Peter Oakley
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| Peter Oakley | |
| Background information | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 20, 1927 Leicester, England |
| Spouse(s) | Widower |
| Internet activity | |
| Web alias(es) | geriatric1927 |
| Host service(s) | YouTube |
| Genre(s) | Vlogging, autobiography |
| Influenced | MHarris1920 |
| Official site | www.askgeriatric.com |
Peter Oakley (born 20 August 1927) is a pensioner from Leicester, England. He is better known by his pseudonym geriatric1927 on the popular video sharing website YouTube.[1]
Making his YouTube debut in August, 2006 with a series of five-to-ten minute autobiographical videos entitled Telling it all, his posts gained immediate popularity with a wide section of the YouTube community, a leading member of the much-heralded Web 2.0 generation of web sites.[2]
Amongst the autobiographical details revealed in his videos are the fact that he served as a radar mechanic during World War II, has had a lifelong love of motorcycles, and that he currently lives alone as a widower and pensioner in England.
His unforeseen and meteoric rise has been widely reported by international media outlets and online news sources and blogs, gaining YouTube much publicity along the way.[3] After resisting all media attention for a long time (including requests for interviews, photographs, and attempts to identify him), insisting that he only wished to converse with the YouTube community in an informal and personal way, Oakley finally gave his first interview for the BBC's The Money Programme which was aired on BBC Two on 16 February 2007.
By mid-2006, geriatric1927 was the most subscribed user on YouTube. His rise to the #1 position took place in just over a week. It is noteworthy that in the process he displaced users who had been around since the site's launch over a year prior, including NBC-signed Brooke Brodack.
Oakley had 30,000 subscribers as of November 25, 2006, and over 47,000 subscribers as of April 19, 2008. He is currently ranked 48th most subscribed and he is the 26th most subscribed director on YouTube.
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[edit] Telling it all
After Mr Oakley's introductory video first try (which has been viewed 2,749,243 times as of March 15th, 2008), he began producing his very successful autobiographical series, Telling it all. These pushed him into Internet celebrity almost overnight, gaining mention in various newsmedia, such as BBC News and GMTV, as well as prompting the creation of web sites bearing his user name. In Telling it all 7 Mr Oakley repudiated those sites, saying he was in no way affliated with them and had no say or control over the content.
In the series, Mr Oakley describes some of the major events and periods of his life, including:
- Growing up during World War II, and living as a young teen in a city that was bombed by the Luftwaffe.
- His experience in the primary and secondary education system of England in the 1930s, and his fortunate (in his eyes) selection to have his education 'extended' past the age of 14, a privilege during the period reserved for children deemed to be intelligent.
- His conscription into the British Army, and again his fortunate selection to be a Radar technician, occurred as a consequence of the aptitudes his superiors detected in him. This role kept him out of combat, for which he is grateful, as he did not have to witness "the horrors of war", yet was nonetheless imperative for the war effort.
- His return to civilian life and the job he had left behind.
- A period of tertiary education in Leicester, England, where he met his future wife, and developed his passion for motorcycling.
- His employment in Leicester as a public health inspector.
[edit] Response from the public
Oakley's videos have received mostly positive public response, with such replies as "I wish you were my grandfather" and "Your stories are interesting and enriching. Keep at it!". Negative and rude responses have generally been frowned upon by the YouTube community. Oakley has been called "the coolest old dude alive" due to the fact that he is very computer literate for someone his age, and because of his use of personal Internet videocasting, which is fairly new and popular among the young. He is also praised on his warm, "grandpa-like" style of storytelling which many viewers consider refreshing.
The videos all begin with what has become his catchphrase, "Hello YouTubers..." or "Good Evening YouTubers..." and ends each video by thanking the viewer for watching and saying "goodbye" in his soft spoken voice.
Oakley was featured in a recent Yahoo! Current Buzz (which chronicles the top searches on the Internet) installment titled "Retired and Wired."[1]
[edit] Involving the media worldwide
On August 17, 2006, Mr Oakley uploaded the next installment of his series, entitled Telling it all 7, in which he made an important statement about how much attention he received from the media over the past couple of days. Unlike previous videos in the series, Telling it all 7 was not an anecdote of his life, but focused solely on the media response he had gained. He mentioned that this is not what he sought or wanted. This video was leaked out to the media because somebody reportedly intended to publish these videos - without permission from Oakley - for their own benefit. Also included in this upload was a clarification that any web sites using his username (geriatric1927) are in no way affiliated with him.[4]
During the Telling it all 7 video, he stated that he received many messages from advertising companies, telephone companies and newspaper companies that wanted to interview him. Oakley, however, was not interested, preferring to speak only to his fellow YouTubers, whom he considers to be his friends.
