dorothy Ryan as his new partner. They were married in 1948. The couple appeared in small and medium-sized venues across the West and Midwest as late as June of 1960, when they played the King’s Club in Dallas, Texas. Jimmy Conlin also found work in the new medium, television. As stated above, he had a regular role as bartender in the show Duffy’s Tavern.

Jimmy Conlin was 75 years old when he bid farewell to the small screen with a fascinating guest-starring role on the series “Philip Marlowe,” an episode called “Mother Dear” (released in December 1959). Also guest-starring in “Mother Dear” on this popular TV detective show based on the writing of Raymond Chandler was actor Franco Corsaro, who also had worked with Mae West, as the Italian officer in scenes for 1935’s “Goin’ to Town.” Corsaro had also completed taping the “Around the World With Nellie Bly,” an original musical comedy that aired on the NBC television network on January 3, 1960. The show, which starred Janet Blair in the title role and Cornel Wilde, is especially interesting in that no less than 21 veteran character actors and actresses, each with over 100 screen credits, were cast in the many vignettes that comprised the show.

In his final film role Jimmy Conlin played a habitual criminal in the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder, with James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, and George C. Scott, among others.

Cancer claimed Jimmy Conlin. He died in Encino, California on Monday, May 7, 1962. He was 77. Survived by his wife Dorothy, he was buried at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles County, California.

Jimmy Conlin’s film and television credits from IMDB.com. Note: does not include Sharps and Flats (1928) or his and many others’ appearances in the 1960 television production of Around the World With Nellie Bly.