Best known today for his role as Osgood Fielding III in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959), where he delivered the famous ending line "Well, nobody's perfect, Joe E. Brown had actually been one of the most popular movie comedians of the 1930's. He was especially popular in small towns, where his self-assured and boastful but good-hearted character resonated with audiences. Between 1933 and 1936, Brown was named one of the top 10 money makers in the movies. Though Brown occasionally appeared in great movies, most of his films were programmers. This is to say films that were meant to be a pleasant part of the movie program with no pretentions about being anything more. These movies were quite successful at being just this and most of them are still entertaining today.
Here is a 1930 article from Screenland magazine that provides us with "Joe E. Brown's Real-Life Story." If you have trouble reading it click on any of the pages below and use your touch screen to zoom in. If you don't have a touch screen, click here.
Here is Joe E. Brown on a 1954 episode of TV's This is Your Life.
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