Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label jack benny

Don Wilson

St. Joseph Gazette- Apr 27, 1982 Don Wilson, radio – TV figure, dies -AP Don Wilson dead PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP)—Don Wilson, the rotund foll of Jack Benny ’s comedy routines on radio and television for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 81. Wilson was found unconscious Sunday at his home in Cathedral City and was taken to Eisenhower Medical Center. Doctors at the hospital were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at 6:51 p.m. The cause of death was listed as a cerebral vascular accident or stroke. He joined the Jack Benny radio show in 1933 after working as a sports announcer for NBC . He was initially only the program’s announcer, but Benny soon worked him into the show as a regular character. His wife, Lois Corbet, also eventually became a character on the radio and television shows, along with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. Dennis Day , Phil Harris , Mary Livingston , Artie “Mr. Kitzel” Auerbach, Mel Blanc , Bea Benaderet , Verna Felton, Fran

Parallels between Jerry Seinfeld and Jack Benny

But it is something has always struck me about the similarities between Jack  Benny and Jerry Seinfeld. For instance: BOTH were comedians BOTH had historically successful (legendary?) comedy programs BOTH surrounded themselves with a tight 'gang' BOTH deferred the best jokes (or lines) to their fellow cast members. BOTH were content to be the butt of the joke (when appropriate) BOTH broke down the 4th wall (Benny talked to audience, Jerry did it via Stand Up Somedy) BOTH were usually the conduit for story lines  (very involving only Mary/Phil or Kramer/Elaine for example) BOTH involved preparing for and sometimes performing there show as part of their situational comedy. Even the cast member pairings Jack Benny = Jerry Seinfeld Phil Harris = Kramer Mary Livingston = Elaine Bennis [Multiple] = George Castanza Frank Nelson , Mel Blan c = Newman Each show had a wonderfully talented second tier of actors/actresses as well.  From Jerry's parents t

Erno Rapee Believes Radio Creates Music Lovers

The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 10, 1938 Erno Rapee Believes Radio Creates Music Lovers THE United States, claims Erno Rapee, director of the Radio City Music Hall symphony orchestra, is fast becoming a nation of highly discriminating music lovers, a country in many ways more hospitable to even the most revolutionary in modern music than any to be found in present day Europe. A few years ago in America, Rapee says, to the average man Tschaikowsky was merely an unpronounceable Russian name; Debussy, a radical French composer whom none but a few of the musically elect were supposed to be able to fathom, and Georges Enesco, modern Rumanian master, an artist in composition as well as in concert completely unknown. But now the tide has turned. The voice of a people, long frowned on by “friends of music” on the cultured continent, the accredited home of great art, is being culticated, Rapee believes. And more and more America calls for the masterpieces, both contemporary and cla

‘Actors Are Not Egotists’ by Jack Benny

The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 13, 1938   ‘Actors Are Not Egotists’ A Radio Comedian Turned Screen Actor Here Gives You His Evaluation of His Co-workers and, in the Benny Manner, Emerges With All Banners Flying in His Defense of This Maligned Profession By Jack Benny Jack Benny , as everybody but an unidentified man in French Indo-China knows, appears on NBC Sunday nights with his radio troupe. His next film for Paramount is called “Never Say Die.” HERE is something I’ve wanted to get off my chest for years, I expect to be given arguments about it. There will be many snorts of “Oh, yeah?” But a Benny never falters for mere snorts. He’s faced too many dead-on-their-seats audiences. I say actors as a class aren’t nearly so sold on themselves as nonprofessionals think. Here’s what I mean. An Irishman named Mike wanted to go for a sleigh ride but he didn’t have a sled. His friend Pat did Mike thought over the situation and he said to his wife “Sure it’s

Monday Night COMES TO LIFE

Monday Night COMES TO LIFE Fibber McGee takes a simple shortcut to change his Monday broadcasting period to 9 o’clock Eastern, 8 o’clock Central Standard Time, NBC . Thus, listeners get a more convenient hour, and he gets what he usually gets—the works. “I’ll tell you a show everybody’s listening to in Hollywood—it’s Fibber McGee and Molly .” Reporters caught this from Jack Benny , star of NBC ’s Sunday night Jell-O program, the other day in Chicago enroute from Hollywood to New York. One hundred weeks ago, sponsored by Johnson’s Wax, this new radio comedy team came strolling down the airlanes. Amazingly soon they became required hearing to millions of Monday night radio listeners. Without benefit of intensive Hollywood fanfare or Broadway ballyhoo, Fibber McGee and Molly have become firmly—and fondly—intrenched in America’s receptive heart. “We’ll have to tell you later” . . . this gay gaballero is, by his own admission, pretty hot stuff with smart quips and witty

Benny for Mexico

February 20, 1943 Benny for Mexico NEW YORK, Feb, 13— Jack Benny will do one and possibly two broadcasts from Mexico City within the next six weeks. South-of-the- border emanation stems from Benny’s show for servicemen, which will bring him into Mexico early in April. Currently the comedian, in addition to doing his broadcasts for servicemen, is devoting each Mondau and Tuesday to a vaude type of show, using his radio casts as nucleus, at army camps and navy bases. Now in Canada to entertain and broadcast before Canadian and British troops, Benny will play his way back to the Coast and then head for camps in Texas and finally Mexico.

Boogeymen in Radio Comedy (Screamstars playing for Laughs)

Boogeymen in Comedy (Screamstars playing for laughs) Mention these names: Vincent Price , Bela Lugosi , Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff . And you would have a congregation of horror-inflicting characters who would surely induce fear and discomfort in this collection. It must be noted that all these actors assumed roles which inspired horror and terrors to their audience. However, in real life, they were nothing like the scary characters they portrayed in the movies, that’s for sure. Actually, they were all nice and often cast a funny demeanor. Their roles in the movies would surely give us scary pictures of them, and they were abominable people you would not want to meet. But the scary characters they played in films have always been spoofed which never failed to delight the audience. Boris Karloff was an English actor who did a great job in each of his horror films. His first acting role on a horror film that made him a star came with Frankenstein in 1931 as Frankenstein&#

Win With a Wife!

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

Radio Gagsters Won’t Laugh By Jack Sher

Sunday, January 7, 1940           THE MILWAUKEE OURNAL –SCREEN and RADIO       11                  Radio Gagsters Won’t Laugh By Jack Sher MILTIE BERLINDER, aged 7, stood in front of the mirror in the Berlinger’s Bronx apartment making faces. He knitted his eyebrows furiously. He seriously studied his image in the mirror. He knitted his eyebrows furiously. He decided it was pretty good. Papa Berlinger put down his paper, pointed a long finger at Miltie and addressed Mama Berlinger. “Lookit our boy.” He wagged his head disapprovingly. “All day he’s gonna stand there and make monkeyshines in the mirror?” Mama Berlinger wagged a finger back at papa. “So if Miltie wants to make faces, it hurts you? Leave him alone. Something will come of this.” “From such foolishness comes nothing,” Papa Berlinger replied and went back to his paper. Miltie turned from the mirror and shuffled across the room. Mama Berlinger began to chuckle. “Miltie,” she laughed. “Just like Charl