Rodrigo Araya
If the “Texaco Star Theatre” was done today:PORTLAND: Hello, Mr. Allen! Hello, Kenny! Hello, Mr. Wall…
FRED: Oh, Portland! Jimmy’s got amnesia. Maybe the election had something to do with it… In fact, what happened on Saturday reminded me of an incident Benny had several years ago…
JIMMY: Do you mean Ben Bernie?
FRED: No, Sergei. Jack Benny.
KENNY: C’mon, Mr. Allen! Tell us…
FRED: Well, he and I were at the lunch room and he paid the bill, which means we had to share a ham-and-cheese sandwich. He felt short-changed, so he asked for a recount, but the cashier flat out turned him down… And before you ask, the cashier was Benny’s girlfriend!
JIMMY: Well, you’ll never get short-changed when you buy Texaco’s Havoline lubricant! 10 million more sales a month than the highest-selling competitor! The people’s choice in lubricants, Texaco Havoline!
KENNY: Great! Now Jimmy thinks he’s H.V. Kaltenborn…(A November 1940 Fred Allen show dealt with announcer Jimmy Wallington having amnesia, believing he was a man named Sergei. He even said “yes, please” at one point).
FRED: Oh, Portland! Jimmy’s got amnesia. Maybe the election had something to do with it… In fact, what happened on Saturday reminded me of an incident Benny had several years ago…
JIMMY: Do you mean Ben Bernie?
FRED: No, Sergei. Jack Benny.
KENNY: C’mon, Mr. Allen! Tell us…
FRED: Well, he and I were at the lunch room and he paid the bill, which means we had to share a ham-and-cheese sandwich. He felt short-changed, so he asked for a recount, but the cashier flat out turned him down… And before you ask, the cashier was Benny’s girlfriend!
JIMMY: Well, you’ll never get short-changed when you buy Texaco’s Havoline lubricant! 10 million more sales a month than the highest-selling competitor! The people’s choice in lubricants, Texaco Havoline!
KENNY: Great! Now Jimmy thinks he’s H.V. Kaltenborn…(A November 1940 Fred Allen show dealt with announcer Jimmy Wallington having amnesia, believing he was a man named Sergei. He even said “yes, please” at one point).
Rodrigo Araya
‘Lo, Garth! I actually thought no one would drop in as everybody is still celebrating…
While keeping distances, of course.
Or would that be S.C-Day?
Moving on, last Sunday I was multitasking, and with another chat no less…
Otherwise, I’d have requested the episode in which Jack and Mary went to Rome.
Hi, Neil!
How’s the day after SC-Day going?
Once upon a time, there was a man in Rome who said “yesh”.
A few months ago, I watched the European tour episodes, but I couldn’t find the one in Venice.
kathy_fuller_seeley
and Darrel Lantz and John Henderson and I talked about Sean Connery’s cameo as an extra in the Rome episode……
Rodrigo Araya
As I mentioned previously, I was thinking I’d end up doing a one-man show given everybody’s still celebrating.
By the way, I was casually listening to the Halloween 1940 episode, and guess what was Dennis’ costume?
kathy_fuller_seeley
gosh the things I took for granted in 2008 and I wasn’t a member of this group yet, pity to me
Hey Kathy – remember asking me about the 1919 Flu — I saw this the other day.
1991-11-21_-_peanuts_-_flu_report.pdf
I recall better the previous year’s party where Jack was a Florodor… Romeo.
kathy_fuller_seeley
is that the neighbors, or the turkeys I saw when I visited her 2 years ago? haha
kathy_fuller_seeley
I am still looking for the SEpt 25 1932 script, if by a miracle anybody has it, for Volume 2 of the 1932 scripts….
kathy_fuller_seeley
if not, I will post it for free or with volume 3,,,,,whenever we can break down the doors of the UCLA archives again….
yep sept 26, that is the kind of day I am having ….its the 26th
somehow I managed to NOT snap photos of it, when I did 5,000 snaps in a marathon 2.5 days at the archvie
Gee!
kathy_fuller_seeley
I have asked Martin Grams if he MIGHT have caught it from the NBC Masterbooks microfilm from 1932, but I can’t get into the LOC either!
yes Rodrigo, my cell phone was smoking! My newest cellphone takes lousy close up photographs, I might have to search for a cheap digitial camera that can do closeup work
and Rodrigo, you would not believe how difficult it was to get permission to snap photos of the script pages, which is why I doubt anybody else has them (that we know of, in our orbit)…..
