El Brendel

Elmer Goodfellow Brendle (March 25, 1890 – April 9, 1964) was a vaudeville comedian turned movie star, best remembered for his dialect schtick as a Swedish immigrant. His biggest role was as "Single-0" in the sci-fi musical Just Imagine (1930), produced by Fox Film Corporation. His screen name was pronounced "El Bren-DEL." Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to an Irish mother and German immigrant father, Brendle, unlike his stage and film charact... more

Elmer Goodfellow Brendle (March 25, 1890 – April 9, 1964) was a vaudeville comedian turned movie star, best remembered for his dialect schtick as a Swedish immigrant. His biggest role was as "Single-0" in the sci-fi musical Just Imagine (1930), produced by Fox Film Corporation. His screen name was pronounced "El Bren-DEL." Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to an Irish mother and German immigrant father, Brendle, unlike his stage and film character, was not Swedish. He spoke standard American English without a trace of any other accent, yet entered vaudeville in 1913 as a German dialect comedian. Because of the anti-German sentiment brought about by the onset of World War I, Brendel developed a new character, one he would portray on stage and in films for the rest of his career: a good-natured, simple Swede, often called "Oley," "Ole," or "Ollie." During the 1910s and early 1920s, he appeared with his wife, vaudeville star Flo Bert, doing a married-couple routine. It was during this... less