Ernest Lotinga (19 March 1875 – 28 October 1951) was a British comedian and film actor. Lotinga became known for the Josser character whom he portrayed in a series of comedy films during the 1930s.

Biography

Lotinga was born in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

into a middle class Jewish family of partly

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

origin. His father was a respected community leader who part-financed the local

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

. Ernest left school early and moved to London, where he worked as a baker's assistant and was able to watch

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

performances by

Dan Leno George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall ...

and others. He began his stage career by performing Leno's sketches, under the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Dan Roe (or Roy), and by the late 1890s developed a strong reputation in his own right as a comedic talent. He joined a touring comedy troupe, the Six Brothers Luck, who also included

Shaun Glenville Shaun Glenville (born John Browne; 16 May 1884 – 28 December 1968) was an Irish actor who specialised in pantomime performances - he would play the dame while his wife Dorothy Ward would play the principal boy. The music hall historian ...

, and in 1901 Lotinga married another popular music hall entertainer, the

male impersonator Drag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy and singing, ...

Hetty King Winifred Emms (4 April 1883 – 28 September 1972), best known by her stage name Hetty King, was an English entertainer who performed in the music halls as a male impersonator over some 70 years. Early life She was born in New Brighton, Ches ...

.Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , p.232 André Vincent, "Ernest Lotinga: The Stubborn Genius", ''Mislaid Comedy Heroes'',.
Retrieved 14 December 2020 In 1909, after a poorly-received tour of the United States with the Six Brothers Luck, Lotinga left the troupe, and developed his own act as the character Jimmy Josser, an "irreverent everyman". "Josser" was a slang term for a simpleton. He maintained the Josser character in theatre tours over subsequent decades. For several years he toured widely with Hetty King, including visits to entertain troops in France during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, but King's infidelity with the American singer and songwriter

Jack Norworth John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 – September 1, 1959), known professionally as Jack Norworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer. Biography Norworth is credited as writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wr ...

led to the pair's much-publicised divorce in 1917. Lotinga remarried in 1918, to actress Kathleen Barbor. Lotinga was a popular success. In 1924, he took a leading role in the farce ''Khaki'', which made fun of army officers and judges, taunted by Lotinga's character. The

Lord Chamberlain's Office The Lord Chamberlain's Office is a department within the British Royal Household. It is concerned with matters such as protocol, state visits, investitures, garden parties, royal weddings and funerals. For example, in April 2005 it organised the ...

described the show as "a farrago of idiocy, vulgarity and sham sentiment", and Lotinga was obliged to rewrite the script. After seeing him perform on stage in 1927, T. S. Eliot wrote to

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

that Lotinga was "magnificent... the greatest living British histrionic artist, in the purest tradition of British obscenity." He was also portrayed, in character, in the final panel of the

sculptural Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

by Gilbert Baynes, ''Drama Through The Ages'', on the

Saville Theatre ODEON Covent Garden is a four-screen cinema in the heart of London's West End. Formerly known as The Saville Theatre, a former West End theatre at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue in the London Borough of Camden. The theatre opened in 1931, and became a ...

Shaftesbury Avenue Shaftesbury Avenue is a major road in the West End of London, named after The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It runs north-easterly from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus. From Piccadilly Cir ...

. Ernie Lotinga, ''Jewish Lives Project''
Retrieved 14 December 2020 In 1928, Lotinga moved into

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

s, at first making a series of

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

s for DeForest Phonofilms, and then, from 1931, making feature films. These included '' Doctor Josser K.C.'' (1931), '' Josser in the Army'' (1932), ''Josser's Detective Agency'' (1935), and ''

Love Up the Pole ''Love Up the Pole'' is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Clifford Gulliver and starring Ernie Lotinga, Vivienne Chatterton and Wallace Lupino. It was made at the Cricklewood Studios in London, and distributed by Butcher's Film Service wh ...

'' (1936), the last of which featured

striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "ex ...

performer

Phyllis Dixey Phyllis Dixey (10 February 1914 – 2 June 1964) was an English singer, actress, dancer and impresario. Her earlier career was as a singer in variety shows in Britain. During World War II, she joined ENSA and entertained the British forces. She ...

, who later toured with Lotinga. The films were again disparaging of authority and were censored by the Lord Chamberlain's Office, but their bawdy, knockabout humour was popular with the public. Lotinga also featured in broadcasts on BBC radio from the mid-1930s. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he toured and entertained as part of

ENSA The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, ...

. Although his style of humour and

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phon ...

became increasingly unfashionable during the 1940s, he continued to perform in theatres as the Josser character. He died in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, London in 1951, aged 76.

Selected filmography

* ''Doing His Duty'' (1928)

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

featuring Lotinga as Jimmy Josser, made in the

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 process, ...

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...

system by British Sound Film Corporation * ''Spirits'' (1928), short film made in Phonofilm, directed by Hugh Croise * ''The Raw Recruit'' (1928), short film made in Phonofilm, directed by Hugh Croise * ''The Orderly Room'' (1928), short film made in Phonofilm, directed by Hugh Croise * ''Acci-Dental Treatment'' (1929), short film made in Phonofilm, directed by

Thomas Bentley Thomas Bentley (23 February 1884 – 23 December 1966) was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941. He directed three films in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, ''The Man in the Street'' (1926), '' ...

* '' P.C. Josser'' (1931) * '' Doctor Josser K.C.'' (1931) * ''

Josser on the River ''Josser on the River'' is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Norman Lee and starring Ernie Lotinga, Molly Lamont and Charles Hickman. Plot summary Two seaside photographers become entangled with a blackmailer. Cast * Ernie Lotinga as ...

'' (1932) * '' Josser in the Army'' (1932) * ''

Josser Joins the Navy ''Josser Joins the Navy'' is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Norman Lee and starring Ernie Lotinga, Cyril McLaglen and Jack Hobbs. It was made at Elstree Studios by British International Pictures.Wood p.72 It was part of a series of film ...

'' (1932) * ''

Josser on the Farm ''Josser on the Farm '' is a 1934 British comedy film directed by T. Hayes Hunter and starring Ernie Lotinga, Betty Astell and Garry Marsh. It was part of the series of ''Josser'' films featuring Lotinga. Cast * Ernie Lotinga - Jimmy Josser * ...

'' (1934) * ''Josser's Detective Agency'' (1935) * '' Smith's Wives'' (1935) * ''

'' (1936)

References

Bibliography

* Sutton, David R. ''A chorus of raspberries: British film comedy 1929-1939''. University of Exeter Press, 2000.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lotinga, Ernie 1875 births 1951 deaths English male film actors English male comedians Male actors from Tyne and Wear Comedians from Tyne and Wear 20th-century English male actors People from Sunderland