Notes:
1920: Hazelton Ward 8, Luzerne, Pennsylvania
Barton Mumaw 32, b: PA, moulder iron works
Mazie Mumaw 28, b: PA,
Barlow Mumaw 7, b: PA
1930: Eustis, Lake, Florida, USA
101 St Louuis Ave South St.
Barton F Neuman, 42, mail carrier postal center
Margaret M Mumaw, 35
Barton F Mumaw, 17
16 Oct 1940 - U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
Name: Frank Barton Mumaw
Race: White,
Age: 28
Birth Date: 20 Aug 1912
Birth Place: Hazleton, Pennsylvania
Registration Date: 16 Oct 1940
Registration Place: New York City, New York, New York
Employer: Kermit Love
Weight: 142, Complexion: Light, Eye Color: Brown, Hair Color: Black, Height: 5 9
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, Barton Mumaw, a leading modern dancer in the 1930's, an independant choreographer, a dancer in Broadway musicals and a tireless advocate for dance, died here Monday. He was 88.
Mumaw was born :in Hazleton, Pa., and raised in Eustis, Fla., where he began his dance training.
After seeing a touring performance by Denishawn a pioneering company led by modern dance icons Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn he left Florida to study with Shawn, making his debut in "Job, A Masque for Dancing" in New York in 1931.
Also serving as Shawn's chauffeur and dresser, Mumaw remained an ensemble dancer through the last days of Denishawn, but from 1933 to 1940 became a leading, soloist and teacher in Shawn's next company, Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers; a company intended to erase the long standing assumption that male dancers were effeminate.
Shawn made his company headquarters at a farm in Beckett, MA., that soon became the famed Jacob's Pillow Dance Center, where Mumaw would return regularly to teach and perform throughout his life.
Mumaw also choreographed solos for himself at this time, some of them incorporated into Shawn's works.
But the company disbanded at the start of World War II. During the war, Mumaw performed for troops and taught physical education as an Air Force entertainment specialist stationed in England.
On his return to the United States, he resumed his association with Shawn, presented a number of solo programs and worked extensively in musicals in New York and on tour, including "Annie Get Your Gun," "Out of this World," "The Golden Apple" and "My Fair Lady".
Mumaw also choreographed an off-Broadway production of "Dark of the Moon" in 1958.
In 1972, the year Shawn died, Mumaw moved to St. Petersburg, Fla. and the following year he reconstructed Shawn's "Kinetic Molpai" for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
Among his later projects he worked with Jacob's Pillow researchers to add music to early silent films of Shawn choreographics.
He gave his last performance in 1981 at the 50th anniversary of Jacob's Pillow, now the oldest dance festival in the United States.
And he will always be identified with the Pillow, if only because the weather vane on top of the Ted Shawn Theatre is a cast iron silhouette of him dancing.
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Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, PA, Sunday July 15, 2001, page C5
by Ray Saul
Local native Barton Mumaw was a leading dancer-choreographer
Hazleton native Baron Mumaw, who died June 18 at age 88, was a leading modern dancer and choreographer, who was relatively unknown in Hazleton despite being a giant in the world of dance.
One of the goals of CAN DO Inc. the area's award-winning industrial development organization, is to provide the type of high-paying jobs that attract college graduates with local roots back to this area to live, work and raise families.
People like Mumaw wouldn't fit into that category because of his choice of vocation. He is one of the many who left Hazleton and went on to fame and fortune, and I believe those of us who chose to stay her owe it to ourselves to know about the achievements of people like Mumaw.
To make it to the top in the arts, talented people have to go either to the big cities or to Hollywood. Mumaw was born in this area but started his dance training in Eustis, Fla., where he grew up.
After seeing a performance by modern dance icons of his teen years, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, billed as Denishawn, Mumaw left Florida to study with Shawn. He made his debut in "Job, a Masque for Dancing," in 1931 in New York.
Shawn took a liking to Mumaw and hired him as his chauffeur and dresser while Mumaw doubled as an ensemble dancer in Denishawn productions.
Shawn formed a new company, Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers, in 1933 and the talented Mumaw became a leading soloist and teacher in the company, which performed until 1940. One of Shawn's goals was to erase the longstanding assumption that male dancers were effeminate.
"When we'd go to the West, there'd be threats before the performance, people saying they were going to break it up and throw things." Mumaw told the Washington Post in 1993. "Then the curtain went up on these six or eight very athletic looking, well muscled men glaring at each other, it kind of took the wind out of their sails. We never had a public demonstration."
When the company disbanded at the start of World War II, Mumaw turned to entertaining the troops and teaching physical education as an Army Air Corp entertainment specialist in England.
It is probable that Hazleton area residents who love live theater in New York saw Mumaw perform after the war. He appeared extensively in musicals in New York and on tour, including "Annie Get Your Gun", "Out of the World", "The Golden Apple" and "My Fair Lady".
Following the death of Shawn in 1972, Mumaw moved to St. Petersburg, Fla. His final performance was in 1981 at the 50th annicersary of Jacob's Pillow, the oldest dance festival in the United States.
Mumaw joined former Denishawn dancer Jane Sherman in publishing Barton Mumaw: From Denison to Jacob's Pillow and Beyond.
"Dance is a visual and physical message of the soul," Mumaw said in an interview in the St. Petersburg Times in 1988, adding "to move with awareness is to be close to God. To move well, is a constant state of prayer."
I appreciate the help of longtime friend Bob Burns of Santa Cruz, Calif., as well as Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times and the writers for the other newspapers mentioned for their assistance with this segment. (Burns was married to the late Ruth Tomasick Burns, a native of Hazleton Heights)