Lewis Delaney Offield (1903-1978), better known as Jack Oakie, was a versatile comedian who worked in films, stage, television, and radio. He received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940). In the early 1920s he began working as a mimic and comedian in amateur theater, making his professional debut as chorus boy in George M. Cohan's Little Nellie Kelly in 1923. He continued working on Broadway until 1927, when he moved to Hollywood at the end of the silent era, making five silent films over the next two years. He made his first talking motion picture, under a contract with Paramount Pictures, in 1929. When his contract with Paramount expired, Oakie went the freelance route, making some 87 films in the 1930s and 1940s. Because he played in so many college-themed films, he became known as the "World's Oldest Freshman." The plump-faced comedian was also known as "America's Joyboy," and became one of the top and second banana comedians of his day. He was noted for his refusal to wear stage makeup and for his many practiced double- and triple-takes. Oakie was notoriously hard of hearing -- he was functionally deaf -- and was able to perform through most of his career through lip reading and using "vibrations."
Since he was no longer tied to a studio by contract, he was able to also transition to radio with a musical comedy series, Jack Oakie's College, on CBS Radio from 1936 to 1938. The program -- also known as Oakie's College and the Jack Oakie Caravan -- was a pleasant mix of sketch comedy, music, and celebrity guest stars, all framed as a "collegiate-style mock show." In 1937, a 14-yer-old Judy Garland made weekly guest appearances.
Oakie's family had moved to Muskegee, Oklahoma, when he was three, this the "Oakie" in his adopted name. (One source falsely claimed that Oakie was his mother's maiden name; it wasn't -- her maiden name was Jump.) The name Jack reportedly came from the first role he played as an actor.
Oakie's hearing disability limited his career in the 1950s and 1960s, but he was still able to make guest appearances on television and appeared in six films. In 1940, Oakie bought "Marwyck," the former estate of actress Barbara Stanwyck; renamed "Oakridge," Oakie and his second wife have lived there since their marriage in 1950 until his death 28 years later; he spent much of his time there raising Afghan Hounds -- at one time he had over 100 of them on the property. The house and grounds are now a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
The "Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film" as been an annual event sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1981. The School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California established the "Jack Oakie Endowed Chair in Comedy" in 2003. Okie has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and his hand and footprints can be found at Grauman's Chinese Theater. The USC School of Cinematic Arts maintains the Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Charitable Foundation, which provides scholarships.
Here's a 1937 episode of Jack Oakie College, with Judy Garland, George Jessel, radio comic Joe Penner, Al Shaw and Sam Lee, the orchestras of Benny Goodman and George Stoll, and Alexander's Swingtime Chorus. The conceit of the program has Oakie as the president of Oakie College, with the program taking place in the college's fictional "Ephus Hall." Judy Garland sings "Love Is in the Air" and (in honor of Sophie Tucker) "Some of These Days".
Enjoy.
https://archive.org/details/38a43327-1a1b-400b-8e24-912f6a187d06
No comments:
Post a Comment