Thanksgiving 1947 With Jack Benny

heidelblog.net ^ | 11/26/15 | Jack Benny, et al

[SoFloFreeper]

In the early 1930s, more than 60 years before Seinfeld, there was Jack Benny. His was the first show about nothing. He had wacky neighbors who showed up randomly. He had a a group of eccentric friends. He played a comedian but we rarely heard him perform. Jack was perhaps the inventor of the situation comedy as we know it. In the 1950s the show moved to television, where it was very successful. Seinfeld was a reprise of the Jack Benny Show. Several drop-in characters were performed by Mel Blanc (aka Bugs Bunny).

Here’s the Thanksgiving Day episode from 1947.

Note: There is a character in the show, Rochester, played by Eddie Anderson (1905-77). He was a great African-American radio and TV actor. He portrays Benny's valet. Benny, whose real name was Benny Kubelsky (1894-1974), was Jewish and was sensitive, because of his own experience, to the social and economic situation of minorities. Anderson received a lot of unfair criticism in the 1960s for his portrayal of Rochester. The relationship, in the show, between Benny and Anderson was complex and subtle. There is little overt racism and Anderson's character gets in quite a few digs at Benny. There were other characters who were more stereotypical, e.g., Mr Kitzel, played by Artie Auerbach (1903-57). Arguably, the Rochester character is less demeaning that the Kitzel character.

Remember, when this program aired there was little immigration to the USA. The country was not as racially diverse as it is now. Further, Jim Crow laws were still in effect in the South and racial segregation was widespread across the North. There were no African-American actors in leading parts in radio or television. That did not begin to change until the mid-1960s (TV). Were there African-American butlers in that period? Yes. Is there a hierarchical relation between employers and butlers? Yes. Is that inherently racist? I don't think so. I am not sure that his character was any more subordinate to his boss than Joseph Marcel's character was to his in The fresh Prince of Bel Air. Nevertheless, be forewarned that you may hear some things that are unfamiliar.

[greene66]

Oh, I’m not knocking it. I just have a strong liking for the Paramount films because Jack Benny basically plays his same radio persona in them, or something very close, like a radio announcer (as in “The Big Broadcast of 1937”).

[jmacusa]

Who was making the films in Hollywood at the time? Wasn’t Hollywood a bed of liberals and socialists then as it is now? The champions of the downtrodden? So if thats the case who was doing the stereo typing and exclusion of inclusion by blacks into main stream Hollywood?

[Fiddlstix]

I'm old enough to remember listening to Jack Benny on the old Philco radio. It was great comedy. Jack, Mary Livingston, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, And, of course, Rochester. Mel Blanc, The Man of a thousand voices as the famous Maxwell Car. (Yes. The Was A Maxwell Automobile later to be known as Chrysler Motors)

I loved the Jack Benny show and his "on going battles" with Fred Allen of Allens Ally.

Also there was Fibber McGee and Molly (Jim and Marion Jordan. Married in real life as well as their show)

Those were the days

[TalBlack]

ping

[EveningStar]

bump

[ExNewsExSpook]

Benny had the funniest show on radio, bar none. Jack’s timing was immaculate, and the main cast (Don Wilson, Eddie Anderson, Dennis Day, Mary Livingston, Mel Blanc and Phil Harris) was superb. So were many of the actors who played recurring roles, such as Frank Morgan (the YESSS man who specialized in sales clerks who antagonized Jack); Joseph Kearns (best know as Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace; he played the superannuated guard who had been protecting Jack’s money vault since (pick one) the founding of Los Angeles, or the year when Jack turned 38.

But the real secret to Benny’s success was not just his talent, but his contributions as a writer and producer, though he never claimed a credit in either department. He wanted the show to be funny, knew what worked and didn’t care who got the punch line. That’s why performers like Dennis Day and Eddie Rochester often got the best lines at Jack’s expense. On other shows, they would have been minor or recurring characters at best.

Benny also kept his writing staff largely intact for decades, while contemporaries (like Bob Hope) went through them like Kleenex. They also knew what worked and kept his best routines fresh. Example: every year, there was a Christmas skit based on Jack endlessly debating what he was going to buy Don Wilson for a Christmas gift. Of course, it had to be cheap (one year it was a pair of shoelaces), playing into Benny’s reputation as a skinflint. And it paired him with a hapless sales clerk (usually Mel Blanc) who had to put up with Jack debating metal versus plastic-tipped shoelaces.

You can hear episodes of the Benny radio show on XM Channel 148. Always worth a listen. Better than anything remotely described as a sitcom on TV today..

[South Dakota]

Jack Benny was the master of the pause.

Johnny Carson too

[Captain Peter Blood]

I have SirusXM and listen to Jack Benny every chance I can get. The humor is not too dated and the show is still fresh and funny today as it was over 70 years ago.

Eddie Anderson at one time was one of the highest paid performers in Hollywood earning upwards of $300,000 a year.

Jack Benny and Eddie Anderson were also good friends and loved to go to Santa Anita or The Hollywood race tracks to play the ponies.

Jack Benny was the guiding genius of his writers and once came up with an idea for a radio contest, Tell us why you hate Jack Benny.

His rivalry with Fred Allen was legendary, it was a put on as they were close friends in real life, they would go on each other’s show and it was a riot. When Fred Allen went off the air Benny hired some of Allen’s people for his own show.

Jack Benny was a class act and his show was a one of kind.

[Captain Peter Blood]

Actually most of the studio heads then were fairly conservative and mostly Republicans.

Sometime after W.W. II, certainly by the 1950’s, there was a change as the old guard died off.

[jmacusa]

I wouldn’t call who ever made “Mission To Moscow’’ conservative.

[Captain Peter Blood]

While the studio heads then might have been somewhat conservative a lot of writers and directors were not.

Also keep in mind the times, it was W.W.II and a lot of propaganda films were made for the war effort including the one you mentioned.

The great Hollywood investigation was post W.W. II when the Cold War started.

[Moonmad27]

Weekly or even more often, the Jack Benny show is on Sirius XM Radio Classics where it is very popular — the radio show seems very “modern”.

[The KG9 Kid]

There are some 640+ episodes of the Jack Benny radio show on archive.org for free download. I have them all.

[Larry Lucido]

57 years is actually less than 60 years. Other than that, good article. Jack Benny was a class act.

[minnesota_bound]

#14 Fred Allen shows. I have his book and that guy sure could zing people in a funny way.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fred+allen

[greene66]

I grew to particularly appreciate Fred Allen when seeing reruns of dozens and dozens of his appearances on early-to-mid-1950s “What’s My Line” episodes on the Game Show Network. Long ago, I didn’t quite ‘get’ his wry style of humor, which was more akin to that of turn-of-the-century, small-town New England. When I was a high-schooler, collecting cassette tapes of old radio shows, I didn’t find his humor quite as accessible as Benny or many others. But nowadays, I count myself a big Fred Allen fan as well.

However, I’ve always loved the one Hollywood film that he starred in, “It’s in the Bag” (1945). The six-minute bit Allen did with Benny in it is thoroughly hilarious. I’d made a videotape copy of the film back in 1984, and finally upgraded with the recent dvd release. Great, silly comedy film.

[minnesota_bound]

Fred Allen quotes.
http://www.fredallen.org/quotes.html

[JoeProBono]