In 1938, Joe Penner sat down at a KFI microphone with Dale Armstrong, the radio editor for the Los Angeles Times. In this rare 16-minute interview (featured on Armstrong's own Radiolio program), Penner tells his host of his birth in a small Hungarian (now Serbian) village, his arrival in America (and subsequent trip to settle in Detroit) at a young age, his slow rise through the ranks, and, finally, his sudden show business stardom...with an amazing number of bumps and bruises along the way.

Penner's manner is quiet and humble, quite a difference from the zany stage and screen personna for which he was known.