Born as
Franz Oscar Natzke (as he was sometimes credited earlier in his career) at Wharepūhunga in the Waikato district of
New Zealand, he was the son of August Natzke (a native of
Brixen, a German-speaking part of Italy), who had emigrated to New Zealand and settled in
Ōtorohanga, and Emma Carter Natzke, of
Christchurch, New Zealand, who was a singer. As a boy, the young Natzke worked on his father's farm; he was encouraged and trained as a singer by his mother. The family was displaced by the recession of the 1920s to
Waiheke Island, where Oscar sang as a
boy soprano in concerts. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to a blacksmith at
Freemans Bay,
Auckland, where he worked for 3½ years; he later worked for a phosphate company. ==Career==