Benny's Bomb Was Not at Midnight

The Horn Blows at Midnight got mixed reviews from movie critics when it came out in 1945, but Jack Benny and his writers decided it would be funny to deem it a failure, and joke about it whenever they needed a gag about his acting or his successes.

Jack didn’t joke about the real bomb in his career, one few of his fans likely know about.

Rochester used to answer the phone on the Benny radio show, and proclaim Jack “star of stage, screen,” etc. He was referring to the vaudeville stage. But Jack had a shot on the legitimate stage, one that was very short-lived.

In September 1934, Jack Benny was on the air for a new sponsor, General Tire. He had just filmed Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, another fluffy musical-comedy. He was then signed to star, in between episodes of his New York-based radio show, in impresario Sam Harris’ production of the George S. Kaufman/Morrie Ryskind satire on Roosevelt’s New Deal, “Bring on the Girls.” They hoped to take it to Broadway.

It started at 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. The play opened on Monday, October 22, 1934. The day before, the Washington Star’s theatre critic gave a fine capsule biography of Jack Benny to that time.

This Season of Theater Has Plenty of Surprises
Fred Stone's Debut as a Dramatic Player Was One of Them, and Now Comes Jack Benny of Radio Fame in New Play.
BY E. de S. MELCHER.
THE current theater season is fraught with surprises. No sooner do we get acquainted with Fred Stone as a straight actor (we wonder if the late Mr. Montgomery would have done the same) than a flood of announcements comes to the effect that other music men are going serious, that serious men are going musical, that comedians are turning tragedians and that Hamlets are turning into the Four Marx Brothers.
Beyond that we find Miss Ethel Barrymore, once the brightest star in the theater, playing second Addle to Eva La Gallienne in “L’Aiglon,” we find a young screen player like Douglas Fairbanks, coming back with a former musical comedy performer, Gertrude Lawrence, to play in a very serious play, “Moonlight Is Silver,” which has been written by the increasingly popular Clemence Dane—we hear that the former “Autumn Crocus” star, now the screen star of “Pursuit of Happiness,” Francis Lederer, is coming to Broadway to produce some kind of a show of his own. Such varieties help the now of the theater. Surprises behind footlights are always welcome. If you have seen “Merrily We Roll Along,” in New York, you know that even controversy breeds success, and that the much-mutilated Elmer Rice play, “Judgment Day,” is holding its own.
So when we hear that a radio wag, Jack Benny, is coming here in theater disguise, minus music, minus songs, and presumably minus impromptu gags, then we must take that as part of this year's matter of course, putting this event in the files along with Mr Stone, Miss Barrymore, Mr. Fairbanks, Miss Lawrence and Mr. Lederer.
JOHN PETER TOOHEY, sage henchman of Sam Harris, knowing more about Mr. Benny than we do, we herewith give you his own words of the somewhat great man:
Benny, who was declared the most popular comedian on the air by more than three hundred radio editors in a census taken early this year, is coming to Washington this week ‘in the flesh.’ He is to be the bright particular featured player in the new George Kaufman-Morrie Ryskind farce 'Bring on the Girls,’ which is to be unveiled tomorrow night at the National Theater and which is to be offered to metropolitan theatergoers three weeks hence as a successor to the same authors' triumphant ‘Of Thee I Sing,’
Benny makes his living, and a right handsome one, with his voice at the present time, but it took the World War to start him talking. Before joining the Navy he played a violin in vaudeville and said nothing. After one attempt to raise funds with a musical appeal at a benefit, Benny dropped the violin and started talking. Since then he has talked his way through several Shubert musical revues, two editions of Earl Carroll's ‘Vanities,’ half a dozen feature motion pictures and into radio over broadcasting networks as a laugh-getting master of ceremonies.
“He is noted as a wit, monologist, comedian. His quips and stories have enlivened stage, screen and air. But is a hard master. For years after he deserted music for speech, Benny carried the old violin on and off the stage at each appearance. He never played it, just carried it along and looked at it wistfully now and then. Some day, he says, he’s going to use it again, providing he can stop talking long enough.
“Mr. Benny always had ambitions. His family lived in Waukegan, Ill., but he was born in Chicago. Then they carried him back to Waukegan, and he stayed there for 17 years. He was not idle, by any means, during those years. “ 'My father gave me a violin and a monkey wrench,’ explains Benny. 'He told me not to take chances, that plumbing wasn’t a bad business.’
“Young Benny didn’t get far with the monkey wrench, but he was practicing on the violin before he was 6 years old. When his 13th birthday arrived he was still at it, and by the time he was 14 he had determined to make it his profession. He started with an orchestra, playing for dances in and around Waukegan. He was 16 then, and after one year with the orchestra he decided he had sufficient professional standing to go on the stage. With a partner who played the piano while he played the violin, Benny launched his first vaudeville act.
"For six years he toured back and forth across the United States, playing his violin and saying nothing. Then the United States entered the war and Benny joined the Navy. As a musician he was soon drafted for sailor shows for the Seamen's Benefit Fund. His violin playing brought applause, but no contributions. After all, reasoned Benny, if you want money, you have to ask for it. He put the instrument down and broke a six-year silence.
"He got contributions. But what surprised him more, he got laughs. Gingerly he tried a few more gags. A wave of laughter swept through the audience. At the next show, Benny played less and wise-cracked more. When the war was over he returned to vaudeville as a monologist.
"In the years that followed, Jack Benny, a glib young man carrying a violin he never played, became a celebrated comedian. He was a headliner in vaudeville and one of the first and most successful masters of ceremonies in Broadway revues. He was a popular night club entertainer.
"Apparently, he was permanently attached to the theater when the end of a transcontinental vaudeville tour brought him to the Orpheum Theater, in Los Angeles, the port of Hollywood. Benny stayed at the Orpheum for eight straight weeks, establishing a new house record for a single artist. Meanwhile talking pictures and the first wave of screech revues came to Hollywood.
"To keep the talking Jack Benny out of talking pictures would have been a real problem. Nobody tried to. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer promptly offered him a contract and he made his screen debut as a master of ceremonies in the “Hollywood Revue.” Other feature pictures and comedy shorts followed in rapid succession. Benny might have been in Hollywood yet, if he hadn’t met a Los Angeles girl—and continued to talk. The young lady just nodded her head and said they would go East for their honeymoon. (Now she is doing some talking for herself and you frequently hear her on the air with Benny. Her radio name is Mary Livingstone.)
"The Bennys arrived in New York just as Earl Carroll was casting the annual edition of his vanities. At Carroll's request Benny dropped into witness a rehearsal. When the curtain went up on the opening night Benny was still there. He was, in fact, the star of the show.
"For two years he was the leading comedian and master of ceremonies in the Carroll revue. Then came radio, and now the comedian is making his debut in the first straight play in which he has ever appeared. His weekly broadcasts are now being made every Sunday night so that they will in no ways interfere with his playing on the stage.”

