Joe Penner

Joe Penner was born on Nov 11, 1904 in Serbia]. Joe Penner's big-screen debut came with College Rhythm directed by Norman Taurog in 1934, strarring Joe. Joe Penner is known for Collegiate directed by Ralph Murphy, Joe Penner stars as Joe and Jack Oakie as Jerry Craig. The upcoming new movie Joe Penner plays is The Boys from Syracuse which will be released on Aug 09, 1940.

Mostly forgotten today, radio comic Joe Penner was a major craze back in Depression-era 1933 and 1934. There was no heavy social significance to his work and certainly no subtlety -- just alot of slapstick silliness that helped audiences forget their troubles and get happy. People today equate Penner's zany, simpering, man-child delivery to that of a Pee Wee Herman or Jerry Lewis. Born Josef Pinter in Hungary, he arrived as a child in New York City. He changed his name to Joe Penner and became fairly successful on the vaudeville and burlesque circuits as a Lou Costello-like patsy. His catchphrase "Wanna buy a duck?" started here. The story goes that in his routine he would customarily go out on stage with some sort of prop and say to his straight man, "Wanna buy a..." whatever the prop was. No laughs basically until one day when he went out on stage with a wooden decoy and said, "Wanna buy a duck?" The house went wild. Penner would parlay this one simple line into a major radio career. He was introduced to the air waves by