King Kelly - Vaudeville Career

Vaudeville Career

Kelly took up acting soon after his arrival in Boston. Fellow Boston Elk lodge member and actor Nat Goodwin, a writer said around that time, "repeatedly urged Kelly to abandon his diamond affiliations and embrace the fascinations of stage life, Goodwin claiming that Kelly is a natural born comedian." Goodwin, a native of Boston, had been a founder of its Elks lodge in 1878. George W. Floyd, Goodwin's manager and a native of nearby Quincy, was also a charter member of the lodge and one of its early directors. Floyd was arguably the first player agent in baseball history. For example, in 1892, Floyd told the Chicago Herald that he had secured Kelly’s new contract with Boston. It included a percentage of the club’s earnings above $10,000. Floyd also said, "Kelly is taking the best care of himself and is well fixed. The boodle is in the shape of gilt-edged securities and 'mammy,' as Kel affectionately terms his wife, has charge of it."

In March 1888, Kelly made his regular play debut, as Dusty Bob in Charles H. "Charley" Hoyt's "A Rag Baby." Hoyt had been a Boston baseball writer and was a Boston Elk. A national fraternal group, the Elks were founded in the 1860s and into the mid-twentieth century had close ties to the theatrical profession.

As an example of his later vaudeville career, during the offseasons of 1892-93, which extended into the 1893 season, he appeared in January 1893 in New York at the Imperial Music Hall on West 29th Street. He was billed as "King Kelly, the Monarch of the Baseball Field." His trousers and shirt collar were too big and he buttoned his jacket wrong. Also, his straw hat was a size too small. "It was impossible to look at this vaudeville make-up and not laugh," the New York Sun said. "Kelly laughed, too, and shook a roll of music at a lot of friends up in the private boxes." Kelly came on after two French singers of opera. Stage partner William "Billy" Jerome "took off his hat to him, and introduced him as 'Mr. Kelly, the famous $10,000 peach.'" They sang a parody. Later, after reciting "Casey at the Bat," he said, according to the Sun, "I'm right at home with Casey." Also, "It's the first time I’ve been in these clothes, and I don’t quite understand them. Besides I’ve been over to Guttenberg to-day, and that is an excuse for anything that a man may do. Come and see me again. I’m obliged for your welcome."

In the offseason of 1893-94, Kelly performed with Mark Murphy in "O'Dowd's Neighbors." Of the first city on the tour, Dover, N.J., Murphy said Kelly called it "the very first town I ever played a game of ball in out of Patsy!" Patsy, Murphy explained, "is Kellyesque for Paterson."