{{short description|Canadian vaudeville entertainer}} {{Infobox person | name = Frederick Hallen | other_names = Fred Hallen | image = Frederick-Hallen001.JPG | image_size = 200px | caption = Hallen, c. 1890s | birth_date = {{birth date|1859|01|01|df=y}} | birth_place = Montreal, United Province of Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|1920|02|28|1859|12|31|df=y}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | occupation = Vaudeville Entertainer | years_active = 1880–1919 }}
'''Frederick Hallen''' (1 January 1859 – 28 February 1920) was a Canadian-born vaudeville entertainer who found popularity on the North American stage.
==Biography== Frederick "Fred" Hallen was born in Montreal, United Province of Canada.<ref name=Times>The New York Times, 29 February 1920</ref> He began touring the vaudeville circuit as early as 1880 with his American wife Enid Hart, as "Hallen and Hart". A year or so before she died in 1890 at the young age of 32,<ref>The Era Almanac – 1890</ref> he teamed up with Joseph Hart, as "Hallen and Hart" (again), and found success touring for several seasons with Hart's musical comedies, ''Later On'' and ''The Idea''.<ref name=Who>Who's Who in Music and Drama - edited by Dixie Hines, Harry Prescott Hanaford - 1914</ref> After the two went their separate ways, Hallen and his second wife, Mollie (or Molly) Fuller, became a headlining vaudeville act.<ref>The New York Clipper, 3 March 1920</ref><ref>The Marie Burroughs art portfolio of stage celebrities: a collection of ... By Burroughs, Marie – 1894</ref> Hallen and Fuller were known for their short comedic plays and skits performed in vaudeville houses across North America for nearly a quarter century.<ref>The Oakland Tribune, 19 May 1908</ref>
In 1900, Hallen starred in the Broadway musical ''Aunt Hannah'' at the Bijou Theatre; a work created by composer A. Baldwin Sloane, lyricist Clay M. Greene, and writer Matthew J. Royal.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Dan|last1=Dietz|title=The Complete Book of 1900s Broadway Musicals|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2022|isbn=9781538168943|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7TdwEAAAQBAJ|chapter=Aunt Hannah|pages=9–10}}</ref>
left|thumb|225px|Mollie Fuller <br>NYPL Digital Gallery (ca. 1890s) Hallen died of stomach cancer on 28 February 1920, at his residence in The New York Palace Hotel. Two months earlier he had fallen ill during an engagement in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was later told his condition was terminal. Hallen was survived by his wife, Mollie.<ref name=Times/>
==Mollie Fuller== After producer Edward Franklin Albee learned that Mollie Fuller was nearly blind and living in poverty in Chicago, he brought her back to New York where he asked writer Blanche Merrill to write a piece for her to perform in.<ref>The Rotarian – December, 1924</ref> With the help of friends Fuller, returned to the stage in December 1922 to appear in the playlet ''Twilight'' staged in Brooklyn and later at the Strand Theatre in Hoboken, New Jersey.<ref>Mollie Fuller Acts Again. - New York Times, 29 December 1922; p. 20</ref>
Before her vaudeville days Fuller was on the legitimate stage in productions like the burlesque musical ''Adonis'', by Edward E. Rice and William F. Gill, and Rice's ''Evangeline'', in which she replaced Fay Templeton when the actress was unavailable.<ref>The New York Times, 6 January 1886</ref> The highlight of her career came in 1895 when Hallen bought the rights to the play ''The Twentieth Century Girl'' and cast her in the title role.<ref name=Who/><ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E1EFD3C5811738DDDA00994DD405B8585F0D3] Twentieth Century Girl" Sold; Fred Hallen Purchases the Musical Comedy and Will Star Mollie Fuller in the Leading Part. New York Times, 19 May 1895</ref>
Fuller died at around the age of 68 in Hollywood, California, on 5 January 1933. At the time of her death she was receiving assistance from The Troupers, a national vaudeville players association. Her funeral expenses were handled by the National Vaudeville Artist organization.<ref>The New York Times – 10 January 1933</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==External links== * {{IBDB name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallen, Frederick}} Category:1859 births Category:1920 deaths Category:Male actors from Montreal Category:Canadian male stage actors Category:19th-century Canadian male actors Category:Canadian vaudeville performers Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States