Tuesday, May 9 at 2 PM

Sharkey was an unusually gifted, trained sea lion who shared the stage with practically every important performer of the first half of the 20th century—from Bob Hope to Ella Fitzgerald, from Broadway to Hollywood and beyond. For decades, Sharkey and his flippered colleagues traveled the world with stops at Ringling Bros, vaudeville houses, Manhattan during the Harlem Renaissance, burlesque nightclubs, movie palaces, Radio City Music Hall, and the legendary studios of early radio, movies, and television, meeting a who’s who of showbiz entertainers, sports superstars, and even a US president. The story of Sharkey is a quirky slice of entertainment history, sure to delight fans of vintage pop culture and Americana, as well as animal lovers.

Gary Bohan Jr. hails from Kingston, New York, where Sharkey was trained, and is the great-grandson of Sharkey’s trainer, Mark Huling. Mr. Bohan also plays trumpet and has performed with the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Joel Grey, and Itzhak Perlman.