Born 1905 in Hollywood, California, American vaudevillian and photographer George Kline Mann was best known as the taller half of the comedic and acrobatic dance act, Barto and Mann.

George studied dance with Roy Randolph of the Randolph’s La Monica Dance School in Santa Monica, California. Shortly after turning 20, he developed a dance act – Mann & Clark – with his high school friend Lester Clark. Signing with the William Meiklejohn Agency, they performed together in Los Angeles for three or four months before George signed on as a single with Fanchon and Marco enterprises.
George (6’6″) was soon performing for comedic effect with a much shorter (4’11”) Dewey Barto. Two days after George turned 21, George and Dewey signed a ten-year contract with Fanchon and Marco as the comedy team Barto and Mann.

Following World War II, George acted in small roles in several movies,[9] on the stage, and with Jack Carson’s stage revue but primarily devoted himself to making a living with photography, an activity he had pursued actively while in vaudeville when he took about 12,000 black and white photographs, many of them demonstrating an extraordinary skill and aesthetic sensibility. He also took thousands of feet of B&W and color 16mm film.

In the early 1970s, George was hired by Quaker Oats to portray King Vitaman in commercials and on the front of the King Vitaman cereal box.

George Mann lived in Santa Monica, California at the time of his death in 1977 at age 71.

These amazing photos from Brad Smith were taken by George Mann that show New York’s theatre marquees from the 1930s.

Side-street view of Loew’s Pitkin Theatre, Brooklyn, New York, May, 1930

 

Capitol Theatre, NY, December 1930

 

Loew’s Paradise Theatre, Bronx, New York, December 6, 1930

 

Loew’s Gates Theatre, Brooklyn, NY, May 7, 1930

 

Loew’s Metropolitan Theatre, Brooklyn, NY, April 12, 1930

 

Loew’s Oriental Theatre, Brooklyn, NY, 1930

 

Loew’s Orpheum Theatre, New York, NY, January 1930

 

Loew’s Pitkin Theatre, Brooklyn, New York, November 1930

 

Loew’s Rochester Theatre, Rochester, New York, April 26, 1930

 

Loew’s State Theatre (now Landmark Theatre), Syracuse, New York, April 19, 1930

 

Loew’s State Theatre, Manhattan, New York, June 1930

 

Loew’s Valencia Theatre, Jamaica, NY, December 13, 1930

Shea’s Buffalo Theatre (now Shea’s Performing Arts Center), Buffalo, New York, January 1930

 

Academy of Music (later converted to the Palladium), New York, 1931

 

B.S. Moss Broadway Theatre, NY, October 1931

 

Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, NY, November 1931

 

Capitol Theatre, New York, NY, February 27, 1931

 

Fox’s Great Lakes Theatre (also known as the Paramount Theatre), Buffalo, New York, February 6, 1931

 

Kenmore Theatre, Brooklyn, NY, December 1931

 

Loew’s Rochester Theater, Rochester, NY, February 13, 1931

 

Loew’s State Theatre (now Landmark Theatre), Syracuse, New York, February 1931

 

Loew’s State Theatre, NY, March 1931

 

Loew’s Yonkers Theatre, Yonkers, NY, March 1931

 

Paramount Theatre, New York, December 1931

 

Loew’s Paradise Theatre, Bronx, New York, 1932

 

Loew’s Metropolitan, NY, 1932

 

Loew’s Rochester Theater, Rochester, NY, September 23, 1932

 

Palace Theatre, NY, January 1932

 

RKO Coliseum Theatre, NY, January 1932

 

RKO Fordham Theatre, Bronx, NY, January, 1932

 

Shea’s Buffalo Theatre, New York (now Shea’s Performing Arts Center), February 1932

 

RKO Albee Theatre, Brooklyn, New York, 1933

 

RKO Albee Theatre, Brroklyn, NY, 1933

 

Artef and Longacre Theatres, New York, 1935

 

Paradise Cabaret Restaurant in the Brill Building, New York,1937

 

Paramount Theatre, New York, 1937

 

Roxy Theater, New York, 1937

 

Loew’s State Theatre, New York, August 1938

 

Loew’s State Theatre, New York, August 1938

 

The Roseland Ballroom and Cine Roma Theater, NY, 1938