foreign
[Music]
welcome to this day in Jack Benny I'm
John Henderson today we're continuing
the audiobook of Jack Benny and the
Golden Age of American radio comedy read
by Stephanie Henderson and with me is
the author Catherine H Fuller Seeley
Kathy we're on chapter seven chapter
seven was a woman I hadn't anticipated
writing but as I did research about Jack
moving to California and
a well-known celebrity there I was
really torn because the reputation of
most of his films is not very high and
yet what I was learning from newspaper
stories and other anecdotes was he was
one of the most popular celebrities in
Hollywood and I asked why was that and
in part it turns out if you were a
tourist in Los Angeles you couldn't get
on the movie studio a lot you almost
never saw movie stars on the street but
you could get the free tickets to go see
the um broadcast of a radio show and so
it turns out the radio comedians out in
Los Angeles were some of the biggest
stars tourists could ever see in
Hollywood
right yeah I never thought about
actually going and seeing the broadcast
I made a trip recently to Palm Springs
it was so fun to see how small it was
and how intimate a crowd and it was
really neat to sort of go to the place
and and sort of see and understand what
a treat it was yes well here is chapter
seven
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
foreign
Jack Benny's intermediate juggling of
radio and film
after spending three months in the
American Film Capital interviewing 500
visitors from all walks of life in
January 1937 British journalist Austin J
Putnam completed research for his
apparently never published book
Hollywood tourist based on his survey as
he told a variety reporter Putnam
compiled a list of the seven wonders of
Hollywood most choices embodied popular
fascination with the personalities and
playgrounds of the West Coast film
Colony Clark Gable and Shirley Temple
the Brown Derby restaurant Charlie
Chaplin's Film Studio Grauman's Chinese
Theater and the Hollywood Bowl
putnam's number one single greatest
Wonder of Hollywood however was Jack
Benny and the live productions of his
radio programs more tourists asked me
how they could get tickets to Jack
Benny's radio broadcasts than any other
event it is positively amazing the whole
this droll comedian has on the United
States public Marvel the Englishman he
is the most popular celebrity in
Hollywood I enjoyed his show at the NBC
Studio more than any stage play I've
ever seen in London or New York
indeed was Jack Benny a movie star who
appeared on the radio or a radio star
who made movies a 1937 Los Angeles Times
article pondered the question noting
that half of his income came from each
medium and that his intermediate stardom
was shared by a growing number of
multitasking celebrities from Bing
Crosby and Eddie Cantor to Arkansas
traveler humorist Bob Burns when asked
which was the easier profession acting
in radio or film Benny gave a
purposefully ambiguous reply the manner
in which each medium structured his
performance was the issue Benny declared
that picture making is tougher noting
that unlike in radio the actor couldn't
carry the script into the film scene to
do dialogue mistakes performers made
while broadcasting live on the radio
could be considered funny
but mistakes ruined a film scene films
demanded Perfection on the other hand
however radio brought with it the time
pressures of creating weekly programs in
movies you only memorize a few lines at
a time and stand under the hot lights
for a few minutes in radio a comic must
work fast and keep up with the rewrites
you have to physically Express emotion
with body more than just voice in the
movies you have to do physical stunts
rather than the sound effects man on
radio you can look like anything and
dress casually in the movies you must be
handsome and have a good appearance
Benny concluded I think for the time
being I'll continue to take a helping of
both and maybe a few personal
appearances on the side
Benny thoroughly embedded His Radio
career and his program's narrative into
the milieu of Motion Pictures this
intertwining of rival media forms
brought both positive and negative
reactions from the radio and film
Industries in 1934 a time when most
Network radio programs were broadcast
from New York City Jack Benny's
top-rated radio program regularly
emanated from Los Angeles three years
prior to Primetime radio's swing to
California like a fun house reflection
of the popular dramatic radio program
Lux Radio Theater that brought a
carefully constructed version of
Hollywood glamor to radio listeners
Benny's show Drew on magnified and
critiqued listeners fascination with the
movies and Southern California the
feature films in which Benny starred in
the late 1930s also just as thoroughly
mixed radio and Cinema his movie stardom
owed Much More To His Radio popularity
than to his acting skills or the
aesthetic quality of his film
Productions with Ernst lubich's 90 1942
to be or not to be the exception Benny
himself roundly disparaged his own film
performances although they are not
remembered as critical triumphs several
of his films were box office hits and
boosted Benny albeit temporarily into
the pantheon of top ticket selling movie
stars
examination of Benny's intermingling of
radio and film in the 1930s expands and
complicates our understanding of the
many formal and informal ties between
two commercial media forms which were
said to be bitter opponents in that era
contemporary media studies have tended
to assume that media convergence the
synergizing of Television film the
Internet advertising gaming and
Publishing into multimedia
conglomerations that share narrative
threads producers performers and
audience interaction and that create
multi-dimensional experiences is a
recent phenomenon of industrial
production practices and marketing
imperatives Jack Benny's career in the
1930s provides a historical case study
of the struggles and success of a
convergence media star in an age when
radio film newspapers and advertising
work for the most part separately
operated rival Industries Michelle Helms
and other media historians have examined
how behind all this anxious Bluster
beneath the surface commonalities and
under the table negotiations worked to
keep the separate entertainment media
cooperating sharing Talent technology
Aesthetics and business practices for
decades finding commonalities and
purchasing stakes in each other's fields
across the 20th century
as Helms writes Hollywood in the 1930s
functioned as broadcasting's Alter Ego
its main rival and contributor the only
other Force unified and powerful enough
to present a viable alternative
definition to the uses made of the
medium by established broadcast
interests yet a necessary contributor to
broadcasting's growth and success
the interrelationship and intra-industry
conflict she examines between the film
and radio Industries looks somewhat
different from the perspective of
performers and audiences what film
audiences radio listeners record buyers
and readers of newspapers and magazines
experienced in their everyday media
consumption was not necessarily entirely
separate media worlds but more often an
entangled flowing together of
entertainment led by the performances of
multimedia Stars across all these
production forms Benny often
acknowledged his media industry boundary
Crossings and thus fueled even higher
levels of cross-media identification
with his fans
for listeners Across America Jack
Benny's radio program was an embodiment
of Hollywood film culture that deepened
audiences familiarity with the movies
and encouraged Southern California
tourism from the very earliest Benny
radio appearances in 1932 his scripts
were filled with punting references to
current film releases and stars Benny's
radio programs in the 1930s featured at
least 50 skits parodying recent box
office hits from Grand Hotel to the
women as the decade progressed Benny's
radio program added jokes about the
directors producers and Studio Moguls
whom Jack worked with in pictures
storylines regularly featured backstage
activities at the Paramount Film Studio
where radio listeners heard him whine
about the small dressing room he'd been
given and undertake disastrous attempts
at film acting his humor de-glamorized
the movie business while still
maintaining that everyone in Hollywood
felt superior to the mere radio
performer jokes about Jack's van and
stinginess often involved Motion
Pictures too as he insisted on seeing
his films again and again fretted about
matinee ticket prices and free theater
passes and dodged insults from Mary
about attending screenings of his own
films at movie theater Dishnet giveaways
to get a free plate in the bargain
Benny's broadcasts help further cement
films place as well as radios in a
nationwide imagined community of shared
everyday cultural experiences
despite the potential benefits of
cross-promotion other factors inhibited
Benny's ability to mingle references to
radio and film and to move between these
competing mediums in the 1930s the
jealous rivalries of the separately
owned media each afraid of losing their
audiences to the other the interference
of program sponsors who feared giving
publicity to competing products the
contentious relationship between film
producers and local film exhibitors and
between Network radio and local radio
stations and between radio and local
newspapers all threw up challenges to
Jack Benny's intermediate promotions
Hollywood celebrity the core of Benny's
Vaudeville and radio routines
like other major stage Vaudeville and
musical performers of the early 1930s
such as Eddie Cantor Al Jolson Edwin
Fred Allen Will Rogers Bing Crosby and
Fred Astaire Jack Benny explored options
for his career in a variety of
entertainment media during a time of
technological change and economic
upheaval Benny appeared in narrative
feature films variety show style review
films comedy film shorts Broadway shows
that mixed scantily clad Showgirls with
comedy routines Vaudeville turns and
guest appearances on various radio
programs separate entertainment media
forms were converging and mixing some
suddenly blossoming While others were
declining and a Savvy group of
performers dipped toes into many mediums
trying to ascertain which streams were
drying up and which might flow toward
continued success
after his well-received appearance as
Master of Ceremonies and mgm's first
talkie the Hollywood review of 1929.
