May 10, 2022

"Wanna buy a duck?"

Ephemera: A compendium of cultural artifacts that briefly pervaded pop culture and then disappeared forever.

On July 13, 1933, a relatively unknown 29-year-old vaudeville comedian named Joe Penner made his historic debut as a guest on Rudy Vallee’s top-rated national Radio Program for Fleischmann’s Yeast. Penner’s performance introduced many of the soon-to-be-famous catchphrases that he had developed over the previous ten hard years on vaudeville stages across America, including his most famous gag line: “Wanna buy a duck?”  

That summer, Penner made six guest appearances on Vallee’s show. Each time, the studio audience and the millions listening at home convulsed with laughter. A nation ravaged by the Depression embraced the trifling distraction. A star was born.

By early October 1933, Penner had his own radio comedy show, The Baker’s Broadcast. By early 1934, Penner had the most popular show on radio.  His catchphrases and low hyuck-hyuck laugh created a national sensation, imitated ad nauseam by the millions of children and would-be water cooler comedians who tuned in every week across America.  

In radio’s early days, comedians often relied on vocal gimmicks and catchphrases to ingratiate themselves with audiences. Eventually, the best-remembered comedians went on to create engaging characters grounded in situational humor. Penner could never broaden or deepen his comic persona beyond that of the vaudeville clown, relying solely on zany catchphrases that he eventually drove into the ground. By early 1935, listeners began to cool to Penner’s all-hook, no-substance act. Penner quit his show in June.

Over the next five years, Penner struggled through another radio show and a string of lackluster B-movies for Paramount and RKO. By 1940, the thirty-five-year-old was a show business has-been. Penner succumbed to a heart attack in 1941.

http://craighodgkins.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/PennerVallee.mp3

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