Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Charles Hitchcock impersonator |
Description |
Fourteen pages from the University of Iowa archives showing various images of Charles Hitchcock and descriptions of his time in vaudeville Charles Hitchcock was an actor who traveled the national vaudeville circuit in the early 1900s and later performed in several silent films. He was also connected to Lake Bluff’s most gruesome unsolved mystery. When the era of silent film began in Chicago prior to World War I in 1914, Hitchcock became a contract player of Essanay Studios, working alongside Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Berry and Charles X Bushman. While these actors went on to become Hollywood movie stars, whatever star Hitchcock may have been working toward fizzled. He became a night police deputy in Lake Bluff, where he is notoriously remembered for his connection to Elfrieda Knaak, a 29-year-old encyclopedia saleswoman from Deerfield who in 1928 was found badly burned in the furnace room of Lake Bluff Village Hall. She died several days later. Also, several pages showing land transfers between the Hitchcocks and others, including Charles mother Mary Hitchcock in 1907 and 1912 |
Caption |
Charles Hitchcock impersonator |
People |
Hitchcock, Charles Knaak, Elfrieda |
Search Terms |
Furnace Mystery Murder Village Hall Vaudeville Land Transfers |
Collection |
Personalities |
Object Name |
Document |
Object ID |
Doc 974 |