Sammy Berk was a 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...

 entertainer at the beginning of the 20th century. He is best known for being part of a dancing duo, Berk & Saun, with his wife, Juanita Saun.

Early life

Berk was born in Russia in 1894, where he was part of an acrobatic Russian dancing troupe.

Performing career

After Berk's family emigrated to New York, he performed as part of the Sokoloff Troupe, a Russian dance troupe headed by his uncle. He entered amateur dancing contests, which led to a job at New York's Jardin de Dance cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 and a role in the show "Lilac Domino" on 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...

 in 1914. He also performed a dance duo act with Lillian Broderick.

Berk enlisted in the Navy

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. After the war, Berk teamed with a toe dancer named Valda, but the act disbanded after Berk injured his knee and had to take a break from performing. Once healed, Berk was introduced to Juanita Saun and they formed an act. The pair married in 1920.

Berk & Saun's act combined ballroom and tap dancing with acrobatics. Because they did little talking, they were able to successfully tour all around the world with no language barrier. They toured Europe in 1926.

When vaudeville declined, Berk became a talent agent and manager and Juanita retired from show business.