Black portrayals

[Jack Benny]

There were a number of times on the Benny show where obvious racial jokes were avoided entirely. I'm sure all of us can listen to a Benny show we have never heard before and predict a joke coming up and the general subject matter of the joke. Many times a racial Rochester joke is just waitng to happen, but doesn't. Here is my favorite example. a police officer pulls over Jack and the gang with Rochester driving, and Jack says something about them all being a family. I was waiting for Rochester or someone to mention that Rochester was the "black sheep" of the family, but it never gets said. It would have been perfecdt with everyone already using their hillbilly voices, and I would kill to see that original script to see if it was ever in there. There are many circumstances like this where a joke about Rochester's race is telegraphed and then avoided. For every other character in every situation that I can think of, when a setup is made it is always followed through, not so with rochester. It's like they new when they were pushing it and backed away, very cool! I personaly see this as a tribute to Jack's editing ability, and I can see him saying to his writers "we don't need that joke boys."

[David47Jens]

Yet another sidetrack: Does anybody here remember the animated series Calvin and the Colonel from the early '60s? It was one of a host of "adult" cartoons that made it (albeit briefly) to prime time TV after the success of the Flintstones. The main characters voices were done by Charles Correll and Freeman Gosden, and they were the voices they used on Amos and Andy. The characters were all animals rather than human, perhaps a pre-emptive move to prevent any criticism about racism.

The problem was, the show was bad...very bad. So bad that I don't know if Correll and Gosden ever worked professionally again.

I was about 5 or 6 when "Calvin and the Colonel" originally aired, and even at that undiscriminating age, I didn't find it particularly funny! Which is surprising when you consider that the episodes were written by the team of Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, former "Amos & Andy" writers who'd later worked for Edgar Bergen, and went on to create such classic TV shows as "Leave it to Beaver" and "The Munsters!"

I recently acquired a video of some original "Calvin" epsiodes, and unfortunately, they were even worse than I'd remembered.

[shimp scrampi]

There were a number of times on the Benny show where obvious racial jokes were avoided entirely. I'm sure all of us can listen to a Benny show we have never heard before and predict a joke coming up and the general subject matter of the joke. Many times a racial Rochester joke is just waitng to happen, but doesn't.

Very good point Jack Benny! I've noticed this too - as I think, the audience did as well. Milt Josefsberg mentions a re-use of a "prewar Rochester" script in the postwar era (I think it is one of the New York - Acme Plaza shows) when the writers were sick and couldn't come up with a revised script in time - and the audienced noticed and they got a few complaints about the Rochester portrayal.

As for the whole issue of under-represented people engaging with their own stereotype caricatures - it's a real head scratcher, but sure continues on today. Look at the popularity of "redneck caricature" comedians in the rural south! I think there are many instances of people wanting to see 'someone like them' in entertainment, no matter how off-base that portrayal may be. Once that foot is in the door, the characterizations can then evolve and become more dimensional, and audiences then in turn expect that.

[Maxwell]

There were a number of times on the Benny show where obvious racial jokes were avoided entirely. I'm sure all of us can listen to a Benny show we have never heard before and predict a joke coming up and the general subject matter of the joke. Many times a racial Rochester joke is just waitng to happen, but doesn't.

Very good point Jack Benny! I've noticed this too - as I think, the audience did as well. Milt Josefsberg mentions a re-use of a "prewar Rochester" script in the postwar era (I think it is one of the New York - Acme Plaza shows) when the writers were sick and couldn't come up with a revised script in time - and the audienced noticed and they got a few complaints about the Rochester portrayal.

As for the whole issue of under-represented people engaging with their own stereotype caricatures - it's a real head scratcher, but sure continues on today. Look at the popularity of "redneck caricature" comedians in the rural south! I think there are many instances of people wanting to see 'someone like them' in entertainment, no matter how off-base that portrayal may be. Once that foot is in the door, the characterizations can then evolve and become more dimensional, and audiences then in turn expect that.

