Donna Darling Revue with Sammy Clark

By Don Taylor

In the ever-busy world of early 20th-century entertainment, vaudeville artists traveled from city to city, leaving only scattered traces in local newspapers. One such trace provides a welcome glimpse into my grandmother, Madonna Montran, known professionally as Donna Darling. A New Bedford Standard-Times advertisement confirms that her Donna Darling Revue with Sammy Clark appeared at the Olympia Theatre in New Bedford, Massachusetts, during July 1927.

A July 11th advertisement is the only notice showing the Revue on the Olympia bill. It indicates that the theatre was presenting five live stage acts alongside the feature film Babe Comes Home, starring Babe Ruth with Anna Q. Nilsson and Louise Fazenda.

Reviewing all the papers that week, I learned the combined film-and-vaudeville program began July 10th and ran through July 13th, after which the Standard-Times announced an entirely new set of acts and a new picture starting July 14th. Though modest, this single advertisement firmly places Donna Darling and Sammy Clark at the Olympia during this brief engagement.

Performance Details

• Venue: Olympia Theatre, New Bedford, Massachusetts
• Dates: July 10–13, 1927
• Act: Donna Darling Revue with Sammy Clark
• Other Vaudeville Acts:
  • Hite & Reflow in “Their Back Yard”
  • Wise & Oliver
  • Teddy Joyce
  • Dekos Bros.

This small archival finding offers another thread in the wider fabric of 1920s vaudeville, illustrating how touring performers, my grandmother among them, brought music, comedy, and variety entertainment to communities across the country during a vibrant era in American theatre.

Research credit: Newspapers.com