Buddy on Broadway


Buddy on Broadway (acrylic on canvas) 32" x 32"
Before he was Jedd Clampett or Barnaby Jones, Buddy Ebsen was a singer and a dancer. He and his sister learned to dance at a studio his father operated in  Orlando Florida.
At the age of twenty, Buddy and his sister Vilma left Florida for New York. He worked a soda fountain and the siblings also performed a dance act in supper clubs and in vaudeville…and became known as the “Baby Astaires.”
During the early 30s, the Ebsens appeared on Broadway as members of the chorus in “Whoopee, “ “Flying Colors” and the “Ziegfield Follies of 1934.” A performance in Atlantic City earned the duo rave reviews from columnist Walter Winchell and a booking at the Palace Theatre in New York City.
Their success earned Ebsen and Vilma a two year contract with MGM and they relocated to Hollywood where they made their film debut in the “Broadway Melody of 1936.” Vilma left Hollywood, but Buddy went on to perform with Shirley Temple in “Captain January” and Judy Garland  in the “Broadway Melody of 1938,” as well as many other films.
Ebsen was originally cast as the scare crow in “The Wizard of Oz,” but swapped roles with Ray Bolger who was cast as the Tin Man. A reaction to the metallic makeup used on his face made him extremely ill and hospitalized, so Buddy was replaced by Jack Haley and never appeared in the movie, though his voice his heard on reprises of the song, “We’re Off It See the Wizard.”
Audiences today best remember Buddy Ebsen as Davy Crockett’s devoted partner at the Alamo, the mountaineer in the Beverly Hillbillies, and the aged detective Barnaby Jones. Few remember him as the jilted husband in Breakfast at Tiffany’s or for his many other TV roles. Ebsen passed away in 2003 at the age of 95, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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