Jack Benny increasingly interpolated
references to Hollywood personalities
current films and his own exploits in
the movie industry into his Vaudeville
humor Al bosberg who had scripted the
dialogue for the film wrote Benny a
routine concerning his experiences in
Hollywood working at MGM it connected to
core aspects of the classic Benny
character and style it was a mixture of
urbanity and Sly self-denigrating humor
that enabled him to belittle his manhood
and poke funded his unsuccessful
attempts to become a leading romantic
actor it shattered any pretensions he
might present that he was a Debonair
movie star who would appropriately be
co-starred with Greta Garbo it assumed
that audiences were familiar with his
work in films and for much of its
topical humor it drew upon vaudeville's
audience's broad interest in the movies
Benny's earliest appearances on radio
also linked him to the film World in
October 1929 he was on a program
broadcast from a California station in
connection with mgm's promotion of the
Hollywood review then he also
guest-starred on an episode of NBC's RKO
theater of the air in September 1931.
Jack Benny was supported in these
Endeavors by the Hollywood film studios
which Michelle Helms notes made major
programming publicity and ownership
forays into radio broadcasting as
talkies connected film much closer to
other recording music and Broadway
theatrical Industries
when Benny had a brief guest shot March
29 1932 on Ed Sullivan's New York
city-based radio program an appearance
he referred to in subsequent years as
his first big break in radio Benny
opened with a self-deprecating greeting
that played up the intimacy of his
entering American Homes ladies and
gentlemen this is Jack Benny talking
there will be a slight pause while you
say who cares the rest of Jack's
three-minute talk was drawn directly
from the Garbo Vaudeville monologue
I am here tonight as a scenario writer
there is quite a lot of money in writing
scenarios for the pictures well there
would be if I could sell one I'm going
back to pictures in about 10 weeks I'm
going to be in a new film with Greta
Garbo they sent me the story last week
when the picture opens I'm found dead in
the bathroom it's a sort of mystery
picture I'm found in the bathtub on a
Wednesday night I should have been in
Miss Garbo's last picture but they gave
the part to Robert Montgomery you know
Studio Politics the funny part of it is
that I'm really much younger than
Montgomery that is I'm younger than
Montgomery and Ward you'd really like
Garbo she and I were great friends in
Hollywood she used to let me drive her
car all around town of course she paid
me for it
Benny reused this favorite Garbo bit
several times on his early radio shows
particularly when he changed sponsors
and was introducing himself to audiences
in a new time slot
deprecating his own film career as an
entree to making humorous comments about
Hollywood remained a staple of the comic
routines Benny and his scriptwriter
Harry conncrafted when Benny began His
Radio broadcasts for Canada Dry although
NBC was touchy about allowing him to
mention that his Film Studio was MGM
because that would be advertising
without payment Benny and Khan liberally
sprinkled the Canada Dry show scripts
not so much with radio-themed humor but
rather with movie related jokes such as
claiming he worked as an assistant lover
to Ramon Navarro and that he had dated
Peach Pitts sister of scatterbrain film
comedian zazupids
as he had in his earlier Vaudeville
performances Benny Incorporated
discussion of his real movie making
activities into the radio dialogue to
add a sense of personal connection to
his audiences working discussions of his
other media activities film shoots and
live stage appearances on tour with his
Radio cast Into His Radio dialogue also
helped promote all these various
endeavors
a recurring skit in the Benny radio
program's early years feature Jack
reporting as the earth galloper a gossip
columnist who Loosely parodied the
broadcasts of Walter Winchell whose
career had blossomed in 1932. Benny's
Earth galloper continually made joking
references to the sizes of Garbo's feet
and Clark Gable's ears and the on-screen
romantic prowess of Mae West and Maurice
Chevalier celebrity quirks seen in the
newsreels were also fodder for Benny's
topical humor such as George Bernard
Shaw's long beard and Mahatma Gandhi's
loincloth the Benny shows humor revolved
around demystifying Fame and humorously
acknowledging radio listeners interest
in Hollywood Gossip
Benny's fully formed radio Persona began
to emerge in skits in 1934 that
concerned Jack's unsuccessful struggles
with his film director to make his part
larger or to avoid having his love
scenes cut out Jack's filming of
transatlantic Merry-Go-Round RKO 1934
was the inspiration for the funny and
effective radio skit broadcast about his
film screen test in which Jack
spectacularly flopped as a romantic
actor even greater discussion of Jack's
movie career in his scripted radio
exploits came after Benny's move to
Paramount Studios in 1936. sometimes the
radio program's narratives involved the
show cast visiting Jack at the studio
and discussing the deficiencies of his
dressing room which was often merely the
men's lavatory or a broom closet
Jack rehearsed an upcoming love scene
which would not actually appear in the
film with either his filmic Leading Lady
Joan Bennett or with Rochester taking
Jones role Jack was depicted as a
terrible movie actor who continually
muffed his lines at other times Jack
with Mary tagging along to witness his
embarrassment waited in vain in the
outer offices of a real-life film
director or Studio executive who had not
even deign to meet him in 1937 when
Benny was filming artists and models at
Paramount he and his writers Morrow and
beloin began to incorporate even more
direct references and connections to his
movie making activities into the radio
Show's narrative this demonstrated
