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116-529: His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny , but that was only part of his appeal. Radio historian John Dunning (in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio ) wrote that Allen was perhaps radio's most admired comedian and most frequently censored. A master ad libber , Allen often tangled with his network's executives and often barbed them on

232-432: A "respectfully" received duo that billed themselves as Fink and Smith, and played a few of the dying vaudeville houses. Allen returned to New York to the pleasant surprise that Portland Hoffa was taking instruction to convert to Roman Catholicism . After the couple married, Allen began writing material for them to use together ("With a vaudeville act, Portland and I could be together, even if we couldn't find any work"), and

348-445: A CBS affiliate, the network television version of The Jack Benny Program ran from October 28, 1950, to 1965, all but the last season on CBS. Initially scheduled as a series of five "specials" during the 1950–1951 season, the show appeared every six weeks for the 1951–1952 season, every four weeks for the 1952–1953 season and every three weeks in 1953–1954. For the 1953–1954 season, half the episodes were live and half were filmed during

464-564: A Crowd (1930–31), which eventually led to his full-time entry to radio in 1932. Allen first hosted The Linit Bath Club Revue on CBS and moved the show to NBC to become The Salad Bowl Revue (in a nod to new sponsor Hellmann's Mayonnaise, which was marketed by the parent company of Linit) later in the year. The show became The Sal Hepatica Revue (1933–34), The Hour of Smiles (1934–35), and finally Town Hall Tonight (1935–39). In 1939–40, however, sponsor Bristol-Myers , which advertised Ipana toothpaste as well as Sal Hepatica during

580-484: A benign nemesis for Eleanor Powell and Robert Taylor ), George Washington Slept Here (1942), and notably, Charley's Aunt (1941) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). He and Livingstone also appeared in Ed Sullivan 's Mr. Broadway (1933) as themselves. Benny often parodied contemporary films and genres on the radio program, and the 1940 film Buck Benny Rides Again features all the main radio characters in

696-587: A call from Stop the Music or any similar game show while they listened to The Fred Allen Show . He never had to pay up, and he was not shy about lampooning the game-show phenomenon (especially a riotous parody of another quiz show that Parks hosted by launching Break the Bank in a routine called "Break the Contestant" in which players did not receive a thing but were compelled to give up possessions when they blew

812-643: A co-starring role. Unlike later incarnations of the Benny show, The Canada Dry Program was primarily a musical program. Benny then appeared on The Chevrolet Program , airing on the NBC Red Network between March 17, 1933, until April 1, 1934, initially airing on Fridays (replacing Al Jolson), moving to Sunday nights in the fall. The show, which featured Benny and Livingstone alongside Frank Black's orchestra and vocalists James Melton and (later) Frank Parker , ended after General Motors' president insisted on

928-493: A crypt at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California . His will arranged for a single long-stemmed red rose to be delivered to his widow, Mary Livingstone, every day for the rest of her life. Livingstone died eight and a half years later on June 30, 1983, at the age of 78. In trying to explain his successful life, Benny summed it up by stating: "Everything good that happened to me happened by accident. I

1044-480: A funny Western parody adapted from program skits. The failure of one cinematic Benny vehicle, The Horn Blows at Midnight , became a running gag on his radio and television programs, although contemporary viewers may not find the film as disappointing as the jokes suggest. Benny may have had an uncredited cameo role in Casablanca , claimed by a contemporary newspaper article and advertisement and reportedly in

1160-406: A girl in the crowd told him, "You're crazy to keep working here at the library; you ought to go on stage," Allen decided that his career path was set. In 1914, at the age of 20, Allen took a job with a local piano company, in addition to his library work. He appeared at a number of amateur night competitions, soon took the stage name Fred St. James, and booked with the local vaudeville circuit at $ 30

1276-639: A green wig as a stunt, which led to a local popularity of colored wigs. Bayes continued to find success on the Keith vaudeville circuit, billed as "The World's Greatest Singing Single Comedienne", before reuniting briefly with Norworth in the Broadway revue Odds and Ends of 1917 . She then launched her own one-woman show, and starred in the musical Ladies First in 1918, in which she appeared with young piano accompanist George Gershwin . She also returned to recording, and had one of her greatest successes with

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1392-426: A guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , during which he recreated several classic radio skits with Mel Blanc the day before his final television special aired. Benny was preparing to star in the film version of Neil Simon 's The Sunshine Boys when his health failed later the same year. He prevailed upon his longtime best friend, George Burns , to take his place on a nightclub tour while preparing for

1508-492: A highly popular comedic career in radio, television, and film. He was known for his comic timing and the ability to cause laughter with a long pause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated summation " Well!  " His radio and television programs, popular from 1932 until his death in 1974, were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny portrayed himself as a miser who obliviously played his violin badly and claimed perpetually to be 39 years of age. Benny

1624-479: A joint appearance with Phil Silvers on Dick Cavett 's show, Benny recalled that he had advised Silvers not to appear on television. However, Silvers ignored Benny's advice and proceeded to win several Emmy awards as Sergeant Bilko on the popular series The Phil Silvers Show . Benny also acted in films, including the Academy Award -winning The Hollywood Revue of 1929 , Broadway Melody of 1936 (as

1740-552: A little class into it." Their success in these appearances helped their theater reception. Live audiences in the Midwest liked to see their radio favorites in person even if Allen and Hoffa would be replaced by Bob Hope when the radio show moved to New York several months afterward. The couple eventually got their Hammerstein show, Polly , which opened in Delaware and made the usual tour before hitting Broadway. Also in that cast

1856-551: A minor vaudeville performer before becoming a national figure with The Jack Benny Program , a weekly radio show that ran from 1932 to 1948 on NBC and from 1949 to 1955 on CBS . It was among the most highly rated programs during its run. Benny's long radio career began on April 6, 1932, when the NBC Commercial Program Department auditioned him for the N. W. Ayer & Son agency and their client Canada Dry , after which Bertha Brainard , head of

