Shortly thereafter, our "Jimmy" met Billie Bowen, an actress at the Garden Cabaret in New York. Reportedly, after just three days, on June 23. 1917, on a dare, they got married! Their marital life ended after three weeks when he enlisted in the army. He underwent training at Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg, S.C. (company I, 52nd Pioneer infantry Regiment ****).

Jim(my) Burke who held the rank of top Sergeant (aka "scrappin' sergeant") served 18 months (1917-18), 8 months in France and 10 months in hospital...

In France, his first real battle (September 1918) took him to Saint-Mihiel and in the Argonne forest he was badly gassed and wounded by shrapnel. "...he tore Germans to pieces with his squad of men like a mad man. He was a demon, they say of him, for punishment..."
Fearing that he mightn't live "Jimmy" was picked up and carried away to hospital.

He spent 10 months in a French Hospital and later Staten Island. It was there in the Fox Hill hospital for invalided soldiers that he first met Miss Durkin. She was entertaining the soldiers with he songs. Eleanor Marguerite Durkin, originally from Kansas, worked in vaudeville and was part of "The Durkin Sisters"**, a musical comedy act. By the end of 1919 Burke emerged limping and wabbling a bit, but ready to throw off his old khaki and get back behind the footlights.

He dropped into a song publishing office one day and casually remarked that he'd soon be back on the stage. Of course, he had no idea Miss Durkin was within a hundred miles of the place, but as he turned to leave he came face to face with that young woman! She remembered him and he remembered her, and the two decided their voice would go well together, and why not try a turn in the two-a-day?

So by the end of 1919 and in the early months (Feb-May) of 1920 Burke was back touring the Central West and South whilst performing in vaudeville. James Burke and Eleanor Durkin performed together a vaudeville routine of songs and chatter initially without a title for their act or were sometimes subtitled as "A Boy - A Girl -A Piano and Some Songs". Around the Summer of 1920 they started naming the act A Tête-à-Tête in Song* (aka Music and Chatter, 1920-1924).

Upon his return, he had found his wife living in luxury, and her only explanation was that 'Bert' was paying her expenses. This information was given to Attorney Benjamin Ehrlich by Burke, who filed suit for divorce in February 1920 in the Circuit Court against Mrs. Elizabeth Catherine Burke, charging desertion. By April 1920 James was granted a divorce.

One year later he married Eleanor Durkin in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec. They continued performing. Burke who handled most of the singing, had a unique delivery that made his numbers count for double value, while "Miss" Durkin, who also played the piano, was by no means in the background when it came to voice and personality.

Their 20 minutes program evolved over time but sufficient descriptions remain. Burke gave an "edition de luxe et de comedie" of the "Home Again Blues". He then demonstrated how a possible proposal of marriage would take place in 1940. In that case the woman proposed to the man. One of the best bits was Burke's impression of Bert Williams singing You Cannot Make Your Shimmy Shake of Tea. The act closed with a comedy song, When Frances Dances with Me. Burke was praised for "his ability to handle his feet'. His forte was coon songs but he could also handle tough kid songs.

If I Could Only Think written by Teddy Wild, was a new skit of song and patter for James and Eleanor was offered starting October 1924 in Albany, N.Y. playing Glens Falls the last half. Special songs in the act by Gilbert Wells and J. Rosamond Johnson.

Early 1927 they were seen in theaters on the West Coast trying out a new routine: Paying Off the Second Mortgage (Orpheum, Jan 27. 1927). "Burke and Durkin" were part of an overall program. This was part of "Innovation Week" at the Orpheum, where instead of a show of consecutive individual acts, Herman Timberg put together one show with 6 to 8 acts in which the performers also interacted with each other. The whole thing was not received positively by critics.

On March 31. 1927 it was reported that James and Eleanor, Keith and Orpheum circuit vaudeville stars, had returned to their New Rochelle home after a tour of the West, including Hollywood, and that they may return to the film colony within a few months to take parts offered to them by a producer who saw them on the stage in Los Angeles.