Rodrigo Araya
If the Benny show were made today, some things would be non-negotiable like the orchestra or the clean-cut family-friendly humor.
You just can’t change that.
garth_johnson
Rodrigo at least when I was doing family ancestry research I could photo copy or print the document on-site and it was two or three pages — a script thats 20 odd pages each week times 26 weeks and then 26 seasons of radio — a lot of pages to copy
kathy_fuller_seeley
yes I very much agree, Rodrigo! That was tough for Benny, as he wanted to keep moving back and forth to California, but an orchestra could not accompany him, nor a network announcer. So no wonder that Don Wilson was announcer #10
(I am playing the world’s tiniest violin to have pity on myself, haha) yep its a lot of work, but so fascinating to be in the archives playign with the documents! “playing” until they make you stop touching them, I mean
garth_johnson
kathy – working in a museum is even more fun — we play with century old artifacts that make noise!
kathy_fuller_seeley
1932-to early 1934, Benny was on failry late-at-night on weeknights, and he got away with humor that was occasionally a bit more blue. When he got the sunday at 7 spot with Jello, there was talk in the trade press that he’d better watch out for the church-going crowd
Garth, only when I trip over the artifacts to they make noise!!! hahaha that would be heaven
kathy_fuller_seeley
so, my good news from the scripts publisher is that I get to turn in Volume 2 to production by Feb 1 2021. yay!
Rodrigo Araya
I think I read somewhere that the nets feared the possibility of the enforcement of a Production Code like the movies…
kathy_fuller_seeley
Haha Garth, thanks for asking! It was election night, and things were looking so grim that I had turned in at 10. Then suddenly at 4 in the morning, I am startled by Kenny hurling himself out of bed, head banging against the night table, and blood spurting about everywhere. That’s a little TOO MUCH election night excitement! He never remembers his dreams, but he remembers THIS one, he was in the Hunger Games, and saving a couple of kids from the bad guys…… his 9 stitches in his nearly-severed ear come out tomorrow. Glad that Jack Benny does not lend itself to that much drama
Rodrigo Araya
Jack would have done a “Hungry Games”-style competition with Mary, Frank Parker and Don Bestor.
kathy_fuller_seeley
Oh yes Rodrigo, and in fact, having commercial companies as sponsors made them even MORE prone to censorship, as the manufacturers abhored ANYTHING that might reflect negatively on their product, or make ANYBODY be upset. GOSH if Trump had just been a product manufacturer instead of a hotelier. hahaha I won’t do political humor…..
I would vote Frank Parker off the island first hahaha!!!!!
I think you all will actually enjoy Frank’s character, he is smarter than either Dennis or Kenny…..
that allowed Mary to be the stupidest one
Rodrigo Araya
I get the idea that Kenny on the Texaco show was pretty much a brattier version of Dennis.
Rodrigo Araya
Now, Kenny. If it’s about your Buck Rogers disintegrator, you can’t use it here. There was an election yesterday. It’s final.
garth_johnson
1934 – Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round – Jack Benny with Mary Livingstone, Mitzie Green and Frank Parker
kathy_fuller_seeley
talk about somebody who pretty much sabotaged a promising career, that’s Mr Baker
kathy_fuller_seeley
that is a great photo, Garth! I had thought Mitzi never aged beyong 10 years old
garth_johnson
1942-08-22 – Billboard: According to a program spokesman, Baker, who drew $2,000 weekly for singing two songs, proved to be a constant headache to the producers because of his alleged primadonna attitude. The singer, because of a stipulation in his contract giving him the right to choose his own selections, was allegedly difficult to handle.
Now I wonder who gave him the idea of all those contract clauses ….
kathy_fuller_seeley
not surprised at all…… and without a big name as mentor, he then soon learned he was just another tenor…
kathy_fuller_seeley
yep, one of the worst cases of management…. I know a couple of historians working on history of talent agents, Leroy would not be a winner
but not to make more political humor, sometimes you can’t manage that prima donna, and what will happen eventually does….
Sorry, I don’t know the German lyrics, nor the Latin ones either.
kathy_fuller_seeley
it IS a shame, because just among us, I like him better as a singer on the Benny show than Dennis (shhhhh)
kathy_fuller_seeley
haha that is what I claimed to somebody that my own Kenny was trying to be, with the sword gash across his ear……
Rodrigo Araya
I was thinking about “Marriage Story” with Jack and Mary as the parents, Dennis as the kid, Phil as the mom’s lover and Blanche Stewart in Laura Dern’s role.
