Phil Baker (August 26, 1896 – November 30, 1963) was an American comedian and emcee on

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

. Baker was also a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

actor,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

, accordionist and author.

Biography

He was born on August 26, 1896, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. Baker went to school in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and his first stage appearance was in a Boston amateur show. Baker began in vaudeville playing the piano for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist Ed Janis, and he was 19 when he teamed with Ben Bernie for the vaudeville act "Bernie and Baker." This originally was a serious musical act with Baker on

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a ree ...

and Bernie on violin but eventually ended up with comic elements. After breaking with Bernie shortly after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Baker partnered with Sid Silvers up until 1928. Baker went on to pursue a successful solo career. His solo act included him singing, playing the accordion, telling jokes and being heckled by a planted audience member called Jojo. With this act, Baker played the

Palace Theatre Palace Theatre, or Palace Theater, is the name of many theatres in different countries, including: Australia * Palace Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria *Palace Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales Canada *Palace Theatre, housed in the Robillard Block, M ...

in 1930 and 1931. In 1923, Baker appeared in an early DeForest

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...

short '' A Musical Monologue'' in which he played the accordion and sang. Bernie also appeared in a DeForest Phonofilm ''

Ben Bernie and All the Lads ''Ben Bernie and All the Lads'' is a short film made by Lee de Forest in the De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. The film features Ben Bernie conducting his band All The Lads, and features pianist Oscar Levant and saxophonist Jack Pettis. ...

'' featuring Bernie's band and pianist Oscar Levant. During

Baker served in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Baker appeared with Carmen Miranda in the musical '' The Gang's All Here'' (1943). On radio, he starred in his own series ''

The Armour Jester ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' on NBC. In the 1940s he appeared on ''Duffy's Tavern'' on February 22, 1944, and was the host of the quiz show '' Take It or Leave It'', which later changed its name to ''The $64 Question''. Phil Baker appeared briefly on television. In 1951 he hosted the panel quiz show ''

Who's Whose ''Who's Whose'' was a panel quiz television game show that ran on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) television network. It premiered as a TV series on June 25, 1951, and is noted for being one of the first television series to be dropped ...

''. The show, and Baker's performance, were both universally panned, so much so that the show was canceled after one episode and Baker had his contract bought out. He was inducted into the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

with a star on February 8, 1960.

Death

Baker moved to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1960, where his second wife was born. He later died on November 30, 1963, in Copenhagen.

Legacy

Baker had four children with actress

Peggy Cartwright Peggy Cartwright (November 14, 1912 – June 12, 2001) was a Canadian silent film actress and the leading lady of the ''Our Gang'' comedy series during the silent film era. She appeared in four short films released in 1922 (and, possibly, the in ...

- Margot, Stuart, Michael and Susan. Michael is the well-known composer Michael Conway Baker. Baker later married Irmgard Erik, a Danish model, with whom he had two children, Philip and Lisa. Irmgard Erik Baker died in December 1997. Baker's likeness was drawn in caricature by Alex Gard for the walls of Sardi's, the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Theater District restaurant. That picture is now part of the collection of the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

.The New York Public Library Inventory of Sardi's Caricatures
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Broadway

Baker appeared in a number of Broadway musicals: * ''

Music Box Revue ''Music Box Revue'' was a series of four musical theatre revues by Irving Berlin, presented from 1921 to 1925 at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. The first show was staged by Hassard Short with music by Irving Berlin Irving Berlin ( ...

'' (1923) * '' Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt'' (1931) * '' Artists and Models'' (1925) * ''

Greenwich Village Follies The ''Greenwich Village Follies'' was a musical revue that played for eight seasons in New York City from 1919 to 1927. Launched by John Murray Anderson, and opening on July 15, 1919, at the newly constructed Greenwich Village Theatre near Chr ...

'' * '' A Night in Spain'' (1927) * '' Calling All Stars'' (1934) He also produced ''Geraniums in My Window'' (1934) and ''Cafe de Danse'' (1929).

Compositions

Baker composed many songs, including: * "Park Avenue Strut" * "Look At Those Eyes" * "Just Suppose" * "Antoinette" * "Strange Interlude" * "Humming a Love Song" * "Rainy Day Pal" * "Pretty Little Baby" * "Did You Mean It?" * "My Heaven on Earth" * "Invitation to a Broken Heart"

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Phil 1896 births 1963 deaths American accordionists American male comedians American radio personalities United States Navy personnel of World War I Songwriters from Pennsylvania Vaudeville performers 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American comedians 20th-century accordionists American expatriates in Denmark