Jack Pepper was an American vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 dancer, singer, comedian, musician, and later in life a Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 manager.

Pepper began entertaining on Vaudeville in his youth with his sisters Helen and Winnie Mae. Jack Pepper first came to national prominence in the 1920s as part of the duo "Salt and Pepper" with Frank Salt. Pepper sang and played ukulele in a style similar to that of Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...

 in addition to doing comic and dance bits. "Salt and Pepper" appeared prominently in Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 revues, made radio broadcasts, and recorded a number of sides for Cameo Records

Cameo Records

Cameo was a USA based budget record label, first flourishing in the 1920s, not connected with a later record label of the same name which was active in the 1950s and 1960s.The Cameo Record Company was based in Manhattan, New York...

 in the mid 1920s.

After striking out on his own Pepper teamed up with dancer Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

 as "Ginger and Pepper". Rogers and Pepper were married from 1929 to 1931. While the marriage was short lasting, they continued to speak respectfully of each other all their lives.

1929 also marked the first of Pepper's sound film appearances.

By his second wife, Dawn, Pepper was the father of actress Cynthia Pepper

Cynthia Pepper

Cynthia Pepper is a blonde American actress whose principal work was accomplished during the early 1960s. Born Cynthia Anne Culpepper in Hollywood, California, she was the daughter of entertainer Jack Pepper , and Pepper's second wife, Dawn...

.

In 1940 he appeared in the films Rhythm on the River

Rhythm on the River

Rhythm on the River is a 1940 musical comedy film starring Bing Crosby and Mary Martin as ghostwriters whose songs are credited to a composer played by Basil Rathbone. James V...

 and Road to Singapore

Road to Singapore

Road to Singapore is a 1940 Paramount Pictures film starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope, which marked the debut of the long-running and popular "Road to …" series of pictures spotlighting the trio.-Plot:...

. Drafted during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he toured with the USO.

Pepper continued to appear in films as a character actor into the 1960s.

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