The trumpet would have been replaced by a
violin.
violin.
garth_johnson
I’ll probably be slugged for this — but I agree that Kenny has a good voice, but I don’t like many of his musical selections during the Benny show – or Allen’s — they tend to slow things down
kathy_fuller_seeley
you have a valid point, Garth, his songs ARE slower, trying to take a star role. And I do appreciate that Dennis ran through his songs in 2 minutes or under. I am just a sucker for the standards Kenny was singing (although they may have been just current songs then). Give me Gershwin and Cole Porter, and not Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo. hahaha
Rodrigo Araya
Can you imagine “A Star Is Born” on “Town Hall Tonight”… with Minerva Pious in Lady Gaga’s role?
An ad for the premiere of the 1939 season.
It said Andy was trying to get Kenny’s place.
kathy_fuller_seeley
well, in the African-American press, the reporters floated rumors that Eddie Anderson was asking for a big raise or would jump ship. Sometimes reporters just wanted to stir the pot?
thinking of the dearly departed Alex Trebek, did you all enjoy the Quiz Kids on Jack’
kathy_fuller_seeley
Have you heard Jack and Fred Allen on the quiz show “Information Please”? A much more laid-back smart people’s quiz show.. sponsored by Canada Dry of all folks
Lucky Strike green has gone to your face.
kathy_fuller_seeley
the Lucky Strike Info Please shows are hilarious! so painful to hear the gong bang!
Thanks, Mr. Zanuck.
kathy_fuller_seeley
that’s a gem, Garth! There are not very many shows in the 1938-39-40 seasons, I bet you would like them! (from the recordings I have heard)
DON: If I only had saved my money…
Ladies, it doesn’t matter if your husband is a Fadiman or a thinnaman, for Jell-O is the best dessert.
kathy_fuller_seeley
I have a fondness for “real” quiz shows…. when I was a kid I was a fan of “GE College Bowl” and then I eventually learned that the women of my tiny undergrad women’s college BEAT Princeton in the greatest last minute win of all time, 1966
hahahaha Rodrigo!!!!
Say, Jackson. Have you seen them penguins on Radio City?
kathy_fuller_seeley
I just got an old cookbook today that has a recipe for “Jell-O balls” and they sound hideous and I must post it to the FB group
Jell-O balls?
kathy_fuller_seeley
yeah, Jell-0, sweetened condensed milk, shredded coconut, crushed pecans and something else awful that I can’t recall at the moment, hahahaha
Rodrigo Araya
I was actually doing an imaginary recap of selected episodes had the Benny show been done these days.
And they pay him for being technical instead of funny by his own admission.
kathy_fuller_seeley
I saw a “Dennis Day sings Disney songs from Johnny Appleseed” lp today in an antique shop
kathy_fuller_seeley
like early 1939, I can find them for you, Rodrigo, but then NOT again, so I don’t know if Benny lowered the boom (rather than Clancy)
kathy_fuller_seeley
Eddie Anderson had to walk such a tight rope, saying anything got him heat from racists, saying NOTHING got him heat from the new generation of black activists……really I do try to have a lot of sympathy for him, it was tough
the police chief of Memphis TN banned any film with Eddie Anderson in it in 1945, and that caused the Hollywood studios to quit putting him in movies, a terrible shame!!!!!
kathy_fuller_seeley
thank you Garth!!! And Southern whites thought his roles and acting were “too familiar” and friendly-like with the white characters, sigh
michael_amowitz
I think about the black actors from the TV version of Amos n Andy …I had no familiarty with the show’s past, and I thought they were great!
kathy_fuller_seeley
Exactly, Michael, and many folks (black and white) at the time did too! But having to play the stereotyped parts overwhelmed the public reaction to the performer’s work
kathy_fuller_seeley
It was fascinating to see the black community’s opinion shift at the end of World War II — before it was just fabulous to be included. but afterward the new black intellectuals hated anything that looked like a servant role. And it meant that talented people who played servants lost their jobs. Lucky for Eddie Anderson that the character shifted a bit and he was the #1 black performer in US TV in the 1950s
garth_johnson
1945-08-11 – Afro American – Page 20 – Jim Crow Prevented Rochester From Making Overseas Army Tour With Jack Benny
Darrel Lantz’s “buck benny” audio and video podcasts have started in on a series of radio commentaries that Orson Welles did in 1946, and Orson was VERY vocal about trying to get Jack Benny’s sponsors and the Army to allow Eddie to accompany Jack on USO tours….. to no avail
garth_johnson
The biography on Butterfly McQueen also has some interesting comments regarding the NAACP and her role. A preview is available on Google Books, and if I remember its published by Bear Mannor.
