Quad Cities Icons: Joe Frisco from Milan, IL – Vaudevillian Performer and Comedian

The Quad Cities Icons Series is a collection of paintings by local artist Jon Burns celebrating people of fame and notable achievement who were raised in, grew up around or spent significant time in the Quad-Cities. A showing of the various artworks will take place at Rock Island’s DeSoto Gallery through August.

Joe Frisco from Milan, IL was a vaudevillian performer and comedian who got his start as a jazz dancer. So well known for his dancing he is referenced in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby where he describes a woman as “moving her hands like Frisco.”

Quad Cities Icons: Joe Frisco from Milan, IL – Vaudevillian Performer and Comedian

Jon Burns

Jon Burns is a musician, band leader of the local group Centaur Noir, and a notable Quad-Cities artist whose work has been displayed at numerous galleries in the area. His Q-C Icons series celebrates various people of note who were born, raised or have ties to the Quad-Cities. The series is on display at Rock Island's DeSoto Gallery through the end of August.

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