The World's Greatest Minstrel

Larry was born in 1914 in Kansas. His full name was Samuel Klusman Lawrence Parks. He attended Joliet High School in Illinois, then, billed as Klusman Parks, he performed in numerous campus plays there, becoming increasingly attracted to acting. Larry Parks headed for New York and began a two-year association with the Group Theatre. Parks got no large parts with the Group, pay was minimal, and theatre jobs spaced out, so at various times he also worked as an usher at Carnegie Hall as well as a guide at Radio City and the World's Fair.

Ultimately, he approached Columbia talent executive Max Arnow and talked his way into a screen test. Although only of medium height, Parks was sturdily built, presentable with dark curly hair and sombre brown eyes. In his quiet manner, he was also brighter and better educated than most young Hollywood players of the day, and this particularly impressed Arnow. He signed with Columbia Pictures, but was employed in dozens of "B" movies before his chance came with The Jolson Story. The huge success of this movie made Larry Parks a huge star, and the follow up; Jolson Sings Again was equally successful. A small amount of other 'A' movies were then assigned to Larry before he was virtually kicked out of Hollywood with the commie thing...

Larry Parks and his wife Betty Garrett trouped Canada and Europe with their song and dance act. Many, including Fletch, caught their act at The Newcastle Empire in the very early 50's. On returning they toured the United States with a play called 'The Anonymous Lover', eventually hitting Broadway.

Parks returned to major film making with Universal Pictures, ' Freud ' (1962), shot mainly on location in Munich, Germany. His health began to give him trouble in the early seventies and he contented himself more and more with gardening and reading. On Sunday night, April 13, 1975, Larry Parks died of a heart attack in his Studio City, California home on the very day Clive Baldwin started rehearsals at the Winter Garden Theater to play the part of AL JOLSON in the TONY AWARDS show.