Ben Bard

Ben Bard (born Benjamin Greenberg; January 26, 1893 – May 17, 1974) was an American actor, comedian, and baritone who worked in musical theatre, vaudeville, and film. He began his career in the early 1910s; achieving initial success in musicals and vaudeville as a singer. As he gained more experience his abilities branched out into dancing and acting. In 1917 he toured in Rag Doll in Ragland which included a stop on Broadway at the Olympic Theatre. He spent the next eight years performing in a variety of touring musical revues with intermittent work in vaudeville between shows.

With M. K. Jerome, Bard co-wrote the music to the revue Razzle Dazzle of 1918. In 1921 he was cast in the touring production of The Whirl of New York as a straight man for the comedian Jack Pearl. He and Pearl formed a double act which they played both in vaudeville and in musicals; including performances in the Broadway shows The Dancing Girl (1923) and Topics of 1923. After taking their show to the Orpheum Circuit in California in 1925, Bard left his partnership with Pearl and worked as a film actor in Los Angeles from 1926 through 1946. In the 1930s he founded the Ben Bard Dramatic School and became a celebrated drama teacher in L.A. He continued to teach until as late as 1969.