 A booking agent saw him in a show at Camp Upton on Long Island, and that exposure led to his becoming a professional entertainer.During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, he played hundreds of characters in radio drama, comedy and variety.He also intermittently appeared in films, playing supporting parts in 1941's "Keep 'Em Flying", with Abbott and Costello and "Shadow of the Thin Man", fourth in the William Powell–Myrna Loy series of Nick and Nora Charles mysteries.