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Joe E. Brown
JOSEPH EVANS BROWN (July 28, 1891 - July 6, 1973) was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous elastic-mouth smile. He was one of the mo...view moreJOSEPH EVANS BROWN (July 28, 1891 - July 6, 1973) was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous elastic-mouth smile. He was one of the most popular American comedians in the 1930s and 1940s, with films like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Earthworm Tractors, and Alibi Ike. In his later career Brown starred in Some Like It Hot (1959), as Osgood Fielding III, in which he utters the famous punchline, “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
Born in Holgate, Ohio, near Toledo, into a large family of Welsh descent, at age 10 Brown joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons, who toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. He later became a professional baseball player but, despite his skill, declined an opportunity to sign with the New York Yankees to pursue his career as an entertainer. After three seasons he returned to the circus, then went into Vaudeville and finally starred on Broadway. He gradually added comedy to his act, and transformed himself into a comedian. He moved to Broadway in the 1920s, first appearing in the musical comedy Jim Jam Jems.
RALPH LOWELL HANCOCK (1904-1987) was a Los Angeles Times reporter and author of more than 20 non-fiction works. Born in Plainville, Indianapolis, he attended Springfield (Mo.) Business College and Washington University in St. Louis. He began his writing career as a journalist 1929 and wrote for several U.S. publications and wire services. He worked as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, becoming a recognized expert on Latin America. During WWII, he worked as a senior analyst on the Board of Economic Warfare in Washington, and served as Latin America editor for the Encyclopedia Americana. He returned to L.A. in the late 1940s and wrote The Fabulous Boulevard in 1949, which stayed on the bestseller lists for 26 weeks. He moved to San Diego in 1960, where he died in 1987, aged 83.view less