[edit] A reluctant farewell
On August 22, 2006, Oakley uploaded a video entitled Telling it all part 11 which began with the words "A reluctant farewell" on the screen. Unlike the previous 10 videos, Oakley did not appear in this 11th installment, instead showing a still shot of the now-empty black office chair from which he created his videos each day. In this audio-only creation, Oakley explained that he would be "quite busy in the near future," and would not be creating any more videos for upload to YouTube. Although specific reasons were not stated for his sudden departure, Oakley did mention an incident earlier in his life in which he suffered a heart attack. In Oakley's words, "...loads of old people have had heart attacks, and uh, we survive...we take our pills, and it's not the end of the world," but continuing that he became fatigued easily and felt it was time to take a break. In his final sign off, Oakley assured his loyal viewers that he would still be around, watching their videos, reading their thousands of comments and messages, and watching their video responses to his. The video ends with his signature "Goodbye," and "The Great Pretender" playing in the background as the following message crosses the screen: "PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT ANY WEBSITES THAT EXIST OR ANY THAT MAY BE POSTED ARE NOT MINE AND DO NOT HAVE MY APPROVAL." Although it was a reluctant farewell, Oakley returned again when he posted Telling it all part 12 in which he gave a quick hello to all his fans around Youtube and told them that he was still with them and reading all of their mostly positive comments. Oakley has since made a near complete recovery and has resumed his normal video posting schedule as it was before his farewell.
[edit] Returning to YouTube
Oakley returned on August 30, 2006 with Telling it all part 13.
In part 13, Oakley mentions his experience of World War II and says that a chill still runs down his spine whenever he hears the siren which was prevalent in those times to signal an air raid.
In Telling it all 14 (part 1) part 2, he mentions about the attention the media is giving him and said again that he does not want all the publicity and would simply like to make videos to his beloved fans or "YouTubers". He said that he will continue with making more videos.
In Telling it all 15 and 16, he talks more about his life and in 16, particularly, says thanks all of his fans and all of their support.
As of April 19, 2008, Oakley has over 120 videos on YouTube under the pseudonym geriatric1927.
[edit] Influence on others
The success of Mr Oakley on YouTube inspired other older people, particularly men with vast life experiences to share, to begin posting vlogs on it. A notable user influenced by Oakley was a World War II veteran, Martin Harris (1920-2006), who under the name MHarris1920 started to post his own blogs. Martin however died in October 2006, and received an outpouring of tributes from other Youtube users. His widow temporarily took over his blogs, but later closed his account.
[edit] Media
On the 16th of February 2007 geriatric1927 made his first television appearance on a special episode of The Money Programme called Coming To Your Screen: DIY TV. It was produced by the BBC, who coincidentally became incorporated in the same year as Oakley's birth, 1927. The program was filmed back in the Autumn of 2006.
He has also featured in a radio interview for the BBC World Service, listen here.
On 14 March 2007, Oakley announced that he was working on some television programmes about silver surfing [2].
Oakley also was part of a BBC documentary where he was recruited as one of The Zimmers a group of pensioners who the documentary maker Tim Samuels brought together to sing The Who's classic My Generation to highlight the plight of OAP's in modern Britain. The single was released in May 2007 to raise money for the charity Age Concern.
It has been recently released on the Zimmers MySpace page that Peter will be recording a version of the Alan Parson's Project's song "Old and Wise", further information to be provided as the date of recording draws near.
Peter's work with The Zimmers took him to Washington DC in September 2007 as a guest of the AARP, more details can be found on his website.
Peter may also be in attendance for the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland from 23 - 27 January 2008, where the topic will be The Power of Collaborative Innovation. Again more details on Peter's website.
[edit] Notes and References
- ^ What to watch on the web: Video Blogs, BBC News, 27 November 2006 (accessed 29 December 2006).
- ^ geriatric1927's Youtube profile
- ^ Pensioner tops web video clips Alex Kumi, The Guardian, 2006-08-14
- ^ Telling it all 7 - Something important to say youtube posting 2006-08-17