1972-478: A musical program. He continued with sponsor General Tire on Fridays through the end of September. The show switched networks to CBS on January 2, 1949, as part of CBS president William S. Paley 's notorious "raid" on NBC talent in 1948–1949. It stayed there for the remainder of its radio run, ending on May 22, 1955. CBS aired repeat episodes from 1956 to 1958 as The Best of Benny . After making his television debut in 1949 on local Los Angeles station KTTV , then

2088-646: A performance in Dallas after suffering a dizzy spell, coupled with numbness in his arms. Despite a battery of tests, Benny's ailment could not be determined. When he complained of stomach pains in early December, a first test showed nothing, but a subsequent examination showed that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer . Benny went into a coma at home on December 22, 1974. While in a coma, he was visited by close friends, including George Burns , Bob Hope , Frank Sinatra , Johnny Carson , John Rowles and then Governor Ronald Reagan . He died on December 26, 1974, at age 80. At

2204-621: A plumber who resembles Jack Benny and in 1967 "Lucy Gets Jack Benny's account" where Lucy takes Jack on a tour of his new money vault. In the late 1960s, Benny did a series of commercials for Texaco Sky Chief gasoline, using his "stingy" television persona, always telling the attendant, played by Dennis Day, after being implored, "Mr. Benny, won't you please fill up?", "I'll take a gallon." In his unpublished autobiography, I Always Had Shoes (portions of which were later incorporated by Jack's daughter, Joan Benny, into her memoir of her parents, Sunday Nights at Seven ), Benny said that he, not NBC, made

2320-433: A punchline on each gravestone. It was the "Old Joke Cemetery," where overworked gags go to die. In Allen's act, the audiences would see the curtain (and have several minutes to read its 46 punchlines) before Allen made his entrance. Audiences typically would be laughing at the curtain before Allen even appeared. Robert Taylor's biography of Allen includes an impressive full-length photo of Branner's curtain painting, and many of

2436-587: A question). Unfortunately, Allen fell to number 38 in the radio ratings, which was compounded by the rise of television in many major cities. By then, he had changed the show again somewhat with the famed "Allen's Alley" skits now taking place on "Main Street" and rotating a new character or two in and out of the lineup. He stepped down from radio again in 1949, at the end of his show's regular season, as much under his doctor's orders (for Allen's continued hypertension) as because of his slipping ratings. He decided to take

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2552-475: A signature for three of the four years. The other change, born in the Texaco days and evolving from his earlier news spoofs, proved his most enduring, premiering December 6, 1942. The inspiration for the mythical Main Street of " Allen's Alley " came from the small-town heartland folks who were often profiled in the newspaper columns written by O. O. McIntyre (1884–1938), one of the most popular columnists of

2668-637: A sponsor, Benny came to radio on The Canada Dry Program , on May 2, 1932, broadcast on Mondays and Wednesdays on the NBC Blue Network , featuring George Olsen and his orchestra. After a few shows, Benny hired Harry Conn as writer. The show continued on Blue for six months until October 26, moving to CBS on October 30, now airing Thursdays and Sundays. With Ted Weems leading the band, Benny stayed on CBS until January 26, 1933, when Canada Dry opted not to renew Benny's contract after it attempted to replace Conn with Sid Silvers, who would have also gotten

2784-480: A successful run from 1954 until 1958. Both television shows often overlapped the radio show. In fact, the radio show alluded frequently to its television counterparts. Often as not, Benny would sign off the radio show in such circumstances with the line "Well, good night, folks. I'll see you on television." When Benny moved to television, audiences learned that his verbal talent was matched by his controlled repertory of dead-pan facial expressions and gesture. The program

2900-490: A week (equal to $ 913 today), enough at the time to allow him to quit his jobs with the library and the piano company. Eventually, he became "Freddy James" and often billed himself as the world's worst juggler. Allen refined the mix of his deliberately-clumsy juggling and the standard jokes and one-liners. He directed much of the humor at his own poor juggling abilities. During his time in vaudeville, his act evolved more toward monologic comedy and less juggling. In 1917, returning to

3016-667: A year off, but it did more for his health than his career. After the June 26, 1949 show on which Henry Morgan and Jack Benny guested, Allen never hosted another radio show full-time again. Good friends in real life, Fred Allen and Jack Benny inadvertently hatched a running gag in 1937 when a child prodigy, the violinist Stuart Canin , gave a very credible performance on the Allen show and inspired an Allen wisecrack about "a certain alleged violinist" who should hide in shame over his poor playing. Allen often mentioned his show-business friends on

3132-551: Is precisely why I am here." Mrs. Nussbaum always greeted Allen by saying, "You were expecting maybe...", and then she would mispronounce the name of a glamorous film star, such as "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra Bankhead?" The Alley sketches made only one further cast change, when Peter Donald 's chipper Irishman Ajax Cassidy succeeded Reed's Falstaff. Despite the ethnic diversity, the Alley characters seemed less citified and more akin with O. O. McIntyre's small-town America. Allen's topical humor

3248-415: Is probably the most memorable: Robert McKimson engaged Benny and his actual cast (Mary Livingstone, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, and Don Wilson) to do the voices for the mouse versions of their characters, with Mel Blanc  – the usual Warner Brothers cartoon voicemeister – reprising his old vocal turn as the always-aging Maxwell, always a phat -phat- bang! away from collapse. In

