Frank Moore: A Boob from Burlesque

There would well have been more to tell about Frank Moore (1880-1924) had he lived longer but he did manage to make a minor mark in show business all the same. The older brother of actress Florence Moore, he started out in a vaudeville and burlesque duo with James C. Morton, culminating in their appearances together in the Broadway show The Merry Whirl (1910) and L. Frank Baum’s show The Tik Tok Man of Oz (1913). This led to Moore’s casting in Baum’s three self-produced silent Oz films: The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914), The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914): His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914), as well as Baum’s The Last Egyptian (1914). Moore went on to star in his own series of independent comedy shorts in 1914 and 1915, sometimes billed as “Frank” and sometimes as “The Boob”. His last screen role was in Olga Petrova’sThe Soul of a Magdalen (1917).

To learn more about vaudeville, please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and for more on silent era film please read Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.