michael_amowitz
It was a short-run evening cartoon series around 1962. I think it ran on ABC. Gosden and Corell tried replacing the Amos n Andy characters with a fox and a bear. It got the same flack and went away. I found a DVD made a couple years ago.
kathy_fuller_seeley
Critics back in the mid-1940s said Gosden and Correll had the best writing of ANY radio show, such a shame that its so totally tied up with character roles that won’t fly today
Jack Benny was surprised and a little appalled that Butterfly quit his show, and good for her that she stood up, for the role that the writers provided was NOTHING like Rochester’s….
kathy_fuller_seeley
sorry for the history lesson, folks! just got on a roll. I hope that mid-November goes well for all of us!!!! And yes Michael, Butterfly McQueen plays Mary’s “maid” in radio shows in 1943 I think it is, but she quit by May…..the role had her be VERY STUPID…..
kathy_fuller_seeley
I think Benny and his writers and show producers MEANT well, as it was they were doubling the number of black performers on the show in 1943! But Butterfly’s character on the show leaned “the wrong way” into Prissy from Gone with the Wind….too much ignorance, and not enough real-life-quirkiness (IMHO of course!!!!!).
kathy_fuller_seeley
Butterfly soon got a role on Danny Kaye’s radio show, where she got to play a somewhat-ditzy president of his fan club. BUT the scripts and dialogue never said she was black, and the black community was so happy at what they considered was racial equality progress. It was tough on all sides in the 1940s, as I mentioned….
oh Michael, what folks objected to was Butterfly having to talk about her boyfriend Jerome on the Benny show, who was always on KP or getting arrested or doing other stupid things….
Part of a Jubilee Script included in the book
kathy_fuller_seeley
thanks Garth! I even found Butterfly and Eddie Anderson teamed up on some AFRS recordings for overseas servicemen, for the stream of programming for black soldiers. And the tenor of their conversations was just like Garth’s quote, they are not set up as a romantic couple but as adversaries. But you know, Butterfly’s voice made it a little hard to imagine her in other roles….
yes Jubilees, thank you Garth
michael_amowitz
I don’t remember those episodes, but I’d expect the NAACP and Butterfly herself. It sounds like Rochester’s girl in Harlem or whereverf and shooting dice.
kathy_fuller_seeley
uh uh oh, lots of history for tonight. I hope that everyone is looking forward to Thanksgiving or at least the end of November. That will bring us to programs where Jack Benny goes on trial for turkey murder, at least it will be something different! hahaha
Phil, come here…
kathy_fuller_seeley
Yes you are totally right, Michael!!!! And its fascinating that the scripts and performances that would “fly” in 1940 catch big pushback in 1945 and MUCH more pushback in 1950!!!! Jack Benny and his writers were kind and aware of racial equality, but they were still caught in that bubble of complacency which would get them to think the Harlem gambling skit was just fine to do in 1945 and 1950. : )
With Perry Mason as his lawyer.
kathy_fuller_seeley
hahahaha Garth I had not seen this photo, what is Andy doing to the turkey? basting it from the inside out?
Which one is the turkey?
1931 – North Adams Transcript – Jack Benny tells of the dialect Bronxite who popped into a delicatessen to look around. He inquired the price of various articles, such as preserved fruits, home made cakes, roast turkeys and the like. Finally, pointing to a hefty Kentucky ham, he asked the price . As he did som there was a violent clap of thunder and vivid flash of lightning. Cowering and oooking upward, the Bornxite whined, “Can’t I even esk?”
kathy_fuller_seeley
well, that is a happy note to have to leave on….. I have to finish making dinner! Hopefully good news to report to you all next week, stay safe and healthy you all!!!!! K
michael_amowitz
Good luck, Kathy! I’ll finally be able to order the first book in early January. Too many dragons to slay until then! Y’all have a great week!