3364-1291: Is sometimes thought an acquired taste for audiences curious about his generation of radio stars; Dunning has written that when he "went into topical humor, he may have forfeited his only opportunity to be the Mark Twain of his century. He had flashes of undeniable brilliance. But the main body of his work deals with the day-to-day fodder of another time, and sons have seldom been amused by the embarrassments or tragedies of their fathers." However, others find many parallels to today's world and its absurdities. The "Allen's Alley" stereotypes make some cringe, as Allen biographer Robert Taylor noted (in Fred Allen: His Life and Wit ), but others find them lancing more than lauding stereotypes, letting listeners make up their own minds about how foolish they could be. "Interestingly enough," wrote Frank Buxton and Bill Owen in The Big Broadcast 1920-1950 , "[Claghorn, Nussbaum, Moody, and Cassidy] were never criticized as being anti-Southern, anti-Semitic, anti-New England, or anti-Irish. The warmth and good humor with which they were presented made them acceptable even to

3480-556: The Victor Talking Machine Company , and had immediate success with " Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly ", an Americanised version of a British song. She and Norworth recorded and continued to perform together until their final show, The Sun Dodgers , in 1912. By this time, their personal and professional relationships were both troubled, and they divorced in 1913. One month later, Bayes married Harry Clarke, an actor and dancer; they divorced in 1915. In 1913 she wore

3596-748: The Casablanca press book. When asked in his column "Movie Answer Man", film critic Roger Ebert first replied, "It looks something like him. That's all I can say." He wrote in a later column, "I think you're right." Benny also was caricatured in several Warner Brothers cartoons including Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939, as Casper the Caveman), I Love to Singa , Slap Happy Pappy , and Goofy Groceries (1936, 1940, and 1941 respectively, as Jack Bunny ), Malibu Beach Party (1940, as himself), and The Mouse that Jack Built (1959). The last of these

Fred Allen - Misplaced Pages Continue

3712-581: The Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to television and radio. John Florence Sullivan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts , to Irish Catholic parents. Allen barely knew his mother, Cecilia ( née Herlihy) Sullivan, who died of pneumonia when he was not quite three years old. Along with his father, James Henry Sullivan, and his infant brother Robert, Allen was taken in by one of his mother's sisters, "my aunt Lizzie", around whom he focused

3828-603: The " Aunt Jemima " on pancake boxes, and singer Donald Gardner from Saugerties, New York . Allen held himself personally responsible for the show's success and devoted much of his time to writing and rewriting routines and scripts. The overwork took a heavy toll on his health. His condition was diagnosed as hypertension, and he was forced to take more than a year off. Concurrent with his radio duties, Allen made occasional motion pictures by appearing in seven full-length features and three shorts between 1929 and 1952. His first film, filmed by Paramount Pictures at its New York studio,

3944-806: The '39ers." A statue of Benny with his violin stands in downtown Waukegan. The British comedian Benny Hill , whose original name was Alfred Hawthorne Hill, changed his name as a tribute to Jack Benny. He was mentioned by Doc Brown in Back to the Future , in which Doc guesses who would be Secretary of the Treasury by 1985, not believing Ronald Reagan was President of the United States of America. Papers Metadata Audio Video Nora Bayes Nora Bayes (born Rachel Eleonora "Dora" Goldberg ; October 3, 1880 – March 19, 1928)

4060-428: The 1930s, with some seven million readers. "Allen's Alley" followed a brief Allen monologue and comic segment with Portland Hoffa ("Misssss-ter Allll-llennnn!"), usually involving gags that she instigated about her family. Then, a brief music interlude would symbolize the two making their way to the fictitious Alley. The segment was always launched by a quick exchange that began with Hoffa asking Allen what he would ask

4176-497: The Alley denizens that week. After she implored him, "Shall we go?" Allen would reply with cracks like, "As the two drumsticks said when they spotted the tympani, let's beat it!'" or "As one strapless gown said to the other strapless gown, 'What's holding us up?'" A small host of stereotypical characters greeted Allen and Hoffa down the Alley, discussing Allen's question of the week, usually drawing on news items or popular happenings around town, whether gas rationing, traffic congestion,

4292-571: The New York circuit, his stage name was changed to Fred Allen so that he would not be offered the same low salary that theater owners had been accustomed to paying him in his early career. His new surname came from Edgar Allen, a booker for the Fox theaters. In 1922, Allen commissioned comic-strip artist Martin Branner to cover a theater curtain with an elaborate mural painting depicting a cemetery with

4408-565: The News" and Saturday Night Live 's "Weekend Update" were influenced by Town Hall Tonight's "The News Reel", later renamed "Town Hall News" (and in 1939–40, as a sop to his sponsor, " Ipana News"). The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 's "Mighty Carson Art Players" routines referred to the Mighty Allen Art Players in name and sometimes in routines. Allen and company also satirized popular musical comedies and films of

4524-709: The Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn and which became her first big success. Over the next few years, Bayes performed in increasingly prestigious theatres in New York, toured the country, and between 1904 and 1907 made several tours of Europe. She first performed in London in December 1905, and was an immediate success. After returning to the United States, she performed regularly on B. F. Keith 's theatre circuit. She and Gressing divorced in 1907, and soon afterwards she

4640-679: The Pulitzer Prizes, postwar holiday travel, or the annual Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus visit. The Alley went through a few changes in the first installments. Early denizens included sarcastic John Doe ( John Brown ), self-possessed Senator Bloat and town drunk Sampson Souse ( Jack Smart ), dimwitted Socrates Mulligan ( Charlie Cantor ), pompous poet Falstaff Openshaw ( Alan Reed ), and wry Jewish housewife Pansy Nussbaum ( Minerva Pious ). By 1945, Pious and Reed were joined by two new Alley denizens: Parker Fennelly as stoic New England farmer Titus Moody, and Kenny Delmar ,

4756-537: The Races ). Steaming mad because of his long battles for recognition, Boasberg was said to have delivered a tirade that ended up (in slightly altered form) in an Allen-Benny feud routine: ALLEN: Why, you fugitive from a Ripley cartoon ... I'll knock you flatter than the first eight minutes of this program. BENNY: You ought to do well in pictures, Mr. Allen, now that Boris Karloff is back in England. ALLEN: Why, if I

