Another Record For Benny, the Wichita Wow

For years, the Jack Benny show, on both radio and TV, featured a routine where Jack and his gang took a train from a station where he was verbally harassed.

While it’s true they did travel by train to get to performances in different parts of the U.S. and Canada, after World War Two, air travel was far more feasible and common. They were able to fly to a different state in between Sunday radio broadcasts.

That’s just what happened in the middle of May in 1950.

The Benny show pulled off two performances on a Tuesday in Wichita, Kansas. Actually, they did three—one was for a group of veterans at a hospital.

How the show actually came about isn’t altogether clear. Jack told a Mrs. Mary Floto that she could designate the charity that was to receive 10% of the gate. She chose the Institute of Logopedics.

At the time, Jack was carried on KFH in Wichita, which was owned by the Wichita Eagle. This did not hurt publicity for the event.

Here are several stories that appeared in the paper on May 17, 1950. We note that Eddie Anderson got to do his “Sunny Side of the Street” number that he later performed on television. And there are a couple of references to Sammy Weiss, the orchestra drummer who remained with the show when Phil left (guitarist Frank Remley stayed as well, which reportedly caused some friction with Harris).

8,200 at Show in Forum
Jack Benny's Troupe Plays As Radio Audiences Like It
By TED HAMMER
(Eagle Staff Writer)
If Wichita dads are asked soon to repair the roof and rafters of the Forum, blame the Jack Benny-Phil Harris show which played there to two standing-room-only audiences Tuesday night, setting a new stage attraction attendance record. More applause and laughs were provided by the show than ordinarily might come from a good season of top attractions.
The principals just played themselves as radio audiences have learned to like them. Jack Benny appeared hurt when numerous performers declined to let him accompany them on his violin, he finally got to play "Love in Bloom," and Phil Harris showed him how to play a love scene. Eddie (Rochester) Anderson was brought on after a telephone bell interrupted a Benny speech, just as it happens on the radio every Sunday night when the CBS show is broadcast by KFH, KFH-FM here.
Benny found the easy way that if he doesn’t get a new radio contract and doesn't click in television, he can return to his old time single act, a monologue. And Wichitans loved Jack just as they did back in 1922 when he played at the Orpheum, before he became famous on screen and radio.
There just wasn't time enough for Harris to satisfy the audience with his southern style songs, but he had to sing four of them before he and Benny started a new routine to stop the applause. Vivian Blaine of the films did three songs which proved why she has been given her own television show next fall. And Rochester demonstrated that his singing and dancing are just as good as his gags spoken in the crackly, high pitched voice which radio fans enjoy so much.

The three Wiere Brothers, who also have been in pictures and are internationally famous, could have stayed on the stage another half hour with their violins dancing and comedy. They proved more than equal to advance billing as top jugglers, with some hat and stick feats new to Wichita theatregoers. The Harris band was responsible for much of the show's success.
The Stuart Morgan Dancers, three fellows and cute girl, did some breath taking adagio which made the audience believe Benny when he said he went to a lot of trouble to get them.
Closing the show was a musical routine featuring Benny and Miss Blaine with members of the Phil Harris band. Dressed in weird costume, they provided "mountain music,” with Benny as director and violinist, while Miss Blaine played it deadpan. Sam the drummer and Frank Remley, guitar player, were in this group, the "Beverly Hillbillies."
Good as the others in the cast are, it was Benny-Harris show marked by gags and songs of the type for which they're famous—even including the band leader's "That's What I like About the South" and "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?"
The Wichita shows were attended by more than 8,700 with some 100 persons allowed to buy standing room, to set a new record. Extra seats were placed down in front and in corners at the last minute to accommodate a few more persons, according to Mrs. Mary Floto who handled the ticket sale.

Benny and Company Make Vet Patients Noisy with Mirth
A hollering houseful of patients at Veterans hospital Tuesday saw a funfest fostered by Jack Benny and his company.
In the end they found that Benny, the consummate master of ceremonies, can really play the violin. Hot violin, too.
He’s no Joe Venuti, but he can finger the fiddle. With confidence and savoir-faire that best can be described simply as Benny-like, he finally fiddled after frustrating interruptions by Phil Harris, Rochester, and Vivian Blaine. The latter interruption was most welcome to Benny and audience.
An eight-man outfit from the Harris orchestra pulled the curtain ahead of schedule and entertained the ex-GI’s with improvisations that added up to Dixieland. The drummer, a bigger man than Broderick Crawford, used a folding chair and a tissue box for traps.
Benny entered to assure the vets that he isn't stingy. "I throw money away. Not very far, but . .”
Harris interrupted for a routine with the boss and then did "Preacher and Bear” and "Darktown Poker Club." The boys found out that Harris is not good, but perfect, and that he has to be a lot faster than it sounds like on the phonograph.
Vivian Blaine insulted the be-junior out of the boss with a frank appraisal of his sex appeal— zero—then caressed the patients with two numbers, including a job on "You Made Me Love You” that created a lot of hot but harmless humidity.
Then came Rochester, who apologized for making the boss look like a cheap skate. (“I have all the luxuries. Shoes, bread . . .”)
Rochester, of course, stopped the show with "Sunny Side of the Street” and a return to his original occupation hoofing that gave the lads a laugh with every lunge.

It's Informal But Lively at Rehearsals
In rehearsals of the Jack Benny-Phil Harris show, it's "Phil, or Curly" when members of the band or cast address the leader. And everyone calls Benny "Jack" or "Jackson." The latter is the nickname used by Harris since they became associated 14 years ago.
When the drummer was called to the telephone during rehearsal at the Forum Tuesday, Harris took his place, even going through a number he was to sing in the show.
While Harris handled much of the musical rehearsal, Benny took care of "business” and timing. When Vivian Blaine asked Benny If she could use a different opening song than previously rehearsed, he told her "fine” and she ran through it with the band.
"After all, Wichitans don’t know that we had the other number ready," Benny said as he resumed his chair in a corner of the Forum stage. He was on his feet a moment later to hurry back and forth, making suggestions.
Once, while Miss Blaine, Benny and Harris discussed a bit of business, the drummer called out, "Let’s go, we’ve got a show to do tonight.” Show time was four hours away, but everybody laughed.

In less than a week, the show was in Scranton. We'll have that story in a future post.