Into the Picture

Here’s a perspective sequence from Tex Avery’s “What Price Fleadom” (1948). A bulldog is chasing a flea. Then the dog starts hopping exactly the same way as the flea, which is pretty funny. Next, Avery gives a little perspective bonus in an old gag to theatre audiences. The flea hops into a picture on the wall.



The bulldog chases after him, initially filling the screen. I’ll bet this surprised the theatre audience.



Avery’s unit was in transition around this time. Walter Clinton, Robert Bentley and Gil Turner received the animation credits.

A Familiar Gag

You know the joke. A musical instrument is rigged to blow up whenever Bugs Bunny hits the right note on the old song “Endearing Young Charms.” Bugs always plays the wrong note and the frustrated Sam or Daffy or whoever shoves him out of the way to show him how to play the song correctly and—well, you know the gag.

Here’s the end result from “Show Biz Bugs.”



The gag was also used in “Ballot Box Bunny” (with Yosemite Sam), “Rushing Roulette” (a Format Films Roadrunner-Coyote short) and “Booby Traps” (a 1944 Snafu cartoon). It may have been in others; it sure seems like it. The musical gag was probably concocted by Warren Foster. He wrote “Ballot Box Bunny” and “Show Biz Bugs” and likely “Booby Traps” (it was animated by the Clampett unit and Foster had been writing for Bob Clampett). Foster had run a music studio in New York City before he got into animation.

Frank Nelson on Jack Benny

He made his fame out of one word—“Yes.”

Of course, it sounded like more than a word when he got through with it. Radio and TV audiences howled with laughter as he stretched the word like a rocket of silly putty, screeching it into the air.

Frank Nelson was a fine dramatic actor and announcer (Lux Radio Theatre), but people loved his “Yes” character on the Jack Benny show and eventually he wound up doing some variation of it on other comedy shows.

Like just about everything on Benny’s show, the character evolved over time. Nelson began appearing on the programme in the mid-‘30s periodically doing a non-masculine floorwalker who got huffy with Jack. From this came the man who was ostensibly there to serve Jack Benny—a ticket taker, a real estate agent, a clerk, and so on—but insulted him instead, beginning with an enthusiastic “Ye-e-e-e-e-s?” whenever Benny tried to get his attention.

Nelson gave a number of interviews about his career to old-time radio show hosts, but I’ve found a newspaper piece he did while his Benny career was still going strong. This is from the Knickerbocker News of Albany, New York, May 20, 1961. The sidebars accompanied the main story. Nelson gives his opinion about why Jack Benny remained so popular for years. His observations in the sidebar about Jack Paar, who was an 18-week summer replacement for Benny in 1947, are interesting.

THE HAPPY HECKLER
Nelson Finds Jokes Few, Laughs Plenty In 27 Radio-TV Years With Jack Benny
By WALTER HAWVER
FRANK NELSON figures he's had “a fair run” on the Jack Benny Show—27 years. “I hope it will last,” he laughed.
Chances are it will last as long as Benny does. And the way this eternal 39-year-old is going—three Emmys in three years—this could be some time.
Nelson is one of a long list of characters who are as much a part of the American comedy scene as Benny himself. Only announcer Don Wilson has been with Jack longer.
You know most of the others whose careers at one extended time or another were intertwined with Benny's: Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Jack's long-suffering vallet [sic]; Mel Blanc, the man of many voices; singer Kenny Baker and, more recently, Dennis Day; Artie (Mr. Kitzel) Auerbach; Sam Hearn, the "Hey, Rube" figure; Sheldon Leonard (now producer of the Danny Thomas Show), the cliche gangster; Benny Rubin, the tout; bandleader Phil Harris, and, of course, Mary Livingstone.
It's easy to see why Benny has stuck with the same general group of people. As Nelson points out:
“Going back to the radio days (Jack started in 1932), the script hasn't changed. Analyze his scripts. Read his dialogue. You'll seldom find a joke. He relies on situations that turn into funny things.
“Mention money. Anything free. You know what Jack's reaction is going to be.”
As Allen Sums It Up
Nelson might have added as Steve Allen did in his book, "The Funny Men:"
“The first reason we laugh at Jack is, of course, that we have been conditioned for over 20 years to do so. A thousand and one examples of this sort of emotional conditioning come readily to mind. If a motion picture director wants to terrify us, he need only present Boris Karloff. A composer need only to change a major chord to minor to change our mood from pleasant to sad. Jack reaps tremendous rewards from this simple truth.”
Nelson's role as a happy heckler is part of this conditioning.