Fred Allen - Misplaced Pages Continue

4872-591: The act, Benny found a new pianist, Lyman Woods, and renamed the act "From Grand Opera to Ragtime". They worked together for five years and slowly integrated comedy elements into the show. They reached the Palace Theater , the "Mecca of Vaudeville", and did not do well. Benny left show business briefly in 1917 to join the United States Navy during World War I, often entertaining fellow sailors with his violin playing. One evening, his violin performance

4988-474: The age of six and was soon considered to be a child prodigy. He loved the instrument but hated to practice. His music teacher was Otto Graham Sr., a neighbor and father of football player Otto Graham . At 14, Benny was playing in dance bands and his high school orchestra. He was a dreamer and poor at his studies, ultimately getting expelled from high school. He later did poorly in business school and in attempts to join his father's business. In 1911, he began playing

5104-477: The air ("Mr. Jacob Haley of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts" was Allen's way of saying hello to his pal Jack Haley ), and on the Canin broadcast Allen knew Benny would be listening. Benny, according to Allen biographer Taylor, burst out laughing, then responded in kind on his own program. The rivalry gag went on for a decade and convinced some fans that the two comedians really were blood enemies. The Allen-Benny feud

5220-424: The air over the battles while developing routines whose style and substance influenced fellow comic talents, including Groucho Marx , Stan Freberg , Henry Morgan , and Johnny Carson ; his avowed fans also included President Franklin D. Roosevelt , humorist James Thurber , and novelists William Faulkner , John Steinbeck , and Herman Wouk , who began his career writing for Allen. Allen was honored with stars on

5336-578: The best lines of the night. (Both Benny and Allen revealed later that each man's writers consulted with each other on routines involving the feud.) They toned the gag down after 1941, though they kept it going often enough as the years continued, climaxing on Allen's May 26, 1946 show, in which a sketch called "King for a Day," satirizing big-money game shows, featured Benny pretending to be a contestant named Myron Proudfoot on Allen's new quiz show. ALLEN: Tomorrow night, in your ermine robe, you will be whisked by bicycle to Orange, New Jersey , where you will be

5452-530: The best of it by circulating an obituary of his act on black-bordered funeral stationery. He also mailed vials of his supposed "flop sweat" to newspapers as part of his comic self-promotion. In 1921, Fred Allen and Nora Bayes toured with the company of Lew Fields . Their musical director was nineteen-year-old Richard Rodgers . Many years later, when he and Oscar Hammerstein II appeared as mystery guests on What's My Line? , Rodgers recalled Allen's act of sitting on

5568-512: The cartoon, Benny and Livingstone agree to spend their anniversary at the Kit-Kat Club, which they discover the hard way is inside the mouth of a live cat. Before the cat can devour the mice, Benny himself awakens from his dream, then shakes his head, smiles wryly, and mutters, "Imagine, me and Mary as little mice." Then, he glances toward the cat lying on a throw rug in a corner and sees his and Livingstone's cartoon alter egos scampering out of

5684-636: The cat's mouth. The cartoon ends with a classic Benny look of befuddlement. It was rumored that Benny requested that, in lieu of monetary compensation, he receive a copy of the finished film. Benny made a cameo appearance in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . After his broadcasting career ended, Benny performed live as a violinist and as a standup comedian. In the 1960s, Benny was the headlining act at Harrah's Lake Tahoe with trumpeter Harry James , clown Emmett Kelly and singer Ray Vasquez . Benny made one of his final television appearances on January 23, 1974, as

5800-636: The choice between coming with him and his new wife or staying with Aunt Lizzie. Allen's younger brother chose to go with their father, but Allen decided to stay with his aunt. "I never regretted it," he wrote. Allen was a Catholic and regularly attended Mass at St. Malachy's Church in Manhattan. Allen took piano lessons as a boy, his father having brought an Emerson upright along when they moved in with his aunt. He learned exactly two songs, "Hiawatha" and "Pitter, Patter, Little Raindrops," and would be asked to play "half or all my repertoire" when visitors came to

5916-452: The comic feud with Jack Benny. Allen's sole leading role was as flea circus impresario Fred F. Trumble Floogle in the frenetic It's in the Bag! , a loose adaptation of Ilf and Petrov's novel The Twelve Chairs . In 1945 The Fred Allen Show returned to NBC, Sunday nights at 8:30 p.m. EST. Standard Brands ' Blue Bonnet Margarine and Tender Leaf Tea, and later, Ford Motor Company, were

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6032-681: The country began quoting his catchphrases : "Somebody, Ah say, somebody knocked"; "I'm from the South, Suh"; "That's a joke, son"; and "Pay attention, boy!" Claghorn served as the model for the Warner Bros. cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn , who first appeared the following August in the Oscar-nominated Walky Talky Hawky . Other characters had catchphrases that were almost as famous as Claghorn's, such as Titus Moody's "Howdy, Bub", and Falstaff Openshaw's "That

6148-425: The couple divided their time between the show business circuit, Allen's New England family home and Old Orchard Beach, Maine , in the summers. Allen's first taste of radio came while he and Portland Hoffa waited for a promised slot in a new Arthur Hammerstein musical. In the interim, they appeared on a Chicago station 's program, WLS Showboat , into which Allen recalled, "Portland and I were presented... to inject

6264-427: The day, including and especially Oklahoma! . Allen also did semi-satirical interpretations of well-known lives, including his own. The show that became Town Hall Tonight was the longest-running hour-long comedy-based show in classic radio history. In 1940, Allen moved back to CBS Radio with a new sponsor and show name, Texaco Star Theater , airing every Wednesday at 9:00 pm ET on CBS, then Sundays at 9:00 pm in

