Victor Oliver von Samek (8 July 1898 – 15 August 1964) was an Austrian-born British musician, entertainer, comedian and actor, most popular between the 1920s and 1950s.
Early life and musical career
He was born in Vienna into a Jewish family, the son of Baron Viktor von Samek. He played tennis, football and hockey as a youth and became junior tennis champion of Austria in 1914. He studied medicine at Vienna University but abandoned it for his first love, music. He had been acclaimed as a child prodigy on the violin, and for a time studied under Mahler. During the First World War he served in the Austrian cavalry as adjutant to Prince René of Bourbon-Parma, and at the end of the war escaped to France on a forged passport.
After the war he briefly worked as a banker and for a textile manufacturer, and performed as a drummer in a jazz band in Rouen and Le Havre. He travelled to the United States at the end of 1922, and played in vaudeville shows as a pianist and occasional vocalist. He joined a jazz group, The Nine Nights of Jazz, in 1923, and the following year formed a double act with violinist Margaret Crangle. After their act broke up, in 1927 he was appointed as conductor and compere of a travelling radio show in the U.S., with a portable transmitter.
