George Washington

GEORGE DEWEY WASHINGTON d1954. American singer active in vaudeville and motion pictures from the 1920s through the 1940s. He was a baritone or bass-baritone who often appeared on stage in the guise of "The Gentleman Tramp". He was sometimes compared to Al Jolson. Before he became a professional entertainer, he worked as a waiter in railroad dining cars, often singing amid noises of the train. He appeared in a number of short films for MGM and Paramount Pictures from 1928 to 1932 (the early years of "talkies") including some of MGM's first musical shorts. At one point, he played three weeks in a row at the Paramount Theatre on Broadway. He was described at the time as a "hot favorite" with a "sympathetic voice that goes straight to the heart" and that is "well adapted for the talkies"