strengthening Cooperative intermediate
ties between Paramount NBC Ad Agency
young and rubicum and sponsor General
Foods
another effective way that Jack Benny
and Harry Conn Incorporated references
to Hollywood and film culture into their
radio show came from Lampoons of
recently released movies Benny and Khan
asserted that they were the first to
create film parodies on the radio but
others were experimenting as well Edwin
was lampooning the librettos of popular
operas and many of Eddie Carter's comic
sketches were film related the parodies
began in the early months of the Canada
Dry program in 1932 when the cast
performed several 10-minute takeoffs on
mgm's 1932 All-Star melodrama Grand
Hotel dubbed grind Hotel the sketches
were so popular that they were reprized
several times on the program over the
next two years
as The Dashing Baron a character played
on film by John Barry morand on Radio by
Jack and tragic reclusive ballerina
grazinska Garbo's film role played by
singer Ethel shoote in the radio skit
pursued a surreptitious romantic
Rendezvous in her hotel room the dying
accountant crangaline bandleader George
Olson taking Lionel Barrymore's scenery
chewing role ran about shrieking that he
only had five minutes to live nearly
dead Kringle line became something of a
recurring character adding extra
absurdity to the Benny radio troops
Antics in the subsequent months
in the next years the Benny Radio cast
performed at least 50 hilarious takeoffs
on Films such as I am a fugitive from a
chain gang she done him wrong Little
Women dinner at eight the barretts of
whimble Street Charlie Chan at Radio
City Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs The
Count of Monte Cristo the house of
Rothschild Mutiny on the Bounty and the
women
sharp writing and bountiful comedic
skills were required to make the
parodies funny and their success rested
on a substantial audience familiarity
with the film titles characters and
Stars this skits also benefited the
radio show providing useful alternatives
to the increasingly stale Vaudeville
jokes that other comedians clung to in a
1934 interview in the San Francisco call
Benny commented our humor is getting
more subtle the change came I suppose
with the introduction of true satire on
the air with which I had something to do
we began kidding current pictures and
plays giving the comedy a crazy
impromptu style in radio work you can't
stand still
in the mid-1930s several new radio
programs debuted that feature dramatic
adaptations of recent Broadway plays and
films for radio adding more intermediate
connections for radio listeners and more
spark for Benny to contrast the humor
and absurdity of his skits with the
seriousness of these other Productions
Louella Parsons radio program Hollywood
Hotel on the CBS network Incorporated
20-minute preview vignettes of new movie
releases into the program's production
often featuring the film's famous
performers
the Lux radio theater program which
became the most prestigious dramatic
series on network radio by presenting
well-crafted adaptations of Hollywood
films and featuring movie star
performances began broadcasting on the
NBC blue Network in 1934. the program
originally based in New York featured
adaptations of Broadway dramas before
switching two years later to programs
based on film dramas in a show produced
in Hollywood on the CBS network and
hosted by famous movie director Cecil B
Demille the popular program most often
focused on melodramas offering only a
few adaptations of comic film fare
Benny's parodies of recent movies also
served as useful promotional publicity
for the targeted films and stars Benny
assumed that the film studios would
welcome these efforts but such was not
often the case then he his writer's
advertising agency handlers and network
bureaucrats had to obtain written
permission from the movie studios to use
the titles characters and any dialogue
or plot elements from a film original
authors in the film studios yelled when
too many spoilers were revealed or when
the humor was sub-par Eugene O'Neill
withheld permission from radio programs
after a few lousy takeoffs on his plays
but allowed the benicast to attempt ah
wilderness
movie theater owners Across the Nation
continually begged the film studios not
to allow radio adaptations of current
films to give away too much of the plot
the climax or conclusion for fear it
would keep too many of their local
clients home from the theaters film
studios grouched about Benny dragging
out parodies of Anthony adverse and Tom
Sawyer over multiple episodes
to avoid giving away too many details
the Benny movie parodies had only the
most tenuous connection to the actual
film they caricatured the skits would
focus on the star personae and Lead
roles often substituting the star name
for the character's name after
establishing the leading stars and or
characters in setting sunni's parodies
shifted away from any connection to the
film toward Vaudeville style jokes about
illicit extramarital Affairs or verbal
slapstick absurdity this tactic
generally mollified the film studios but
Benny would face trouble in the early
years of television when he performed
his takeoff on Gaslight which he had
first done on radio October 14 1945 with
original Star Ingrid Bergman Benny
reprized the sketch on live TV January
27 1952 with Barbara Stanwick but when
he and his production staff sought to do
it a third time capturing it on film in
June 1953 again with Stanwick for TV in
a skit titled Autolite MGM had clamped
down and would only give permission for
current releases to be skewered then he
performed the episode anyway MGM sued
and blocked the show from being aired
MGM Benny and CBS sparred in a
multi-year lawsuit over the creative
limits of parity CBS appealing the case
all the way to the Supreme Court the
court found that Benny's parody was too
similar to the original film finally
Benny paid to license an adaptation of
the film and aired his sketch in 1959.
