Jack Shutta

Charles "Jack" Schutte was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 3, 1899. His parents, Charles and Augusta "Gussie", as well as his sister, Ethel, were all in show business. By the early 1910s, they had their own Vaudeville act called "The Three Shutta's All Over the Place". They also played for the troops during WWI. Jack was a golden gloves boxer in his early years and according to his mother-in-law, he once killed a man in a fight who had insulted his mother on stage. The Shutta's traveled quite a bit, eventually ending up in southern California in the early 1940s. He was married several times, lastly to Roberta Strachan with whom he had three daughters. Jack succumbed to lung cancer in Houston, Texas in 1957. His doctor called him one of the bravest men he ever knew in a letter to one of his daughters shortly before his death.