Even Vincent Price believed it! (Colmans living next door)

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Even Vincent Price believed it! (Colmans living next door)

Postby shimp scrampi » Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:05 am

I was perusing around for some info on Vincent Price on radio and found this anecdote in an interview that I'm sure some here will enjoy:

Q: You mentioned before how much you liked listening to radio shows like Jack Benny’s show.

VINCENT PRICE: Yes, and I’ve got to tell you a marvelous radio story. For years and years I always listened to Jack Benny, who was really the greatest single performer on radio there ever was. He was absolutely brilliant. He could take ten minutes of dead air and make you fall on your face laughing. If you remember, Ronald Colman was always the next door neighbor of the Benny’s (on his show). The Benny’s were always so chintzy and cheap they never had enough of anything so they were always going over to the Colman’s to borrow a cup of sugar, or eggs, or something. So lap dissolve a few years later, when I did a film with Ronald Colman (CHAMPANGE FOR CAESAR), and he and his wife asked me and my wife over to dinner. Well we always knew where Jack Benny lived, it was one of the sort of landmarks of Hollywood. So we got in the car all dressed-up, went down next to Jack Benny’s, went up to the front door, rang the bell and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Colman are expecting us," but they didn’t live there at all. (laughter). Nor did we know where the hell they lived! We finally had to call the Screen Actors Guild to find out where the Colman’s lived. That shows you what a radio fan I was. I always thought that the Colman’s lived next door to Jack Benny, and in his basement was a vault with chains around it.



I can't off the top of my head recall if Vincent Price was on the Jack Benny show himself before or after "Champagne for Caesar", which came out in 1950.

From: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ghlong/pr ... pense.html

The rest of the page is great reading for anyone interested in Price and how much he liked the radio medium.
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Re: Even Vincent Price believed it! (Colmans living next doo

Postby River Phoenix » Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:57 am

Very interesting story, thanks!
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Champagne for Caesar - Slightly OT

Postby shimp scrampi » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:37 am

BTW, I HIGHLY recommend tracking down and watching "Champagne for Caesar"! Both VP and Ronald Colman are so, so funny in this movie that revolves around radio quiz shows. Sadly neither actor got to flex their comedy muscles in movies as much as they were clearly capable of doing. And, if you want another Jack Benny connection, Mel Blanc is the voice of "Caesar", the drunken, sarcastic parrot.
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