Films
His films include College Rhythm (1934), New Faces of 1937 (1937), The Day the Bookies Wept (1939) and Millionaire Playboy (1940). He was caricatured by Tex Avery and Friz Freleng in the musical cartoon, "My Green Fedora", "Can You Take It?" a "Popeye the Sailor" cartoon (Max Fleischer for Paramount), and several pictures starring the bumbling stooge Egghead. He also made a cameo in the Disney cartoon "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood" in which he says, "Wanna buy a duck?", and then shows Donald Duck on a plate.
After covering the 1932-34 rise of Jack Pearl, Elizabeth McLeod summed up Penner's popularity:
The ultimate Depression-era zany was Joe Penner. A forgotten performer today to most, and little more than a footnote to the average OTR 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.
Read more about this topic: Joe Penner
Famous quotes containing the word films:
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)
“Does art reflect life? In movies, yes. Because more than any other art form, films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face.”
—Marjorie Rosen (b. 1942)
“Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they’re doing and saying in films right now just shouldn’t be allowed. There’s no dignity anymore and I think that’s very important.”
—Mae West (1892–1980)