Landis, Arthur H., 1917-1986

Arthur H. Landis was born into a family of vaudeville performers in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1917, and spent most of his youth in Redondo Beach, California. Landis joined the 15th International Brigade in 1937 and fought with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion. He worked as a scout, a typographer, and an artillery spotter with the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, and fought in the battles of Aragon and Teruel, where he was injured. Landis also worked for a stint for an intelligence unit, and participated in an aborted operation to blow up the Italian Fleet headquarters. Just before Barcelona fell to Franco, Landis helped load the 15th Brigade Archives onto a Soviet ship. He sailed back to the U.S. on the R.M.S. Ausonia in December 1938. For further biographical information on Landis, and to review the scope and contents of his manuscript collection see, Guide to the Arthur H. Landis Papers, ALBA 66. Landis' mother Alice Fries traveled to small towns across the Midwest and West working variety shows, including the Nut Chorus and Ralston Chorus, as a singer and dancer. Fries became Alice Landis when she married William N. Landis, Arthur's father. William, also a performer, entered the army in 1920. By 1922 the couple was estranged. Alice married her stage partner, Richard Yaryan, and changed her name to Alice Yaryan. The duo performed under the stage name fast-Stepping Man and Maid. In the late 1930s Alice sometimes used Alice Harper as a stage name (her father's name was Harper) when she performed in the duo Harper & King. Fries was a member of the American Guild of Variety Artists.

From the description of Arthur H. Landis photograph collection [graphic]. 1917-1986. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 79863749

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