In the case of Jack Benny, at least in 1950, he hits the road with a varied company and raises money for charity.
Jack and company scheduled 21 stops starting May 16 that year, including one in Montreal. We’ve mentioned before that Canadian radio did not carry Jack’s show during the regular season after he changed sponsorships to American Tobacco. But we note a story in the Montreal Gazette of Tuesday, May 30, that CJAD broadcast Jack’s show for the first time the previous Sunday night as a promotion for his date at the Forum. Several transcribed shows were heard on the station on other Sunday nights at 7 when Benny was off the air for the summer in the U.S. (Oddly, CFCF was the Montreal station that picked up other CBS programming, including Amos and Andy, and Edgar Bergen).
The Gazette and the Montreal Star covered the Benny entourage during their short stay. You can see a picture from one paper to the right. The press revealed Phil Harris and Eddie Anderson (yes, the Star used his actual name) spent an afternoon at the track. A gentleman named Camil Deroches played a real-life version of Sheldon Leonard’s tout and apparently earned the pair some money. Some of the stories were non-bylined and generic, meaning they were likely standard hand-outs by Jack’s press relations people.
Both papers reviewed the performance. The Gazette’s on June 3 was brief and to the point.
Benny Plays Modest Part In Show He Brings Here
Jack Benny drew a large audience to the Forum last night with a show in which he played a very modest part. We discovered him as a master of ceremonies, and he can play the violin in spite of his supposed concentration on learning the other Franz Schubert's The Bee.
Benny was handicapped at the Forum by having to control a very large auditorium. He is a radio man whose whole approach to entertainment must, under the circumstances, be intimate. The superb timing, the instant wisecrack of the radio could not possibly have been achieved under these circumstances.
But the public liked him. Phil Harris was his strongest support. Harris worked like a trojan. He directed the orchestra and he gagged with Benny.
Between them they carried the first half of the show. Besides Benny, Harris and his orchestra there were some good acts interspersed. The Stuart Morgan Dancers were excellent. The Wiere Brothers were regular vaudevillians from Europe. Everyone welcomed Benny's first right hand man, Rochester, at the end of the program. There was also Vivian Blaine with songs.
The Star, on June 5, was much more fulsome in its review by S. Morgan-Powell. The typesetter got fouled up in one line.
A First Rate Show
Jack Benny Scores Hit
Big Reception by Seven Thousand at The Forum
SEVEN thousand Montrealers attended the Jack Benny Show at the Forum Friday night. Among them there were probably not more than a handful who remembered Mr. Benny's last public appearance in this city when he was seen on a vaudeville bill at the Princess Theatre. He was not at that time widely known in Canada but since then he has become a familiar entertainer to literally millions of people all over the North American continent through the medium of the radio. He was recently voted by a nation-wide USA radio poll the most popular artist on the air.
Watching him and listening to him through his performance at the Forum, it was easy to understand why he has held so vast a public over a quarter of a century.
* * *
IN the first place Benny is a natural comedian endowed with a dry and pungent wit. He has an keen and excellent wit. He has an easy and fluent delivery, an excellent speaking voice, and a smooth, polished style that enables him to get all his points easily across the footlights. He never seem to be making an obvious bid for applause, or to be handling comedy of set design; though his programs are undoubtedly carefully prepared, they carry the complete illusion of spontaneity, and the quick repartee, the skilful timing, and the intimate rapport with the audience which he establishes at the outset and maintains throughout the evening enable him to keep the stream of humour flowing unceasingly.
Mr. Benny has capitalised throughout his radio career on a comedy style which depends upon his being a target for his associate performers just as much as they are targets for his own barbed wit. This has enabled him to build up a reputation unique in the entertainment world. It explains his radio success, and it lends itself admirably to stage show work as well. It is invariably sure-fire; there are no planned pauses for pencilled-in applause. Mr. Benny wins his audience with witty comment on his first appearance, and he never loses touch with them. Chuckles, roars of laughter, rounds of applause testify to the fact that the audience is enjoying Mr. Benny quite as much as he appears to be enjoying himself.
* * *
IF one criticism suggests itself, it is that Mr. Benny takes perhaps too subservient a position in the general show, but when one regards it in retrospect it is seen as one of the secrets of his perennial success. He and Phil Harris are at it hammer and tongs all the time they are on the stage. I think it would have been better if nobody had used the microphone on Friday, because it magnified the volume of several of the voices almost deafeningly, and in consequence marred the finesse of some exchanges and also blurred the words of some of Phil Harris' songs. He is a resourceful comedian and long experience with Mr. Benny has taught him how to maintain the balance of the comedy. He does not need spotlight help, nor does his exchange of gags need the physical display he employs in their delivery; this also seems to apply to his direction of his band. There is no doubt, however, that he is a tower of support to the show.
Rochester, Benny’s man Friday, got a great welcome but his delivery also suffered from overemphasis due to the far too loud PA system which once more requires material toning down at the Forum. Nothing, however, could interfere with the delightful comedy of his soft shoe shuffling dance.
* * *
ADVANCE stories about the Benny Show had emphasized the high quality of the supporting acts. In this there was no exaggeration. The Wiere Brothers are in the front rank of the very best comedy trios in our entertainment world today. Their European reputation is of the highest and they have duplicated it on this side of the Atlantic.
Their violin playing is a riot in itself. They really can play the violin when they want to, but they show what a wealth of comedy can be got out of it in the fantastic things they do when they combine their diverting tricks on the strings with some of the cleverest comic dancing Montreal has seen for decades. They are essentially clowns of the cleverest type, and it is by clowning that they present an act which has no parallel before the North American public today, if we may accept the testimony of the American press. The audience gave them an ovation, and it was well deserved.
* * *
THEN there were the Peiro Brothers from South America, whose juggling with hats and sticks is, so far as I know unique, in today’s stage shows. Their sense of balance is uncanny. They do what you never expect them to do in a way you could never have imagined, and it is pure comedy throughout.
We have had the Stuart Morgan dancers here before, and they are always welcome. The manner which these four athletes handle their girl partner in whirls and tosses and balances has to be seen to be believed. A dozen times you feel certain she is going to crash, but she always ends up in a graceful pose in the air. All these specialty acts scored definite hits, and so did Vivian Blaine, who is a first-class screen comedy singer with an effective microphone technique and a voice she has under good control.
The concluding appearance of Mr. Benny with his hillbilly band is the best thing of its kind I have seen in a stage show here. Altogether, the Jack Benny Show must be rated as excellent in comedy, in balance and, let it also be added, in clean entertainment. Mr. Benny proves that a stage show can be free from any suggestiveness and yet keep an audience laughing all evening.
This production aired on CBS and its affiliates the night before, and depicted the story of thousands of blind immigrants to Israel who needed special help to adjust to their new home in Gedera. The goal was to raise 35 million dollars for food, housing and medicine for the village.
It seemed if there was a charity in need, Jack Benny was there to help.
No comments:
Post a Comment