About me:
Though born in a Chicago hospital, entertainer Jack Benny was a Waukegan boy through and through. The son of a Polish immigrant haberdasher, Benny studied the violin from an early age (he really could play, though he was certainly no virtuoso), and managed to find work in local theatre orchestras. As a teenager, Benny gave vaudeville a try with a musical act in partnership with pianist Cora Salisbury, but this first fling at show business was only fitfully successful. During World War I, Benny was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, where, while appearing in camp shows, he first began telling jokes in between violin selections. Benny returned to vaudeville with a comedy act, slowly building himself up into a headliner. He made his first radio appearance on Ed Sullivan's interview show on March 29, 1932; within a year he had his own show, which would evolve over the next two decades into one of radio's most popular programs. He met with equal success when he moved into television in 1950. There are few comedy fans in existence who aren't familiar with the character Benny played on the air: The vain, tone-deaf, penny-pinching, eternal 39-year-old who spent his life being flustered and humiliated by his supporting cast (Mary Livingstone, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Dennis Day, Frank Nelson, Mel Blanc, Don Wilson et. al.); nor need his fans be reminded that this character developed gradually, rather than springing full-blown upon the world way back in 1932. What is usually de-emphasized in the many accounts of Benny's life and career is his sizeable body of movie work. Benny himself insisted that most of his films were no good, and many casual viewers have been willing to accept his word on this. Actually, Benny's films, while not all classics, were by and large moneymakers, and never anything to be truly ashamed of. His first feature appearance was as the wisecracking emcee of MGM's The Hollywood Revue of 1929. He followed this with a comic-relief role in Chasing Rainbows (1930) and an uncharacteristic straight part in the low-budget The Medicine Man (1930). He was a perfectly acceptable semicomic romantic lead in It's in the Air (1935), Artists and Models (1936), Artists and Models Abroad (1936), and in his appearances in Paramount's College and Big Broadcast series. Whenever Benny expressed displeasure over his film career, he was usually alluding to those pictures that insisted upon casting him as Benny the Famous Radio Comedian rather than a wholly different screen character. Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934), Man About Town (1939) and Buck Benny Rides Again (1940), though enjoyable, are totally reliant upon Benny's pre-established radio character and "schtick" for their laughs, and as such aren't nearly as effective as his actual radio appearances. His most disappointing movie vehicle was Love Thy Neighbor (1940), designed to cash in on his phony feud with fellow radio humorist Fred Allen. Not only was the film uninspired, but also outdated, since the feud's full comic value had pretty much peaked by 1937. Many of Benny's best films were made during his last four years in Hollywood. 1941's Charley's Aunt was a lively adaptation of the old Brandon Thomas theatrical chestnut (though it did have to work overtime in explaining why a man in his forties was still an Oxford undergraduate!); 1942's George Washington Slept Here, likewise adapted from a stage play (by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart), was a reasonably funny comedy of frustration; and yet another stage derivation, 1943's The Meanest Man in the World (based on a George M. Cohan farce), allowed Benny to go far afield from his truculent radio persona by playing a man who is too nice for his own good. Benny's finest film, bar none, was the Ernst Lubitsch-directed To Be or Not to Be (1942), in which the comedian was superbly cast as "that great, great Polish actor" Joseph Tura. Benny's final starring feature, the much maligned Horn Blows at Midnight (1945), was an enjoyable effort, and not by any means the unmitigated disaster he used to joke about on radio. The film's problem at the box-office was that it was a comedy fantasy, and audiences in 1945 had had their fill of comedy fantasies. After Horn Blows at Midnight, Benny's theatrical film appearances were confined to guest spots and unbilled gag bits (e.g. The Great Lover and Beau James). In 1949, Benny produced a Dorothy Lamour movie vehicle, The Lucky Stiff; in addition, his J&M Productions, which produced his weekly television series from 1950 through 1965, was also responsible for the moderately popular TV adventure series Checkmate (1960-62). In 1974, Benny was primed to restart his long-dormant movie career by appearing opposite his lifelong friend George Burns in the film adaptation of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys; unfortunately, he died of cancer before filming could begin, and his role was eventually played by Walter Matthau.
Hello friend, guess it’s time for the Spooks and Goblins to be out and about…so here I am …. Do hope you have had a really nice fall, it has been a bit busy around here with one thing and another but hopefully it will all go smoothly from now and may it do so for you too.
Hi There I am happy to back and if you missed my bulletin let me just say that I am the original creator of this page, but I wasn’t feeling well for the last year so Laine was kind enough to take care of the page..but now we are all sorted out again. So I am happy to see you all who joined from the beginning and I am happy to meet the newer friends as well..sooo…..
I want to thank you for allowing me as Red Skelton to be a part of your myspace life.
Fall is here and the holidays are approaching. They can be stressful so I'm giving you a gift of laughter.
If by chance you are in Las Vegas or plan on visiting us this season, I would be honored to meet you.
I perform every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night 9pm inside the Royal Resort Hotel showroom located 99 Convention Center Drive (basically corner of Las Vegas Blvd and Convention Center Drive)
The name of the show is Larry G Jones ~Man of 1002 Voices Show.
I'm the opening act as Red Skelton. If you get the chance please stop by and say HI. If you want to see the show here is a discount code for you.
Hello friend, well here I am trying again. I was unable to finish doing comments last time but hopefully it will all go better this time. Hope you are having a very good week.
Well summer has come and gone and fall is in the air so here I am back on myspace as promised. I thank you for your patience in being without comments for such a long time.
Friday morning Sept 4, on Turner Classic Movies, Bonita
will appear in two classic films. The first, starting at 7am Eastern is
the very rare gem HITLER'S CHILDREN from 1943.
This propaganda
piece starts in 1933. Prof. Nichols' American school in Berlin is next
door to a school for the Hitler Youth. Karl, from the latter, is
attracted to German-American Anna, but events lead to their separation.
Later, at the outbreak of war in Europe, Anna is removed from Nichols'
school on presumption of German citizenship. Nichols becomes obsessed
with finding her, as Anna undergoes a rather lurid odyssey through the
Nazi nightmare. This movie is very rare and has not yet been released
on home video.
Next at 10 am (Eastern) we have SEVEN MILES FROM
ALCATRAZ made in 1942. After Pearl Harbor, convicts at Alcatraz prison
live in fear of bomb attacks, driving Champ Larkin and his pal Jimbo to
a desperate escape attempt which lands them on a tiny lighthouse
island, where they take over. The five inhabitants are stymied in their
efforts to summon aid. But the island also figures in the schemes of a
big Nazi spy ring; which will win out, the gangsters' greed or their
patriotism? Bonita stars as Anne Porter in this rarely shown film. It
too has yet to be released on home video.
Please check your local listings and set your DVRs or video recorders NOW to capture these two great films.
If you are a classic movie lover, you will not be disappointed!
Online Now!
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