Was there really an actor named Joe Twerp?

Dear Cecil: In the movie In Old Chicago, the role of the Stuttering Clerk is played (according to the credits) by Joe Twerp. Was that his real name or even his actual stage name, or was it a made-up name such as W.C. Fields used as a writer on some of his movies (e.g., Mahatma Kane Jeeves)? J.K., Chicago

Cecil replies:

I hope this doesn’t come as a disappointment, but Joe Twerp was no more or less than Joe Twerp, a bit-part actor in the late thirties. In addition to In Old Chicago, his credits include The Woman I Love, directed by Anatol Litvak in 1937, and Mary Burns, Fugitive, a 1935 gun-moll story directed by William K. Howard.

Cecil Adams

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