6380-470: The decision to end his TV series in 1965. He said that while the ratings were still very good (he cited a figure of some 18 million viewers per week, although he qualified that figure by saying he never believed the ratings services were doing anything more than guessing, no matter what they promised), advertisers were complaining that commercial time on his show was costing nearly twice as much as what they paid for most other shows, and he had grown tired of what

6496-408: The division, said, "We think Mr. Benny is excellent for radio and, while the audition was unassisted as far as orchestra was concerned, we believe he would make a great bet for an air program." Recalling the experience in 1956, Benny said Ed Sullivan had invited him to guest on his program (1932), and "the agency for Canada Dry ginger ale heard me and offered me a job." With Canada Dry ginger ale as

6612-504: The downtown LA Broadway Boulevard May Company, this was across the street from the Orpheum Theater. Jack was playing at the theater. Called on to fill in for the "dumb girl" part in a Benny routine, Sadie proved to be a natural comedienne. Adopting the stage name Mary Livingstone , Sadie collaborated with Benny throughout most of his career. They later adopted a daughter, Joan (1934–2021). Sadie's older sister Babe would often be

6728-483: The early 1920s, travelling with her adopted children. Bayes was described as "easily the most popular female entertainer in vaudeville for much of the first quarter of the 20th century". One researcher commented: Bayes refused to obey the social mores that ruled expectations of how women should behave. Her personal life caught the attention of the press: she provided endless headlines for her broken theatre contracts and her five divorces. Her marriages were reported across

6844-534: The edge of the stage with his legs dangling down, playing a banjo, and telling jokes. Allen temporarily left vaudeville, moving to work in such Shubert Brothers stage productions as The Passing Show in 1922. The show played well in its runup to Broadway but lasted only ten weeks at the Winter Garden Theatre . Portland Hoffa , who was in the chorus of the show, was eventually to marry Allen. He received good notices for his comic work in several of

6960-521: The excursion; possibly the basis for this report was that Eastland was a training vessel during World War I and Benny received his training in the Great Lakes naval base where Eastland was stationed. Benny achieved the rank of Seaman First Class. Shortly after the war, Benny developed a one-man act, "Ben K. Benny: Fiddle Funology". He then received legal pressure from Ben Bernie , a "patter-and-fiddle" performer, regarding his name, so he adopted

7076-409: The fall of 1941. By 1942, he shortened the show to half an hour, at 9:30 pm ET, under the edicts of the network and sponsor. He also chafed under being forced to give up a Town Hall Tonight signature of using barely-known and amateur guests effectively in favor of booking more recognizable guests although he liked many of them. Guests included singers from Kingston, New York , the original woman behind

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7192-521: The feud's highlights involved Al Boasberg , who is credited with helping Benny refine his character into what may have been America's first stand-up comedian . Boasberg was well known behind the scenes as a top comedy writer and script doctor, but he seldom received recognition in public. He worked, uncredited, on many films (including the Marx Brothers ' hits A Night at the Opera and A Day at

7308-842: The film. Burns ultimately had to replace Benny in the film as well, going on to win an Academy Award for his performance. Benny made one last appearance on The Tonight Show on August 21, 1974, with Rich Little as guest host. According to his own statement during that appearance, Benny was still expecting to star in "The Sunshine Boys". He also made several appearances on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast in his final 18 months, roasting Ronald Reagan , Johnny Carson , Bob Hope and Lucille Ball , in addition to himself being roasted in February 1974. The Lucille Ball roast, his last public performance, aired on February 7, 1975, several weeks after his death. In October 1974, Benny cancelled

7424-441: The first chapter of his second memoir, Much Ado About Me . His father was so shattered by his mother's death that according to Allen, he drank more heavily. His aunt suffered as well; her husband, Michael, was partially paralyzed by lead poisoning shortly after they married, which left him mostly unable to work; Allen remembered that as causing contention among Lizzie's sisters. Eventually, Allen's father remarried and offered his sons

7540-518: The fourth wall and remarks not to worry about Benny on the grounds that anyone who has been 39 years old as long as he has is a citizen of the "Twilight Zone". In 1964, Walt Disney was a guest, primarily to promote his production of Mary Poppins . Benny persuaded Disney to give him over 110 free admission tickets to Disneyland for his friends and one for his wife, but later in the show Disney apparently sent his pet tiger after Benny as revenge, at which point Benny opened his umbrella and soared above

7656-405: The funeral, Burns, Benny's best friend for more than fifty years, attempted to deliver a eulogy but broke down shortly after he began and was unable to continue. Hope also delivered a eulogy in which he stated, "For a man who was the undisputed master of comedic timing, you would have to say this is the only time when Jack Benny's timing was all wrong. He left us much too soon." Benny was interred in

7772-462: The globe. On news of her fifth marriage, one Australian newspaper reported her advice to wives: “as soon as one becomes bored, one should secure divorce.” The press hardly knew which was more shocking, her divorces or the fact she had walked out of her contract with Florenz Ziegfeld. Bayes married again in 1925 to New York businessman Ben Friedland, the ceremony taking place on board a ship. She continued to perform until 1927. However, by that time she

7888-649: The hit song " Shine On, Harvest Moon ", included in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 , along with several other songs in the show. Bayes was the star performer, commanding a much higher salary than Norworth, and sometimes challenging the authority of theatre managers and promoters. She walked out of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909 because of a disagreement with Ziegfeld over the billing of a rising new star named Sophie Tucker ; Ziegfeld then sued Bayes for breach of contract , which prevented her performing in other theatres for several months. She and Norworth returned to

