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I’m not so sure this United Press story from 1939 about ideas to push a Jack Benny movie is tongue-in-cheek. Maybe this really happened as reported. You never know in Hollywood. Certainly all the Paramount publicity people mentioned in it were real. For the record, they were Terry DeLapp (department head), Ed Churchill, Jean Bosquet, Don Ashbaugh, Kathleen Coghlan (fan magazine publicist), Don Chatfield, Bert Holloway, Don King, Steve Brooks, Ralph Hustin, Gretchen Messer (fashion editor) and Edward Mills.
IDEA PARLEY IS HELD FOR BENNY FILM
How Press Agent and His Aides Map Attack Is Disclosed.
By Frederick C. Othman
United Press Hollywood Correspondent.
HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 20.
We were in the conference room at Paramount today where the publicists were deciding how to make America conscious of a motion picture entitled "Buck Benny Rides Again."
This film will feature a radio star named Jack Benny, a polar bear called Carmichael, and a dusky comic named Rochester.
Boss Press Agent De Lapp and a dozen helpers were mapping their attack upon the public.
Mr. De Lapp: "We don't want to overlook this Mr. Rochester. And we might even go to Reno for the premiere to cash in on the dude ranch stuff."
Mr. Churchill: "We can't find us a Carmichael. Polar bears are hard to tame."
Mr. Ashbaugh: "I know a trained brown bear named 'Big Boy.' Couldn't we peroxide him?"
Mr. Bosquet: "They whitened two tigers for the last Anna Mae Wong picture."
Mr. Churchill: "It's dangerous to paint a bear."
Mr. Holloway: "Are any of the girls set yet?"
Mr. De Lapp: "Not yet, but there'll be four of 'em. And the Abbott Dancers. They ought to be swell for roto leg art."
Miss Messer: "They'll be wearing summer clothes. We've already got a tieup with a manufacturer."
Mr. De Lapp (in an aside): "Where's Johnny Engsted?"
Mr. Brooks: "He's out looking for a stained glass window."
Mr. De Lapp: "Oh."
Miss Coghlan: "The fan magazines should go for some Easter art."
Mr. De Lapp: "Let's get Benny in a jackrabbit roundup."
Mr. King: "Maybe we can have a picture of a jackrabbit pulling Benny out of a hat."
Mr. De Lapp: "Well if we can't get a live Carmichael. we'll have to have a stuffed bear for the stills."
Mr. Brooks: "There isn't a stuffed bear in Hollywood. We've looked."
Miss Coghlan: "I understand Benny is afraid of horses."
Mr. Brooks: "Anyhow he has agreed to sit on a horse, if we can find one that can rear safely."
Mr. De Lapp: "What about Benny's Maxwell auto?"
Mr. Huston: "Maybe we can find a guy named Maxwell who will sue Benny for defaming the family name."
Mr. Mills: "Let's get Benny to write a magazine story on how to tame a polar bear."
Mr. Holloway: "What we need is a good layout of Pratt Falls."
Mr. Del Valle: "Can't we get a by-line story by the bear on how he became a star?"
Mr. Ashbaugh: Let's send Frank Buck out to get us a bear. He oughtn't to charge too much."
Mr. Del Valle: "A picture showing Benny being thrown off a mechanical horse should be funny."
Mr. Mills: "If we can't get a bear, we ought to have a bear rug anyway."
Miss Coghlan: "We must start a nation-wide search for the oldest Maxwell."
Mr. Holloway: "Then we can get Benny to speed in it down Hollywood boulevard and have him arrested."
Mr. Chatfield: "I've got an idea for a giveaway, aluminum coins that say 'one buck.'"
Mr. King: "I believe we should get a double for Benny to be bucked off a horse for the Paramount newsreel. They ought to go for that."
Mr. Bosquet: "If there's anybody in the cast about to get a divorce, they ought to have him do it in Reno, "while the picture is in production."
Mr. De Lapp: "Unless we can talk him out of it, altogether."
The boys went on from there, far into the night. They hold these idea meetings at the start of every picture and a stenographer takes down each word they say. Then the hair begins to fly. Woe is the actor who balks at co-operating.
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