Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – Oct 4, 1942 She’s Really Anything but a Dope By Carlton Cheney DOWN through the ages countless millions of words have been uttered or written about the manifold advantages of being smart. But one may look in vain to the advice of sages and pundits for single observation , a friendly tip extolling the manifold virtues of being dumb. This, it appears, is a gross and deplorable omission which we right here and now set about to correct, being moved to the effort by a visit we paid the other day to the home of Gracie Allen , that darling dunce of the air waves , on the eve of her return to radio with husband-partner George Burns . Gracie and George , as you no doubt know, have been taking a summer vacation, but they will be back on the ether Tuesday night, again supported by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra; Jimmy Cash, the Arkansas Singer; Bill Goodwin, announcer and stooge, and Clarence Nash as Herman the Duck. White the show this season w

The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 16, 1941 George Burns Loves Gag He Pulled 3,000 Times A STATISTICIAN with a flair for adventure made a pilgrimage recently to the home of George Burns and GracieAllen . He emerged a week later, weakly muttering facts and figures which summarized something like this: George and Gracie , in the 18 years of their career together, have used up approximately 40,000 jokes. One joke which makes George laugh has been used 3,000 times, and it’s still good for laughs from George. Burns and Allen , long before they became NBC stars, played seven years of vaudeville with only two routines, titled “Sixty Forty” and “Lamb Chops.” Each act ran 14 minutes, and changes in routine were events of such importance that George and Gracie , before inserting a new joke, went to some small town to break it in. “Now,” Gracie says, “the new joke is broken in, and is still going strong on our NBC programs.” When Burns and Allen, booked on the Gus Sonn circu

The Miami News – Mar 30, 1941 Win With a Wife! America’s Ace Radio Comedians Find Success Was Aided by Their Mates IF YOU want to succeed in radio get a wife. That is the advice of Jack Benny , George Burns , Jim Jordan (Fibber McGee) and a score of other top radio stars whose acts on the air wouldn’t be possible without their “ever loving” wives. Imagine, if you can, Jack without his constant heckler. Mary: George without Gracie’s stupidities: or McGee with no Molly to admonish him with, “T’aint funny, McGee,” and you begin to see what marriage means to the comics. Many a radio funny man has taken a woman unto himself and thereby reaped a fortune. No happier or more profitable union in radio exists than that of Jack Benny  and Mary Livingstone .The antics of this celebrated couple send laughter rolling from coast to coast and brings dollars rolling into their pockets. But it wasn’t always that way. Jack’s first clear impression of his acid tongue