Coppin, Ted (1886 - 1942) and Della (1909 - 1977) Their stage names were "Ted and Sally Banks. Della started in show business at the age of 8. In 1927 she became a "box hopper" for Blackstone's act. She soon married Ted Banks, Blackstone's stage manager, who had come to the United States from England in an act with actors Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Ted died and Sally, then 42, remained to look after the Blackstone property here in Colon and help raise Harry Jr. Sec 5; Row 21: # 2
TED AND DELLA PHOTO GALLERY
Ted worked with Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin - read about it here
Do you like "Once upon a time" stories?
If the answer is yes try this one on for size. Once upon a time three fellows got together and formed a performing troupe and were hired by the then famous Fred Karno, who had many small troupes touring England, the continent, and the United States.
These small groups did skits and sketches and were very popular in the early days of vaudeville. Around 1912 this particular trio was playing in America, and one of the fellows decided to go to Hollywood and try to break in to the new field called "The Movies."
The two remaining partners tried to continue for a while until one of them also decided to go to Hollywood and get into the "Movies."
The remaining fellow met and joined the Harry Blackstone show and became Blackstone's good friend and stage manager, and worked the Blackstone show until 1942 when he died. His name was Ted Banks, husband of Sally Banks who related this interesting piece of information.
As to the other 2 partners, who left to go to Hollywood - the first one was a chap named Charlie Chaplin, and the other was a hardy little guy named Stan Laurel!
Sally Banks was born Della Coppin near Pittsburgh in 1900. Her career in show business started at the age of 8. In 1927 she was working in Chicago for Ernie Young's Revue. They had finished rehearsing and she had a couple of weeks off when she met a man who was looking for girls to work in Harry Blackstone's Magic show.
Sally went to Colon for her vacation, not to get a job but just to see what these tricks were all about. She was so fascinated with Blackstone that she never went back to Ernie Young's Revue. Instead, she became a box hopper for Harry Blackstone. A box hopper is a girl who crawls into a box and disappears, or she might crawl into a box and get sawed in half. But Sally didn't like the buzz-saw trick. "It looked too dangerous," she remembers. "Besides, I was too small."
That following summer Sally married Blackstone's stage manager, Ted Banks. Ted was from England. He had come to the United States with Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, of Laurel and Hardy.
Their three-man act broke up after Chaplin was called to California and later Laurel followed him. Ted might have gone too, but he threw up his hands and said, "Ah, that silent picture stuff is just a fad. It'll wear off."
He took a job with Blackstone. After Ted and Sally were married, they continued with the show traveling with 37 people, three carloads of tricks and a menagerie of animals. Sally assisted in acts and even made her own costumes. September through May they traveled throughout the United States and Canada. Summers they returned to Colon, making plans and props for the next year's show.
In the fall of 1942 Sally said she wasn't feeling well. Blackstone suggested she stay in Colon and close up the cottages for the winter and join them in a couple of weeks. Sally had taken care of business and had purchased her ticket to join the troupe but never got that far.
The show had been on the road only two weeks when they opened at the Lincoln Theater in Decatur, Illinois. They were playing to a crowd of 3,000, mostly children. Ted Banks came on stage and whispered into Blackstone's ear that a serious fire had started in the Rambo Drug Store building next door and the fire chief had ordered everyone out of the building.
Harry went on with the show, "For my next act," he told the audience, "I want everyone to follow me outside where I will perform the greatest trick you have ever seen." Everyone followed him outside and watched the burning of what proved finally to be many buildings. The fire would last for four hours and would completely gut the drug store and Cook Jewelers, which shared the space. The Lincoln Theater was not one of them.
Ted Banks had been scurrying about backstage to get the most expensive equipment our of the theater and went to bed that night exhausted. He never got up. Sally had no need for her ticket after she got the call that Ted had died of a heart attack at age 56.
Sally Banks continued to work with the Blackstone show but later told Harry that she did not want to go on the road anymore. He hired her as general manager of the island and a superintendent of the household.
During the winter she stayed alone in the house, which was not a very agreeable occupation on a deserted island surrounded by ice. During a blizzard she would be cut off from civilization (meaning Colon) for days at a time. There would be plenty of food and fuel, but what would she do if she were to become ill? Her friends expressed their concerns and Sally put the question to rest when she thought about it and devised a scheme. The house was visible to one of her friends across the lake. If she got into trouble, she would put a red light in the window. Keep in mind that this was before telephones were common.
All was well until some time later when Sally decided to put a Christmas tree up. She had forgotten about the red light idea. Soon after stringing the lights and lighting up her creation, Sally was embarrassed when a goodly number of Colon citizens arrived at her door to rescue her!
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