Vaudeville

Sometimes the sheer existence of an exhibition appears more significant than what is in it. At the moment, the Whitney Museum of American Art has an extensive survey of modern European and American design in furniture and related objects, which runs through Jan. 5. An absorbing exhibition, it is absorbing large crowds into the bunker on Madison Avenue. They are having a fine time doing everything from clucking over '50s Atwater Kent TV sets ("We should have saved ours.

You don't need your head examined to fall in love with this show. "Crazy for You," which is being revived at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, is a deliciously entertaining production made of pure joy and talent. When Stephanie Block wraps her voice around the gorgeous Gershwin songs in a score plucked from all over--"Someone to Watch Over Me," "Embraceable You" and "I Got Rhythm" to name just three--you wish she'd go on singing forever. That's how good she is.

Laura A. Mitchell, 85, former vaudeville star. In her youth, Mitchell was a dancer who performed at the Palace and other major vaudeville venues. On her 80th birthday, she did a lively polka at a celebrity birthday bash at the now-closed Chasen's restaurant. On March 8 in Beverly Hills.

William S. Magginetti, 98, vaudeville performer, actor and set decorator. Born in Salt Lake City, he became one of vaudeville's "Orange Blossom Four" quartet that included producer Mervyn LeRoy and director George Waggner. Magginetti also performed with Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay. In 1950, he produced and directed the last production of "The Mission Play," a California historical pageant in San Gabriel in which he had formerly starred. On Feb. 21 in Burbank after a short illness.

Jack Weiner, 97, who began a flirtation with show business in the early 20th Century as one of the child stars of Gus Edwards' Song Revues, which also featured George Jessel and Walter Winchell. The three continued to perform in vaudeville in the 1920s before Weiner gave up performing to become one of the most durable talent agents in the entertainment industry. Over the years he represented such vaudeville headliners as Charlie Foy, Ruth Clifford and Winifred & Milis.

Charles (Cookie) Cook, 77, a vaudeville tap and acrobatic dancer and teacher for more than 50 years. He began performing as a child with Garbage and the Two Cans and Sarah Venable and Her Picks. In 1930, he and Ernest (Brownie) Brown formed the headline dance and comedy team Cook and Brown. Their act, seen in such places as New York's Cotton Club, combined tumbling, dance and comedic patter.

Kitty Doner, 92, probably the last of the male impersonators who were popular in vaudeville in the 1920s. She was a headliner on the old Keith-Orpheum circuit and played the Palace and Winter Garden theaters in New York with Jack Benny and Al Jolson, respectively. In her day, girls and young women were frequently cast as boys in various musical productions.

Mary Rita Stewart, 82, a vaudeville dancer who performed in musical films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable and Sonja Henie. Ms. Stewart first danced on stage at age 3 in Chicago and New York, and by 16 was touring with Miss Abbot's Troup and later with Fanchon and Marco's Dance Troupe. She also sang on radio as part of a trio, the Three Debutantes. Put under contract by 20th Century Fox when she was 18, Ms.

Violet Carlson, vaudeville and musical comedy star who created the role of barmaid Gretchen in the original Broadway production of "The Student Prince in Heidelberg" in 1924, has died. She was 97. Carlson died Wednesday at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, Miles Kreuger, president of the Los Angeles-based Institute of the American Musical, said Friday.

Gladys Ahern, who with her husband brought song and laughter to thousands of Americans during the heyday of vaudeville and a brief respite from battle to thousands more GIs during World War II, is dead, it was learned this week. Robert Dwan, who writes regularly on the show business stars of the past, said Ahern was believed to be in her late 80s when she died June 12 in a Burbank hospital.