Began Career at 14 : Steve Mills, 92; Leading Comic in Vaudeville

Steve Mills, one of the last of the great vaudeville comedians who worked with the Shubert organization in the 1930s and 1940s, has died. He was 92.

Mills, who last appeared on stage in 1977 in the show “This Was Burlesque,” died Wednesday at his home in this suburb south of Providence. He had been mostly confined to his home since suffering a stroke in 1977.

Mills began his career at 14 when he played amateur night with Fred Allen and Benny Rubin in his hometown of Boston. He then formed the Castle Trio with boyhood friends and broke into vaudeville in the Boston area shortly before World War I.

Army Bugler

After serving as an Army bugler at Ft. Devens, Mass., in 1918, Mills joined the major vaudeville and burlesque circuits.

In 1924, he performed in Billy Gilbert’s “Whiz Bang Babies” and was lead comedian for the first time in 1926 in “Miss Tabasco.” In 1928, Mills was “top banana” for Billy Minsky at the National Winter Garden Theatre in New York.

After signing with the Shubert organization in the early 1930s, Mills appeared in “Three Little Girls,” “No, No Nannette” and “Prince of Pilsen.”

After burlesque closed down in New York in 1937, Mills played New England nightclubs until 1944 when he rejoined Shubert to perform in the operettas “Wildflower” and “Firefly.”

Returned to Clubs

He played “A Lady Says Yes” in New York with Carole Landis, then returned to New England clubs before buying his Warwick home in 1947.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Mills appeared on television talk shows and performed with Mildred Natwick and Hans Conried in “70 Girls 70” in New York, the “Best of Burlesque” show in Las Vegas and the “Minsky Show” in Miami.

Mills is survived by his wife, Abagail, a daughter and four grandchildren.