[BP] a cautionary tale

[Met History]

As apartment house popularity rose, rowhouse owners soon began  taking in boarders, like Frank Oakley - who  committed suicide in his room at 308 West 71st Street in 1916. Oakley  was known as Slivers the Clown, and toured with the Barnum & Bailey circus. He had fallen for Viola Stoll, a young vaudeville actress, and  remained so even after she stole the jewelry of his late wife. When he  tried to have her paroled from prison by proposing marriage, she  rejected him.