Billy B. Van

His father got him a job in his teens at the Brill Car Co., where he was reported to have spent his time entertaining the workers.

He did not go far in formal education, saying later that he was a graduate of the school of hard knocks (though much later he was made an honorary member of the Dartmouth College Class of 1906).

It is said that he brought up from New York such well-known stars as Ethel Barrymore, Jeanne Eagels, Marie Dressler and Fatty Hires, many of whom he acted with in the winter.

John Tariot, a historian and restorer of silent films, set up a website devoted to Van's movie career.

They disliked the actors "parading around in outlandish costumes and makeup and introducing their large snorting automobiles to the quiet village", not leaving room for the horse and buggies.

In 1910 they appeared at the Manhattan Opera House in a variety show; other acts were the Five Juggling Jewels and Dunlap's Educated Horse.

A most interesting part of Van's stage career is his association with the former heavyweight champion, James J. Corbett (Gentleman Jim).

Van appeared with many actors and actresses remembered until this day, including Jeanette MacDonald, Fatty Arbuckle, Hal Roach, and Harold Lloyd.

Somewhat lower on the scale, he appeared with many other well-known names at a contest judging goats in Central Park in 1934, as part of a Bock Beer festival.

In 1916 a New York Times article reported that he had been taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan suffering from apoplexy, an old name for stroke.

Police had been called to a hotel room on West 44th Street, where he had been staying related to his work on his Equity Motion Picture Co., and he lived at Van Harbor, New Hampshire.

A nastier article was that Van was being sued for breach of promise to marry by Miss Ray Myers, of Long Island City, an actress.

The Los Angeles Times later ran a picture of Myers, with the announcement that Van had paid $5000 to settle the claim.

Van, the New York audience knew as a performer, and William Vandegrift—his birth name—as an expert in dairy farming and other agricultural affairs.

The Times article also discusses other experiences of Van including being an advisor on usefulness for dairy purposes of a large lot of land in the San Joaquin Valley.

The Times article also contains a long discussion of a plan Van had of opening up retail butter stores in New York and elsewhere.

He built a large home and also barns and other outbuildings, on a site behind what is now the Hilltop Hotel on the north side of current Route 11.

Grace lived in Newport, with Van doing a lot of traveling, and one article refers to an unhappy marriage with a period of discontent.

He is widely credited as coining the nickname "The Sunshine City" for the town, which it still uses, though that term may not refer, at least accurately, to the weather.

A sketch of Van at the Newport Historical Society refers to him as a common and voluble presence at town meetings.

News clips from the time describe efforts of Van to promote the area based upon the fact that the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", Sarah Josepha Hale, had lived nearby.

He recommended that his audience read Robinson Crusoe to learn how to adapt to the bad times, and be on the lookout for a "Friday" to help out.

Other clips show Van speaking at the Hotel DeSoto in St. Louis at a meeting of the Direct Mail Advertising Association, and in Houston.

Van perhaps obtained some insights for his motivational talks by a job he had for a period of time during World War II, at the Fellows Gear Shaper company in Springfield, Vermont.

Other activities of Van were the promotion of Wrigley Chewing Gum on the radio; and writing a book Snap Out of It in 1933, which is partially his autobiography.

Time magazine called him a "palavering onetime vaudeville comic" who plugged chewing gum on radio.

Study of Van's papers deposited in the Newport Historical Society led to an award-winning book by Jayna H. Hooper, "Billy B.

They had three children: Mary Ann (Bundgus, who later was a secretary to Arthur Godfrey), Bonnie Grace (Harding, who lived in California) and a son, William Van.

William died in 1970 and had a small metal grave marker next to his father's stone, but now has his name on the back side of the Van headstone.

Mary Ann and Bonnie Grace appeared as the Van Sisters in summer stock and with the Shubert organization.