Censoring the Jerkfinkle

He appeared in three Jack Benny radio episodes in a row, brought the house down, then vanished.

He was Logan Jerkfinkle.

Logan was a somewhat effeminate (but married) man who interrupted the Benny routine on stage to proclaim his undying loyalty to Jack. The trouble was, in his first appearance, this “ardent fan” turned out to not be a regular listener. He wanted to speak with Don Bester and Frank Parker, who hadn’t been on Benny’s show for about five years.

In his second appearance, he switched allegiances to Don Wilson and verbally encouraged “Tubby” to continue telling him all about a product with six delicious flavours.

Jerkfinkle was played by one of Fred Allen’s stock actors, a funny man named Charlie Cantor, who later became Socrates Mulligan in Allen’s Alley before taking the same character to Duffy’s Tavern with a new name of Clifton Finnegan.

Logan appeared on the April 21, April 28 and May 5, 1940 broadcasts. Not only that, the astute Allen Heard the laughs and had Cantor do the same Jerkfinkle schick on his own show May 1st, swooning about Allen then explaining “I’m fickle.” Logan didn’t appear again. Granted the three Benny shows were in New York and Jack went back to Los Angeles after they were done, but there may have been something else afoot.

The weekly edition of Variety reported on May 8th:

‘Jerk’ Ruled Out
NBC’s continuity acceptance department has asked agency radio department to curtail if possible the inclusion of the word, ‘jerk,’ in their comedy scripts. What brought up the matter was the use of the word as a personal moniker (‘Logan Jerkfinkle,’ played by Charles Cantor) on the Jack Benny and Fred Allen programs.
Network has taken the attitude that while the word has lost its original connotation and has been accepted as everyday slang, it still sounded ‘cheap’ and its use ought to be kept from getting out of bounds on the air.

Benny’s writers (and it would have been with Jack’s acquiescence) ignored any warning, if they got one, and figured they could milk Logan for laughs one more time. The following appeared in the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin, on June 16th. Considering the fact specific songs are mentioned, this must have come from an NBC news release.

Jack Benny In Final Program Until Next Fall
Jack Benny, with a renewed contract in his pocket and a remodeled bathing suit in his trunk, will say aloha to his gang and make ready to embark on his Hawaiian vacation trip during the broadcast with Mary Livingston, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson over station WIBA at 9:30 tonight.
Joining the regular gang in bidding Benny a bon voyage will be none other than Logan Jerkfinkle, his loyal New York fan, who journeyed 3,000 miles across country just to be on hand to toss Benny an anchor.
Dennis Day's vocal finale for the season will be Blue Love Bird, and Phil Harris orchestra will play Tennessee Fish Fry.
Ezra Stone, previously scheduled to appear, will not be heard.

It turned out Stone did appear. But Logan Jerkfinkle did not. Did the network censors get in the way and pull poor Logan off the show? Perhaps. We’ll never know. (“Tennessee Fish Fry” was replaced with “Make Believe Island.”)

It’s telling that Cantor returned on a New York broadcast on December 15th. He was playing the same less-than-manly character but with a completely different name.

If nothing, Logan’s brief appearance on radio made an impression. Here’s a story in the Oklahoma Briefs column of the Cushing Daily Citizen, May 13, 1940:

HOLDENVILLE—Ballots in the Arkansas Day queen contest here last week included these signatures: Logan Jerkfinkle, Chief Justice W. H. Taft, Susie Cue, U. S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Parkakarkus, Jed Johnson, Will Rogers, Josh Lee, Red Phillips, Fannie Hurst, Charles Lindbergh, Al Capone, Lee Cruce and Tom Joad.
Jerkfinkle was the most popular name with the frivolous voters, having been signed to 14 ballots. Contest judges wondered if state candidates tendencies toward "shadow names" aren't spreading among the electorate.