Unfortunately, those who got that foot in the door but had to play to the stereotype often end up being reviled once characterizations do evolve. No African-American entertainer has been so criticized by members of his own group, for example, as Stepin Fetchit, whose crime was doing what he had to do to make a living in the era in which he lived.

Nothing ever galled me more than hearing African-Americans calling Louis Armstrong, arguably the greatest musicians this country has ever produced, called an Uncle Tom by black activists in the '60s. I found it amazing that an obvious outsider like me knew more about Armstrong's history than they did, for example his refusal to play in New Orleans for years because he would not play in segregated venues.

I think that was the point George Kirby and the producers of that A&A retrospective were trying to make when they produced that show. I think they wanted to rehabilitate the actors on that show with their own community.

Does anybody know if this story is true (back to Jack and Eddie Anderson)? I seem to remember reading or hearing somewhere that when Jack was putting together one of his specials, he asked Eddie Anderson to be on the show as Rochester, and Anderson's reply was something like, "We don't do that kind of thing anymore."

[LLeff]

Does anybody know if this story is true (back to Jack and Eddie Anderson)? I seem to remember reading or hearing somewhere that when Jack was putting together one of his specials, he asked Eddie Anderson to be on the show as Rochester, and Anderson's reply was something like, "We don't do that kind of thing anymore."

You've got some mixed information there. "We don't do that kind of thing anymore" was a punchline of Rochester's that was done ON one of the specials.

[LLeff]

I've really been looking forward to posting on this topic tonight, because I found a clipping from April 19, 1947 that discusses this very issue. So often it's brought up that we don't know how people viewed Rochester's character at the time it was broadcast. So here's the text that I found very interesting:

"Vague Bad Taste Charge" by Paul Denis
Recently, on the Jack Benny program, Rochester pulled this gag: "This is you favorite brunet." I thought it was in bad taste because the humor was based on a man's color. Many phoned or wrote to agree with me. Dick Gilbert, former local disc jockey, wrote from Phoenix, Ariz., 'Agree with your item, In Bad Taste. Radio can be improved by such straight thinking and plain speaking.'

"But Sutart Friedman, New York 28, disagrees. 'Benny persistently shows poor taste, but the 'favorite brunet' shouldn't be a case. Your point seems to be that we mustn't be reminded a Negro is a Negro. Why not? Rochester is a sympathetic character to audiences. Must he pretend he is white? Must he further bury the issue of discrimination by pretending he is not really a Negro, but that he is a fine comedian in spite of being the same? No. If you really think it is necessary for the Negro to pretend he is white to be acceptable to us, there is not much hope.'

"And Mrs. J.E. Pherson, New York, writes, 'As a Negro, I take exception to your item, In Bad Taste. I heard the broadcast, along with several other Negroes, and not one of them took exception to that comment. In fact, we enjoyed it and thought it quite clever.'"

Well, so THERE!!! Now what was that Friedman said about Jack persistently showing bad taste?!?!?!?!

[shimp scrampi]

Well, so THERE!!! Now what was that Friedman said about Jack persistently showing bad taste?!?!?!?!

Maybe he was a crony of Gilbert Seldes!

Interesting reading. Milt Josefsberg also mentions a Walter Winchell column (Winchell had some kooky and inconsistent things to say about this whole subject of race in entertainment as well), where he condemned comedians who used negative racial humor as "Vomics" but singled out Benny's portrayal of Rochester, Kitzel, etc. as loving and positive.

[shimp scrampi]

Milt Josefsberg mentions a re-use of a "prewar Rochester" script in the postwar era (I think it is one of the New York - Acme Plaza shows)

FYI : Checked on this, it's the Feb 5, 1950 show.

[Maxwell]

Does anybody know if this story is true (back to Jack and Eddie Anderson)? I seem to remember reading or hearing somewhere that when Jack was putting together one of his specials, he asked Eddie Anderson to be on the show as Rochester, and Anderson's reply was something like, "We don't do that kind of thing anymore."