As announced on October 31, 1928, the C.B. Maddock unit truly began in March 1929 with a show called Topical Topics (aka Typical Topics), led by Burke and Durkin. Their group consisted of approximately 25 members, including the main performers and a chorus of 12. It ran for 80 minutes at the Jefferson. The concept was a repeat of the innovation they were part of on the West Coast. Two mixed teams formed the body of the show, with Burke serving as the master of ceremonies and presiding in a supervisory capacity, in addition to the regular specialty of the pair near the end of the evening. Critics were harsh, stating, "Lots of loose material presented in rather a jumble. Still needs knitting."

August 1929 James Burke and Eleanor Durkin performed their vaudeville act for Vitaphone Varieties*** films (reel 888) in A Tête-à-Tête in Songs* . Directed by Murray Roth it was shot in a drawing room they played among others "Sincerely Yours" (Pink-ard-Belledna-Casey); "I'm from the East Side and She's from Tenth Avenue" (Eagen); "The Greeks Have Taken Dear Old Dixieland". The film had to be re-shot. It was released October 14. 1929.

Meanwhile, they continued to perform with If I Could Only Think until they were announced in an act called Just Ourselves by November 1929.

According to the census of April 1930, James resides in New York with his wife (and in-laws) and their newly adopted daughter.

During their performances in 1930 (June-Aug) Burke now was imitating Maurice Chevalier with the song Nobody's Using it Now. By the end of October 1930 they were performing A Tête-à-Tête in Song* in Eleanor's home town Kansas City.

Presumably, shortly thereafter, the couple traded the East Coast for the West Coast and Hollywood.

He quickly became known for portraying rugged police officers with Irish accents, often given names such as Muldoon, Mulligan, Kelly, Maloney, or Burke (!). When not portraying the dense law enforcer or the understanding, compassionate officer, he occasionally appeared in period films in minor roles as soldiers or guards. For years, he was a reliable choice in Hollywood for roles as city police officers, which he portrayed with a wry smile and vibrant accent.

Burke starred in several comedies starring W.C. Fields (1933-34). Many of his film roles up to 1935 were uncredited.

Brief Candle (Oct 23. 1933) was a comedy drama for stage produced by the Beverly Hills Little Theatre. James Burke played a hard-boiled sailor and garnered most of the laughs, displaying his vaudeville delivery in handling gag lines. "The piece is unsatisfactory theater, starting nowhere and ending in the same place." (Variety)

In Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (Columbia, Feb 18. 1934) he (again uncredited) played a detective opposite Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. One of his best roles was as Charles Ruggles' rowdy rancher pal in Ruggles of Red Gap (Paramount,  Mar 8. 1935).

In October 1935 Eleanor was recuperating at the Pasadena Hospital after a major operation only to return home by November just when Burke signed for Song and Dance Man (20th Century-Fox, Mar 11. 1936), in which he appeared with Ruth Donnelly and Claire Trevor.

Vaudeville was never far away. In February 1936, it was reported that James temporarily turned to writing. He penned a vaudeville act which Regis Toomey would take on the road. Burke also wrote another act currently starring Toby Wing, incorporating one of the special songs his wife sang in vaudeville: Girls Never Be Brilliant, Be Dumb.

In Flight Into Nowhere (Columbia, Apr 19. 1938) Burke was ideally cast as the flippant, bragging pilot Ike Matthews. In Beau Geste (Paramount, Jul 24. 1939) Burke had the important role of Lieutenant Dufour, and his brother Thomas Burke also appeared in the movie as an extra.

Between 1940 and 1942, James Burke played Sergeant Velie in all seven Ellery Queen movies by Larry Darmour Productions. In the first four, he acted alongside Ralph Bellamy (as Ellery Queen) and Charley Grapewin (as Inspector Richard Queen), and in the last three movies, he acted alongside William Gargan, who took over the lead role from Ralph. There were no changes in his character, which one critic described as "Sergeant Velie, whose feet are almost as flat as his head!" The series was not a success.