When: September 14, 2026, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Where:
Outreach Building - Rooms 121 G and H, State College, PA
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This free lecture is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of “Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.”
This course is also offered online. You can select this option during the registration process.
Free to OLLI members, nonmembers, and the community.
Wodehouse is generally considered the greatest humorist in the English language of the twentieth century. Over a 70-year writing career, he created more than 4,000 characters, including Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves. He wrote novels, short stories, plays, libretti, and lyrics for musical comedies in collaboration with some of the greats, including the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. He was also painfully shy. Liberace, of course, was a great popular pianist and entertainer, known as “Mr. Showmanship.” He was anything but shy. It appears that these two geniuses never met or communicated in any way. Yet there was indeed a connection between the two that Rains unearthed a couple of years ago. It involved World War II, Nazi Germany, internment, defamation, and litigation. Also, humor of course.
Instructor: Robert Rains, Penn State Dickinson Law professor emeritus