This It the Way It Goes
I asked him to describe the role that has become his career:
“I'm the fellow that heckles Jack. Wherever Jack goes and runs into trouble, he usually bumps into this fellow.
“It's not known to the general public, but when he calls me anything, it's usually 'Mr. Nelson.' Mostly, he says: 'Oh, it's you again.' And I give him a long drawn out, 'Y-e-e-e-sss.”
This association with Benny has proved limiting though profitable to Nelson. In radio, he was able to do many characters — “leads, heavies, dialects, things of this nature.” But, in TV:
“People see and associate my face with a voice and I'm trapped. Few producers will take a chance on casting me any other way. It's simple enough for a Red Skelton to take on a serious role. The producer just announces that a star is going to try something different and the public eats it up. This isn't the case with a rank and file actor.”
Nelson has tried to break away from his “typing.” He shaved his mustache and got himself a butch haircut. “The only person I made an impression on was my wife,” he said.
“She was annoyed.”
Benny Is Easy to Work For
What's Benny like to work for?
“Very easy. He knows what you want and expects you to do it. Never in the years I've been with him have I heard him get mad at a performer, or lose his temper. In the radio days, the cast all knew what they were there for, knew what he wanted from them. We spent very little time in rehearsal. In TV, of course, the problems are greater and we work longer, but, even then, rehearsal time is reasonably short.”
Frank worked more often when the Benny show was on radio. “In those days, I did 25-30 shows a year. Now I do six or seven.”
What about the in-between times? “I work as all actors do. I did a lot of Lucy shows, Our Miss Brooks, Joan Davis, Eddie Cantor, Donald O'Connor, anything that comes along—Ann Sothern, Danny Thomas. But always the same character.”
Paar Hits Par
A fellow named Jack Paar once took over the Jack Benny Show for two weeks. It's said this was the turning point in his career but Frank Nelson recalls that Paar didn't come off well at all.
“It was right after the war, I guess about '46, '47, somewhere in there. Paar was an odd sort of fellow even in those days and didn't come off very well with the audience. When they didn't react to his jokes, he'd lecture them. This just made them withdraw more.
“He didn't do any radio for about two years after this experience. The kind of show he does today, he's fine for, but to me he's an unsure individual. He shouldn't be, but he is.”
Look-Alikes Confuse Fans
Frank Nelson and Mel Blanc look quite a bit alike. Their hair lines are the same, both have mustaches, both are on the heavy side. This can prove confusing to their fans.
“We were walking out of the studio one day,” Frank recalled, “when two young ladies rushed up with autograph books. One looked at me, then at Mel and gasped:
‘Why, they're two of you,’ Mel said ‘I’m his brother.’ I agreed and they walked away satisfied.”

Coming Up Next, Boys and Girls...

There was a time, you youngsters reading here today, when local TV stations had kids shows in the afternoon with a live host. He’d ad-lib silly things and introduce some cartoons. Some of these shows were among the funniest things ever put on TV. Ever. If you get your hands on Tim Hollis’ book Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Shows, you can learn about them.

Kids couldn’t get enough cartoons but, after a while, TV stations in the early ‘60s felt they needed to do something besides run the same packages of Warner Bros. and Popeyes over and over and over. So syndicators, looking at the success of Hanna-Barbera in the TV field, offered new cartoons to fill time. Hanna-Barbera, itself, was among them, producing the Lippy the Lion/Touché Turtle/Wally Gator shorts. Not only could the cartoons be used individually on a kids show with a live host but, stations could turn them into 15-minute, half-hour or any-length blocks to fit holes in morning or late afternoon programming. Ingenious, those syndicators.

A couple of cartoon series offered in 1962 and 1963 were at the opposite ends of the scale. “The Funny Company” was an outgrowth of criticism of cartoons by do-gooder groups that felt all children’s programming should be like a school house. So producer Ken Snyder offered a series with an educational component.