for all the movie talk however in the
1930s Benny's radio program rarely
included guest star appearances only
Andy Devine the jocular Rusty voiced
movie Cowboy appeared regularly between
1936 and 1938 participating in Buck
Benny Western parody sketches Robert
Taylor appeared once in 1936 and Joan
Bennett Benny's co-starring artists and
models abroad made two appearances the
Stars would only start shining more
frequently on Benny's program at the end
of World War II when Ronald and Benita
Coleman led the way Benny's radio and TV
programs would then be known as shows
that were protective and kind to Stars
Humphrey Bogart Jimmy Stewart Claudette
Colbert and Marilyn Monroe would make
rare broadcast appearances with Benny
Benny's contributions to Hollywood
tourism
not only did Jack Benny and His Radio
cast talk incessantly about the movies
the geography of Hollywood in Southern
California also suffused the program's
narrative early band leader Don bester
plugged his orchestra's performances at
the Brown Derby restaurant and Phil
Harris was Shameless in promoting his
band's shows at the Wilshire Bowl joking
mentions of Pasadena Glendale the Rose
Bowl the May Company department store
where Mary had sold Hosiery before she
met Jack Jack's house in Beverly Hills
the NBC Studios orange groves trips to
Palm Springs and in the later 1940s
radio shows trains leaving Union Station
for Anaheim Azusa and Cucamonga filled
radio listeners imaginations with images
and stories of both the real and an
imagined Los Angeles
California held an alluring Fascination
for a great many Americans during the
Great Depression tourist Publications
WPA guide books and annual winter
articles in Eastern and Midwestern
newspapers all encouraged vacationing in
Southern California touting sunny skies
warm weather a variety of outdoor sports
festivals and parades beaches
breathtaking scenery and of course
Hollywood tourism to the Los Angeles
area grew rapidly in the 1930s expanding
from 200 000 to 1.6 million visitors
between winter and summer making it the
Region's largest industry second only to
petroleum production and far ahead of
Motion Pictures and the orange crop
Michelle Helms notes radio's ability to
create a sense of nationality
americanism a leveling of social class
and Gathering of immigrant cultures
together to become a nationwide audience
having a universal experience
the Benny shows emphasis on Los Angeles
played a role in creating an imagined
community in Benedict Anderson's phrase
to which all Americans could belong in a
1940 New York Times interview Benny
explained how he used Los Angeles
references to keep his radio program
typically American not broadway-ish
that is why I wouldn't want to go on the
air from New York for a whole season we
couldn't be as rural or homey as we are
in California out there we all feel that
we are in a small town and can go places
and do things as the people all do it's
all right to come to New York for two or
three weeks but in the East we find
ourselves acting like tourists I'd never
get a feeling for my Maxwell car or
going to the country in New York
while visiting Hollywood ranked High
among tourist skulls their expectations
were nearly always crushed when they
reached the intersection of Hollywood
Boulevard and Vine Street then as now a
pretty lackluster stretch of real estate
for there was little of the movie
business that could actually be seen by
the public
the bitter truth as most tourists learn
is that it is next to impossible to get
inside a motion picture Studio without
knowing someone in the industry
confessed one New York Times article
stay it is possible to find plenty of
Hollywood glamor outside the studios the
visitor may see his favorite screen star
driving along Hollywood Boulevard
lunching at famous movie restaurants
playing Polo or golf or attending one of
Southern California's colorful Motion
Picture previews
the film studios were surrounded by high
walls big Gates and security guards they
didn't hold tours and it was nearly
impossible to get in without a solid
industry connection no industry receives
more requests for permission to tour its
factories and no industry on the surface
anyway is more loath to a seed warned
another article and it was difficult to
even get a glimpse of them at the Brown
Derby Ciro's or the Coconut Grove
tourists had to be well informed and
lucky to discover in which Suburban
theater a sneak preview of a new film
was being held the disappointed fan was
stuck with studying a map of the movie
star's homes or staring at the cemented
celebrity footprints in the courtyard of
Grauman's Chinese Theater
into that celebrity gawking vacuum came
radio broadcasting NBC and CBS opened
Studios in Hollywood in 1938. 16 of the
highest rated Prime Time network
programs originated in Hollywood by
1939. while a greater percentage of a
day's overall programming was still
produced in the East the West ruled the
night the big radio shows were always
anxious to attract audiences of tourists
to provide laughter and Applause the
studio auditoriums were not large the
one Benny used held only about 350
people but tickets could be obtained at
the studios hotels and the Chamber of
Commerce ahead of time for free
the availability of radio performers to
be seen by the public in a town
notorious for desire of its famous
residents to avoid the masses further
boosted the association of Jack Benny
with Hollywood it was a newspaper worthy
event in the small Upstate New York
village of Fort Plain in 1941 when an
area man John Galvin who unexpectedly
found himself mentioned on the jello
program then he had stumped the visiting
Junior intellectuals the quiz kids with
the question of who was the manager of
the Penn theater in Wilkes-Barre
Pennsylvania Galvin played Hollywood
tourist himself and sent back a postcard
which is Hometown newspaper editor
gleefully published the former Fort
planer sends a card a picture of the
Beverly Hills Home of Jack Benny and
Mary Livingston with the following note
dear Hugh with Mary doing the dishes and
Jack at the wheel of his favorite
Maxwell Rochester and myself did some
FBI work hunting The Gas Man whom
Carmichael Jack's polar bear was
suspected of having eaten
Benny's occasional broadcast from the
Desert Resort town of Palm Springs also
added to the cachet of Southern
California as a playground for the rich
and leisured not only were the locals a
Gog but as the Benny show featured the
town in The Narrative of the program it
created valuable publicity to bring more
Eastern tourists to see the sites Benny
named in 1941 the Palm Springs Desert
Sun reported that this Village has never
witnessed anything like the Benny
broadcasts accustomed to celebrities of
every kind and supposedly blase it went
into a dither about Benny
the newspaper estimated there were three
thousand requests for tickets for the
two shows to be held at a local 750 seat
theater and a sales representative from
General Foods had to rush in to help
restore order wow stores newspapers
Chamber of Commerce hotels and others
are fully appreciative of the wonderful
publicity and entertainment he is giving
the town they will breed the collective
sigh of relief when it's all over
the challenges that radios swing to
California brought to the movies
by the time the broadcasting Network's
shows moved to Hollywood in order to
capitalize on film industry glamor
attract more movie stars to guest shots
on their programs than they've been able
to do in New York and to accommodate the
intermediate activities of top Stars
Jack Benny was already firmly situated
in Southern California having the radio
and film Industries in the same city
brought benefits and challenges a
concern for both broadcasters and film
company Executives dealing with the
increased number of movie stars and
guest appearances on radio shows was
that some Savvy stars and their talent
agents were making these radio deals
outside their contractual obligations to
the movie studios Film Studio Moguls
were upset that movie stars were trading
on their Studio created Fame to benefit
themselves Stars might overexpose
themselves or the studio claimed injure
their reputations by appearing on
unsuitable programs movie companies
sought to reign in their stars
activities on this rival media him while
the movie actors and their agents fought
for career autonomy and the welcome
extra paychecks young and rubicum
