Theodore Rauch married Clara Kahan in the Bronx on July 6, 1924. Their first child, Harold, was followed by William Sidney on July 27, 1927.
Rauch made a good living owning a pharmacy. By the 1930s the family had moved to 136-05 Sanford Ave. in Flushing, apartment 4G.
Harold became a biology teacher but William changed his name to Will Jordan and became a nightclub entertainer by the age of 21.
For a quarter of a century, “The Ed Sullivan Show” was a must-see Sunday night TV show. Sullivan had a wooden, awkward physical presence. It was not meant to be funny, but Jordan created a comic version of him for the big screen.
Sullivan appeared as himself in a handful of films, but after he died in 1974, Jordan did his imitation of him in six movies, starting with “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1978.
He put on a wonderful show. As one commenter said on a Dead Comedians Society Facebook post about Jordan, “Most ‘Sullivan’ impressions are/were impressions of Will Jordan’s version of Sullivan.”
Jordan passed away on Sept. 6, 2018, at age 91. He is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale.