(Book by Oakie, Jack, Oakie, Victoria Horne)
Book by Oakie, Jack, Oakie, Victoria Horne
https://www.amazon.com/When-Line-Straight-Oakies-Pictures/dp/0894071408?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0894071408
(Photographs and motion picture stills highlight Oakie's a...)
Photographs and motion picture stills highlight Oakie's anecdotes about his career and friends in Hollywood
https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Oakies-Double-Takes-Oakie/dp/0894070193?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0894070193
Jack Oakie was born on November 12, 1903, in Sedalia, Missouri, the son of James Madison Offield and Mary Evelyn ("Ev") Jump. His mother was an educator who founded schools in Sedalia and in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where the family moved when Offield was five years old. When he was nine, his father died. His mother opened an all-girl school in Muskogee and sent Offield to live with his maternal grandmother in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jack Oakie finished his public schooling in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1917. Later he joined his mother in New York City, and attended a Roman Catholic military school for boys.
In 1919, Jack Oakie began working in a Wall Street brokerage house as a telephone clerk. His office clowning and impersonations led to his participation in a charity production of Babes in Toyland in 1922. Oakie's success in Toyland and two other charity shows encouraged him to abandon Wall Street for show business. He soon joined the chorus of George M. Cohan's Little Nellie Kelly (1922). Over the next five years he was in Peggy-Ann, John Cort's Sharlee, and the Shuberts' Innocent Eyes and Artists and Models. During intervals he teamed with Lulu McConnell to tour the vaudeville circuit with At Home.
By 1927, Oakie had achieved headliner status on Broadway, but Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight inspired him to risk everything by going to Hollywood to get into films. Almost immediately after he arrived in Los Angeles in June 1927, Oakie landed parts in Finders Keepers and two other films. His flair for visual comedy, characterized by his famous "double takes, " got him a contract with Paramount in 1928.
While finishing Someone to Love, his last silent film that year, Oakie and other Paramount contract actors were ordered to report for voice tests. He escaped the test when a director friend invited him to begin work immediately on a new sound film, The Dummy. His performance in that "talking" film assured his continued success as an actor; over the next decade he appeared in more than fifty films. In 1929 alone Oakie made ten films, including Fast Company, an adaptation of Elmer the Great, a Broadway hit about a baseball player that remained Oakie's favorite film role.
Between 1930 and 1932 he made nearly twenty films. At age twenty-eight he played a college freshman in Touchdown, the first of the collegiate comedies with which he became identified. He also had featured parts in two W. C. Fields classics, If I Had a Million and Million Dollar Legs, both from 1932. The half-dozen films Oakie made in 1933 include College Humor and Alice in Wonderland, in which he violated his personal policy of never wearing makeup by appearing in an enormous mask as Tweedledum. His mother made a rare screen appearance in Too Much Money. In 1934, Oakie made three more Paramount films as well as Looking for Trouble for United Artists. The following year he worked with Clark Gable in Twentieth Century-Fox's Call of the Wild. In 1935 he made The Big Broadcast of 1936, and in 1936 he appeared in Collegiate for Paramount and two films for Fox. Oakie made five films in 1936, including That Girl from Paris, his first for RKO.
By the mid-1930's Oakie was established as a film star. His strong identification with college themes led to his having a radio show, "Jack Oakie College" (also known as "Jack Oakie's College"), which ran on CBS from December 29, 1936, through March 22, 1938. The format had Oakie as president of a school bearing his name and incorporated such collegiate trappings as an opening yell; otherwise, it was a typical variety show. Benny Goodman's orchestra provided the music through 1937, and Judy Garland was a regular performer.
After making five films in 1937, Oakie made four in 1938, including The Affairs of Annabel and Annabel Takes a Tour with Lucille Ball, and then spent half the year in Europe. When he returned home, he felt that Hollywood had written him off for his absence. It happened, however, that he had sailed back from Europe on the same ship as Charles Chaplin's brother Syd, on whose recommendation Chaplin soon invited Oakie to act in The Great Dictator (1940). Oakie's flamboyant portrayal of "Napolini, Il Duce of Bacteria, " earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, and he afterward called working with Chaplin the highlight of his career.
Oakie's work with Chaplin reestablished a demand for him as an actor. Nevertheless, the frequency of his screen appearances slackened; over the next decade he made half as many films as he had made during the 1930's. After making two films in 1950 he was off the screen until he had a cameo in Around the World in Eighty Days in 1956.
During the early 1950's, Jack began appearing on television. In 1950 he performed in Ken Murray's and Jack Carter's variety shows. He was on "The Shower of Stars" twice in 1955, and in 1958 he made his dramatic television debut on "The Kraft Television Theatre" and "Studio One in Hollywood. " The good notices that his "Kraft" performance brought him new film roles. His last feature film appearances were in The Wonderful Country in 1959, The Rat Race in 1960, and the Rock Hudson-Doris Day film Lover Come Back in 1962. The same year in which he made his last feature film, Oakie had his first guest role on a television series, "Target! : The Corruptors, " about a crime-fighting journalist. In 1963 he was in three episodes of the hillbilly sitcom "The Real McCoys. " A year later he was in an episode of "The Breaking Point, " a medical drama. In 1964 he also played an exvaudevillian in a Disney television special, "Kilroy. " According to rumor, he turned down a generous offer to play the same kind of role in a regular television series. His last television appearance was in 1972, on Johnny Carson's special, "Sun City Scandals. "
Largely retired from show business during the last decade of his life, Oakie lived quietly with his wife on his San Fernando Valley ranch in Los Angeles. He died in Northridge, California.
Jack Oakie most important work was role of Napaloni in Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. During his carrer Oakie was filmed in about 90 films, most famous of which are: Fast Company (1929); If I Had a Million and Million Dollar Legs (1932); College Humor (1933); Alice in Wonderland (1933); Looking for Trouble for United Artists (1934); That Girl from Paris (1936); Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), etc. Jack had his radio show, Jack Oakie College, which ran on CBS from 1936 to 1938. Jack Oakie's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard, and his hand and footprints can be found at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
(Photographs and motion picture stills highlight Oakie's a...)
(Book by Oakie, Jack, Oakie, Victoria Horne)
Since Lewis Delaney was playing the Jack of Hearts, the musical director dubbed him "Jack. " New York acquaintances had already given him the nickname "Okie" because of the accent he had picked up in Oklahoma. Offield combined the two nicknames and had his name listed in the show's program as "Jack Oakie. " He used this name professionally for the rest of his life but never changed his legal name.
In 1936, Jack Oakie married Venita Varden. The couple separated two years later; their divorce was finalized on February 16, 1945. They had no children. During the early 1950's, Oakie married actress Victoria Horne; they had no children.