Sponsor reported on August 19, 1963 that WOR-TV in New York was going to spend a million dollars advertising the cartoons which it planned to air in a 90-minute block. Ah, but a problem cropped up. Mattel had exclusive advertising rights. And the FCC said “no.” Said Sponsor on September 23, 1963:

Sponsor must be identified, FCC rules on Mattel case
FCC last week put its foot down on proposed exception to the sponsorship identification requirements by a kiddie cartoon series. In response to a request from California toy manufacturer, Mattel, for a waiver of the rule in the “Funny Company” program, FCC said Mattel sponsorship would have to be announced by stations carrying the series. Commission says present instance is similar to the “Living Should be Fun” program offered in 1961, not overly sponsored, but in effect underwritten by Foods Plus, in exchange for spot announcements by stations. FCC rules the sponsorship had to be acknowledged. Mattel bought exclusive distribution rights in U.S. and Canada for the “Funny Company” program, helped finance pilot film. Through its advertising agency, the company has offered to take adjacent spots at a cost that will reimburse the stations for the cost of rights to use the program. FCC holds this as the same as sponsorship. Also, Mattel has exclusive rights to merchandise toys, games, et al, based on the program characters. The toy company wanted to let stations offer the program to other sponsors, but if Mattel has to be named, fewer stations would use the program, it claimed. FCC was not beguiled by reproachful argument that the commission would, in effect, be discouraging sorely needed “good children’s programs.” The law is the law: identify, says FCC.

Regardless, “The Funny Company” settled into the WOR schedule, listed for 90 minutes every weekday beginning at 3:30 p.m. Despite that, the local-area TV station which ran the cartoons when I was a kid inserted them as part of its animation blocks in the morning and afternoon. I don’t recall any mention of Mattel.

Down the dial at WPIX Channel 11, “The Funny Company” was going up against another cartoon series from 4:30 to 5. It wasn’t educational in the slightest, unless you wanted to learn how to make comically bad cartoons. “The Mighty Hercules” was “A Trans-Lux Television presentation produced by Adventure Cartoons for Television, Inc.” Trans-Lux had scored a TV success in the late ‘50s by reviving Felix the Cat, thanks to the help of veteran New York animators, and Famous/Paramount studio stalwarts Jack Mercer and Win Sharples. Weekly Variety, on February 7, 1962, announced the series (then called “The Amazing Adventures of Hercules”) would consist of 130, 5½ minute cartoons. Again, New York animators were paid to sit at their lightboards, and Jack Mercer and Win Sharples were brought in.

Some animation historians say it looks like those New York animators had copies of the Superman model sheets from their Fleischer studio days as the Man of Olympia’s design (attributed to George Peed) looks a lot like the Man of Steel. Despite the extremely limited animation, there must have been cost problems. Mercer and David Hartman, who played Hercules, disappeared, and their voices replaced with Canadian (read “cheaper”) talent from Montreal. TV hosts Jimmy Tapp and Helene Nickerson (“Miss North American Van Lines” of 1960) and CFCF radio programme director Gerry Bascombe took the roles. Nickerson’s performance as the evil villainesse is unintentionally hilarious; she sounds like she’s spent her life smoking five packs a day. In fact, “unintentionally hilarious” aptly describes the cartoons, right from the get-go with Johnny Nash wailing about “Iron in his thighs.” Just don’t try to watch more than a couple in a row. A couple in a row, Herc, a couple in a row.



If you’re wondering what else was for sale to cartoon-hungry stations, Sponsor listed the 18 distributors at an NAB trade exhibition in its April 1, 1963 edition. The trade publication pointed out close to all syndicated film sales were being made directly to stations. Here’s what was being offered:

CBS Films: Deputy Dawg (third series).
Desilu Sales: Rod Rocket, 130 3½-minute cartoons with authentic space background.
Jay Ark Film: Bozo’s Cartoon Storybook, 52 cartoons, featuring lead-ins by Bozo, in color.
King Features Syndicate: Beetle Bailey-Barney Google & Snuffy Smith-Krazy Kat, 150 new cartoons based on the comic strip, in color; Popeye, 220 tv cartoons starring Olive Oyl’s boyfriend, in color.
MGM TV: MGM Cartoons, 135 fully animated cartoon comedies.
NBC Films: Astroboy, 52 half-hour cartoon series.
Official Films: Cartoons, 41 cartoon: Little King, Bunny Bear [sic], etc.
Screen Gems: Top Cat, 30 half-hours animated cartoons, produced by Hanna-Barberra [sic], wall [?]; Hanna-Barbera Cartoons: Touche, Wally, Lippy, 156 five-minute cartoons in color.
Trans-Lux Television: The Mighty Hercules, 30 5½-min. cartoons about Hercules and his enemy, Daedalus; Felix the Cat, 260 four-minute cartoons starring the well known cartoon character.
United Artists Associated: Popeye Cartoons, 234 theatrical animated Popeye cartoon adventures; Warner Bros. Cartoons, 337 theatrical animated Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and others.
Video House: Out-of-the-Inkwell, 100 5-minute cartoons created by Max Fleischer, featuring Koko the Klown in colour.
Walter Reade-Sterling: Capt’n Sailorbird Cartoons, group of 184.



