F. Ralph Gervers

[4] Gervers worked as an usher at B.F. Keith's Cincinnati Playhouse in his youth, where he claimed to have first discovered a desire to travel.

[6] Gervers worked in advertising and publicity for traveling stage shows, promoting them by running ads in newspapers.

[2] In 1919, while working as publicity director for Loew's Penn Theater in Pittsburgh, Gervers produced a touring stage show called The Woman Untamed, starring vaudeville dancer Signe Paterson.

[7] As Paterson's fame grew over the next two years, Gervers continued to produce and publicize her stage shows, including the increasingly popular The Woman Untamed.

[10] He published two newspapers in the 1940s and 1950s, the Port Tampa Beacon and Ruskin Planter, while also using skills honed in vaudeville and motion pictures to do advertising and publicity work for the city.

[13] On July 18, 1921, Gervers married vaudeville dancer Signe Paterson at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church in New York.