executive Tom Harrington Benny's program
manager warned advertising agency radio
departments in October 1936 that radio
has gone Hollywood but it has gone
Hollywood in a way that threatens its
very future we can't help but feel that
unless some action is taken we will find
ourselves in the position of having
created a Frankenstein that will
eventually be our undoing competition
among the advertising agencies has
become so strong with all the variety
shows being broadcast from the coast as
guest stars are at a premium and the
scramble becomes a riot
rival advertising agencies searching for
movie star power for their radio
programs were bidding salaries for top
Stars up to unheard Heights of five
thousand dollars per radio appearance
radio industry people feared that radio
would be reduced to just being a
promotional Outlet promotion pictures
New York Times radio reporter Orrin
Dunlap warned that the film studio saw
radio entirely as a promotional medium
not one of artistic creation and that
radio Executives should worry that
overdoing the publicity would make radio
suffer as an entertainment medium and
the public will forsake such programs
because of the ballyhoo
this cross-pollination of media stardom
caused consternation for both film
studios and the nation's movie theater
owners who had mixed reactions to what
they termed the radio question some
exhibitors say an airing of movie stars
on radio shows hurts Show Business
others that it helps some studios are
fighting to restrain that broadcast
impulse or at least to secure
compensation for Star loanouts While
others encourage it or at any rate look
the other way when it boils over
because radio could be listened to for
free film exhibitors and Studio
Executives worried that having their
movie stars exposed too abundantly on
radio Rob them of potential Revenue at
the box office others saw promotional
benefits from putting film stars on the
airwaves as the Paramount Studio
insisted that its contracted film
performers give one free radio broadcast
in connection with each film they made
featuring radio stars in the movies
might generate useful publicity for the
film industry and draw otherwise
reluctant ticket buyers to local theater
box offices but it might also represent
a dangerous intrusion of the Rival media
form that would steal away paying
customers from the movies lurking
beneath Hollywood's filmed and facade of
Glamor in 1937 and 1938 laid a crisis
that undoubtedly fueled the film
Studio's jealousy of radio
broadcasting's invasion of its Turf the
movies were in a severe economic slump
and Studio Moguls feared the industry
might never recover Catherine in Jerka
details the unhappy news faced by
Hollywood film Executives that too many
new movies were lousy and that audiences
were voting with their feet to stay away
from theaters meanwhile radio
listenership continued to climb Jerka
points out that movie Executives on the
offensive began to search for what film
audiences wanted and if the answer was
less than glamor more natural Heroes and
heroines and more believable plot lines
than they developed and promoted
believable stars like Myrna Loy and
produced family films like the Andy
Hardy series
in February 1937 movie industry leader
will Hayes held nearly seven hours of
closed-door meetings with NBC West Coast
executive Don Gilman and CBS executive
dick Thornburg about the motion picture
artist situation to discuss the tensions
between radio and film Hayes claimed
that local film exhibitors Across the
Nation were the ones angry about movie
stars appearing on the Rival medium
hitting them hardest at the box office
Gilman countered that NBC's hands were
tied it was not in the Network's control
what programs the advertising agencies
and movie star's managers put together
he claimed that we can't very well
refuse programs which have been created
outside of our control and which are
acceptable as to the artist's material
and product Gilman claimed that Hayes
understood that any actual loss of
audience from theaters for free radio is
so minor that to be wholly unimportant
but Hayes reiterated that it didn't
matter what he thought that it was local
exhibitors who were upset Hayes
diplomatically hoped that radio and film
could work smoothly together as
cooperation may cause them both to
realize that broadcasting is a friend of
the picture house
local radio broadcasters could be just
as testy as local theater owners about
film industry propaganda trying to
persuade listeners not to stay at home
in October 1938 an angry radio station
manager in Buffalo New York castigated
NBC
at the end of the good news show from
Hollywood last Thursday night October
20th the NBC announcer said and remember
movies are your best entertainment I
wonder if this is sound policy for radio
to be used to plug movies in this manner
NBC policy prohibits boosting a blue
Network show on the red and vice versa
on the theory that it is unfair to one
client on the red to have his potential
audience invited and urged to tune in on
a blue show running contemporarily on a
competitive Network would it not be
better for us to say radio is your best
and cheapest entertainment and movies
are your second best
NBC's Royals sent this complaint to the
continuity acceptance department and
asked to Ted Janet mcrory to draft a
response her internal memo radio's
contributions to the motion picture
industry was sent back up the line to
Executives up through NBC president
Lennox lore
radio provides a ready-made audience for
the motion picture theater many
personalities built up through radio
have become popular Screen Actors and
big box office attractions for the
motion picture producers she lists 19
performers starting with Jack Benny
review the expansion necessary in NBC
properties alone at Hollywood and it
will be readily seen that radio has to
follow its own talent to Hollywood when
radio personalities are found to be good
box office for the movies if the motion
picture industry contemplates any move
to undermine the radio industry it must
indeed be blind to the benefits that it
has accrued from this same source
let's don't sneer at Benny musicals
Benny's radio flavored 1930s films and
their intermediate marketing
foreign
Jack Benny's MGM film Broadway Melody of
1936 1935 boosted dancer Eleanor
Powell's film career if not Benny's and
his subsequent feature it's in the air
1935 was a mediocre film that despite
its title concerned Daredevil airplane
pilots not broadcasting frustrated at
not being placed in better Parts at MGM
then he switched to Paramount but found
however that his roles did not
appreciably improve in big broadcast of
1937 1936 and college holiday 1936 then
East Park continued to be that of a
producer struggling to mount a talent
showcase for college kids crooners or
scantily clad chorus girls Benny cracked
some jokes not very well timed and
exhibited lackluster chemistry with
whichever leading lady or stooge he was
paired with his subsequent films were
Paramount artists and models 1937 and
artists and models abroad 1938 were
again Armstrong by particularly weak
narratives these medium budgeted barely
better than b-level films Drew little
more than sniffs of disdain from film
critics
the purpose of these movies however was
to reach out to American movie audiences
in the suburbs and Hinterlands and offer
them familiar and relatable characters
pollster George gallup's survey showed
these audiences were bored with
Hollywood's overwrought dramas and
brittle glamor pusses Benny's Mediocre
Films weren't as weak at the box office
however as some of the other dramatic
and comedic bombs which were
contributing to the Nationwide movie
slump
as part of the film industry's effort to
reattract disaffected moviegoers in 1938
came A Renewed effort by Hollywood
Studios to tap into radio performers
popularity radio singers such as Alice
Faye Dorothy LaMore Kenny Baker famous
due to his role on the Benny Program
Lanny Ross Martha Ray and Francis
Langford were tapped for movie roles
Paramount hired popular radio
Storyteller Arkansas traveler Bob Burns
to appear in features he made 12 by
1940. Rising young comic Bob Hope was
chosen to appear in Paramount's big
broadcast of 1938 and Edgar Bergen and
Charlie McCarthy breakout stars on the
radio in 1938 were given lead roles in
two films at Universal letter of
introduction 1938 and Charlie McCarthy
Detective 1939.