Of course, there were others being syndicated and then there were cartoons on networks. And that brings us to our last photo from Sponsor in 1963. People were employed to dress up in large cartoon character costumes and make appearances at department stores, fairs, TV stations and so on. Hanna-Barbera promoted Yogi, Quick Draw McGraw and even Wally Gator this way. But I feel sorry for the poor young guy who was forced to wear a huge Mr. Magoo head at a bowling alley.



I’d rather watch 50 “Hercules” cartoons in a row than be forced to wear that.

Well, maybe not.

Shooting a Haunted House

George Pal tries a bit of an elaborate camera move in “Jasper and the Haunted House” (1942). The camera is looking down onto the main floor of the old mansion. Then it trucks down and curves in to a head-on view of the front entrance. It doesn’t quite work. It’s bit much to combine that with the stop motion animation and the little sets that Pal’s staff built. The camera jerks, though you can’t tell that looking at the frame grabs below.



Pal’s name is the only one on the credits, so it’s tough to say who worked on this. Film Composers in America by Clifford McCarty reveals the score was done by Eddison von Ottenfeld, who was using the name William Eddison. Variety says little about the short, other than this in its August 28, 1942 edition:

George Pal closes his studio today to provide annual 10 day vacation for all employees. Producer just completed the Puppetoon short, 'Jasper and the Haunted House' for Paramount release. Pal heads for his cabin in the high Sierras.

The short’s national release was on October 23rd. It was the first Puppetoon of the 1942-43 season.

Bird Vs. Bird

Woody Woodpecker’s angry in “The Coo-Coo Bird” (1947), as he spends about a third of the cartoon battling the title character.

There are some pretty good expressions as Woody tries to kill the cuckoo with a pair of shears.



The cuckoo gets even. These are a few of the drawings.



Hal Mason and Sid Pillett are the only credited animators but Les Kline worked on this cartoon as well.

The Start of Something Big

On July 27, 1953, WNBT in New York began broadcasting a live, local 40-minute show that eventually became one of the greatest success stories in television. It brought increased fame to Steve Allen once it was expanded and put on the NBC network about 14 months later. It did the same for Jack Paar. And Johnny Carson. And...well, by now you’ve figured out it was “The Tonight Show.”

How did the show get on the air in the first place? There was some corporate wrangling going on. Knickerbocker Beer began sponsoring an hour-long, late-night comedy-variety show starring Jimmy Blaine on rival WABC in April 1953 while WNBT was airing dusty movies.Broadcasting magazine of March 16th revealed it was a $750,000 deal, the largest amount of local time ever sold to a single TV sponsor. But, suddenly by the end of June, Blaine was fired. A month later, his show was fired. Knickerbocker moved from WABC to WNBT and sponsored a brand-new late-night comedy-variety show starring Allen. A Billboard magazine story dated June 27th reveals that Knickerbocker’s agency, Biow, had an option on the Allen show and picked it up before Piel’s Beer’s agency, Young and Rubicam, could grab it. Knickerbocker sponsored Allen on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only; the show was sustaining for a while on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The Long Island Star Journal gave a preview of the show the day of its debut. It aired opposite movies “The Miracle Kid” with Tom Neal (1941) on WCBS, “Deputy Marshal” starring Jon Hall (1949) on WATV, and news on the other channels.

Radio and Television
By John Lester
Arthur Godfrey Returns to Air Tonight
Tonight’s big event, bar none, will be the return to the air of the celebrated CBS redhead, Arthur Godfrey, on his “Talent Scouts” series, CBS-TV, 8:30 to 9 P.M. (Arthur returns to his “Friends” show Wednesday night, CBS-TV, at 8, and to his morning simulcast series next Monday, but more of these things anon.)
The event of next importance—considerable in importance, too—is the debut tonight of a series on WNBT called “The Steve Allen Show,” which will run Monday through Friday from 11:20 to midnight hereafter.
“The Morey Amsterdam Show” will fill its time each Saturday night.
This latter series will star Morey and certain of his “Breakfast With Music” gang (WNBT, Monday through Friday, 9 to 10 A. M.) including Milton Delugg and his orchestra and singer Jean Martin, and others, according to present plans.

