Al Shean

Al Shean

Born: May 12, 1868
Died: August 12, 1949
in Dornum, Germany
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg (12 May 1868 – 12 August 1949), known as Al Shean, was a comedian and vaudeville performer. Other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg.[6] He is most remembered for being half of the vaudeville team Gallagher and Shean, and as the uncle of the Marx Brothers.

Shean was born in Dornum, Germany, on 12 May 1868, the son of Fanny and Levi or Louis Schoenberg. His father was a magician. His sister, Minnie, married Sam "Frenchie" Marx; their children would become the Marx Brothers.

After making a name for himself in vaudeville, Shean teamed up with Edward Gallagher to create the act Gallagher and Shean in the 1920s. While the act was successful, the men apparently did not like each other much. After their act's final Ziegfeld Follies pairing, Shean went on to perform solo in eight Broadway shows, even playing the title character in Father Malachy's Miracle.

Shean had some solo film roles: as the piano player, known as "The Professor" in San Francisco (1936), as a priest in Hitler's Madman (1943), as grandfather in The Blue Bird (1940), and in some three dozen other films. He and Gallagher also made an early sound film at the Theodore Case studio in Auburn, New York, in 1925.

He died on 12 August 1949.

Movies for Al Shean...

That's Entertainment, Part II
Title: That's Entertainment, Part II
Character: (archive footage)
Released: May 16, 1976
Type: Movie
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
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Atlantic City
Title: Atlantic City
Character: Al Shean
Released: September 15, 1944
Type: Movie
In 1915, Atlantic City is a sleepy seaside resort, but Brad Taylor, son of a small hotel and vaudeville house proprietor, has big plans: he thinks it can be "the playground of the world." Brad's wheeling and dealing proves remarkably successful in attracting big enterprises and big shows, but brings him little success in personal relationships. Full of nostalgic songs and acts, some with the original artists. Reissued in 1950 as "Atlantic City Honeymoon".
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Crime Doctor
Title: Crime Doctor
Character: Dave, a Convict
Released: June 22, 1943
Type: Movie
Robert is found beside the highway with a head injury and amnesia. His amnesia motivates him to become a Physician and the country's leading criminal psychologist.
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Hitler's Madman
Title: Hitler's Madman
Character: Father Cemlanek
Released: June 10, 1943
Type: Movie
In 1942, a young paratrooper in the RAF returns to Czechoslovakia to encourage his fellow countrymen to sabotage the German war effort.
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The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
Title: The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
Character: Old Dann
Released: July 4, 1942
Type: Movie
Story of a rich man who backs a show for an old man and his granddaughter from the East Side who has brought joy to the money bag's crippled son.
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Ziegfeld Girl
Title: Ziegfeld Girl
Character: Al
Released: April 25, 1941
Type: Movie
Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on Broadway: Susan, the singer who must leave behind her ageing vaudevillian father; vulnerable Sheila, the working girl pursued both by a millionaire and by her loyal boyfriend from Flatbush; and the mysterious European beauty Sandra, whose concert violinist husband cannot endure the thought of their escaping from poverty by promenading her glamor in skimpy costumes.
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Friendly Neighbors
Title: Friendly Neighbors
Character: Doc
Released: November 17, 1940
Type: Movie
The Weaver Brothers hit the road and taste the hobo's life in this, the sixth, entry in the eleven-film "Weaver Brothers and Elviry" comedy-drama series. The singing hayseed family's journey begins when a drought destroys their farm. The young travelers soon hook up with a band of tramps and end up in a small town that has been nearly destroyed by the floods that occasionally roar through it. The Weavers' are moved by the townsfolk's plight and so decide to stay a spell and help out.
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The Blue Bird
Title: The Blue Bird
Character: Grandpa Tyl
Released: January 15, 1940
Type: Movie
An ungrateful girl and her little brother are transported in their dreams by a fairy to a wonderland, tasked with finding the mythical blue bird of happiness, meeting friends and foes along the way.
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Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President
Title: Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President
Character: Father Reicher
Released: December 1, 1939
Type: Movie
Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.
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Broadway Serenade
Title: Broadway Serenade
Character: Herman
Released: April 7, 1939
Type: Movie
A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
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The Great Waltz
Title: The Great Waltz
Character: Cellist
Released: November 4, 1938
Type: Movie
Composer Johann Strauss risks his marriage over his infatuation with a beautiful singer.
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Too Hot to Handle
Title: Too Hot to Handle
Character: Gumpert
Released: September 16, 1938
Type: Movie
While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he manages to hire her as his assistant. During an adventurous expedition through the jungles of South America, her opinion of him begins to change.
