The Milwaukee Journal – Jan 28,
1945
Unveiling DUFFY’S TAVERN
“DUFFY’S TAVERN, where the elite
meet to eat, Archie the manager speaking . . .” That’s Ed Gardner, Archie himself,
who has got himself and his tavern into the movies after winning nation-wide
laughter as a radio comedian (7:30 p. m. Fridays, WTMJ)
Gardner is a former WPA worker who
mangled English so intelligently that the radio industry figured he really was
worth $5,000 a week. Hollywood raised the ante so the tavern, with its
characters and free lunch, is now before the cameras at Paramount.
Everybody from the radio show is
there except Duffy himself, the disembodied voice who calls Archie on the
phone. And it includes Clifton Finnegan, the well known moron; Eddie, the
waiter, and the enchanting Miss Duffy herself.
To give the hangout a little
style, Paramount has chipped in with Bing Crosby and the four Crosby kids,
Dorothy Lamour, Veronica Lake, Eddie Bracken, Victor Moore, Barry Sullivan, Marjorie
Reynolds, Maurice Rocco, William Demarest, Alan Ladd, Cass Daley, RobertBenchley, Barry Fitzgerald, Albert Dekker, Betty Hutton, Billy De Wolfe,
Paulette Godard, Sonny Tufts, Brian Donlevy, Joan Caulfield, Diana Lynn, Olga
San Juan and many others. In brief, practically the entire Paramount pay roll.
A “Duffy’s Tavern” set has been
built to delight the heart of any old barfly who remembers the swinging door
days. The art director, William Flannery, says it represents a composite of all
Manhattan’s classic Joints. On the walls hang more than 600 old sporting prints
and pictures, with many busty sirens of Lillian Russell’s day. Also theatrical
prints and programs, framed newspapers, lucky horseshoes, boxing gloves and
relics of the days when champions were champions.
Norman Panama and Melvin frank,
Paramount writers, were drafted to do the screen play. By a coincidence both
are graduates of Ed Gardner’s radio staff and got their start doing gags for
his program.
Gardner thinks the film should
match the success of the air show. The secret of “Duffy’s Tavern” popularity,
he says, is that it is “low class in the genteel manner.” Archie is as much a
gentleman in his way. Gardner believes, as is Noel Coward. He points out that
Miss Duffy, Finnegan and Eddie the waiter, while illiterate and lowbrow, are
all nice and likable people.
Gardner, by the way, is a genuine
New Yorker. He speaks with the same Brooklyn accent he manifests on the radio,
although if he wants to he can talk like a professor. He has been actor, radio
writer, stage manager, and later produced the Rudy Vallee-John Barrymore show,
the “Good News” program and others. Coupled with his microphone experience, he
has a sharp sense of humor which enables him to put “zing” into a line.
During a rehearsal on the sound
stage at Paramount with Charlie Cantor, who plays Finnegan, he was called upon
by the scripts to say: “Finnegan is stupid, ignorant, sloppy and . . .” At this
point Gardner paused and turned to Cantor, speaking out of character. “Charlie,”
he asked, “What are some of your other facets?”
A few minutes later a discussion
arose about a gag Director Hal Walker thought should be cut.
Gardner pondered a moment, then,
without a trace of egotism, said: “I won’t say this joke is dynamite. But I do
say that every time I open my Kisser while I’m saying it, I’ll get a belly
laugh.”
Paulette Goddard will adorn the
film version of radio’s “Duffy’s Tavern” funfest. Don’t ask us why
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