STEVE ALLEN, of course, will star on “The Steve Allen Show” as emcee-host and will have such regulars as vocalists as Helene Dixon and Steve Lawrence (it was erroneously announced that Bill Lawrence would be featured on this show some weeks ago) and the band of Bobby Byrne.
Allen will also present top stars of the entertainment field as guests from time to time and will lend the nightly series in the general direction of comedy-variety.
It has taken the 31-year-old Allen a long time to get around to late night operating again, through no fault of his own, and it will be interesting to see what he does about it.
The quiet, slyly-humorous Allen, who once was referred to by Groucho Marx as “the best Allen since Fred,” actually made his big splash in broadcasting as the star of a late night series in Hollywood.
In fact, he was something of a sensation out there and numbered among his most loyal nightly fans many of the great wits and wags of the movie colony, including Groucho, Jack Benny, Red Skelton and George Burns.
A good ad-libber, a song-writer and musician in addition to being a comic and wit, Allen was lured to New York by CBS about three years ago but, as is frequently the case in show business, was given practically everything but the kind of thing he had done best in the past—a night time assignment.
At least I don’t remember one.
Probably his latest show and certainly his best, was the “Songs for Sale” series Saturday nights.
This new nightly “Steve Allen Show” is strictly a local operation at the moment and will be seen only on WNBT, although the network is watching it carefully and will begin feeding it to some of its other owned-and-operated stations as soon as it shows definite signs of getting itself together.
AS A RESULT of his late “live” show, WNBT’s feature pictures will be moved back on the schedule from 11:20 to midnight, immediately following Allen and his crew, with the station signing off much later than in the past, at 1 or 1:30 A.M., depending on the length of the picture.
NBC executives feel there is very little “long range future for feature pictures in prime time,” meaning the valuable 11 P.M. to midnight hour, and feel they can better attract a much better audience with a “live” variety show built around Allen and other stars.
The fact that feature pictures of quality have become more and more difficult to get in the recent past has also had considerable bearing on their decision to turn to some “live” policy, preferably of the comedy-variety type.
New, first rate and first run pictures, of course, are just about impossible to rent and who knows that better than you?

The Star Journal didn’t review the show (it critiqued Godfrey the next day), but the Brooklyn Eagle did. The continual references to Fred Allen in these stories seem superfluous unless you realise how respected Fred was amongst critics for his quickness and wit. This is from the edition of August 2, 1953.

Steve Allen’s Still Punching Away to Please the Viewer
By BOB LANIGAN
“MIS-TER AL-LEN,” she'd call in a high, quavering voice. And he'd invariably answer, “Why Portland! What are you doing here?” As if he didn't know!
Even though Fred Allen's TV efforts have not been world-shaking to date, I've always considered NBC's well-guarded precincts to be his special province. How Steve Allen managed to crack these precincts, and come up with a five-times-weekly, 11:20 p.m. to midnight, show on Channel 4, I'll never know.
“The Steve Allen Show,” which had its premiere on WNBT last Monday night, is another attempt by this clever comic to please the viewer. That’s right. “Please the viewer.”
I've watched Steve's work closely ever since he arrived here from the West some three years ago. He had been induced to give up his disc jockey show out there by C. B. S. who offered him ordinate quantity of pelf.
Steve was given a 7-7:30 p.m. spot by CBS-TV, and in a burst of originality seldom equalled by any group of individuals, the Channel 2 producers titled the program the “Steve Allen Show.”
Steve's humor and deft handling of people was brought into national prominence one Monday night when Arthur Godfrey suddenly took off in a racing balloon, and Steve was rushed in to fill the breach on Arthur's “Talent Scouts” program.
The critics, en masse, hailed Steve as “a comer” the following day. Actually, Steve had done nothing more on “Scouts” than he had been doing for a long time, i.e., pleasing the viewers.
CBS-TV “rewarded” Allen with an afternoon program of his own because of this, which they promptly named the “Steve Allen Show.” This gave people who retired before 7 p.m. a chance to know Steve, and he got to know quite a few of them. In fact, all afternoon viewers at that time comprised only a few, so you might say that Steve knew all his viewers.
Last Summer, Allen was seen on Channel 2 on alternate Thursday nights as the star of some sparkling, big-time productions under the heading, “The Steve Allen Show.” These presentations drew high praise from the critics, enjoyed a fine Nielsen rating, and pleased the people mightily. Shortly afterward, CBS-TV failed to renew Steve's contract.
After viewing Steve's late evening efforts on WNBT this past week, I'm not too sure about anything concerning the program except its title, which is you-know-what.
Emcee Allen has surrounded himself with a group of capable jazz musicians led by Bobby Byrne, and Helene Dixon, a shapely and talented singer from Greenpoint, who sings equally well in a prone or supine position. Steve Lawrence, an 18-year-old tenor from Brooklyn's East New York section, usually warbles vertically. So, root, root, root for the home team!
The show is held together (if I'm not using that term too loosely) by Steve, who plays piano, does comedy, skits and interviews members of an almost unbelievably nondescript studio audience. It's really too much to ask of one man.
Steve is again going all out to please the viewers on this one, but he needs help. Any volunteers?