Paramount lured away Rising young
director Mark Sandridge from rival RKO
to help improve the quality of Benny's
films the 37 year old director had
worked his way up from two real comedy
gagmen to innovator of the Fred Astaire
and Ginger Roger musicals that
interpolated music so ingratiatingly
with the film plots
sandwich's first musical comedy
breakthrough a profile noted had
actually been so this is Harris RKO 1933
a novel three real musical starring a
noted bandleader that startled the
picture world with his unusual treatment
of Music he made music move on the
screen he also Incorporated the simple
but hitherto unused method of filming a
musical in which the story plot and
situations predominated perhaps
sandwich's fruitful experience with Phil
Harris made him amenable to working with
the band leaders radio boss
sandwich's solution to the Benny problem
was to focus on how to make Benny seem
more comfortable on screen the director
oversaw this scripting incorporating
more of Benny's radio flavor dialogue
into standard filmic practices and
utilizing other members of Benny's Radio
cast
sandwich and screenwriter Maury riskind
adapted a story risk and had co-written
about an American show producer and his
troop stuck in London into a screenplay
reminiscent of Benny's radio comedy
milieu while sandwich retained the
story's fictional narrative structure
that gave Benny the film role of Bob
Temple sandwich added Radio cast members
Phil Harris and Eddie Anderson who in
1938 was quickly becoming popular as new
cast member Rochester on the jello
program
sandwich structured the film like
Benny's radio program incorporating
established radio characters
personalities and their typical
bantering dialogue but Sandridge also
expanded the world of the radio show by
significantly increasing Eddie
Anderson's part in the film having him
sing two big production numbers and
having him interact on screen
prominently with Benny sandridge's
efforts made man about town a surprise
hit for Paramount and incidentally one
of Hollywood's earliest interracial
buddy movies
Benny's broadcasting bosses General
Foods young and rubicum and NBC brought
an unprecedented intermediate marketing
Synergy to the world premiere of man
about town in late June 1939 investing
time and a substantial amount of
promotional funding to make it one of
the splashiest publicity events of the
year in either film or radio radio
advertising and motion picture
production corporations cooperated to
mount a huge cross media celebration of
Jack his radio show and the new film in
Benny's hometown of Waukegan Illinois
the gritty working-class town north of
Chicago was inundated with an
extraordinary five-day circus of media
publicity events with 300 journalists on
hand to cover multiple parades 150 000
Spectators several episodes of Benny's
Jello radio broadcast dinners with Town
officials downtown rallies with the
Stars and simultaneous film premieres at
the town's three movie theaters more
than 2 300 extra policemen National
Guardsmen and boy scouts were brought
into Waukegan to help maintain order
Paramount's lavish promotional junkie to
Waukegan was part of a two-year film
industry plan to increase business and
brand awareness across the Hinterlands
by staging exploitation events in places
far from Hollywood
Paramount had just held the world
premiere of Union Pacific in Omaha
Warners in Dodge City Kansas with Errol
Flynn's Dodge City fox in San Francisco
with Alexander Graham Bell and Joplin
Missouri with Tyrone Powers Jesse James
and MGM in Atlanta with Gone With the
Wind participated in the Outreach effort
as well
plans for the cross media Premiere night
spectacular linking events on stage on
screen and on the airwaves from Waukegan
ran into a nearly disastrous last minute
snag however courtesy of the U.S
government
variety reported when the Federal
Communications Commission got wind of
the Airing in the theater where
admission will be charged it set down a
heavy foot radio producers were never
allowed to require audiences to pay to
attend a national radio broadcast just
about the time the paramounters decided
to split up the ceremonial General Food
stepped in to announce it would buy out
the house that night Jello pitched in to
give away the combined movie Radio Show
tickets for free promoters estimated the
premier's 125 thousand dollar price tag
was shared between General Foods
Paramount NBC and young and rubicum
Paramount promised to welcome relief to
beleaguered local film exhibitors in
their publicity releases for this film
crowing it's your year to rake in the
Jack and there's plenty of Jack and
Paramount's man about town
man about town made a strong showing at
the box office earning 20 percent more
than the average film during the summer
slow season when moviegoers usually
stayed away from on-air-conditioned
theaters and Studios traditionally
dumped Mediocre Films and light fare
Benny's films were also released in the
summer so as not to compete with his
October through June radio show and to
capitalize on radio fans missing Benny
while he was off the air
most reviews praised sandwich's efforts
to blur the lines between radio and film
entertainment lauding Anderson's
performance as Rochester and noting how
much more relaxed and natural Benny's
performance seems compared to previous
films variety complemented the
screenplay which they judged was
precisely tailored for Benny's radio and
Screen personality picture reports
claimed at last the screen captures the
full flavor of Jack Benny's distinctive
radio character heretofore the Benny
pictures have missed the spark that has
made the comedian the top ranking star
of the airlines season after season but
the man in man about town is the same
boastful blustering likable Fall Guy
Millions tune in and laugh at every
Sunday evening the motion picture Herald
applauded sandwich's keen understanding
of what made Benny radio shows work it
has Benny in a jam and Benny the butt of
the jokes and gags box office agreed
remarking it is the most advantageous
screen vehicle yet concocted to parade
the comedy talents of waukegan's gift to
radio and films and with its blend of
mirthful story situations deftly timed
gags and lavishly staged production
numbers should be reckoned a strong
stimulant to ailing summer box offices
on the other hand man about town
received only dismissive acknowledgments
from the major New York or Los Angeles
Film critics who disdained most of the
radio-themed movies released by the film
studios let's don't sneer at Benny
musicals reviewer Archer Winston pleaded
in the New York Post praising that good
lines and comical situations in the film
that pleased audiences looking for
simple pleasure
Buck Benny Rides Again merely a filmed
radio program
foreign
to a long-term contract by a grateful
Paramount Studio and promoted to
producer director Sandridge proceeded to
push the integration of radio and film
even further in his second Jack Benny
picture Buck Benny Rides Again 1940.
sand retired Benny's radio writers Ed
bulloin and Bill Morrow to craft the
dialogue script based very Loosely on an
expansion of the series of buck Benny
Western skits that had been performed on
the radio show in 1936 and 1937.
Sandridge Incorporated even more members
of Benny's Radio cast into the film this
time not only Harrison Anderson but also
announcer Don Wilson tenor Dennis day
and film actor Andy Devine who had
played A continuing role on the radio
program during the buck Benny skits
unlike in the previous film the major
performers in the film used their stage
names and performed in their radio
personas Phil was overly attracted to
the ladies and Jack was pinurious vane
cowardly and awkward around women
Sandridge Incorporated novel radio
touches into the standard film context
Don Wilson read out the film's title
credits instead of them just being
presented as text Mary Livingston and
Fred Allen appeared too but only his
voice is emanating from on-screen radio
sets both performers were very reluctant
to appear on film sandwich also made
special efforts to make key imaginary
aspects of the show visible on film
Carmichael the bear and the Maxwell
jalopy appear in the movie to the
Delight of many film reviewers
still there were limits to how much
Sandridge was able to completely
integrate these rival media forms he had
to cut out several lines moral and
beloin had written in which Jack and
Mary via radio discussed the fact that
the season of radio programs has
concluded some intermediate lines were
not crossed there was no mention of
jello or radio commercialism in the film
The Benny program's characters were
integrated into a narrative that
incorporated Benny's typical radio style
insult swapping into a standard
Hollywood romantic comedy Ellen Drew
played Jack's love interest as a part of
a sister singing Trio seeking to break
into radio their efforts to get Jack to
help them kept misfiring and Jack's
crush on Ellen was not reciprocated the
