To lilnicole215@gmail.com, I repeatedly tried to contact you via YouTube and emails and no reply. You wrote, “Hello, Came across your youtube video named “Lewis and Van”. I am Chappie’s grandaughter. In the info part of the video you stated that if anybody has clear photos of Chappie to please contact you. Well! Hear I am! We have a box full of them. Chappie’s wife Helen is still living and begged me to email you this. Pleae email back at lilnicole215@gmail.com really looking forward to hear from you!” The Lewis and Van male dance duo was active from 1934 to 1955 and began as a Vaudeville juggler act at Earl Carroll’s “Vanities” theater in New York. This theater featured “the portal through which pass the most beautiful girls in America” and was frequently raided for “lewd” activities. Lewis and Van also appeared at the “Five Royal Bagotteers,” but it finally grabbed headlines about 1937 when they completed a series of movie shorts for Vitaphone. Over the years, the dance team appeared with several bands. including Phil Harris throughout most of 1942. “Lewis” was originally Benjamin L. Klein of Philadelphia. He was inducted in the Army in January 1943 and died on March 9, 1943 when he drowned in a creek near Phoenixville, Pa. while stationed with a medical unit at the Valley Forge Medical Hospital. He was survived by his mother. Benny Van continued the act solo for awhile until he was joined by a new partner Charles (Chapple) Nolan who assumed the Lewis name. The new …
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