Christmas Comedy in Little Rock

Where was Jack Benny 100 years ago today? On stage, where else?

Radio was the new fad in 1922 but Jack would take another ten years to get there. In the meantime, he was criss-crossing the U.S. and Canada in vaudeville. On the right, you can see the bill for his Christmas stop in Little Rock, Arkansas. He had come from playing a split week in Oklahoma City and Tulsa on the Interstate Circuit. My guess is after the three shows, he had a layoff as he began a two-day performance on January 4th at the Orpheum in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

He seems to have been well-received by the entertainment press of the day, and the Little Rock papers were no exception.

Advance Notices:
Jack Benny is said to prove that there is a sense of humor in the violin in proper hands. Jack is a combination of musician and comedian. He plays a little but very well, springs some “hot ones” a great deal and keeps his audience thoroughly amused. – Arkansas Gazette, Dec. 24, and Little Rock Daily News, Dec. 25.
Jack Benny, “the funny man with the violin,” is said to combine music and mirth in a skit in which he plays the violin and at the same time indulges in a line of clever chatter. – Arkansas Democrat, Dec. 25.
Jack Benny will be remembered by Majestic patrons as the “funny man with the violin.” He blends music and nonsensical chatter. – Arkansas Gazette, Dec. 25.

Reviews:
And then there is another fascinating bit of entertainment provided by Jack Benny, who fools with a violin incidentally and principally passes out a line of subtle clean-cat [sic] humor the like of which only Benny can put across. – Arkansas Democrat, Dec. 26.
Jack Benny, the funny man with a violin, scored a decided hit at yesterday’s performance. Benny plays well and his new comedy is unique and good. – Arkansas Gazette, Dec. 26.
A subtle brand of humor is dispensed by Jack Benny, funny man, who makes his violin incidental to a good line of humor. – Arkansas Democrat, Dec. 27.

While the ad refers to “a Snappy Majestic News Weekly,” the newspaper stories simply refer to it as “Fox News.” Yes, there was such a thing before television. It was a standard newsreel.

By the way, if you smell something phoney about a psychic Cherokee princess, well, researchers discovered her name was actually Loretta May Navarre and she was born in Monroe, Michigan to a pair of Romanian immigrants. She did predict a New York Giants victory in the World Series in 1922, but 50/50 odds are pretty good ones. She died in California in 1968.

I’m not sure who would want to spend Christmas Day in a vaudeville house but a lot of people did as theatres were open across the country. Among the hundreds and hundreds of acts performing Christmas Day 1922 were Nat Burns at the Grand in Atlanta (he later changed his name to “George”), Smith and Dale at the Schubert in Cincinnati, Van and Schenck at Keith’s Orpheum in Brooklyn, Georgie Jessel at the Aldine in Pittsburgh, the four Marx Brothers at the Astoria on Long Island, Swift and Kelly at the Palace in Chicago (Mary Kelly was later Jack Benny’s girl-friend) and everyone’s favourite at the Orpheum in Germantown, Pennsylvania—Fink’s Mules.