Description
Comedian Al Pearce became an established name in radio and was best known for playing Elmer Blurt, a self-conscious door-to-door
salesman. The collection consists of script files, sound recordings, and photographs related to Pearce's radio career as well
as a small amount of memorabilia.
Background
Albert Walter Pearce was born July 25, 1898 in San Jose, CA. Pearce worked as a door-to-door insurance salesman for a time,
but eventually went into the real estate business in San Francisco, CA with his brother Cal Pearce. In the late 1920s, Pearce
got a position as a singer at a local radio station, KFRC. At KFRC, he was introduced to Jack Hasty who asked Pearce to play
the lead role in a skit he had written, as Elmer Blurp (later changed to Elmer Blurt). Elmer Blurp was a character that Pearce
easily identified with: a self-conscious salesman. In 1929, KFRC featured Pearce in The Happy-Go-Lucky Hour, which ran for four years. Pearce was joined on air by his brother Cal Pearce, Abe Bloom, Charles Carter, Jean Clarimoux,
Edna Fischer, Tommy Harris, Norman Nielsen, Monroe Upton, Hazel Warner, and Cecil Wright.
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.