C.J. 'Mickey' Emerson(1907-1989)

Born Wayland C. Emerson in Rockford Illinois on July 23, 1907, died Clarence Emerson at 82 on October 14, 1989, in Whittier, California, and interred in Rose Hills Cemetery, Whittier California. Left Home at 13 years old and traveled by hopping freight trains to California. After working as a telegraph operator for Western Union in San Francisco, he entered Vaudeville as a singer in 1920, signed with the Western Vaudeville Managers Association, and played the Orpheum Circuit during the era of mixed vaudeville and film. After 1928 he signed with Radio-Kieth-Orphium (RKO)and continued in vaudeville until it's final demise in the 1930's. Following his early Western Union experience, he became a Licensed Radio Station operator and served in the Merchant Marines WWII. In 1952 he began working in the Motion Picture Industry as a Sound Department Engineering Radio Operator during the age before walkie-talkies, when film radio communication equipment required a licensed operator on the set. He finished his career as a production Sound Mixer where he had friends dating back to his vaudeville days.