HERBERT SARTELLE (1885-1955)

Herbert Sartelle was born in Buffalo, New York on April 24, 1885, the son of Martha Sartelle and Earl Herbert Burdick. At eighteen he left home to join the Barnum & Bailey Circus where he worked with magicians and soon became an accomplished one himself. In 1909 Sartelle returned to New York City to work for Rogers & Hammerstein and later with the R.K.O. circuit. During his 25 years in show business Herbert Sartelle worked avocationally as a painter, sketching and painting for his own pleasure. Upon leaving show business in 1928, he settled in Los Angeles. At that time Earl Burdick Jr. changed his name to his mother's maiden name and adopted his middle name. As Herbert Sartelle, he traveled about southern California painting nature as he saw it while continuing to book dates as a magician. A highly skilled and prolific landscape painter, from his brush came many desert scenes which are infused with light and capture the beauty of the Palm Springs and San Diego areas. He also found great inspiration in the area's purplish mountains and its rolling hills with poppies and lupines. Sartelle died in Los Angeles on October 15, 1955.

Herbert Sartelle biography courtesy of Edan Hughes.