8004-525: The hope of starting a stage career, she began performing at talent shows in nearby Chicago. She adopted the stage name Nora Bayes: "Nora" as a shortened form of Eleonora and "Bayes" because, according to one story, a local stage manager said that she would not have a good career with the name Goldberg. He suggested going through the Hebrew alphabet to find a name and recited "Aleph, bays..." when she stopped him and suggested Bayes. By late 1900, Helen Cohan ,

8120-495: The house. He also worked at the Boston Public Library , where he discovered a book about the origin and the development of comedy. Enduring various upheavals at home (other aunts came and went, which prompted several moves), Allen also took up juggling while he learned as much as possible about comedy. Some library co-workers planned to put on a show and asked him to do a bit of juggling and some of his comedy. When

8236-474: The judge in a chicken-cleaning contest. BENNY (rapturously): I'm King for a Day! [Allen proceeds to have Benny's clothes pressed:] Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky ; February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing the violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with

8352-436: The last few years of the radio show, she pre-recorded her lines and Jack and Mary's daughter, Joan, stood in for the live taping, with Mary's lines later edited into the tape replacing Joan's before broadcast. Mary Livingstone finally retired from show business permanently in 1958, as her friend Gracie Allen had done. Benny's television program relied more on guest stars and less on his regulars than his radio program. In fact,

8468-406: The later years. When a joke was greeted with an awkward silence, Allen would comment on the lack of response with his ad-libbed "explanation" almost always funnier than the original joke, a technique that was later adopted successfully by Johnny Carson. The Fred Allen Show was radio's top-rated show of the 1946–47 season. Allen was able to negotiate a lucrative new contract as a result not only of

8584-419: The most sensitive listeners." Allen employed a writing staff, but it served as his sounding boards and early draft consultants as much as actual writers. It was Allen who had the final edit, rewrote of each week's script, and worked as long as 12 hours a day on ideas or sketches. His ad-libbing ability caused many a show to fade away behind the ending network identification because Allen often ate up air time. It

8700-614: The mother of George M. Cohan , saw Bayes performing in vaudeville in Chicago. Bayes joined a touring company, performing in St Louis, Missouri and then California , before she decided to advance her career further and moved with her husband to New York City . She grew in popularity as a comic actress and singer, and in 1902 started performing Harry Von Tilzer 's song, "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows", which she performed at

8816-410: The new show's announcer, as bellowing Southern senator Beauregard Claghorn . Pious is credited with bringing Delmar to Allen's attention. Delmar based the blowhard character on a real-life person he had encountered while hitchhiking in 1928; Delmar had originally named the voice characterization "Dynamite Gus." Within weeks, Claghorn became one of the leading comedy characters of radio as listeners across

8932-399: The only radio cast members who appeared regularly on the television program as well were Don Wilson and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson . Singer Dennis Day appeared sporadically, and Phil Harris had left the radio program in 1952, although he did make a guest appearance on the television show ( Bob Crosby , Phil's "replacement", frequently appeared on television through 1956). A frequent guest

9048-663: The patriotic First World War song, " Over There ", written by George M. Cohan . She signed a new contract with Columbia Records , and recorded over sixty songs for the label over the next six years. Her most successful recordings for Columbia included " How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)? " (1919) and "Make Believe" (1921). She married for a fourth time in 1920, to actor and entertainer Arthur Gordon (sometimes billed as Gordoni). They adopted three (possibly four) children together, but divorced in 1922 after two years together. By this time, Bayes' success

9164-550: The productions, particularly Vogues and Greenwich Village Follies , and continued to develop his comic writing. He even wrote a column for Variety called "Near Fun." A salary dispute ended the column; Allen wanted only $ 60 a week (equal to $ 1,092 today) to give up his theater work to become a full-time columnist, but his editor tried a sleight of hand, based on the paper's ad rates, to deny him. He spent his summer in Boston, honed his comic and writing skills even further, worked in

9280-479: The program, altered the title to The Fred Allen Show over his objections. Allen's perfectionism (odd to some because of his deft ad libs) caused him to leap from sponsor to sponsor until Town Hall Tonight allowed him to set his chosen small-town milieu and establish himself as a bona fide radio star. The hour-long show featured segments that would influence radio and, much later, television. News satires such as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In ' s "Laugh-In Looks at

9396-498: The punchlines are clearly legible in the photo. Allen used a variety of gimmicks in his changing act from a ventriloquist dummy to juggling to singing, but the focus was always on his comedy, which was heavy on wordplay. One recurring bit was to read a purported "letter from home" with material such as the following: Allen's wit was at times intended not for the vaudeville audience but rather for other professionals in show business. After one of his appearances failed one day, Allen made

9512-450: The residence where he met 17-year-old Sadie Marks (whose family was friends with, but not related to, the Marx family). Their first meeting did not go well when he tried to leave during Sadie's violin performance. They met again in 1926. Jack had not remembered their earlier meeting and was immediately taken with her. They married the following year. She was working in the hosiery section of

9628-501: The road at 17, but it was the beginning of his long friendship with the Marx Brothers, especially Zeppo Marx . The next year, Benny formed a vaudeville musical duo with pianist Cora Folsom Salisbury , who needed a partner for her act. This angered famous violinist Jan Kubelik , who feared that the young vaudevillian with a similar name would damage his reputation. Under legal pressure, Benjamin Kubelsky agreed to change his name to Ben K. Benny, sometimes spelled Bennie. When Salisbury left

9744-460: The sailor's nickname of Jack. By 1921, the fiddle was more of a prop, and the low-key comedy took over. Benny had some romantic encounters, including one with dancer Mary Kelly, whose devoutly Catholic family forced her to turn down his proposal because he was Jewish. Benny was introduced to Kelly by Gracie Allen . In 1922, Benny accompanied Zeppo Marx to a Passover Seder in Vancouver at

