Rochester as butler

[zimmerly]

Does anybody know which episode Jack formally hires Rochester as his butler? Is it available anywhere. I don't have it in any of the collections I bought/downloaded. Thanks.

[Radioman]

I don't think there ever was a series of episodes where Jack was first alone, then one day hired Rochester. Eddie Anderson made a early appearance as a train porter, then Jack Benny liked him so much he hired him to join the show. Then "Rochester" started making appearances as his butler. I've never heard of an episode where Rochester was formally introduced. He always just "was."

HOWEVER! There is a famous later episode that was a flashback as to how Jack hired Rochester (that is, in the "reality" of Jack's life, and never actually happened as a program). Rochester was a cab driver for Amos and Andy's taxi company, and Jack crashed into Rochester and blamed R for the accident. Jack told A&A he was going to sue, so A&A sent Rochester to Jack to work as Jack's butler instead of getting sued. I believe the name of this episode is "How Jack Found Rochester." It's a good one.

Hope that helps.

[zimmerly]

Thanks Radioman. That helps a lot! I have been listening to 1937 all summer... I was a little confused when all the sudden the phone rings and Mary says, "Jack, it's Rochester your butler...". The last program that Rochester was in before that (that I have), he was the elevator operator in the 1937 Christmas shopping show. It's been a pet project of mine this summer to see just how Rochester manages to be the butler...
Thanks for your help. Lots of fun!

[Gerry O.]

It was very common for radio comedy shows to have a performer appear as a one-shot character as sort of a test or on-air audition, and then have that same performer appear a week or two later as a new and entirely different "regular character" if the earlier one-shot went over well.

I can immediately think of two instances of this on radio shows....On "Fibber McGee & Molly", Shirley Mitchell played a young lady working in a movie theater a week or two before she made her debut as regular character Alice Darling. On "Amos N' Andy" , Eddie Green made a hilarious appearance as an elevator operator a week or two before he made his debut as the regular character of Stonewall the lawyer.

In these cases, the listener was supposed to "forget" about the initial "trial" appearance and just enjoy the performer in the new, regular role.

The way that they worked things on Jack's radio show, when Rochester made his first "official" appearance as Jack's butler, there was no mention of him being recently hired.....For all the listener knew, Rochester could have been working for Jack as his butler for the past several years and didn't have a reason to phone the program until now.

[Yhtapmys]

It was very common for radio comedy shows to have a performer appear as a one-shot character as sort of a test or on-air audition, and then have that same performer appear a week or two later as a new and entirely different "regular character" if the earlier one-shot went over well.

Is it really a deliberate test, or is just that whoever's running the show (in this case, Jack) was so pleased with spmeone's performance that they'd be stupid not to have the actor come back?

Yhtapmys

[Gerry O.]

It was very common for radio comedy shows to have a performer appear as a one-shot character as sort of a test or on-air audition, and then have that same performer appear a week or two later as a new and entirely different "regular character" if the earlier one-shot went over well.

Is it really a deliberate test, or is just that whoever's running the show (in this case, Jack) was so pleased with spmeone's performance that they'd be stupid not to have the actor come back?

Yhtapmys

It probably varied from show to show. In the case of Shirley Mitchell on "Fibber McGee & Molly", I tend to think that it was a deliberate testing of the waters, since regular Bill Thompson had joined the service and the show was in desperate need of new characters. The regular character of Alice had joined the McGee show the week immediately following Shirley's one-shot appearance as a movie theater employee, so there was probably a plan there.

In Rochester's case, it very well could have been a case of Eddie Anderson doing such a bang-up job in his "one-shot" appearance that Jack decided to add him to the cast. The show didn't have a cast vacancy and NEED the character of Rochester at that point.

[Brad from Georgia]

In interviews, Jack always said that Eddie's porter appearance was a one-shot, but the audience reacted so well to his distinctive voice and delivery that the writers and Jack decided to make him a regular. Of course, he also said that the first name for Eddie's character was supposed to be "Syracuse," so I don't know how much credence to put in that.

[helloagain]

I've been looking over some of my archive listings and it appears that Rochester was gradually worked into the cast and finally became a regular. Like others have stated, I don't believe he was ever formally introduced as a regular cast member, his character just evolved. After his initial appearance on 3-28-37 as a train porter ( and it sounds like his voice doing a redcap also ), he played a waiter named Pierre on 5-2-37; on 6-6 he returned Jack's lost watch for a reward. In this episode, Jack remembered him as the train porter. He portrayed Jack's valet for the first time on 6-20-37. After this, he appeared more and more frequently, with his name being listed in the cast nearly every week after the start of the '38/'39 season.