Often described as the Drones Club millionaire,For example, Oofy is called "the Drones Club millionaire" in "Leave it to Algy", and "the club millionaire" in "The Fat of the Land" and Aunts Aren't Gentleman, chapter 16. Oofy Prosser is the richest member of the club. Oofy and the second richest club member, Monty Bodkin, are apparently significantly wealthier than any other members, since it is stated in the novel Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin that Oofy Prosser and Monty Bodkin are "the only two really moneyed members of the Drones Club". Because Oofy is both constantly being asked for £5 or £10 and a miser for loans, "a man in whose wallet moths nest and raise large families", he is considered ugly on both the inside and the outside – the pimples on his face being quite famous.
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She also engages him to search for the cat perpetrator. Dolly, Soapy and Chimp all break into Castlewood in an attempt to find the jewels, but they are surprised by George, Freddie's policeman cousin. The ice ends up in the hands of Freddie, who hopes that Oofy will reward him (Soapy's stock having turned out to be predictably worthless). But Oofy typically refuses.
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In "Leave it to Algy", it is mentioned that Oofy Prosser agreed to become Algernon Aubrey Little's godfather with the understanding that, having provided a christening gift, Oofy would not be expected to give Algernon Aubrey any future gifts. This reflects Wodehouse's real agreement to become godfather to Frances Donaldson's daughter Rose on the understanding that after the obligatory christening gift, there would be no expectation of future presents.
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Bertie compares him with Reginald "Kipper" Herring in Jeeves in the Offing; "Kipper" (with his cauliflower ear) would have been an unsafe entrant to have backed in a beauty contest, even if the only other competitors had been Boris Karloff, King Kong and Oofy Prosser .... However, Oofy can be a big spender (serving strawberries in winter, at a cost of around a pound sterling each), or a fierce gambler (in a casino, or on bets).
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Alexander Charles "Oofy" Prosser is a recurring fictional character in the Drones Club stories. He is a wealthy yet still greedy individual who is often referred to as the club millionaire.
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Oofy Prosser was featured in 8 episodes (out of 23) of the 1990–1993 British TV series Jeeves and Wooster (in seasons 1–2 and 4, aired 1990–1991 and 1993 in the UK), played by Richard Dixon.
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123, B16. "The Fat of the Land", "The Word in Season", "Leave it to Algy", and "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust" were included in the 1982 short story collection, Tales from the Drones Club.McIlvaine (1990), p. 126, B25.
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Alexander Charles "Oofy" Prosser is a recurring fictional character from the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the millionaire member of the Drones Club. He is also a friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster. The most wealthy and envied member of the Club, he has the nickname "Oofy", which is British slang for "wealthy" or "made of money"."Prosser" was also late 19th century British slang, meaning a "beggar", one who cadges loans, and thus his surname puns on standard English beggar and beggar, slang for a "bloke" or "chap"; the entire name thus meaning "wealthy bloke".
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While Wodehouse's stories generally do not reference specific years, "The Fat of the Land" is an exception; it is stated in this story that one of Oofy Prosser's uncles, Hildebrand, died of an apoplectic stroke in 1947, and his other uncle, Stanley, died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1949.Garrison (1991), p. 156.
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Jas (or Jos.) Waterbury is a fictional character who appears in two Drones Club short stories, "The Masked Troubadour" and "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust". He is also featured in the Jeeves short story "Jeeves and the Greasy Bird". A greasy-headed and unscrupulous individual, he is a pianist and theatrical agent. He has a niece named Trixie Waterbury, who plays Fairy Queens in pantomime.
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Harold P. "Stinker" Pinker, Claude "Catsmeat" Potter-Pirbright, Oliver "Sippy" Sipperley, and Rockmetteller "Rocky" Todd. Sometimes a friend or acquaintance will become a jealous antagonist, for example G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright. Some pals of Bertie's are occasionally mentioned who do not play major roles in the Jeeves stories, including Freddie Widgeon, Cyril "Barmy" Fotheringay-Phipps, and Oofy Prosser. Many Drones Club members appear in the separate Wodehouse Drones Club stories.
