Valley Girl Views: When Sunbury's Constable Was A Clown

In October of 1959, the Sunbury Daily Item reported:

Eddie Fleming Gives Up Clowning At 81
Clowning days are over for Eddie Fleming. At 81, the well known third ward resident said today he has disposed of the last of seven outfits which he has used in recent years for special advertising promotions.

In his younger days he traveled with circuses and also played semi-professional baseball.

Mr. Fleming was for some years constable of the third ward, having declined re-election in recent years, and he is also a former special deputy sheriff of Northumberland County

====================

Fleming served as constable in Sunbury for 33 years, from 1922 - 1955.

During that time he also was for a time Deputy Sheriff of Northumberland County, and a desk sergeant at City Hall.

In 1931 Fleming was running, unopposed, for constable in the 3rd ward
As a joke, someone cut his face out of his poster and replaced it with the photo of a well known forger.

In 1934, he's credited with saving the life of an infant who was suffocating.

In 1951, Fleming was interviewed by the Daily Item, about his career in Vaudville.

[Additional photos added, and may not be exactly correct in the time line of the article]

Thirty years ago today Ed Fleming, 308 South Front street, laid aside his trappings as a vaudeville actor and retired from the variety stage just as the movies were beginning to sound the death knell of big-time vaudeville.

He never went back to the stage. But he still has a few mementoes including some photos as the classical tramp, a clown and straight vocalist "The Silver Voice Tenor" as he was once billed.

A native of Sunbury, Fleming was attracted to show business when he was only 12 when he sold song books and sang with the Erwin E. Glant show. This was back in 1890 when throughout the length and breadth of the land there were traveling shows and vaudeville circuits, long before the movies.

As Fleming went into his teens he perfected country "Rube" act, one of most popular in thee the road shows of that era, and he toured with the five Burk Brothers in that act, hitting such big towns as Pittsburgh and Newark. Then he went into minstrel work and developed his voice.

He was with the Congress Club Minstrel whose home base was Scranton and specialized in black face, later to be made famous as an act by the late Al Jolson.

Reading in the early part of this century was the center for vaudeville talent and Ed naturally gravitated there and joined the Lunken Greater Show as a clown for Dan Sullivan in his animal act. He added to his black face, piano playing and was with the Bill Emerson Comedy Company for a time and his versatility paid off when he joined the Mat Crown All-Girl Show out of Newark doing white and black face comedy, playing the guitar, piano and banjo.

His native town also saw Fleming in the days before World War I when he played at the old Lyons Opera House on Chestnut street and later he appeared three times in the old Chestnut Street Opera House where the Acme Store now stands.

Scranton was one of his longest stands. He sang in the shows at Street Theatre for two years and then moved on to Williamsport where he become as the "Silver Voice Tenor," singing at the Orpheum and Wonderland.

In Reading he played the Orpheum and Hippodrome, two famous vaudeville houses, appearing in such characterizations as the Shepherd of the Hills, Wild Fire, Potash and Perlmutter, a takeoff on a famous vaudeville team of that era.

He toured the South for two seasons with his Rube act with the Benny Crouse show and appeared in theatres as far west as Chicago. When movies, began to usurp the vaudeville stage, and Charlie Chaplin became famous, Ed perfected an act, an imitation of the famous comedian that startled spectators with its likeness.

When Chaplin's famous film, "The Tramp" appeared in Sunbury, Ed who was then working for the late Jesse Blanchard, publicized the film by his imitation of Chaplin and borrowed a Sunbury lad to complete the act. He has only the Chaplinesque cane left from the costume.

After World War I, Fleming joined up again with Bill Emerson's Comedy Company and it was when the tour closed in 1921, at White Haven Pa, that he forsook the stage. He married the former Carrie Peck while she was with the company as a ticket taker at White Haven, and they came to Sunbury to live and have been residents here since then.

Next Tuesday Ed will celebrate his 73rd birthday. He was born in Sunbury, September 25, 1878. After his retirement from the stage he followed police work in the city and was a constable in the third ward.

Looking back on his more than 30 years on the stage, Fleming admitted that they were great days, but that it took youth and vigor to keep up the pace of touring and one night stands which were the lot of the vaudevillian in those days.

=====================

Although retired from Vaudeville, Fleming continued to dress up as a clown for a variety of events and promotions, right up until his 81st birthday, in 1959.

Eddie Fleming at a clown in 1955, at age 72

Eddie's granddaughter shared this photo, which had obviously been used in the newspaper article above.

1955

Eddie Flemming died in 1964.

His obituary read:

Edward A. Fleming, Sunbury, died in Sunbury Community Hospital Sunday at 9:10 a.m. of complications. He had been in failing health for several months and was in the hospital since Friday. His age was 82.

Mr. Fleming was born in Herndon, September 25, 1881, a son of the late Fred and Sarah Zeigler Fleming and lived in Sunbury his entire life. He was a retired constable and formerly was a desk sergeant for the city. He was also deputy sheriff at one time. He was the last of his immediate family.

A lifelong resident of Sunbury, Mr. Fleming had a varied and interesting career. In his early years he was a circus clown and traveled widely. He also played baseball with Sunbury amateur teams, usually on the same roster with his brother, the late Martin Fleming, who was an outstanding pitcher.

For some years constable of the third ward, Mr. Fleming resigned that office due to this strong aversion to the unpleasant duties involved in evicting families for non-payment of rent. He was a desk sergeant at city police headquarters for a time and also served as a special deputy sheriff. In failing health, he had been unable to work in recent years.

He was a former member of the old Washington Fire Company and was a life long member of the Sunbury Fire Department.

Surviving are his wife, Carrie Peck Fleming and the following children: Mary, wife of Victor Speigelmeyer, of Indiana; Ray W., U.S. Navy, San Francisco, Calif.; William R., of Sunbury; a step-son, Charles Bauman, of Sunbury; 13 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be from the Dornsife funeral home Wednesday at 2 p.m., Captain Lawrence Moretz, of The Salvation Army, officiating. Interment will be in Sunbury Cemetery.

===============
READ MORE
==============

1911 Scranton Truth

Hit by a car 1915, Scranton

1915 Congress Club, Scranton

Scranton 1916

Reading Times, 1917

1919

1931

"CONSTABLES ONLY SUNBURY CANDIDATES YET FILED"

" Nominating petitions for two of Sunbury constables who seek re-election are the only ones yet filed from Sunbury in the office of the county commissioners, it was said today. The petitions are those of W.H.J. Fox , constable of the 8th Ward, and a Republican; and E.A.Fleming, 3rd Ward constable, who is a Democrat. Petitions to have his name placed on both the Republican & Democratic ballots were filed by Fleming."