You've got some mixed information there. "We don't do that kind of thing anymore" was a punchline of Rochester's that was done ON one of the specials.

Thanks. I don't remember seeing the specials. I was probably in high school or college when most of them were on, and had a lot of other things on my mind. That very punchline (if it's in a similar context of stereotyping) would say a lot about Jack's attitudes regarding such things.

[shimp scrampi]

That very punchline (if it's in a similar context of stereotyping) would say a lot about Jack's attitudes regarding such things.

And also maybe Eddie Anderson's attitude. I know his health wasn't the greatest in his later years, but are there any extant interviews or discussions with Eddie himself '60s-70s era on these issues? What role, if any, did he have in reshaping Rochester's character?

Or for that matter, any good recommendations of general biographical sources on Eddie Anderson? The little I know of his life (born into a traveling showbiz family, tragically losing his wife at a young age, etc.) is fascinating but...sparse.

[LLeff]

And also maybe Eddie Anderson's attitude. I know his health wasn't the greatest in his later years, but are there any extant interviews or discussions with Eddie himself '60s-70s era on these issues? What role, if any, did he have in reshaping Rochester's character?

Or for that matter, any good recommendations of general biographical sources on Eddie Anderson? The little I know of his life (born into a traveling showbiz family, tragically losing his wife at a young age, etc.) is fascinating but...sparse.

Interviews...SERIOUS interviews with Eddie Anderson are almost non-existent for all of his career. The best I could do was a Saturday Evening Post article that still felt compelled to write his direct quotes in dialect, which tends (for me) to take away from the credibility of the writer. All things considered, it's a tie between Rochester and Don as to the regular Benny cast member who's the biggest enigma. (Insert your favorite Don Wilson fat joke here.)

I heard second-hand that one of Eddie's sons was working on a television bio-pic of Eddie. However suffice it to say that at the moment, the family has a somewhat larger fish to fry. I've left a few phone messages at his office and haven't received a return call yet. Hopefully one of these days.

[shimp scrampi]

The best I could do was a Saturday Evening Post article that still felt compelled to write his direct quotes in dialect,

Would be reason enough for me to curtail talking to interviewers much more, sadly enough.

I heard second-hand that one of Eddie's sons was working on a television bio-pic of Eddie. However suffice it to say that at the moment, the family has a somewhat larger fish to fry.

Which I don't think is a big secret since it's been in the LA Times...though discussion of that might be more suitable in a different forum/thread. I just hope their legal/political situation is cleared up so we can get some biographical material on Eddie![/quote]

[David47Jens]

I heard second-hand that one of Eddie's sons was working on a television bio-pic of Eddie. However suffice it to say that at the moment, the family has a somewhat larger fish to fry. I've left a few phone messages at his office and haven't received a return call yet. Hopefully one of these days.

When this first posted (April 15th of last year), I didn't know what you were referring to when you said "a somewhat larger fish to fry," so I did some internet searching to find out.

Any updates on that story, or on the above-mentioned "television bio-pic?" Anybody?

[shimp scrampi]

Now that you brought it up again, I was curious as well to see if there were any new developments. I did a Lexis/Nexis search and it seems there's been no mention of the fate of "Rochester House" since the stories from April.

For those wondering what all the mystery is about, the story is that Eddie Anderson's old house stirred up some local controversy. It was being used as a sober-living residence, (run by Eddie Anderson, Jr.) transitioning sex offenders between prison and the outside world. There were zoning-type issues about the location and apparently the number of individuals who could be housed in one residence.

Ah, the real world intrudes on the frothy fun of the Jack Benny Program.

I would REALLY like to read/see a great biography of Eddie Anderson though, probably moreso than any other cast member.

[LLeff]

Any updates on that story, or on the above-mentioned "television bio-pic?" Anybody?

I left another phone message for Eddie Anderson Jr. as recently as mid-December, but he hasn't called back yet. I think I'm going to have to change my tactic.