The Actors Colony on Peach Point:
Put-in-Bay’s Vaudeville Families

  Thomas Benton Alexander (1866-1936) left the variety theater circuit when he married Edith Brown in 1893 and settled on South Bass Island. He owned the Crescent and Alexander hotels, was a founder of the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club and was Put-in-Bay mayor for twenty years. But he also encouraged theater and vaudeville on South Bass, which in turn, opened the door to the actor’s colony in the “new subdivision” on Peach Orchard Point.
 

In 1902, John Hollway and Louis Schiele bought the land previously used by the Forest City Ice Company for their ice business. They tore down the huge barns and subdivided the property into “cottage” lots. Some of the first purchasers were vaudeville troopers looking for a place to spend the summer off-season.
 

Sidney Frohman, who owned Frohman’s Lodge on East Point of South Bass Island, was a cousin of New York City theater producer/owner Charles Frohman, who often hired the Murdock Brothers.
 

These Put-in-Bay summer residents’ stage names were nationally famous in the first three decades of the 20th century:

                      Jack & Sue Snyder alias "The Yankee Doodle Duo".
                      The Murdock Brothers:
                      Clyde “Teck” Murdock and wife “Irish” Kennedy.
                      Lewis “Lew” Murdock and wife Mildred Mayo.
                      Paul “Toots” Murdock.
                      Ross Lewis & Mamie Hennings.
                      John Hennings & wife, Winnie Brady alias The Kill Kare Kouple.
                      Carl Nixon and Gussie Sands as Nixon and Sans.
                      Harry Bannister and wife, Dorothy Gatley alias actress Ann Harding.

Lewis-Ross-Murdock Families

● Milton T. Lewis 1846 – 1932 m. Isadora W. Ross 1848 – 1900
     □ Susan M. Lewis 1870 – 1954 m. 1st William Stace 1865 – m. 2nd
        Jack R. Snyder 1874-1935
            ◊ Claude Stace 1890 -
     □ Rachel E. Lewis 1873 – m. William W. Murdock 1867 –
            ◊ Clyde M. Murdock 1892 – 1940 m. Iris L. Kennedy 1892 - 1953
            ◊ Lewis W. Murdock 1895 – 1977 m. Mildred Mayo 1900 -
            ◊ Paul A. Murdock 1899 – m. Irene
     □ Milton R. Lewis 1879 – 1939 m. 1st Mamie Hennings 1885 - 1920
          m. 2nd Pauline Grimes

Note: Clyde & Iris Murdock had one child, John “Jack” Murdock (1922-2001) who was a Hollywood actor and appeared in movies such as "Rain Man" with Dustin Hoffman.

Ann Harding

Born Dorothy Walton Gatley, famous movie actress Ann Harding (1901-1981) married actor-producer-director Harry Bannister (1889-1961) and they built a cottage on the West Shore in the Hollway-Schiele subdivision. She later married conductor-composer Werner Janssen.

John and Mamie Hennings

John Hennings (1886-1933) married Winifred Brady (1882-1961) and they are listed in the American Vaudeville Museum. His sister, Mamie Hennings (1887-1920) married Milton Lewis.

Nixon and Sans


Carl Lanning Nixon (1894-1970) married Toledo girl, Augusta Sands (1898-1990). They first lived aboard a yacht during the summer, then built a cottage on Peach Point.