Carlos Romero (actor)
[1][2] His father, born Geronimo Quiroga in Monterrey, Mexico, fled to the United States as a child in 1910 with his large family.
[2] They had owned a hotel and theater in Monterrey, but supported the wrong side in the struggle between Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution.
[3] The extended family adopted the stage name "The Dancing Romeros" for their act during the 1920's, when they performed shows at nightclubs,[4] and later at movie theaters, in between exhibitions of silent pictures.
His contracts with film studios usually included a clause granting him two months annual leave for work on ice shows.
As Carlos Jr related it to a later interviewer, he was standing backstage at an early performance when someone shoved a horse head mask over him and pushed him out onto the ice.
[12] Newspapers, to distinguish him from his well-known father, consistently referred to him as "Carlos Romero Jr", which was his Ice Follies billing as well.
Named for the coming year, each Ice Follies show would start performances at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles during September.
According to the draft registrar, Carlos stood 6' 1 3/4" (187.3 cm), weighed 152 pounds (68.9 kg), had hazel eyes, brown hair, and a sallow complexion.
[18] Carlos Jr apparently served in the US Army from early September 1945 through late August 1947, given his dates of absence from the Ice Follies.
A later interview said he was assigned to the Signal Corps, possibly with a specialized entertainment unit, for he claimed to have emceed a GI show in Berlin for which he also did a song and dance routine.
[8] Reporter Pat Laughrey interviewed Carlos Romero Jr just after his military service, when he had rejoined the Ice Follies.
Like one of the charming, witty, fast-talking characters he would later play on television, he was not above giving a slight spin to the truth, saying he had enlisted after "December 1941", and served in France, Belgium, and Germany, letting the unwary assume from the order of countries that he was with the liberation forces, rather than the army of occupation.
Despite the parental defection, Carlos resumed performing with the show in character parts, generally comic acrobatic bits.
While on tour during December 1947, Carlos married Ice Follies headliner and former National Pairs Champion Betty Schalow, who was two years older than him.
[19][25] The ceremony occurred during the finale of a Follies performance at the arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a longtime venue for all the touring ice shows.
[30] He was mentioned as a new addition to the cast of the Los Angeles based Geller Theatre Workshop in November 1951, for a production of Moss Hart's Light Up The Sky, as "a former Ice Follies skater, who also has a number of years' Little Theater experience".