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Tim Tyler's Luck
Title: Tim Tyler's Luck
Character: Professor Tyler
Released: December 27, 1937
Type: Movie
A 12-episode serial in which Tim Tyler goes to Africa in search of his father in gorilla country. He meets up with Laura, who is after Spider Webb who has framed her brother. Webb causes the death of Tim's father, but is eventually tracked down.
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Live, Love and Learn
Title: Live, Love and Learn
Character: Professor Fraum
Released: October 29, 1937
Type: Movie
A starving, uncompromising artist and an heiress fall in love on first sight and immediately get married. She loves his outrageous behaviour, his strange room-mate and the best apartment poverty can buy.
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It Could Happen to You
Title: It Could Happen to You
Character: Max 'Pa' Barrett
Released: June 28, 1937
Type: Movie
A politically charged story about a man who dabbles in crime, with disastrous results, to gain the capital he needs to purchase a school where immigrants are prepared for American citizenship. The school's European teacher dreams of a fascist America. Based on a story by Nathanael West and Samuel Ornitz, who was one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.
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The Road Back
Title: The Road Back
Character: Markheim
Released: June 1, 1937
Type: Movie
After the First World War a group of German soldiers try to readjust to civilian life. A sequel to 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.
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San Francisco
Title: San Francisco
Character: Professor
Released: June 26, 1936
Type: Movie
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 1906.
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At Sea Ashore
Title: At Sea Ashore
Character: Adolph Rumplemeyer
Released: April 4, 1936
Type: Movie
Patsy's working at Rumplemeyer's Donut Shop in Brooklyn. By accident she catches Mr. Rumplemeyer's trousers in the donut machine as he's leaving to pick his niece who's arriving from the old country, so he gives Patsy cab fare and sends her. She forgets her purse, so when she arrives at the immigration office, she can't pay the cabbie, who tells her he'll wait while the meter runs. Inside, Patsy finally finds the high-spirited Lyda, but by then, Patsy has sneaked into the holding area and may need a passport to get out. She hides in Lyda's trunk, but with the cabbie, a suspicious immigration officer, and a traffic cop buzzing around will uncle and niece ever connect?
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Hitch Hike To Heaven
Title: Hitch Hike To Heaven
Character: Herman Blatz
Released: March 12, 1936
Type: Movie
A theatre actor makes the crossover to movies and becomes a star, but his new-found fame puts his family relationships at risk.
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It's in the Air
Title: It's in the Air
Character: Mr. Johnson
Released: October 10, 1935
Type: Movie
Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the men must dodge a dogged IRS agent and bilk a bunch of aviation investors out of the backing boodle for a balloon excursion into the stratosphere.
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Page Miss Glory
Title: Page Miss Glory
Character: Mr. Hamburgher
Released: September 7, 1935
Type: Movie
A country girl goes to the city and gets a job in a posh hotel, and winds up becoming an instant celebrity thanks to an ambitious photographer.
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Traveling Saleslady
Title: Traveling Saleslady
Character: Schmidt
Released: March 28, 1935
Type: Movie
A toothpaste magnate's mischievous daughter, tired of her father's traditional ways of conducting business, joins forces with her father's rival and a crazy inventor. Together they create "Cocktail Toothpaste". The new concoction tastes like whiskey in the morning, a martini at suppertime, and champagne at night.
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Sweet Music
Title: Sweet Music
Character: Sigmund Selzer
Released: February 23, 1935
Type: Movie
A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.
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Symphony of Living
Title: Symphony of Living
Character: Adolph Greig
Released: January 19, 1935
Type: Movie
Just before Adolph Greig's solo violin performance at the Cosmopolitan Orchestra, his right hand is injured and his dream, shattered. His flighty children turn their backs on him and he collapses in the street. However, an opportunity arises for him to tutor a young violin prodigy.
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Music in the Air
Title: Music in the Air
Character: Dr. Walter Lessing
Released: December 13, 1934
Type: Movie
A songwriter's young daughter (June Lang) begins to dream of stardom when she's offered the lead role in a new operetta.
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Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean
Title: Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean
Character: Self
Released: August 29, 1931
Type: Movie
Al Shean performs a solo version of the classic vaudeville song "Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean".
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Chills and Fever
Title: Chills and Fever
Character: Betty's Uncle Emil
Released: April 26, 1930
Type: Movie
An amateur theatrical society rehearses in a deserted house which is believed to be haunted by two travelers who have lost their way in the rain.