John Angelo papers, 1920-2018

John Angelo was a model, dancer, choreographer, actor, set and costume designer, and theater arts educator who appeared in or was a production member of Broadway and Las Vegas musicals and Hollywood motion pictures, as well as a member of prominent national dance companies. Later he became a prop man and set designer for television and motion pictures and a theater arts instructor in West Hollywood, California.

Angelo was born Giovanni Anginoni to Sam and Josephine Angelo on June 24, 1922 in Newark, New Jersey. He had two younger brothers, Sam and Joe. As a teenager, Angelo discovered he had a natural ability to dance. During the 1940s, he relocated to New York where he modeled and performed with the Strawbridge Ballet Company, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the Karoun Tootikian Company, and the Ruth St. Denis Company. He also performed in Broadway theater and briefly taught at the Dunham School of Dance and Theater in New York.

His talents provided him the opportunity to perform musicals for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and dance for some of the most famous Las Vegas hotels. He danced in such films as An American in Paris and Singing in the Rain. He also acted in bit parts and as an extra in a number of motion pictures including From Here to Eternity, Jump into Hell, Dangerous Mission, and Lust for Life. Angelo’s involvement in the West Coast film industry prompted him to settle down in West Hollywood in the early 1950s.

He frequently collaborated with his friend, the actor David Bond (born Alfredo Allegro) until Bond’s death in 1989. The two men worked closely on establishing a West Coast chapter of the American National Theater and Academy (ANTA) in the late 1950s and the Hollywood Shakespeare Festival during the early 1960s. In the late 1970s, Angelo also participated in the founding of the Professional Dancers Society, a non-profit corporation formed to serve the professional dancer, active and inactive.

Angelo went on to explore propping for television and motion pictures. In 1977, Angelo became a member of IATSE Local 44 as a prop man. He got his start propping on the television series Police Woman and went on to other televisions series such as Hart to Hart, Knots Landing, and the Redd Foxx Show. Angelo worked at Lorimar as an assistant to Pierre Beauvais, and for the Warner Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Sony Pictures prop departments. At age 70, Angelo retired as a prop man and taught acting through West Hollywood theater workshops. He wrote several children and adult plays that were performed by students in his acting workshops. He also went on to produce and direct his own West Hollywood public access talk show, John Angelo Interviews.

His love of West Hollywood and longstanding engagement in public affairs earned him a number of community service awards. He was also prominent member of West Hollywood’s LGBT community. Angelo’s interests included assisting at a local Japanese healing center and he was a devotee to the Baha’i faith.