Oofty Goofty

Leonard "Leon" Borchardt (April 26, 1862 death date unknown), better known as Oofty Goofty, was a German sideshow performer who lived in San Francisco, California in the late 19th century and Houston, Texas in the early 20th century.

Goofty was born Leonard Borchardt (sometimes Burkhardt) in Berlin on April 26, 1862. He was Jewish. In 1900, Goofty told a Houston Daily Post reporter that he emigrated to the U. S. on the SS Fresia as a stowaway in 1876, was found by the captain and made to work for three crossings to earn his passage, and was finally able to immigrate by 1878. According to Goofty, he drifted from city to city before finding himself penniless in Detroit, Michigan during a snowstorm on January 27, 1883, and enlisted in the United States Army for five years. Goofty was placed in Company K of the First Cavalry and stationed at the Jefferson Barracks Military Post. He was described as being 5 ft 4 in tall, with brown eyes, black hair, and a dark complexion. Goofty said that his fellow soldiers teased him because he was Jewish; he would be the first man the Native Americans would scalp in a fight. When orders came deploying him to Washington Territory, he deserted shortly afterwards on April 9, 1883. He was apprehended the same day, and then escaped from military custody a few days later.

In the late 1890s, Oofty was living in Texas where he sold imitation diamonds and performed odd feats for money. In June 1900, he was living in a hotel in Houston, Texas. He appears again in the 1920 census, living in a hotel in Houston. He last appeared in the 1923 city directory for Houston, by which point he would have been 61 years old.

Oofty Goofty was parodied in the 1941 Frank Morgan film The Wild Man of Borneo, and in a 1937 Our Gang short film called The Kid From Borneo. He was referred to in a story by Bill Pronzini, "The Bughouse Caper". [Kurland, Michael (editor) "Sherlock Holmes – The Hidden Years" New York, St. Martin's Minotaur 2004]. He was discussed in one of the "Freak Show" episodes of Wild West Tech. As part of a television series showcasing re enactments of Victorian side show acts, vaudeville stunts and escapology, Jonathan Goodwin staged a tribute to Oofty Goofty by attempting to bring his feats of human endurance to a twenty first century television audience. Goodwin asked three separate professional cage fighters to kick, punch, and hit him with a baseball bat, while Goodwin attempted not to react to any of the ensuing pain.<ref>
The story of Oofty Goofty is featured in episode 27 of American historical comedy podcast The Dollop, hosted by Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds.