IJBFC Chat - September 6, 2015
(Name of message originator next to or above the timestamp)
Laura Leff 5:01 PM
Hi Robert! Hi
Steve!
Steve Archer 5:01 PM
Hi Laura, Robert
Happy Labor Day weekend
Hip Chat 5:02 PM
Hi DreerPooson! Welcome to
Hipchat. You can @-mention me by typing HipChat and I'll tell you what HipChat
can do!
Laura Leff 5:02 PM
Indeed. Not
sure how many people will be able to join us, but we'll see!
Hi Dreer!
Steve Archer 5:02 PM
Hiya Dreer
Dreer Pooson 5:02 PM
Hi Laura, hi everybody
Laura Leff 5:03 PM
The weather is gorgeous
here...how is it where you all are?
I know we've got the West
Coast covered...Dreer, not sure where you are.
Steve Archer 5:03 PM
It's been rainy in Seattle
- shocker I know
Dreer Pooson 5:03 PM
Oklahoma, where it's 98
degrees today
Laura Leff 5:03 PM
A JB fan had dinner with me
Friday and said that there's a drought even up there.
Aha! OK,
gotcha.
Steve Archer 5:04 PM
Yes, we've actually needed
the rain. Hopefully some went over the mountains to help with the
awful wildfires
Laura Leff 5:04 PM
Indeed.
So who listened to the show
for discussion tonight?
Dreer Pooson 5:04 PM
I was in Seattle in July,
it was wonderfully sunny (in contrast to my wife and I's December visits)
Steve Archer 5:04 PM
July's a good time to be
here certainly!
Dreer Pooson 5:05 PM
I did!
Steve Archer 5:05 PM
I did too Laura, good
choice.
Laura Leff 5:05 PM
And certainly Seattle is a
beautiful area.
Steve Archer 5:05 PM
A fun show.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley joined
the room
Dreer Pooson 5:05 PM
I most enjoyed Jack and
Rochester toward the end
Laura Leff 5:05 PM
Thank you. I
think this show is very much in that nexus time of the show where it still feels
like the late 1930s shows, but the characters are starting to morph into more of
their 40s, but it's still before the war.
Steve Archer 5:05 PM
I think we were talking
about Mary Kelly last chat, right?
Laura Leff 5:05 PM
Hi Kathy!
Yes, I think that's what
prompted me to pick this one.
Interesting that Jack
allowed himself to have a line at her expense.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:06 PM
howdy, all!
Steve Archer 5:06 PM
I agree - you can hear the
Lucky Strike era coming in in some ways.
Dreer Pooson 5:06 PM
Yes, Laura, I think I got
most of that 40s sensibility with Jack-Rochester
Laura Leff 5:07 PM
I still find it amazing
that they had the dynamic down between them quite well from the first time he
appears as Rochetser.
ster
Steve Archer 5:07 PM
or Manchester
Laura Leff 5:07 PM
I guess it was just a
dynamic that worked for the characters and the actors. They knew
what words to put in their mouths.
Or Nottingham.
And you have Frank Nelson
as major narrator
Steve Archer 5:08 PM
Ooooooooooooooooooooh, DO
we!
Laura Leff 5:08 PM
LOL
Dreer Pooson 5:09 PM
Were there any other times
that happened with Frank Nelson as narrator? Not up on those first
few years very much
Yhtap Mys joined
the room
Steve Archer 5:09 PM
The audience sounded like
they were really engaged on this show right from the start.
Laura Leff 5:09 PM
Frank Nelson played a
variety of bit roles in the early days...some so straight that some people can't
tell it's him.
Hi Yht!
Yhtap Mys
5:09 PM
Hi, Laura and all.
Steve Archer 5:09 PM
Hi Yht
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:09 PM
side note-- its great that
UCLA archives has put up the Benny 10/28/50 show, can we get them to do other
early ones?
Laura Leff 5:10 PM
I'm kind of astounded that
they did...I sure hope so!
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:10 PM
maybe I will inquire this
week, inquiring minds want to know these things!
Steve Archer 5:10 PM
What's the UCLA archives
thing? They posted a show?
Laura Leff 5:10 PM
There are so many fabulous
ones from those days that are not in circulaion.
circulation.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:11 PM
Steve, apparently UCLA
recently posted the first Benny TV show...
Laura Leff 5:11 PM
Yes, please
do. If you want to get a contact and forward to me, I can run with
it. Then again, I have a number of contacts over there myself. Just
been so busy with work, life, and all.
Steve Archer 5:11 PM
I'll have to look for that
Laura Leff 5:12 PM
In fact, I'll publicly own
that I'm late with the newsletter. Still working on it.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:13 PM
So, Laura, I am curious,
has much of the IJBFC regular daily chat gone over to facebook? I hate to say
I've only really become a participant since finding you all on FB, what else is
happening on your site?
Yhtap Mys
5:13 PM
I'm afraid I don't post
there now, Kathy, and rarely go to the forum.
Steve Archer 5:13 PM
Wow, the google just
brought this up - not the show but definitely something new to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJu7r1S8WmE
Video
5:13 PM
Jack
Benny speaking at UCLA 4/11/1973
5,191 views
UCLACommStudies
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:14 PM
its great, Steve! glad you
posted it!
Laura Leff 5:14 PM
Not that much...FB does
have the most activity. While people do occasionally post to the
hosted Forum I have, I confess that I don't have a lot of time to peruse the
postings either. It's always been such a great group of people that
they've been very self-regulating.
I think it was Mark Evanier
who was there and saw that talk live.
Steve Archer 5:15 PM
I haven't been on the
forums much at all myself - I was quite a bit a few years ago
There's still a lot of good
info archived there.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:16 PM
well, hooray for social
media! I would love to learn from members about the oldest gathering of Jack
Benny fans. I found a couple newsletters at Wyoming from a Benny fan club in
like 1936? Laura, would love to know what you have found. Everything new is old
again, or something like that
I meant multiple
gatherings, how they found other Benny fans, back in the day....
Laura Leff 5:17 PM
Yes, I think I found a
little newsletter from 1934. Thanks for that
reminder! Maybe I'll put that in the newsletter!
Steve Archer 5:17 PM
Of course, there's always
the TV show with the meeting of the jack benny fan club
Laura Leff 5:17 PM
And what's freaky to me is
that the writing in it sounds very similar to my writing from the early
newsletters.
And Fred Allen in
"It's In the Bag" saying that he's President of the Jack Benny Fan
Club.
Which always gives me the
most incredulous feeling.
Dreer Pooson 5:18 PM
Got an address for that
1936 fan club? I'd like to join...
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:18 PM
well, you don't have bags
under your eyes, but in every other way you are the equal of the first Prez.....
Laura Leff 5:18 PM
I think they went
underground at some point...
Steve Archer 5:18 PM
I'm picturing a Scooby Doo
like scene where one day Laura gives up the IJBFC and rips off a mask revealing
herself to be Fred Allen
Dreer Pooson 5:18 PM
LOL, Laura
Laura Leff 5:18 PM
HA!
Yhtap Mys
5:19 PM
Does Laura has a clothes
pin on her nose?
Steve Archer 5:19 PM
It's all been a plot!
Laura Leff 5:19 PM
Not at the moment...
Although this new mousepad
I bought sometimes makes me consider it.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:19 PM
I would love to find more
information about Benny fans from the 30s-40s-50s. There's a lot of academic
(snore) interest in fan club history. Star Trek fans are SURE they invented
fandom, and we must prove them wrong, haha
Laura Leff 5:20 PM
(Kirk
inflection) Must.......prove.......them.......wrong.......
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:20 PM
hahahaha!
Steve Archer 5:20 PM
You'd think Jack was so
mainstream then it would almost be a little odd. Like having a
FRIENDS fan club or something more recently.
(I'm sure there are such
things of course)
Laura Leff 5:21 PM
Well, the Internet has made
the concept of fan clubs change a LOT.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:21 PM
great idea, Steve! I wonder
if the internet allows both oddballs and incredibly boring mainstream folks to
participate in fandom
Laura Leff 5:21 PM
You don't need the same
level of research and devotion to a topic...put up a page and update it once in
a while, and call it a club.
Heck, I accumulated my
first Benny shows (after commercial outlets were exhausted) by trading cassette
tapes, because I didn't have a good facility for copying reel-to-reels.
Y'see, I'm older than dirt.
Dreer Pooson 5:22 PM
How would someone have
advertised a fan club in the 30s? Classified ads in the radio/film
magazines?
Tony Morgan joined
the room
Hip Chat 5:22 PM
Hi TonyMorgan! Welcome to
Hipchat. You can @-mention me by typing HipChat and I'll tell you what HipChat
can do!
Laura Leff 5:22 PM
Hi Tony!
Tony Morgan
5:23 PM
Hi!
Laura Leff 5:23 PM
Could be...the way I
started was getting all the friends I knew about Jack Benny to join.
Steve Archer 5:23 PM
Hi Tony
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:23 PM
I recently purchased some
old issues of Liberty magazine when they rebooted it as a nostalgia thing, and
that's where I found the sources for the cassette tapes I bought at age
11 : )
Laura Leff 5:23 PM
We don't know how extensive
the membership really was. But they knew to send a copy of their
newsletter to Jack.
Steve Archer 5:24 PM
Dreer, if you ever look at
some of those old movie mags they often do have little classified ad type things
where people look for pen pals with similar fan interests.
Can't say that I've ever
seen one specifically about Jack Benny.
Dreer Pooson 5:24 PM
I remember those,
Kathy...bought the first several issues of it in 71-72...published by the same
group that published the National Lampoon, ironically...
Laura Leff 5:24 PM
And it took me a while to
find all the Benny biographies in used book stores.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:24 PM
Laura, do you have a copy
of that 1934 newsletter? I will look to see if I made a xerox...
Laura Leff 5:24 PM
I do...let me see if I can
find it while we're chatting and make sure we were looking at the same thing.
Keep talking, folks...what
else from tonight's show?
Dreer Pooson 5:25 PM
I'm sure it was nice back
then to find nifty little handwritten letters in the mailbox...
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:26 PM
I laugh when I look at
these issues, the Liberty folks offered some reprinted movie posters for like $1
or 2 each (that was a LOT of money to me then!) and I bought 4 or 5, and put
them up in my room, kept them up thru college. Mary Pickford, feh...if they had
had a Benny poster, I would have gotten that!
Steve Archer 5:27 PM
The Jack Benny Pin-Up
Magazine, from the publishers of DYNAMITE!
Dreer Pooson 5:27 PM
I was very tickled by the
"reading time" concept...
Yhtap Mys
5:27 PM
One of the things that
surprised me in this show, Laura, was Mary Kelly's range. She hit one bad note
and it wasn't the high one.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:28 PM
hey, I would love to know
what members' first memories of radio or TV are .... my freshmen are so young,
the internet was in full bloom when they were born! Or even the internet. So let
me rephrase....what and how was the first way you experienced Jack Benny?
Who got to see the TV
programs when they were growing up?
Steve Archer 5:29 PM
I honestly don't remember
Kathy. Probably a late night TV rerun. Jack died when
I was a year old.
Dreer Pooson 5:29 PM
I was in grade school and
remember Mom and I watching the last three TV seasons, particularly the last
year (when it went back to NBC, didn't it?)
Yhtap Mys
5:30 PM
I probably saw the TV shows
because I was old enough and the show was on early enough. But I really don't
remember.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:30 PM
Steve, that is FABULOUS
that you are a Benny fan! I hope we can give him second-third-fourth lives as
one of the best comics of all time : )
Dreer Pooson 5:31 PM
I think his persona was
still pretty well known to kids growing up in the early 60s...I remember a
Dennis the Menace comic book with a Benny joke in it, circa 1965
Steve Archer 5:31 PM
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:31 PM
I was VERY unlucky, did not
see the 60s shows when I was a little kid, then the towns I lived in did not
have Benny TV reruns. For me it was old radio shows on cassette tapes, starting
when I was 10...
Tony Morgan
5:32 PM
Hi --I never saw Jack Benny
as a kid (as far as I know) -- I was born in the mid-1960s. My
first radio-play memory was listening to the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre and the
Sears/Mutual Radio Theatre. The earliest time I listened to Jack
Benny was when I was in college in the early 1980s -- a Boston station played
old-time radio shows in the evenings.
My young daughter enjoys
listening to Jack now...
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:33 PM
that is awesome, Tony!
with the growing popularity
of podcasts and radio over the internet, I am hopeful that we can build a
renaissance of appreciation for radio shows : )
Steve Archer 5:34 PM
I still remember
mail-ordering cassettes for three or four bucks each!
Now two clicks and you have
every episode.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:35 PM
same here, Steve, makes me
laugh out loud. It cost all my babysitting earnings to get a tape or two...and
now that $10 gets me nearly 900 episodes, hahaha
Laura Leff 5:35 PM
OK...I found tons of stuff,
but I think I may have filed that copy somewhere else.
Dreer Pooson 5:36 PM
Or even less...the Old Time
Radio Researchers library offers the whole run of Benny scot-free...
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:36 PM
hooray for the internets!!!
Tony Morgan
5:37 PM
Hi – quick mention -- I
happened to be reading the NY Times, and came across an obituary for Joy Golden,
and ad executive and award-winning radio ad producer. One line
caught my attention – “Ms. Golden, who had never worked in radio but grew up
listening to “The Jack Benny Program,” instinctively opted for
humor.” That’s the only Jack Benny reference, but if you want
to read the obit (and listen to three of her commercials), here it is: nyti.ms/1M22cBm . Nice
to hear how the Benny ads influenced a career.
Laura Leff 5:37 PM
Yes, it's mind-blowing how
far the internet has taken collecting sing I started.
Dreer Pooson 5:37 PM
I got to know the radio
shows because of a wonderful local deejay who got to play two nights a week of
OTR shows on a small local station...I taped oodles of them...
Yhtap Mys
5:38 PM
Hmpf. My boss took all our
transcriptions.
Laura Leff 5:38 PM
And of course, I came to
him through "The Mouse that Jack Built"
Steve Archer 5:39 PM
It's funny how the
availability changes the experience of listening to the shows - those tapes I
had, I'd listen to them dozens of times, so there are still those 15 shows or so
that I can almost recite by heart, but I rarely will listen to a show twice
nowadays, I'd rather just skip to another episode.
Laura Leff 5:39 PM
Per previous comment,
remember that Mary Kelly was once Gracie Allen's roommate. So I'm
not surprised that she was able to sing.
Who here has heard all the
available shows?
Steve Archer 5:39 PM
? Did Gracie have some kind
of singing ability transference power?
Yhtap Mys
5:40 PM
I've heard almost all. A
few are so chewed up I can't hear the dialogue.
Laura Leff 5:40 PM
Not necessarily...but Mary
Kelly was an Irish singer/dancer in vaudeville like Gracie was.
Steve Archer 5:40 PM
Oh, not by a long
shot. I've never tried to go through them systematically, which,
someday, I will.
Howard Mostovy joined the
room
Hip Chat 5:40 PM
Hi HowardMostovy! Welcome
to Hipchat. You can @-mention me by typing HipChat and I'll tell you what
HipChat can do!
Laura Leff 5:40 PM
Hi Howard!
Tony Morgan
5:40 PM
Hello, Howard!
Steve Archer 5:41 PM
You wouldn't guess Mary
Kelly was Irish from the name
Dreer Pooson 5:41 PM
There's lots I haven't
listened to yet...just last night I listened to one I'd never heard before, the
1950-51 season opener...
Laura Leff 5:41 PM
Phil's character from
tonight's show is still the 30s Phil...he hasn't "officially" married
Alice yet and is still chasing women...even well-upholstered ones, apparently!
Yhtap Mys
5:41 PM
Well, Steve, her real name
could have been Keliskowitz.
Dreer Pooson 5:41 PM
Steve Archer 5:42 PM
She was almost Mary
Kubelsky!
Laura Leff 5:42 PM
Remember also that this is
Dennis' second season on the show. So he's inhabited his character
very well by this time.
Steve - And maybe she
should have been.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:42 PM
we are so lucky to have so
many to listen to, even to "binge listen" like folks "binge
watch" on netflix. Imagine that, back in the day, listeners had to wait
week to week, and there were no reruns!
Dreer Pooson 5:42 PM
He was a fast learner,
Laura!
Yhtap Mys
5:42 PM
But Kenny Baker has a
yacht!
Steve Archer 5:43 PM
so does Bill Robinson
Dreer Pooson 5:43 PM
And Bill Robinson, too
Laura Leff 5:43 PM
Kathy - Part of the reason
they were able to recycle material so effectively.
My name is Kenny Baker, I
own a mansion and a yacht.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:43 PM
you are so right, Laura,
and fascinating that it took them until 1940 to start doing it!
for the most part, I mean
they pulled out Grind Hotel 3 or 4 times when starting with a new sponsor, in
the mid 30s
Laura Leff 5:43 PM
Kathy - Recycling
material? No, they were doing that back in the Harry Conn days.
Who Killed Mr. X?
Grind Hotel
Yeah
Yhtap Mys
5:44 PM
Hair.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:44 PM
well, that is
serialization, not recycling? the beginning of a sitcom format?
Dreer Pooson 5:44 PM
It's hard to imagine back
when people thought of radio as live theater...you listened to it as was
presented, and then it was considered to be gone forever...
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:44 PM
hair, hair, what do I have
on the top of my head?
Josef Silvia joined
the room
Laura Leff 5:45 PM
But I sense that Who Killed
Mr. X is a repetition of a structure...I don't sense they really built on it
week-to-week. Or has it been too long since I looked at the
scripts.
Hi Josef!
Steve Archer 5:45 PM
Hey there Josef!
Josef Silvia
5:45 PM
Hi Laura!
Hi Steve!
Laura Leff 5:45 PM
Dreer - Out into the
ether...
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:45 PM
you are right, Laura, the
year of Buck Benny is a great example...
Laura Leff 5:45 PM
The Yosemite story is
absolutely an example of serialization.
Dreer Pooson 5:46 PM
That's one of my early
favorites, Laura
Laura Leff 5:46 PM
As is the Ronald Colman
Oscar story.
Josef Silvia
5:46 PM
My favorite
Laura Leff 5:46 PM
Dreer - With good
reason...it's a pretty rich little storyline they developed for it!
Tony Morgan
5:46 PM
In that vein, one of my
favorite sequences is the 4-week trip to Yosemite, in the late
1930s. I wish they had done more of that.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:46 PM
it must have been so
frustrating, back in the day, if you missed something and it would not be
repeated! Numerous listeners wrote in to CBS asking them to re-do or replay War
of the Worlds in 1938
Laura Leff 5:47 PM
Even movies you could go to
again and again.
Tony Morgan
5:47 PM
Any idea why
"arcs" like that weren't done more often?
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:47 PM
great idea, Tony! Its so
interesting that they did NOT go that way..... Fibber McGee and Molly did....
Steve Archer 5:47 PM
Well, thinking of SUSPENSE
and ESCAPE, they would re-do popular scripts from time to time.
Laura Leff 5:47 PM
I'm sure that
transcriptions were not seen as viable repeat broadcasts (except for AFRS), much
as kinescopes weren't.
And there were probably
Musicians' Union/Petrillo issues.
Steve - Exhibit
A: Christmas Shopping.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:48 PM
Tony, grueat question re
story arcs! I think there was pressure from network and sponsor that it should
not matter if anyone has heard the previous episode, trying not to alienate
listeners in the LIVE era
Steve Archer 5:49 PM
But the Christmas Shopping
shows aren't the identical script, like an encore of "Sorry Wrong
Number"
Laura Leff 5:49 PM
Tony - I don't think they
approached the writing of the show that way much. They had the core
idea, split the script among the writers (in 1943+), and tackled it.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:49 PM
nobody got to hear the
repeats back in the day, we are so lucky!
Laura Leff 5:49 PM
Steve - OK, that's a fair
statement.
The "I Can't Stand
Jack Benny" contest is also a serialization.
Dreer Pooson 5:50 PM
Yes, everybody can be their
own radio station now...I would've given an arm for that privilege when I was in
school...
Laura Leff 5:50 PM
But they were actively
trying to build hype for that.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:50 PM
Steve, you are on to a
great idea -- FANS would love to hear the same idea repeated annually, like a
tradition, with a new twist every year?
Josef Silvia
5:50 PM
And isn't the "When I
say I beg Your Pardon" kind of a serialization?
Laura Leff 5:50 PM
Lum and Abner did that with
their Christmas show, I think.
Steve Archer 5:50 PM
Sure, part of the fun of
the Christmas shopping shows is what is fine tuned/added/dropped, etc.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:51 PM
and Amos n Andy with the
Lord's Prayer every year
Tony Morgan
5:51 PM
The year-end "Father
Time" shows, schmaltzy as they may be, I like to listen to, especially
during the war years. i like that Benny and his writers did those
year after year.
Laura Leff 5:51 PM
Josef - I think it is for a
little while, but then later reiterations of it are just small reworks.
Steve Archer 5:51 PM
Or ugh, the New Tenant
Josef Silvia
5:51 PM
oh ok
Laura Leff 5:51 PM
Jack wants X to record his
song. Do the song bit. They decline, punch line.
Tony Morgan
5:51 PM
Hey! I like the New Tenant
shows
Dreer Pooson 5:51 PM
Our Miss Brooks re-did
their "Magic Christmas Tree" episode annually as well
Steve Archer 5:51 PM
Heh, Tony likes them more
than I do!
Laura Leff 5:51 PM
Jack wants Dore Schary to
publish his song. Do the song bit. They
decline. Punch line.
Josef Silvia
5:51 PM
Almost like a repeat show
with guest stars
Steve Archer 5:52 PM
Like any episode of The
Lucy Show or Here's Lucy!
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:52 PM
that's what I find so
fascinating about Jack's radio show -- it has sitcom elements, but is not TIED
to being a sitcom. OH the flexibility they had to mix up genres!
Laura Leff 5:52 PM
I like the New Tenant shows
as a "refocus" of perspective based on the issues of the day.
Kind of a terrarium of the
zeitgeist of the times.
Steve Archer 5:53 PM
Jack's granny gums voice
gets on my nerves LOL
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:53 PM
and maybe it had more
impact, Laura, because he only did it once a year. Eddie Cantor sermonized every
week!
Laura Leff 5:54 PM
(Can a Jew sermonize?)
Josef Silvia
5:54 PM
I usually can't stand the
new tenant shows.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:54 PM
hahaha maybe he commented
Steve Archer 5:54 PM
Testify Josef!
Laura Leff 5:54 PM
Hey, let's see if anyone
has an idea on this...
Yhtap Mys
5:54 PM
Steve, I can't help put
wonder if that goes back to his childhood, with the city folk (Jack) making fun
of the farmer yokels in the outlying areas.
Josef Silvia
5:55 PM
LOL Steve. It's for the
same reason, I don't like Jack's voice in them
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:55 PM
some young academic wrote
an article claiming Jack Benny was a major player in Cold War politics because
of those shows. hahaha
Steve Archer 5:55 PM
Oh could be, it just sounds
like a stereotype "old-timer" to me, never thought of it as
"rural"
Yhtap Mys
5:56 PM
It's the same voice he used
on the rural character shows.
Laura Leff 5:56 PM
So many people know about
Eddie Cantor ordering cornflakes and milk at restaurants, right?
Steve Archer 5:57 PM
Hmm, I'd have to give them
a closer listen but I think Jack's trying to do more "age" type stuff
in the New Tenant. But definitely in the same neighborhood.
Laura Leff 5:57 PM
Kathy -
Seriously? I think he's more pacifist than anything.
Josef Silvia
5:57 PM
He would order cornflakes
and milk at restaurants?
Steve Archer 5:57 PM
I don't know the Eddie
Cantor thing Laura.
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 5:58 PM
yeah, I think its BS, haha
Steve Archer 5:58 PM
Apparently, he would order
cornflakes and milk at restaurants?
Laura Leff 5:58 PM
OK, maybe that's not as
well-known as I thought. I was told it was because he kept kosher.
But then I thought I ran
into a fact that he didn't keep kosher.
Josef Silvia
5:58 PM
Wow.
Laura Leff 5:58 PM
I guess I should be asking
Michelle Malik that question.
Just hadn't thought about
it in a while.
Kathy - So what do they
claim Jack was doing to encourage the cold war?
Stuart Canin may have
started the feud, but Jack did not start the Cold War...
Kathy Fuller-Seeley 6:00 PM
this young scholar thinks
that the few episodes he listened to were the only thing on radio, what I
dislike about academics, hahaha
Laura Leff 6:00 PM
Oh good grief
Steve Archer 6:00 PM
Remember that time Kennedy
had the "I can't stand Khrushchev because" contesst?
Laura Leff 6:00 PM
I wonder if he's ever heard
of McCarthy
Josef Silvia
6:00 PM
He should've googled the
Golden Age of radio
Dreer Pooson 6:00 PM
LOL, Steve
Laura Leff 6:00 PM
Josef, not Bergen and
Yhtap Mys
6:00 PM
Charlie, Joe or Clem?
Laura Leff 6:01 PM
And Joseph, not Josef
Dreer Pooson 6:01 PM
"Josef" was
Stalin
Laura Leff 6:01 PM
I say Stanley Kubrick
started the Cold War.
Tony Morgan
6:02 PM
Speaking of keeping kosher,
why did Jack talk about eating non-kosher foods (pork)? Maybe
that's an old question, but I wonder about it every time I hear it.
Laura Leff 6:02 PM
(Bet I don't have to
explain that to this audience)
Tony - Well, he grew up in
an Orthodox Jewish household, but he let that go (as many did) as soon as he got
out in the world.
Tony Morgan
6:03 PM
Thanks, Laura!
Laura Leff 6:03 PM
He even commented somewhere
about having his first breakfast at Great Lakes Naval Station of bacon and eggs.
Of course, he was touring
with Cora Salisbury and Lyman Woods before that.
Steve Archer 6:04 PM
I bet Cora made a mean
steak.
Laura Leff 6:04 PM
And Cora taught him
plenty.
Any other thoughts on the
show tonight, or general Benny questions?
Josef Silvia
6:05 PM
Just finished listening to
the show. Enjoyed the "raise" jokes
Yhtap Mys
6:06 PM
Somehow I don't think a
commercial spot pushing flavour that's "artificially enhanced" would
work today.
Laura Leff 6:06 PM
Yes, Jack's cheap character
was well-entrenched.
Yht - Good point!
Yhtap Mys
6:06 PM
And did Verna Felton have
another show to do? She had two lines at the beginning and that was it.
Josef Silvia
6:07 PM
I think my favorite line in
tonight's show was when Jack tells Rochester he regards him as a butler and
Rochester quips, Boss did you see our last picture
Laura Leff 6:07 PM
Sometimes they did
that. Frank Nelson had a story about coming on for one line, and
based on his rate, being the highest-paid actor based on a per-second rate.
So what else Benny-wise for
tonight? Or do we want to call it good on account of the holiday?
Dreer Pooson 6:08 PM
Laura, did you not have the
unedited version of the show available, or do you just prefer that
encode? I just listened to the one I got from the OTRR library, and
it was the full 29:30...
Yhtap Mys
6:09 PM
A question probably no one
can answer...
Dreer Pooson 6:09 PM
(I think the only
difference is the music was edited)
Yhtap Mys
6:09 PM
Anyone know who played
Rochester's girl-friend on the TV debut?
Laura Leff 6:09 PM
Dreer - Good
question. It just happened to be the one I had in the
library. I'm open to switching it for the full episode!
Yht - Oh I should have that
in 39 Forever...
Correction...no I
don't. Apparently didn't have a name on that part in the script.
Steve Archer 6:10 PM
does anyone have the link
to that TV debut, or is it now gone?
Josef Silvia
6:10 PM
This may be a silly
question to ask, but Laura do you have the TV episode in the library where Don
Wilson and Dennis Day impersonate Laurel & Hardy?
Dreer Pooson 6:11 PM
Laura, I'll send you the
link to the page I downloaded it from...are you still using your AOL address?
Laura Leff 6:11 PM
Josef - I should...pretty
sure I do.
Dreer - No, I stopped using
that in 2005. Send it to president@jackbenny.org.
Thank you!
It's a talent show...just a
sec...
Josef Silvia
6:11 PM
Okay. Trying to buy some
episodes of Benny's TV show.
Dreer Pooson 6:11 PM
Ah, I'm behind the times
Laura Leff 6:12 PM
Think it was the 1962
version, but let me check...
Josef Silvia
6:12 PM
ok
Kathy Fuller-Seeley left
the room (user disconnected)
Laura Leff 6:13 PM
4/9/63 episode.
Josef Silvia
6:13 PM
Thanks Laura. I'll make
sure I make a note of it when I send in the DVD-R
Laura Leff 6:13 PM
Yep, it's on Special
Collection 8.
Sounds good...thanks!
Any requests for a show for
next month?
Yhtap Mys
6:14 PM
I can't think of anything.
Steve Archer 6:14 PM
How about the Yosemite
shows that were mentioned upthread?
Josef Silvia
6:14 PM
Neither can I.
Steve Archer 6:14 PM
I haven't heard those in a
while.
Laura Leff 6:14 PM
Ooh...yeah! Great
idea!
Josef Silvia
6:14 PM
Oh that would be fun
Laura Leff 6:15 PM
Will do. That
might even carry us for a few months.
Steve Archer 6:15 PM
EPIC
Laura Leff 6:15 PM
HA!
Great suggestion.
Josef Silvia
6:15 PM
Much better than just doing
a holiday themed stuff
Tony Morgan
6:15 PM
This was my first time
here. Thanks for being so welcoming. Look forward to
being here in the future.
Yhtap Mys
6:15 PM
Well, back to the blog.
More Benny image files to upload. See you later.
Steve Archer 6:15 PM
Come back again Tony!
Laura Leff 6:15 PM
Thanks so much for
stopping, Tony...and other new folks!
Yhtap Mys left
the room (user disconnected)
Dreer Pooson 6:15 PM
Night, everybody...have a
swell September
Josef Silvia
6:15 PM
Yeah, I have to finish
writing a play I'm casting tomorrow.
Laura Leff 6:16 PM
You too!
Robert Daven left the room
(user disconnected)
Josef Silvia
6:16 PM
Night all
Tony Morgan
6:16 PM
I have to finish my lesson
plan for class tomorrow.
Steve Archer 6:16 PM
All right, have a great
month all.
Tony Morgan
6:16 PM
Bye
Steve Archer left the room
(user disconnected)
Laura Leff 6:16 PM
Take care, folks!