John and Winnie Henning were early vaudeville performers who comprised the Kill Kare Kouple. They adopted this name with a popular act they performed together wherein Winnie would play various instruments while John danced his famed "Grasshopper Dance", the two exchanging comedic banter all the while. They toured overseas and with the onset of World War I, John would perform in hospitals and on military bases for servicemen and women. When he came back to the states in the thirties vaudeville was on the decline and John acted in one Hollywood film "The Poor Millionaire" (1930) before his sickness, possibly contrived after exposure to poison gas during his war tour, and declining career drove him to retire with Winnie to their home in St. Joseph, Missouri. He is photographed here in formal wear and tweed golf cap, crossing his arms and offering a meek grin to the camera. Hixon applied white hatching in the background surrounding Henning's figure, a signature photo manipulation Hixon used in many of his works.