film cast traveled West to a dude ranch
where comic Mix-Ups with cattle rustlers
occurred and pretty chorus girls danced
and sang sandrich added a Twist to the
film plot that Drew on a unique aspect
of the Benny radio show something not
occurring elsewhere where in mainstream
Hollywood films in that Eddie Anderson
is the Rochester character again played
a very substantial co-starring role in
the film as Jack's sidekick Anderson
even got a romantic interest of his own
actress Teresa Harris playing servant to
the three singers promotion of the film
involved an impressive attempt at
integration of separate entertainment
media forms on the radio the jello radio
program's fictional characters discussed
their activities participating in the
actual filming all during the movie's
production in December and then
throughout the spring building up to its
Premiere in April 1940. the radio
characters Dialogue dwelled on how much
more popular Rochester had been on
screen than Jack in the previous Summers
man about town it provided yet another
new way to puncture Jack's pretensions
of being a successful movie star leading
up to the premiere of buck Benny Rides
Again the entire Jello Radio cast
journeyed across country to New York
City for three weeks of broadcasts plus
guest appearances on other young and
rubicum managed radio programs in an
unusual and Innovative intermediate
promotional push Paramount went to the
extraordinary effort to Stage not one
but two World premieres of the film one
at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan
the other in Harlem at the Lowe's
Victoria Theater the gala interracial
and intermediate event is discussed in
the first Rochester chapter Paramount's
Buck Benny pressbook presented ambitious
language if not followed through with
more concrete promotional assistance
from the studio for local theater owners
to demonstrate that a full intermediate
publicity campaign could be possible for
buck Benny Rides Again that radio films
and Commercial sponsors could create
synergies that would benefit local
exhibitors Jello backs your showing with
big Co-Op campaign the Distributors of
the nation's leading dessert the
sponsors of the nation's number one air
show put their full power Behind The
Cooperative selling of bbra launching a
campaign to top their previous selling
smashes on Jack Benny hits
get out and get behind this enormous
General Foods tie up that links Jello
merchandising in the drawing power of
Jack Benny's Sunday night air show with
your own box office on the new Benny
show
Paramount claimed that every episode of
Benny's radio program on the air and
every box of jello on display at local
groceries and chain stores represented
advertisements for this film meanwhile
the movie studio itself at least
provided some brief phonograph
recordings of music and dialogue and
Sample advertising scripts from which
theater managers could craft local radio
commercials Paramount also arranged for
a Cooperative advertisements and
magazines and window card posters for
product tie-ins with manufacturers of
Hosiery overcoats and typewriters to
help film exhibitors publicize their
local screening of the film at
cooperating neighborhood stores
public opinion poster George Gallup
concluded in a 1940 survey of American
moviegoers and movie going habits that
buck Benny Rides Again was the most
effectively pre-sold picture of the Year
along with Paramount's Crosby and hope
film road to Singapore due to the direct
result of steady plugging on Jack Benny
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby radio programs
box office digest reported that buck
Benny Rides Again was a major hit doing
an impressive 34 percent better than
average business in movie theaters in
cities Across the Nation
reviews of buck many Rides Again in the
film industry trade press and in
newspapers around the nation debated the
merits of the film's radio influence the
Los Angeles Herald Express called Benny
a comic sensation claiming that for the
first time in Jack Benny's amazing
career in Vaudeville on the Broadway
stage on the eras Americans number one
attraction and before Hollywood's
caustic cameras he had bounced forth
with the identical charm the ready wit
and the belittling of self-attitude that
made him great in every other form of
entertainment but the movies
box office digest said that the film was
nearest to giving the comfortable
at-home feeling to The Spectator of
spending a corking evening with a
succession of Jack Benny air programs
that has yet been achieved for an ether
personality
New York mirror critic Kenneth McCaleb
weighed the benefits and drawbacks of
this intermingling of radio and film
radio audiences and Motion Picture
audiences are in theory identical each
is supposedly made up of the great bulk
of Americans who must watch the Nickels
closely and who seek Escape in
low-priced entertainment in these two
media for the masses the chief trouble
with this theory is that it has not
seemed to work out so well in practice
cinematic Moguls are still debating
whether broadcasting by their stars as
part of radio standard soap and
breakfast food operas helps or hurts
their film box office standings
personalities created or largely built
up by radio have been borrowed in many
cases by the movie makers with uncertain
results
McCaleb argued that buck Benny Rides
Again is the first which completely
transforms to film the radio character
which he Benny has made for himself he
thus predicted it would be the rare
Hollywood movie to truly please radio
fans on the other hand the movie was
Savaged by the established film critics
of the New York papers The Herald
Tribune's Howard Barnes deplored the
sorry state of screen Fair which merely
emphasizes the poor judgment which the
screen is now displaying in forgetting
fundamentals and playing to what used to
be called the gallery
BR Chrisler reviewing the film for the
New York Times waded through the crowds
that snaked for blocks around the
Paramount Theater five abreast outside
the box office and incredulously
wondered what all the excitement was
about he found it a better than average
Jack Benny comedy but that it is still
more of a broadcast than a motion
picture there are some worthy people who
are wedded to their radio who like their
entertainment handed to them in great
gobs of dialogue interspersed with
swelling crescendos of background music
and on the other hand there are equally
reputable persons who consider fairly or
not that the screen is wasted on that
type of picture don't blame us if Jack
Benny in a cowboy suit hardly seems
worth the trip declaring that if you
can't abuse them use them Hollywood
makes pics about radio variety discussed
film studios efforts to dive more
thoroughly than ever before into
radio-themed movies
the motion picture industry has ceased
to abuse radio and is using it as a
background for a score of films and more
to come practically every major studio
is producing or preparing features
dealing wholly or in part with
broadcasting some of them are built
entirely around the microphone and there
is no answering Kickback from the
exhibitors who used to protest against
the inroads of The Ether programs on the
film business Paramount leads the
studios in the use of radio backgrounds
for the screen with six features of that
nature completed in production or in
preparation throughout the Celluloid
industry the broadcasting background is
a growing rival of the Canyons and
prairies
a year Roundup in variety describe the
added urgency Studios felt to discover
what the American movie going public
would pay for now that the foreign
markets which had brought in about 40
percent of revenues were seriously
curtailed by wartime disruptions
gallup's research reports on the habits
of American Film audiences confirmed
that an increasing number of Americans
spent more time listening to the radio
than attending a movie show while 11
million five hundred thousand cinematics
sit in their favorite Cinema Mansions of
an average Sunday 34 million radio fans
listened to Jack Benny on the air on an
average Monday 5 million 428 000 go to
the movies 26 million stay at home to
hear the Lux radio theater program
Gallup noted radio is competition that
needed to be co-opted if Hollywood was
going to hang on to any audiences in
these unsettled perilous times
Jack Benny became one of Paramount's top
three male movie stars at the box office
in 1939 and 1940 and among the top 12
Stars industry-wide throughout 1942. if
the public would only come out to
theaters to see highly promoted but
Mediocre Films starring radio performers
then Paramount would produce them
nevertheless using radio celebrities who
broadcast only in the United States made
these films questionable for the
overseas movie theaters they could still
reach the times of London would consider
sandridge's subsequent Benny effort
loved Thy Neighbor a poor and
forgettable film noting that London
movie audiences had never heard of Fred
Allen and the frequent allusions to the
