Some Lore on Loring Smith

Loring Smith (1890-1981) was a veteran of vaudeville, Broadway, film and television, with a career spanning around 50 years.

A native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, Smith first took the stage in camp shows while serving in a tank unit in World War One. For a time he was stationed at Camp Upton, Long Island (inspiration for Irving Berlin’sYip, Yip Yaphank and the song “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning”) where he did a turn in a theatrical production that was seen by a booking agent, and this was his pathway to vaudeville. After some years as a solo, he teamed with Natalie Sawyer in a boy-girl act called Smith and Sawyer. The pair married and played the big time throughout the ’20s and into the ’30s.

Around 1940, Smith began to get cast as a character actor on Broadway and in the movies, normally playing politicians and military officers, and similar authority figures (Paul Ford types), often in comedies. Radio is listed among his credits in most of his biographies; this is likely how he filled his professional days between the death of vaudeville and breaking through to the legit.

His Broadway and other stage credits are the most significant. His 15 productions from 1940 through 1964 include the original productions of John Loves Mary (1947), Texas Li’l Darlin’ (1949, with Kenny Delmar), The Solid Gold Cadillac (1953), and The Matchmaker (1955 — he also later played in its musical adaptation Hello, Dolly in the West End with Mary Martin).

On television Smith was a regular on Martin Kane, Private Eye (1949-53) and The Hartmans (1949) with fellow vaudevillians Paul and Grace Hartman. He also played Mr. Shellhammer in the 1959 tv remake of Miracle of 34th Street starring Ed Wynn, and guest starred in two episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Loring’s film appearances were not numerous but most of the movies are well-known. The more vaudevillian outings include Keep ’em Flying (1941) with Abbott and Costello,The Clown (1953) with Red Skelton, and Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1953). he was also in Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), Pat and Mike (1952) and Happy Anniversary (1959) as well as the two Otto Preminger films The Cardinal (1963) and Hurry, Sundown (1967). His last professional credit was a Rod Serling-penned tv movie called Certain Honorable Men (1968) with Van Heflin, Peter Fonda,Pat Hingle, Will Geer, and Dorothy Stickney.

For more on vaudeville and its veterans,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.