9860-495: The same year. Benny was able to attract guests who rarely, if ever, appeared on television. In 1953, both Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart made their television debuts on Benny's program. Another guest star on the Jack Benny show was Rod Serling , who starred in a spoof of The Twilight Zone in which Benny goes to his own house and finds that no one knows who he is; Jack runs away screaming in panic; Serling breaks

9976-420: The show's success but also in large measure to NBC 's anxiety to keep more of its stars from joining Jack Benny in a wholesale defection to CBS as well as to retain its services for its rapidly-expanding television programming. The CBS talent raids broke up NBC 's hit Sunday night, and Benny also convinced George Burns and Gracie Allen and Bing Crosby to join his move. However, a year later, Fred Allen

10092-445: The sponsors for the rest of the show's run. (Texaco revived Texaco Star Theater in 1948 on radio, and more successfully on television , making an American icon out of star Milton Berle ). Allen again made a few changes, including the singing DeMarco Sisters to whom he had been tipped by arranger-composer Gordon Jenkins . "We did four years with Mr. Allen and got one thousand dollars a week," Gloria DeMarco remembered. "Sunday night

10208-515: The stage like Mary Poppins. CBS dropped the show in 1964, citing Benny's lack of appeal to the younger demographic the network began courting, and he went to NBC , his original network, in the fall, only to be out-rated by CBS's Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. The network dropped Benny at the end of the season. He continued to make occasional specials into the 1970s, the last one airing in January 1974. Benny also appeared on The Lucy Show twice: Once as

10324-439: The summer, to allow Benny to continue doing his radio show. From the fall of 1954 to 1960, it appeared every other week, and from 1960 to 1965 it was seen weekly. On March 28, 1954, Benny co-hosted General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein with Groucho Marx and Mary Martin . In September 1954, CBS premiered Chrysler's Shower of Stars co-hosted by Jack Benny and William Lundigan . It enjoyed

10440-696: The target of jokes about unattractive or masculine women, while her younger brother Hilliard would later produce Benny's radio and TV work. In 1929, Benny's agent, Sam Lyons , convinced Irving Thalberg , American film producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , to watch Benny at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Benny signed a five-year contract with MGM, where his first role was in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 . The next film, Chasing Rainbows , did not do well, and after several months Benny

10556-415: The total reached 15 minutes, Baker barged into the studio 15 minutes earlier than schedule, while Allen was on the air, and took over the show by welcoming the audience to Take It or Leave It . Allen, aghast but amused, surrendered the microphone to Baker. Allen's parting shot was, "I'll write a letter to Senator Claghorn about this!" Allen also "died" more eloquently than other radio comics, particularly in

10672-514: The vaudeville circuit, in the show Miss Innocence , and commanded an even higher salary than before. "Critics noted that Bayes succeeded through her lush singing voice, her sensitivity to her audience’s tastes and her willingness to make fun of herself, including jokes about her Jewish background and her failed marriages." In 1910, they appeared together in Lew Fields ' show, The Jolly Bachelors. In 1910, Bayes made her first recordings for

10788-406: The violin in local vaudeville theaters for $ 7.50 a week (about $ 250 in 2020 dollars). He was joined on the circuit by Ned Miller , a young composer and singer. That same year, Benny was playing in the same theater as the young Marx Brothers . Minnie , their mother, enjoyed Benny's violin playing and invited him to accompany her boys in their act. Benny's parents refused to let their son go on

10904-462: Was The Installment Collector (1929), a nine-minute adaptation of one of his vaudeville acts in which he remits a succession of personal articles to an insistent debt collector. Allen followed it with two shorts for Vitaphone , also filmed in New York. Allen's first feature film was the 1935 Dick Powell musical comedy Thanks a Million , which The New York Times reviewed by naming only Allen in its headline. In 1940, Love Thy Neighbor played off

11020-407: Was a horse, a pony even, and found out that any part of my tail was used in your violin bow, I'd hang my head in my oatbag from then on. Benny's side of the feud included a tart interpretation of Allen's Town Hall Tonight show, which Benny and company called "Clown Hall Tonight." A signature element of the feud was that, whenever one guested on the other's shows, the host would tend to hand the guest

11136-555: Was a young Englishman named Archie Leach, who received as many good notices for his romantic appeal as Allen got for his comic work. Hammerstein retooled the show before he brought it to New York by replacing everyone but two women and Allen. Leach decided to buy an old car and drive to Hollywood. "What Archie Leach didn't tell me," Allen remembered, "was that he was going to change his name to Cary Grant ." Polly never succeeded in spite of several retoolings, but Allen went on to successful shows like The Little Show (1929–30) and Three's

11252-424: Was added to "sweeten" the soundtrack, as when the studio audience missed some close-up comedy because of cameras or microphones obstructing their view. Television viewers became accustomed to live without Mary Livingstone, who was afflicted by a striking case of stage fright that didn't lessen even after performing with Benny for 20 years. Hence, Livingstone appeared rarely if at all on the television show. In fact, for

11368-483: Was an American singer and vaudeville performer who was popular internationally between the 1900s and 1920s. She is credited with co-writing the song " Shine On, Harvest Moon " and performed many successful songs during the First World War , including " Over There ". She was also noted for her independent views and unconventional private life, becoming an early media celebrity. She made over 160 recordings. She

11484-431: Was approached by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld to star in a new theatre show, The Follies of 1907 . The show, soon retitled The Ziegfeld Follies , was a huge success and established Bayes' status, making her one of the highest paid female performers in the world. In 1908, Bayes married fellow performer Jack Norworth , and the couple became media celebrities. They performed together, and were credited with co-writing

11600-549: Was becoming ill and visibly weakened by stomach cancer , which she had been suffering from for several years. She died at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn in 1928, aged 47. Friedland refused to allow her remains to be buried before his own death, so her coffin remained in a receiving vault for eighteen years. Friedland died in 1946 and she was buried alongside him in Woodlawn Cemetery , New York. A headstone