Benny Allen Feud while deltless remain a
sealed book to britishers
love thy neighbor and the limits of
intermediate film marketing
Mark Sandridge attempted to translate
the Benny Allen Feud to the screen into
a buddy rivalry film to match the
Smashbox office success of Paramount's
other Radio Star flavored success
released in Spring 1940. Bing Crosby and
Bob Hope in the road to Singapore Love
Thy Neighbor however was a weak and
weary film Sandridge had to beg Fred
Allen to participate as Alan despised
both films and being in Hollywood and it
seems obvious from his unenthusiastic
performance that Alan's heart was not in
the film Eddie Anderson The Runaway star
of both man about town and buck Benny
Rides Again found his role as Rochester
significantly reduced in this film as he
was relegated to Third Wheel status
the comic potential of the film was
frittered away Paramount tried to add
extra spice to the movie by featuring
Young Broadway actress Mary Martin who
had made a huge hit in New York
Performing a scandalous striptease while
singing Cole Porter's comic song My
Heart Belongs to Daddy in the 1938
musical leave it to me the Hayes office
made sure to sanitize the song's lyrics
and any suggestive dancing before Martin
could perform the number on the film
however further Martin had no more
chemistry in a romantic subplot with
Jack Benny than any of his other leading
ladies had ever aroused the movie's
jokes weren't particularly funny and the
slapstick scenes seemed forced love thy
neighbor was released in late December
1940 a prime time for Hollywood's family
films and box office hits although the
premiere at Paramount Theater in New
York was smaller in scale than Benny's
previous films his and Alan's radio
programs were at the top of the ratings
and the film earned the largest gross of
any film during the holiday week during
144 percent of standard business it was
Paramount's second biggest release of
the Year surpassed only by Cecil B
demille's Northwest mountain police
despite success at the box office
Paramount's promotion of this film gives
the impression that the studio was
rapidly losing interest in Benny radio
sponsored General foods and Ad Agency
young and rubicum's efforts similarly
also seems lackluster in comparison with
their previous exertions Jack Benny
undoubtedly noticed this too from the
aftermath of the film's release he
signed an unusual contract to
simultaneously make films at two other
Studios Warner Brothers and 20th Century
Fox he also contemplated shopping his
radio show to other sponsors while the
Press book for Paramount's advertising
campaign for love thy neighbor claimed
what is Far and Away the greatest radio
campaign ever put behind a motion
picture is going on right now all the
studio offered was the appearances of
the film stars on the regular radio
programs and several guest appearances
made by the performers on each other's
shows to promote the film Paramount
grandly suggested that local film
exhibitors could Corral all the Grocers
and text gas station managers in their
neighborhood together to support a
city-wide celebration of Jack Benny and
Fred Allen or to display a pile of jello
boxes in their theater lobbies perhaps
the most heretical to the minds of local
movie theater owners jealous of having
their audiences stolen by home radio
sets the Press book suggested that
exhibitors rig up a radio in your lobby
and have it go on when any of these
programs featuring the film stars is on
you can rest assured that there will be
something in each of the programs which
will help you sell Love Thy Neighbor do
this now
variety characterized love thy neighbor
as hardly a picture for the critics but
New York's top ranked film reviewers
utterly despised the film panning its
surfade of dialogue and paucity of plot
New York Times Riviera Bosley Crowther
grumbled that its meager narrative
interrupted by crescendos of music and
slapstick was merely the tire jibes of a
four-year-old fake Feud
Crowther bemoan the scourge of
radio-themed films in an essay That was
supposed to have been an end-of-year
discussion of Hollywood's best
Productions from the way some people
talk in the motion picture industry
you'd think that the radio was a great
big measles sign hung on the industry's
door keeping patrons away from movie
theaters an alarming wholesale numbers
the rivals had nevertheless been
exchanging performers plots and formats
for nearly 10 years he fretted he railed
at recent films that abandoned cinematic
potentialities and created merely as
close a reproduction of the air thing as
is technically practical
the critic warned that film producers
cynical efforts to make money at the box
office were most deplorable and
dangerous for it fails to regard above
all the essential nature of the film
medium it presumes that a picture is
merely a show window in which to display
a radio attraction not an artistic
entity with definite demands for
perfection
Crowther condemned Love Thy Neighbor for
failing to engage the artistic potential
of the film
once or twice there are glimmers of some
real cinematic inventiveness such as a
speedboat Chase sequence in which the
boats making turns are accompanied by
the sound of screeching breaks and
sliding tires and a bit in which
Rochester Converses with his reflected
conscience but insistently the picture
snaps back to the old routine of Mr
Benny and Mr Allen flaying one another
with words if the industry seriously
suspects the radio of alienating its
public then this seems like a very queer
way of meeting the competition unless of
course it is really intended as a subtle
form of sabotage
the aesthetic deficiencies that Crowther
and the other disapproving critics point
to and love thy neighbor and Benny's
other radio films would parallel
complaints about lack of visual interest
in physical action that television
critics would toss at the radio programs
and performers that attempted to
transition from The Ether to the visual
medium in the late 1940s and early 1950s
while love thy neighbor earned handsome
profits for Paramount in early 1940. the
studio did not produce the subsequent
films for which they had contracted
Benny and Anderson
Mark Sandridge returned to Serious
dramas and Paramount instead turned to
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby to create
future radio inflected comedies
Benny and Anderson appeared separately
in successful films for other studios in
the early wartime years they were also
paired again in the 20th Century Fox
Studio adaptation of a George M Cohen
stage comedy the meanest man in the
world 1943. major scripting problems
resulted in a very mediocre film
by 1946 both Benny and Anderson had
appeared in their final major Hollywood
movie roles
the intermediate blending of
broadcasting and film and Jack Benny's
radio program was extraordinarily
successful despite the numerous
constraints put in place by the Rival
media companies sponsors and local film
exhibitors Benny and his writers had
managed to negotiate a path that enabled
them to playfully incorporate jokes
about both entertainment forms Benny
used his self-deprecating comments about
his own Hollywood career to pull back
the curtains of movie star glamor and
yet the disdainful Cinema stars who
showed nothing but contempt for Jack
reinforced the mystery of their
superiority
the Benny program's Innovative parodies
of current Hollywood Hits helped to
dispel the pretensions of sophisticated
melodramas like Grand hotel or the
barretts of wimple Street or the women
while also spreading the fame of those
films further into popular culture
Hollywood stars and movie references
became more Incorporated than ever into
Jack Benny's radio programs during its
golden era of renewed popularity and
humorous achievement from 1946 to the
early 1950s the archdustain of movie
star Ronald Coleman for his next-door
neighbor was a superb addition to the
radio Show's comedy and created a rich
vein of humor that highlighted the
difference between Hollywood social
class and Benny's Fall Guy failings the
program's reputation among Hollywood
celebrities of treating guest stars with
kid gloves making them sound intelligent
and funny one for Benny the appearances
of many top actors and actresses such as
Claudette Colbert and Humphrey Bogart
who would not deemed to be on other
Comics programs but the Hollywood
Industries film and radio would face
disruptive competition from New York
city-based television beginning in 1948.
the last two chapters of this story
about Jack Benny's radio career will
examine how he faced the two greatest
challenges of His Radio career
addressing the wartime creative slump
into which his program fell and how he
and his production team innovated
comedic elements to create that Golden
Era of the radio show
1946-1952 and then Hal wants back on top
of the radio ratings Benny nervously
approached the transition to television
laughs
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you