WC Fields and Jack Benny -- April 12, 2024

Motion Picture News, 12-April-1924

WC Fields, who had been having a great success with Poppy on Broadway, planned to appear in a Marion Davies movie, Janice Meredith. His film career had been paused since he made two short comedies in 1915. 

Variety, 09-April-1924

Jack Benny, who later became a huge star on the radio and made several movies, was scheduled to play the Palace. The Palace was the pinnacle of vaudeville. 

A Few Minutes With Jack Benny -- January 13, 2023

Des Moines Register, 14-January-1923

Jack Benny's film career did not start for a few more years, but in January 1923 audiences could see him performing in vaudeville at the Orpheum Theater in Des Moines. He played the violin and told jokes. At this point in his career, the amount of violin was going down and the number of jokes was going up.

Happy New Year From Jack Benny -- December 31, 2021

Variety, 30-December-1921

Jack Benny, who was to become a star of stage, screen, radio and television, was born on Valentine's Day in 1894. 

At the end of 1921, he was a performer in vaudeville. In 1928, he appeared in his first movie. In 1932, he first spoke on radio, where he went on to become one of the biggest stars. He first appeared on television in 1949. His best movie was To Be or Not To Be.

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Fred Allen 125 -- May 31, 2019

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Comedian Fred Allen was born 125 years ago today, on 31-May-1894. I used to listen to Gene Nelson's old time radio show on KSFO every night. He would play Fred Allen now and then. I read about Fred Allen in Jim Harmon's The Great Radio Comedians and sought a copy of Allen's memoir, Treadmill to Oblivion. I found it at the Richmond Branch library, and took it out several times. I later found Much Ado About Me and Fred Allen's Letters and read each of them several times. I think he influenced my sense of humor and delivery.

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The few people who remember him today probably remember him for Allen's Alley and his long-time feud with Jack Benny.  The feud was staged, but it was often very funny.

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His best performance in a movie was as one of the criminals in "The Ransom of Red Chief," part of the anthology movie O Henry's Full House. Oscar Levant, another favorite of mine, was his partner.

Jack Benny 125 -- February 14, 2019

Happy Saint Valentine's Day, everyone.

I did not remember that Jack Benny, star of stage, screen, and radio, was born on Valentine's Day in 1894.  Today he would have been 125 years old.

Benny left his footprints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese on 13-January-1941. "My heart belongs to Mary (his wife, Mary Livingstone) but my feet belong to Grauman." I love his radio show.

His best movie was To Be or Not To Be with Carole Lombard, but he made many others.  This was the only Jack Benny movie directed by Ernst Lubitsch. 

I took this on 18-July-2009.  DSCN4146.

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Grauman's Chinese -- Jack Benny -- December 14, 2015

Jack Benny, star of stage, screen, and radio, left his footprints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese on 13-January-1941. "My heart belongs to Mary (his wife, Mary Livingstone) but my feet belong to Grauman." I love his radio show. DSCN4146.

His best movie was To Be or Not To Be with Carole Lombard, but he made many others.  This was the only Jack Benny movie directed by Ernst Lubitsch. 

I took this on 18-July-2009.

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