Editing Joe Penner

{{short description|American actor (1904–1941)}}
{{Redirect|Joseph Pinter|the Hungarian chess player|József Pintér}}
{{Infobox person
| name                      = Joe Penner
| image                     = Go Chase Yourself lobby card 1938.JPG
| image_size                =
| alt                       =
| caption                   = Lobby card from ''[[Go Chase Yourself]]'' (1938) with [[June Travis]], Joe Penner, and [[Lucille Ball]]
| birth_name                = József Pintér
| birth_date                = {{birth date|1904|11|11}}
| birth_place               = [[Nagybecskerek]], ([[Zrenjanin]]), [[Austria-Hungary]] (now [[Serbia]])
| death_date                = {{death date and age|1941|1|10|1904|11|11}}
| death_place               = [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, U.S.
| resting_place             =
| nationality               =
| occupation                = Radio & film comedian
| years_active              = 1931–1940
| spouse                    = {{marriage|Eleanor May Vogt|1928}}
}}

'''Joe Penner''' (born '''József Pintér'''; November 11, 1904 – January 10, 1941) was an American vaudeville, radio, and film comedian.

==Vaudeville and burlesque==
In 1917, Penner's acts in which he dressed as Charlie Chaplin earned him 38 cents per week.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |title='Duck' laugh and catch phrases are Joe Penner's stock in trade |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/101047469 |access-date=February 12, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=April 1, 1934 |page=X-11|id={{ProQuest|101047469}} }}</ref> Thanks to his clowning and "Wanna Buy a Duck?" routine, he was soon in small-time burlesque and vaudeville. A high point came when he performed in the ''Greenwich Village Follies'' in Chicago in 1926. After this break, he toured in mainstream vaudeville until its gradual demise around 1932.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

==Radio==
[[File:Riggspenner.jpg|right|thumb|NBC brought together (l to r) [[Bob Burns (comedian)|Bob Burns]], [[Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou|Tommy Riggs]], Charlie McCarthy, [[Edgar Bergen]], [[Rudy Vallée]] and Joe Penner.]]
Penner's films include ''[[College Rhythm]]'' (1934) and ''[[New Faces of 1937]]''. He developed his catch phrases in burlesque. In 1932 he toured in a vaudeville revue with [[Eddie Tamblyn]], father of actor [[Russ Tamblyn]]. He was launched on his successful radio career by [[Rudy Vallée]], appearances which led to his own Sunday evening half-hour, ''[[The Baker's Broadcast]]'', which began on NBC's [[Blue Network]] on October 8, 1933. Penner was a zany comic, noted for his famed [[catchphrase]], "Wanna buy a duck?", and his low hyuck-hyuck laugh.

He was voted radio's top comedian in 1934, but a 1935 dispute with the ad agency over the show's format resulted in Penner quitting ''The Baker's Broadcast'' on June 30, 1935. ''[[Vox Pop (radio)|Vox Pop]]'' began as a summer replacement series for Penner in 1935. A year later, he returned with ''The Joe Penner Show'', which began airing October 4, 1936 on [[CBS]], sponsored by Cocomalt, with Harry Conn as his new head writer.<ref name="Young">{{cite book|author=Jordan Young|title=Writing for Jack Benny and Joe Penner: Interviews with Comedy Writers|url=https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Jack-Benny-Joe-Penner-ebook/dp/B00R2FEJ1W/|date=2014|publisher=Amazon Digital Services, Inc|pages=1–57}}</ref>

==Reception in film==
He was caricatured by [[Tex Avery]] and [[Friz Freleng]] in the musical cartoon, ''[[My Green Fedora]]'',  the Popeye the Sailor cartoon  ''[[Popeye the Sailor filmography (Fleischer Studios)|Can You Take It?]]'', several pictures starring the bumbling stooge [[Egghead (Looney Tunes)|Egghead]], and the [[Disney]] cartoon ''[[Mother Goose Goes Hollywood]]'' in which he says "Wanna buy a duck?" with [[Donald Duck]] on a plate.

After covering the 1932–34 rise of [[Jack Pearl]], [[Elizabeth McLeod]] summed up Penner's popularity:<blockquote>The ultimate Depression-era zany was Joe Penner. A forgotten performer today to most, and little more than a footnote to the average OTR [old-time radio] fan, Penner was a national craze in 1933–34.  There is no deep social meaning in his comedy, no shades of subtlety — just utter slapstick foolishness, delivered in an endearingly simpering style that's the closest thing the 1930s had to [[Pee-wee Herman]]. An added attraction was Penner's in-character singing each week of a whimsical novelty song, specially written to suit his style. Like Pearl, however, Penner was doomed to early decline by the sheer repetitiveness of his format, even though he remained very popular with children right up to the end of his radio career.<ref>[http://www.midcoast.com/~lizmcl/rfy.html McLeod, Elizabeth. "Radio's Forgotten Years: Tuning Thru the Great Depression," 1998.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303235626/http://www.midcoast.com/~lizmcl/rfy.html |date=2009-03-03 }}</ref> </blockquote>

==Personal life==
In 1928, he married showgirl Eleanor May Vogt.<ref name=mwotrc>{{Cite web | url=http://www.mwotrc.com/rr2009_02/penner.htm | title=Radio Recall – MWOTRC}}</ref>

Penner died from a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in his sleep in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]] on January 10, 1941, aged 36.<ref name=mwotrc/> His funeral in Los Angeles was attended by more than 2,000 people.<ref>{{cite news |title=Services for Joe Penner |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/105515731 |access-date=February 12, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=January 17, 1941 |page=20|id={{ProQuest|105515731}} }}</ref>

==Filmography==
* ''[[The Life of the Party (1937 film)|The Life of the Party]]'' (1937)
* ''[[Mr. Doodle Kicks Off]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Go Chase Yourself]]'' (1938)
* ''[[The Day the Bookies Wept]]'' (1939)
* ''[[Millionaire Playboy]]'' (1940)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Listen to==
* [http://craighodgkins.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/PennerVallee.mp3 Joe Penner and Rudy Vallee on ''The Fleishmann's Yeast Hour'' July 13, 1933]

==External links==
{{commons category|Joe Penner}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0672101}}
* [http://www.szineszkonyvtar.hu/contents/p-z/pinter.htm Joe Penner biography (in Hungarian)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924112837/http://www.szineszkonyvtar.hu/contents/p-z/pinter.htm |date=2015-09-24 }}
* [http://craighodgkins.com/joepenner Wanna Buy a Duck?]
* {{findagrave|2083|Joe Penner}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penner, Joe}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:1941 deaths]]
[[Category:Male actors from New York City]]
[[Category:American male radio actors]]
[[Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States]]
[[Category:American vaudeville performers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male actors]]
[[Category:Comedians from New York City]]
[[Category:American male comedians]]
[[Category:Comedians from Indiana]]
[[Category:People from Elkhart, Indiana]]