A person acquainted with Benny at Great Lakes responded to the column. You can read it in this post.

Melcher was present opening night. He proclaimed Benny “played his first straight comedy role with an agreeable ease,” but incisively explained what the problem with the play was. “For the first half hour the play’s lines are sure fire. For the second, they are warm. After that you begin to wonder why the actors even bothered.”

In other words, Kaufman and Ryskind had a great first act but there was nothing left by the third. After the week-long tryout in Washington, Variety reported on Oct. 30th the production was shut down while the last act was entirely re-written, and stated on Nov. 6th it would play three days at New Haven, and then in Boston before heading to the Great White Way.

The trade paper reviewed opening night in New Haven and you can read that review in this Tralfaz post. The play had the same problem; it fizzled out after the first act. You can see the Boston Globe review of opening night on Nov. 26 to the right. The Harvard Crimson loved it and the paper’s review is on this website.

The aforementioned post also gives Variety’s coverage of the satire’s demise. After two weeks in Boston—with a meagre box office take in the second week—and another week in Springfield and Hartford, Harris pulled the show in mid-December with the idea of mounting it again during the next theatrical season. It never happened.

This dud didn’t hurt Jack Benny in the slightest. He carried on with his radio show for General Tire and now had spare time for personal appearances, which always seemed to get good reviews and, of course, added to the Benny bank account. “Bring on the Girls” didn’t warrant a line on Jack’s radio show after it died. Perhaps it’s easier getting laughs from a phoney flop instead of a real one.