11716-402: Was booed by the sailors, so with prompting from fellow sailor and actor Pat O'Brien , he ad-libbed his way out of the jam and left them laughing. He received more comedy spots in the revues and did well, earning a reputation as a comedian and musician. Despite stories to the contrary, no reliable evidence indicates Jack Benny was aboard during the 1915 Eastland disaster or scheduled to be on

11832-418: Was born Benjamin Kubelsky on February 14, 1894 in Chicago, and grew up in nearby Waukegan . He was the son of Jewish immigrants Meyer Kubelsky (1864–1946) and Naomi Emma Sachs Kubelsky (1869–1917). Meyer was a saloon owner and later a haberdasher who had emigrated to the United States of America from Poland. Emma had emigrated from Lithuania. At his father's behest, Benny began taking violin lessons at

11948-543: Was born in 1880 in Chicago , the daughter of Rachel and David Goldberg, a Polish -born saloon keeper. She seems to have been given the traditional family name Rachel at birth but was known as Eleonora, or "Dora" as a nickname. She grew up in a strict Orthodox Jewish household and moved with her parents to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in her teens. In 1899, she married salesman Otto Gressing. They lived in Joliet, Illinois , and in

12064-461: Was called the "rate race". Thus, after some three decades on radio and television in a weekly program, Jack Benny went out on top. In fairness, Benny himself shared Fred Allen's ambivalence about television, though not quite to Allen's extent. "By my second year in television, I saw that the camera was a man-eating monster ... It gave a performer close-up exposure that, week after week, threatened his existence as an interesting entertainer." In

12180-407: Was diminishing; she made no recordings after the end of her Columbia contract in 1923, bookings decreased, and she was performing in smaller venues. She refused to take part in the expanding film industry , claiming that she would make too much money and that "the mental anguish I would suffer would make me unfit to enjoy life. No, siree. No movie work for me!" She made several trips to Europe in

12296-473: Was increased to 39 cents in 2006, fans petitioned for a Jack Benny stamp to honor his stage persona's perpetual age. The U.S. Postal Service had issued a stamp depicting Benny in 1991 as part of a booklet of stamps honoring comedians; however, the stamp was issued at the then-current rate of 29 cents. Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan is named after Benny. Its motto matches his famous statement as "Home of

12412-686: Was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1988 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989. He was also inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. Benny was inducted as a laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the state's highest honor) by the governor of Illinois in 1972 in the area of the performing arts. When the price of a standard first-class U.S. postal stamp

12528-437: Was knocked off his perch not by a talent raid but by a show on a third rival network, ABC (the former NBC Blue network). The quiz show Stop the Music , hosted by Bert Parks (debuted 1948), required listeners to participate live by telephone. The show became a big enough hit to break into Allen's grip on that Sunday night-time slot. At first, Allen fought fire with his own kind of fire: he offered $ 5,000 to listeners getting

12644-409: Was not as unusual for him as for others to sign off with "We're a little late, so good night, folks." Allen's habit of signing off late affected fellow former vaudevillian Phil Baker , whose quiz show Take It or Leave It immediately followed the Allen show. Baker hatched a comic plan to remedy the situation. He kept track of how much time he was losing to Allen over a period of a few months, and when

12760-484: Was not filled with ambition nor fired by a drive toward a clear-cut goal. I never knew exactly where I was going." Upon his death, Benny's family donated his personal, professional and business papers, as well as a collection of his television shows, to UCLA . The university established the Jack Benny Award for Comedy in his honor in 1977 to recognize outstanding people in the field of comedy. Johnny Carson

12876-475: Was released from his contract and returned to Broadway in Earl Carroll's Vanities . At first dubious about the viability of radio, Benny grew eager to break into the new medium. In 1932, after a four-week nightclub run, he was invited onto Ed Sullivan 's radio program, uttering his first radio spiel "This is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, 'Who cares? ' " Benny had been

12992-403: Was similar to the radio show (several of the radio scripts were recycled for television, as was somewhat common with other radio shows that moved to television), but with the addition of visual gags. Lucky Strike was the sponsor. Benny did his opening and closing monologues before a live audience, which he regarded as essential to timing of the material. As in other TV comedy shows, a laugh track

13108-469: Was the Canadian-born singer-violinist Gisele Mackenzie . As a gag, Benny made a 1957 appearance on the then-wildly popular $ 64,000 Question . His category of choice was "Violins", but after answering the first question correctly Benny opted out of continuing, leaving the show with just $ 64; host Hal March gave Benny the prize money out of his own pocket. March made an appearance on Benny's show

13224-485: Was the best night on radio." Sunday night with Fred Allen seemed incomplete on any night that listeners did not hear the DeMarco Sisters, whose breezy, harmonious style became as familiar as their cheerfully sung "Mr. Al-len, Mr. Alll-llennnn" in the show's opening theme. During the theme's brief pause, Allen would say something like, "It isn't the mayor of Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga, kiddies." That device became

13340-532: Was the first award recipient. Benny also donated a Stradivarius violin (purchased in 1957) to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra . Benny had quipped, "If it isn't a $ 30,000 Strad, I'm out $ 120." In 1960, Benny was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with three stars. His stars for television and motion pictures are located at 6370 and 6650 Hollywood Boulevard , respectively, and at 1505 Vine Street for radio. He

13456-640: Was the longest-playing, best-remembered dialogic running gag in classic radio history. The gag even pushed toward a boxing match between the two comedians and the promised event was a sellout, but the match never occurred. The pair even appeared together in films, including Love Thy Neighbor (1940) and It's in the Bag! (1945), Allen's only starring vehicle, also featuring William Bendix , Robert Benchley , and Jerry Colonna . He also starred with Oscar Levant in 20th Century-Fox's anthology film O. Henry's Full House , in The Ransom of Red Chief . Some of

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