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He chooses the greasy-headed agent Jas Waterbury, who recommends his niece Trixie. At the Drones Club, Bertie is troubled to hear from Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright that Jas cheated two of Bertie's fellow Drones, Oofy Prosser and Freddie Widgeon. While sharing an embrace with Trixie, Bertie is discovered, but by Eggleston, not Honoria. Bertie tells him that he and Trixie are engaged, but it hardly matters, since Eggleston and Honoria reconciled already.
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Rosie and Bingo's marriage is essentially happy, though she dislikes Bingo's penchant for gambling, and keeps him on a tight budget. The couple have a baby, Algernon "Algy" Aubrey Little, and Rosie manages to get Bingo a job as editor at Wee Tots, a journal for the home and nursery. The infant Algy is put up for membership in the Drones Club, and his godfather is Oofy Prosser.Garrison (1991), pp. 106-107.
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It features several Wodehouse characters from earlier books, including Drones Club members Freddie Widgeon and Oofy Prosser, and the trio of criminals, "Chimp" Twist and "Soapy" and "Dolly" Molloy. The novel has two intertwined sub-plots. Freddie Widgeon, who wishes to marry Sally Foster, is seeking to escape from a dull job in a London office to become the manager of a coffee plantation in Kenya. Meanwhile, in the normally quiet suburb of Valley Fields, where Freddie is living, a cache of jewellery, hidden in the home of Freddie's neighbour, is attracting the attention of a small gang of petty criminals.
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Freddie Widgeon is renting a villa called Peacehaven in the idyllic South London suburb of Valley Fields, and working, unhappily, in the office of Shoesmith, Shoesmith, Shoesmith and Shoesmith, solicitors. Soapy Molloy has just moved out of the house next door (Castlewood), to be replaced by the novelist Leila Yorke. Leila is published by Popgood and Grooly (a publishing firm also mentioned in other novels including Uncle Dynamite and Galahad at Blandings), which is largely owned by Oofy Prosser. It turns out that Soapy has left some diamonds or "ice" (stolen from Oofy's wife Myrtle) in the bedroom of Castlewood.
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He is known in the club for often falling in love and getting rejected. One Egg says "I wish I had a quid for every girl Freddie Widgeon has loved and lost", and a Bean says "I'll bet that if all the girls Freddie Widgeon has loved and lost were placed end to end they would reach half-way down Piccadilly". He eventually goes coffee-farming in Kenya with Sally Foster. Freddie appears in the short stories "Fate", "Trouble Down at Tudsleigh", "Goodbye to All Cats", "Noblesse Oblige", "The Masked Troubadour", "Bramley Is So Bracing", "The Fat of the Land", "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust", and "Bingo Bans the Bomb".
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Monty Bodkin is the second richest member of the Drones Club (the richest being Oofy Prosser). He is tall, slender, and has butter-coloured hair. The son of a solicitor with a small country-town practice, Monty inherited his money from an aunt who married an American millionaire from Pittsburgh when she was in the chorus of a musical at the Adelphi Theatre. When we first meet Monty Bodkin at the start of Heavy Weather, he is employed by Lord Tilbury as assistant editor of Tiny Tots, one of the many imprints of the mighty Mammoth Publishing Company, his uncle Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe having prevailed upon Tilbury to give him the job at a public dinner.
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Other gentlemen's clubs which have existed on Dover Street but are now dissolved include the Bath Club, the Junior Naval and Military Club, and the Scottish Club, as well as two mixed-sex clubs, the Albemarle Club and the Empress Club. None of these were considered among London's 'premier' clubs of the kind found on St James's Street and Pall Mall, and so their ambience often had something of the raucous informality of the fictional Drones Club. About a dozen club members are major or secondary recurring characters in the Wodehouse stories. In addition to Bertie Wooster (Jeeves stories), Pongo Twistleton (Uncle Fred stories), Rupert Psmith (Psmith stories), and Freddie Threepwood (Blandings stories), prominent recurring drones include Bingo Little and Freddie Widgeon, plus Monty Bodkin, Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps, Tuppy Glossop, Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, Archibald Mulliner, and the club millionaire Oofy Prosser.
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