Allen Doone
actor, singer, songwriter
b. Amboy, Illinois Sep. 3, 1878
d. Reno, Nevada May 4, 1948
Alen Doone, circa 1911. Clipping from unknown newspaper, Sep. 1917, from a scrapbook at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The Robinson Locke Collection of Dramatic Scrapbooks, Series 3 Vol. 375, p. 65
Allen Doone was an actor and singer, and in the early part of his career played bagpipes in his act. Glamour and exaggeration were so much a part of the way he presented himself that it is hard to say what was real, what false. To begin with, his parents were from Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, Ireland. He often claimed to have been born there, even attesting to this in a US passport application. But other sources, including an application for US Social Security funds, give the birthplace as Amboy, Illinois, west of Chicago. Allen Doone was his "professional" or stage name; his given name was Edward Allen.
His youth was spent in Idaho and Washington states, at or near Spokane, Washington. Handsome, athletic, he was known in the region as a bicycle racer. "As he grew older his beautiful tenor voice was demanded on the stage and he went out supporting well known stars in Irish plays, for he soon found that was his specialty - delineation of Irish types."
By 1904 he was touring nationally with Edna Keeley, later to become his wife, in the short play "The Irish Piper," in which he "plays the bagpipe and sings most pleasingly...." Other plays followed, which he may have written. Through 1916 he is mentioned as playing the bagpipes, or "Irish bagpipes," usually as an opener or preface to singing.
It is not certain what kind of pipes they were. I have found, after reading thousands of references to "Irish pipes," that up to 1912 or so, this was almost always a reference to what are now called uilleann pipes, and seldom to mouth-blown versions of Highland pipes. On the other hand, James Quealy, who met Doone in Oakland, California in 1910, wrote that "Although he has something like a doz[en set]s of bag pipes ... he claims that the one mentioned is the only real Irish bag-pipe in existence. That is, pipes similar to the music of those to which they marched to battle in the brave days of old. Certainly Doone's pipes are different to any I have ever seen. Elaborate silver-mounted affairs they are." In other articles Doone claimed to have invented the pipes he played.
An article promoting his appearance at the Bijou Theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii, 1916, reports Doone "will play the Irish bagpipes, which, he says, 'differ from Scotch bagpipes by sounding like two yowling cats, instead of like only one.' "
Doone led a remarkable well-travelled life. Much of his career was spent in Australia, from 1909 to 1938, with some time in South Africa. In 1917 he starred in and financed his play "Lucky O'Shea" on Broadway, in New York City. It was not a success.
He had a successful, enduring and apparently lucrative career on stage in Australia. There he was also well-known as an automobile racer, attempting long-distance records. In 1915 he starred in an Australian silent film, "The Rebel," now considered lost.
By 1941 Doone was retired and back in the United States. His last years were spent in Reno, Nevada, where he died May 4, 1948, survived by his widow Edna Keeley Allen. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Tacoma, Washington and the name on the stone is Edward D. Allen.
Selected References
"Allen Doone to Play at Bijou All Next Week" Honolulu [HI] Star-Bulletin Feb. 4, 1916 p. 7 column 4
Newspapers.com
"Amusements. Allen Doone as Terry the Piper...." Oshkosh WI Daily Northwestern Aug. 9, 1904 p. 4 column 5
Newspapers.com
Cantwell, Eddie "Actor, Singer, Film Maker and All-round Sportsman, Dungarvan's 20th Century Celebrity" Dungarvan [Ireland] Leader June 23, 2017 p. 28?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DC2vdZiXoAAIh9T.jpg
Quealy, James "On the Road" NY Irish American Advocate June 4, 1910 p. 6 column 1
New York NY Irish American Advocate 1911 - 0197
"Spokane Boy Headliner at Pantages Next Week" Spokane [WA] Press Sep. 17, 1910 p. 2 column 6
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1910-09-17/ed-1/seq-2/
White, Matthew, Jr. "Allen Doone's Mistake" Munsey's Magazine Vol. LXII No. 3 Dec. 1917 pp. 518-19
https://books.google.com/books?id=Vp3NAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA518&dq=allen+doone&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiX2I3lg73XAhUl7YMKHZ1XAq8Q6AEIOzAE#v=onepage&q=allen%20doone&f=false
Nick Whitmer
July 2018