Eddie Bracken
Toronto Daily Star, October 15 1938
Eddie Bracken (1915-2002) started his acting career at the age of nine in vaudeville. In 1938, he was cast in the Broadway production of What a Life, which opened on April 13 1938. He then went on to appear in the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in 1940 and was then cast in two Preston Sturges films, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail The Conquering Hero. This made him a household name during World War II.
He stayed out of feature films from 1953 until the 1980s, after which he appeared in, among other movies, Home Alone 2 (Lost In New York) in 1992. Bracken holds the distinction of having acted with two future U.S. presidents, having appeared with Ronald Reagan in The Girl From Jones Beach (1949) and with Donald Trump in the Home Alone sequel.
Given that the Broadway production of What a Life ran for 538 performances before closing in July 1939, and that Bracken had a bit part in Pacific Liner, a movie that began production in October 1938, I'm not sure how he found time to appear in Toronto. But his Wikipedia page states that he met his wife of 63 years, Connie Nickerson, in a road company production of What a Life in 1938; he might well have met her at about the time that this photograph was taken. The woman at the left of the photo might be her, but it's hard to tell.
Created October 2, 2025.