Jack Pearl
Encyclopedia
Born in New York, Pearl made an easy transition from vaudeville to broadfcasting when he introduced his character Baron Munchausen on The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air
The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air
The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air, broadcast on CBS during the 1930s, attempted to bring the success of Florenz Ziegfeld's stage shows to the new medium of radio....
in 1932. His creation was loosely based on the Baron Münchhausen
Baron Munchhausen
Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen , usually known as Baron Münchhausen in English, was a German nobleman born in Bodenwerder and a famous recounter of tall tales....
literary character. As the Baron, Pearl would tell far-fetched stories with a comic German accent. When the straight man (originally Ben Bard
Ben Bard
Ben Bard was a movie actor, stage actor, and acting teacher. With comedian Jack Pearl, Bard worked in a comedy duo in vaudeville...
, but later Cliff Hall) expressed skepticism, the Baron replied with his familiar tagline and punchline: "Vass you dere, Sharlie?" This catch phrase
Catch phrase
A catchphrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...
soon became part of the national lexicon.
Typical of the dialogue:
- Hall: You seem to be effervescent tonight.
- Munchausen: Haff you effer seen me ven I effer vasn't?
Pearl played this character and others in musical revues of the 1920s and 1930s: The Dancing Girl (1923), Topics of 1923 (1923–1924), A Night in Paris (1926), Artists and Models (1927–1928), Pleasure Bound (1929), International Review (1930), Ziegfeld Follies of 1931, Pardon My English (1923) and All for All (1943).
Radio
Pearl's radio career included stints as the host of The Lucky Strike HourYour Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade, is an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or...
(1932–34) and The Jack Pearl Show, which ran from late 1936 through early 1937, sponsored by Raleigh and Kool Cigarettes.
The success of his first radio series brought him to the attention of MGM. He starred as his character in one feature film, Meet the Baron
Meet the Baron
Meet the Baron is a comedy film starring Jack Pearl, Jimmy Durante, Edna May Oliver, Zasu Pitts, Ted Healy and the Three Stooges.-Plot:...
(1933) with Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
, Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...
, ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...
and the Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
. He also appears in Ben Bard and Jack Pearl (1926), a film of their vaudevile act made in the DeForest
Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use...
Phonofilm
Phonofilm
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
sound-on-film process, and Hollywood Party
Hollywood Party (1934 film)
Hollywood Party is a musical film starring Jimmy Durante. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film had no director credited, although it has been asserted that Richard Boleslawski, Allan Dwan, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens and Sam Wood...
(1934).
With the cancellation of his second radio series, Pearl found himself struggling for work. He continued in radio with shows like, Jack and Cliff (1948) and The Baron and the Bee (1952), a quiz show, but he never recaptured his mid-1930s fame.
In 1934, a juvenile novel, Jack Pearl as Detective Baron Munchausen, was based on his radio scripts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
for his radio work. Pearl died in New York in 1982.
He was an uncle to the agent and producer Bernie Brillstein
Bernie Brillstein
Bernard J. "Bernie" Brillstein was an American film and television producer, executive producer and talent agent.-Life and career:...
.