Divas of the Day

[krledu]

I listened to an interview with Jack's writers not to long ago and they talked about movie stars and big personalities of the day loved to work on Jack's show. They said that even the biggest divas that would give everyone headaches, worked very well when they did his show and weren't quite as big of a pain. Who were the divas of the day? I mean who were the stars that day that came on Jack's show and were, lets say, high maintance? You hear about the movie stars of the day and age but I have to wonder what they were really like. And why did Jack earn that much respect that everyone wanted to work on his show?

[Yhtapmys]

I listened to an interview with Jack's writers not to long ago and they talked about movie stars and big personalities of the day loved to work on Jack's show. They said that even the biggest divas that would give everyone headaches, worked very well when they did his show and weren't quite as big of a pain. Who were the divas of the day? I mean who were the stars that day that came on Jack's show and were, lets say, high maintance? You hear about the movie stars of the day and age but I have to wonder what they were really like. And why did Jack earn that much respect that everyone wanted to work on his show?

Because Jack
1. Wouldn't upstage them.
2. Gave them guaranteed laughs.

Were the writers talking about radio or TV?

Yhtapmys
"Drive Your Blues Away!"

[krledu]

The writers were talking about the radio. But what were people like, Vincent Price, Claudette Colbert, Orson Wells, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Basil Rathborne, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Bennet, Gregory Ratoff, Peter Lorrem and so on like. I mean now a days we hear about certain movie stars that are royal pain in the butts. Then you hear about the easy going ones. I just hear all these stars have to wondered what the rumors were about them were.

[Mister Kitzel]

Jack and Mary were known for giving parties attended by the Hollywood elite. Perhaps there was a social status associated with appearing as a guest on Jack's program.

[shimp scrampi]

I'm sure like any other group of people the personalities varied among Jack's guest stars. The few tidbits I know about the ones you list - Vincent Price was almost as beloved as Jack, and LOVED working with him, I swear I've heard several interviews with VP, and if ever the interviewer brings up radio, he mentions how great Jack was - out of all the thousands of hours of radio Price did, he remembers his couple of appearances on Jack's show so fondly . I've got a thread somewhere where he talks about actually thinking Jack lived next door to the Colemans, so he wasn't a "social" friend of the Bennys.

Claudette Colbert, however, was actually a somewhat devoted friend of Mary - and considering how much of a bad rap Mary gets from practically everyone in the universe, I don't know what that means - either Colbert was a selfless saint, or "takes one to know one...?". Barbara Stanwyck was also a social friend of the Bennys, I know Jack took a liking to her.

[Gerry O.]

Claudette Colbert, however, was actually a somewhat devoted friend of Mary - and considering how much of a bad rap Mary gets from practically everyone in the universe, I don't know what that means - either Colbert was a selfless saint, or "takes one to know one...?". Barbara Stanwyck was also a social friend of the Bennys, I know Jack took a liking to her.

Claudette Colbert was one of the few Hollywood stars who actually maintained a friendship with Mary after Jack's death.

Once Jack passed away, many famous celebrities abandoned Mary, thinking, "Well, now that Jack's gone, at least I don't have to put up with HER any more!"

However, Claudette didn't think like that....in fact, she invited Mary to join her on a few vacations, and Mary gratefully accepted.

[krledu]

Well, from what I hear (please, this is just hearsay so don't knock me) is that Mary was something of a difficult personality to deal with. From books, interview and comments, that is the general consensus. But on the other hand, practically every person who worked with Jack, loved him. They just thought he was the greatest. Even the stuck on themselves celebrities of the day, and the cool ones to, respected him a lot.