Tom Manders

 Antoon (Tom) Manders  was a Dutch artist, comedian and cabaret performer. In later role, he became better known as  Dorus.

Biography
Although his birth was officially recorded as having happened on October 24, he was actually born on the 23. His father had himREGISTERED one day later because, for a child born on Sunday, he would not get a day off work.

Already at a young age, his talent for drawing became apparent. He attended theRoyal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands for 3 years and wasACTIVE, among other things, as an advertisement painter and designer of posters. Later he also designed decors for theatre and cabaret, regularly for Lou Bandy, Wim Kanand theatre Carré in Amsterdam.

During World War II, Manders had to work in Germany but after half a year, he fled from hisJOB as a painter. Because of Wim Kan, Manders got the idea to start doing cabaret himself, like his older brother Kees.

 Startingin 1953, Manders was involved with the design of Carel Kamlag's cafe Saint-Germain-des-Prés at the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam. Manders performed there himself as a vagabond, a role that would later become famous asDorus. When VARA offered him an opportunity to perform on television, he had the cafe copied in the studio andSTARTED a successful show that would be broadcast for several years.

Between 1956 and 1962, Manders worked together with organist Cor Steyn for the program De Showboat. Together they createdTRACKS like Twee motten (two moths), Als ik wist dat je zou komen (had I known you would come by) en Bij de marine (in the navy).

Manders got into financial trouble when he tried to produce Dorus movies. In 1967, he won the Zilveren Roos prize andSTARTED a new program, Bij Dorus op schoot (on Dorus' lap). In a particularly famous scene from November 18, a young girl tries to sing the famous Dutch children song Poessie Mauw, of which she endlessly repeated only the title.

Also in 1967, the former chemical products business on the Mauritsstraat 65 in Rotterdam was converted to Cabaret Dorus. This only lasted until 1970 and with the closing of Cabaret Dorus, the show Bij Dorus op schoot also ended. Since 1985, there is a block ofHOUSES in the same location named the Tom Mandershof.

In 1971, Dorus made one more television appearance, in which he scared visitors of Madame Tussauds by pretending to be a wax statue. In the same year, he had another musical hit with In de hemel is geen bier (there is no beer in heaven).

In February 1972, Manders had aCAR accident. In the hospital, he was diagnosed with cancer. Three weeks later he died because of a heart attack.

Musical
In 2009/2010 Albert Verlinde produced a musical about the life of Tom Manders with the title Dorus, the musical. Karel de Rooij and Peter de Jong, better known as Mini & Maxi, played the main roles. The show was written by Lars Boom and Dick van den Heuvel andDIRECTED by Peter de Baan.