Lancton and Lucier
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Paul Sarconi (aka Paul Lucier) Born: 1879 or 1880 Italy Died: January 18, 1916 Chicago, IL |
Iva I. Lancton Born: Unknown Died: Unknown |
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Dorothy (Lucier) Sarconi Born: 1911? Died: Unknown |
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Little is known about the
lives of Iva Lancton and Denver resident, Paul Sarconi, who
performed under the stage name Paul Lucier. Paul was born in
Italy, and came to America at age 10. Iva had performed with her
sister before marrying Sarconi. Around 1901, she retired from the
stage for two seasons before returning to the profession. Forming the
Lancton
Lucier Co. they joined the
Orpheum circuit in 1906.
They toured the country with an act entitled "A
Fool's Errand" during the 1908-10 seasons, and
"Heaps of Hilarity" during the 1911-12 season. They also toured as Lucy and the Luciers,
and performed separately, with Paul as part of the Hayes and
Montgomery act, and Iva working in the vaudeville team Higgins, Melville and
Higgins. (Iva's sister and wife of Edward M. Waterbury, Laura Lancton,
also performed on the vaudeville circuit, as part of
Waterbury Bros. and Tenny).The couple visited in Muskegon in 1905 and again in 1907, playing the Lake Michigan Park Theater as Lucy and the Luciers. Friends of the Keatons, Paul worked with Joe Keaton and Lew Earl to form the Actors' Colony in 1908. Lucier along with wife and daughter, Dorothy, settled in Muskegon for the summers, in a cottage on Walnut Street. During the vaudeville season, Dorothy attended the Ursuline Academy in Muskegon and later, the Holy Name Academy of Grand Rapids while her parents toured the vaudeville circuit. She resided with her grandmother, Mrs. Josephine Lancton in Muskegon. Tragedy struck in 1916 when Paul Lucier was found dead in his room at the Grand Hotel in Chicago the morning after a performance by the Montgomery and Hayes act. According to a Denver Rocky Mountain News report, he had been ill, for about a week. Death, at the age of 36, was due to heart disease. Following her husband's death, Iva continued to perform. Newspapers from 1916-17 show Iva Lancton performing with Bonnie Gaylord, wife of another colony resident, Tudor Cameron, on vaudeville stages across the United States and Canada. According to a Muskegon Chronicle May 1916 article, the pair, calling themselves The Apple Sisters presented a "talkfest" that took audiences, "into the dressing rooms of the theater." In June of 1918, a report in the Muskegon Chronicle indicated Iva had remarried. Her husband, Chester M. Braham, was a chemist from Freeport, NY. |
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