GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES > 2011-04 > 1303743903


From: "Lisa Lepore" <>
Subject: Re: [GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES] The magician who disappeared... )o:
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:05:03 -0400
References: <AANLkTin9f=BBvdu02+UTFNSRsnxvs8EA5jR+UVhU9Rc9@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTin9f=BBvdu02+UTFNSRsnxvs8EA5jR+UVhU9Rc9@mail.gmail.com>


If you search for Jack Lane and his lovebirds at google.com one of the
places you will find
him is in Billboard Magazine. When you get to that page, there is a place to
search across all
issues of the Magazine.

In the July 11, 1942 issue there is a personal ad
"Jack Lane Trained Love Bird Act - Contact your family in
New York Immediately - urgent"

In 1946 he was in Virginia.

If you use all the mentions in Billboard, you could put together a time line
of where he was at various times. That might help pin him down a little.

Lisa


-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of Connie K
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 9:41 AM
To:
Subject: [GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES] The magician who disappeared... )o:

I have a big mystery - I think in part because of the name changes and in
part because there is no paper trail. I think this grandfather never even
dropped a gum wrapper. I'm stumped.

These are my only clues. The grandfather (Nels Jacob Kangas or Jack Kangas
or Jacob Kangas or Jack Lane) looked and sounded exactly like Paul Kangas
from the Nightly Business Report and so did Jack's son. And I mean exact -
not slightly similar - but could be twins.

We know the grandmother (Linda Dagmar Toivonen) came into the country from
Canada and may have met Jack there. I did find a border crossing (29 Dec
1930)- but she may have used fake info. (There is a sorted story about why
her and her aunt left Canada - the aunt worked as a maid and then married
her employer - Baldwin - who then suddenly died)

The grandmother was born 10 Sep 1915 in Finland.

There is a family story that in 1934 Jack and Dagmar were in the theater
with Dillinger the night he was shot in NY. In 1935 their first son was
born in San Antonio TX. I'm not sure if they ever married. On the birth
certificate, father is listed as Nels Jacob Kangas and he is a traveling
salesman. Grandmother is listed as T Maki Allen. I think she overstayed
her visa and was afraid of being deported so she used a fake name. In 1940
they had another son in NYC and that's when Jack disappeared. The
grandmother became a naturalized citizen Aug 1950.

After posting this info on the Internet - I met a man who knew Jack in later
years (but the man was a child - so they are faded memories) - but his aunt
Olga Luckenbach married Jack and they ran a hardware store in Camden NJ.
Jack died in 1958 (I think at 51 years old).

We had heard that Jack was an entertainer - magician - who traveled with the
circus, was on Kukla Fran and Ollie, Ed Sullivan, etc - but we can find no
info except this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Qre3HIhLY

I can find no birth record, no marriage record, can't obtain the death
record without knowing who his parents were, can't find an obit, SS,
immigration nothing. I asked for two birth searches in MI - nothing. The
grandmother and both son's are now gone.

Someone put this link out for me: (I need to update some info)

http://photographsfromthepast.com/photo1a8.html

Any advise would be great! Thanks ! Connie


Border Crossing for the grandmother: ( I think)
Ilma Dagmar Johnson
[Ilma Dagma Toivonen] Arrival Date: 29 Dec 1930 Port of Arrival:
International
Falls, Minnesota, United States Departure Contact: Father John Johnson
Age: 18 Years 7 Months Birth Date: abt 1912 Birth Place: Kinney MN
Gender: Female Race/Nationality: Finnish Record has photo?: No Record
Type: Cards

This thread: