So, for a period of about two years, I was going to work not every day but practically every day, and the reason the truant officers never caught up with me was because both my mom and dad worked. I told my mom and dad I got the job, and they looked at me like I was crazy, telling them I'm in movies and things like that, and they just wouldn't believe that - although at the time I didn't know they didn't believe it.
I would be going over to the city - unfortunately, I was playing hooky most of the time - going over by subway trying to get jobs and all, and I got the job in the Kiddie Troopers. I have a good story to tell you from that period of time. But that was the beginning really of 20th Century Fox, 'cause he sold everything out to 20th Century and became part of them.ĪC: What was your experience working as a child actor? Was it good?ĮB: Oh yeah, my gosh, mine was just wonderful. It was run by William Fox, and he was going through a financial situation at the time and went into Chapter 11 and had to drop the Kiddie Troupers and all the things he was doing. I played small parts, like a judge or a lawyer, but it was all kids, all kids doing it. It was like bringing the Our Gang comedies into the talkies, with a bunch of kid actors doing things. Well, actually I was about nine, 10, something like that, but I looked much younger than I was.
Actor eddie bracken series#
He is the featured guest for the screening of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, part of the Austin Film Society series "Unfaithfully Yours: The Satire of Preston Sturges." In honor of his appearance, the Chronicle visited with him about those films, his co-stars, comedy, life during wartime, thumbing it, and repaying a favor.Īustin Chronicle: You started in pictures not long after you started talking.Įddie Bracken: That's about it. (Bracken can be seen in the Arthur Miller-scripted drama The Ryan Interview with Ashley Judd on PBS this fall.) But his collaboration with Sturges is the reason for Bracken's visit to Austin this week.
Actor eddie bracken tv#
It went on to include the creation of the radio and TV series Our Miss Brooks, much acting work in radio and television, many, many more stage appearances, and a second career in film that was jump-started by his appearance in National Lampoon's Vacation in 1983 and continues to this day. Through him, you witness the creation of some of the most inspired comedy ever put to film.īracken's career certainly didn't end with his Sturges work. Bracken can put you on the sets of those pictures, seeing Sturges barking out commands as he rides the camera, hearing Bracken, Hutton, and William Demarest struggle to get through this line or that bit of comic business without bursting into laughter. There you are in Depression-era New York City, watching the pre-teen Bracken break into moving pictures in a series of comedy shorts there you are on the Great White Way of the late Thirties, watching the teenage Bracken in a string of stage hits that gets him noticed by Paramount Pictures and there you are with him in the Hollywood of the Forties, making his comedic mark on celluloid starring alongside Betty Hutton, Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, Bob Hope, and Rudy Vallee, and, perhaps most memorably, in the two films he starred in for writer-director Preston Sturges, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. His enthusiasm for whatever the subject may be, his affection for the people involved, and his recollection of detail are such that the story seems to have happened just yesterday - or this morning! These experiences are all still very much alive for Bracken, so they come to be for the listener, too.
For when Bracken starts a story, it isn't merely an incident recalled from the dusty past. Still, the expectation of those juicy tales doesn't quite prepare one for the experience of hearing them related by the man himself. He has more than a few choice yarns gathered from his 70 years on Broadway, in Hollywood, and beyond, and he appears ever eager to share them. After all, that's quite a load of firsthand experience of the genius and madness, the egos and excitement, that go along with showbiz and show people. When an actor's bio claims 14,000 performances to his credit, you rather expect the fellow to have some good stories.
Eddie Bracken on the cover of Leonard Maltin's Film Fan Monthly, a fanzine the film critic produced as a teenager.
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