Edward Gallagher

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For other people named Edward or Ed Gallagher, see Ed Gallagher

Edward Gallagher (born 1873; died May 28, 1929) was a Vaudeville actor and half the act Gallagher and Shean. Their story was told in an animated movie Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean (1931) by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer who also created Koko the Clown and Betty Boop. Gallagher and Shean also reportedly made an early sound film at the Theodore Case studio in Albany in 1925.[1]

Born in San Francisco he made a name for himself in Vaudeville, Gallagher with Al Shean to create the act Gallagher and Shean. While the act was successful, the men apparently did not like each other much.

Gallagher first performed with Shean in 1912, but the men broke up in 1914, not performing again until 1920. This latter time, they stayed together until 1925. They had a featured part in the 1922 Ziegfeld Follies, earning a salary of US$1500 a week.

Gallagher suffered a nervous breakdown and entered the Rivercrest Sanitarium in Astoria, Queens, where he died. The final years of his life saw problems with his fourth wife, Ann Luther, the actress; stress, and alcoholism.

Helen Gallagher, his third wife, a former Ziegfeld girl and Jack Solomon launched what would become Gallagher's Steak House in November of 1927. She would marry Solomon after Gallagher's death.