Timelines for year 1917
Ethel Waters
Performed for the first time at the age of five in a children's church program; given the first chance to sing on an amateur night at a Philadelphia club on her 15th birthday and was hired on the spot and billed as "Sweet Mama Stringbean"; and made her vaudeville debut in 1917 at the Lincoln Theater in Baltimore, Maryland.
Helen Mirren
Her grandfather Piotr Vasilievich Mironoff was a Tsarist (White Russian) aristocrat who was in London negotiating an arms deal for the World War I when the 1917 Russian Revolution stranded him there. His wife and son (Helen's father) joined him in London.
Her grandfather Piotr Vasilievich Mironoff was a Tsarist (White Russian) aristocrat who was in London negotiating an arms deal during World War I when the 1917 Russian Revolution stranded him there. His wife and son (Helen's father) joined him in London.
Mack Sennett
Left Triangle and Keystone in 1917.
Founder/President of Mack Sennett Comedies, a production company, formed in 1917.
Eddie Cantor
Both his parents died before he was a year old, and he was adopted and raised by his maternal grandmother, Esther Lazarowitz Kantrowitz, who died on January 29, 1917, two days before he signed a long-term contract with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. to appear in his "Follies". "Kantrowitz" was the name mistakenly assigned to the boy instead of his actual name, Iskowitz, by a public school registrar. It was shortened to Cantor. Eddie was the nickname given him by his girlfriend, Ida Tobias, whom he later married (See Ida Tobias Cantor).
Eddie Rickenbacker
Highest scoring American ace during World War I from 1917 to 1918 with 26 credited aerial kills.
Joe Jackson
Member of 1917 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox team. Member of 1919 American League Champion Chicago White Sox team.
Maria Callas
Born to George Kalogeropoulos and his wife Evangelia "Litsa" Dimitriadou, she had a sister, Yakinthi (born in 1917, called Jackie), and a brother, Vasilis (born in 1920, died in 1922).
Mary MacLaren
Mary was nearly killed in a two-car crash in 1917. Near death for ten days, a fragile operation on her forehead to lift the frontal bone saved her life.
Monte Collins
Collins left his Boston home at the age of ten to join a circus. He subsequently acted in minstrel shows, musical comedy and comic opera. He first appeared on screen as an extra with a film company in Portland, Oregon, in 1917, working his way up to supporting roles in westerns. He acted in comedies with Buster Keation and became a noted star comic in his own right with Fox and Educational from the mid-1920's.
Arthur Fiedler
As a violist, took part in the first recording sessions by an American symphony orchestra. This took place when the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under [error] (whom Fiedler idolized), made their first recordings for Victor at Camden, New Jersey, in September of 1917.
Jane Cowl
Her husband Adolph Klauber produced several of Jane's starring vehicles, such as "Lilac Time" (1917), "Smilin' Through" (1919), "Pelleas and Melisande" (1923), and, notably, "Antony and Cleopatra" (1924). He remained a silent partner in these enterprises.
Zoe Rae
In the movie A Kentucky Cinderella (1917) she was required to perform in "black face," which was done with the application of a bright-red powder dissolved in warm water to her face and body. She also performed with Lon Chaney in The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin (1918). No print exists.
Soupy Sales
His older brothers are Marvin who goes by Jack (born 1917) and Leonard (born 1918); both brothers survive him.