Allen needed more help than the reviewer realised. Allen recalled many years later how his first vocalist had won the audition for the show by singing three songs. But those were the only songs she knew and she was incapable of learning any others in time for the next week’s broadcasts. He appeared to be referring to Helene Dixon, even though she went on to a recording career for several labels. Weekly Variety of September 30th reported Coral Records vocalist Eydie Gorme would be joining the show, no doubt to the delight of Steve Lawrence as the two began dating. And Allen once explained how the studio WNBT found for the show was not designed for the audience interviews that made him so successful on the West Coast.

But the problems were slowly overcome. A new producer came in. Allen hired one of the two writers of the dead WABC show, Stan Burns, who would later go on to script “Get Smart,” “The Carol Burnett Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” An additional sponsor was found. The network was watching, too. Daily Variety reported on February 24, 1954 that “Tonight” would grow out of the WBNT late-nighter. On September 27, 1954, Allen’s show (despite what Variety called “multiple headaches attending station clearances”) was given a network time slot. It’s never been given back.

Next week: “Tonight” debuts

Instant Duck Shower

“What Makes Daffy Duck” may be the best cartoon made by the Art Davis unit at Warners. There are wonderful drawings of Daffy, lippy dialogue, non-stop action and a few nutty gags.

The camera pans to a lonely bullrush, which starts shaking.



The bullrush turns out to be Daffy disguising himself from hunters. Here are consecutive drawings.



Daffy pulls a shower from behind his back. These drawings are consecutive, two frames per drawing.



Bill Melendez, Basil Davidovich, Emery Hawkins and Don Williams get the animation credits.

Tame Tex

When Tex Avery packed up at the Leon Schlesinger studio, he took a whole pile of gags with him to MGM and perfected them.

Here’s a really good example from “Dangerous Dan McFoo” (1939) which has several things Avery would do a lot better at Metro in “The Shooting of Dan McGoo” (1944). Here’s what the dog does when he spots the saloon girl for the first time. He stops and stares, his head turns around, then it stops and he stares some more while his hat twirls in mid-air.



Here’s how Avery handled the wolf in the MGM cartoon. The eyes stretch, pop out of their sockets and check out the babe.



And that’s just the first take.

He and the Chimp

For reasons known only to him, Jack Benny was hung up on the idea of people thinking he really was cheap. Why he let it bother him, he never explained. But he mentioned it in a whole bunch of interviews during his days on television and that he dealt with it by overspending.

Perhaps he should have been more concerned about why his agent (or whoever) talked him into publicity stunt where he and a chimp played the violin.

Benny had great success in 1959 when the Marquis Chimps appeared on his show. So maybe that’s what gave birth to a stunt the following year featuring Kokomo, Jr., whose claim to fame was replacing J. Fred Muggs on NBC’s Today Show.

Whatever the circumstances, the stunt worked. Benny got newspaper ink. Here’s what UPI reported on November 11, 1960. The stunt took advantage of but, at the same time, contradicted his cheapness. I suspect that’s why he went along with it.

Benny Gives Black Tie Party In Automat
By BRUCE AGNEW
United Press International
New York — “I haven’t come here in 20 years,” Jack Benny mused. “I can’t. If people saw me, they’d say I’m eating here because I’m stingy.” To prove that he was nothing of the sort, Benny last night gave away nickels to more than 400 guests he had invited to a black-tie dinner and dancing party at the automat.
With a brave smile, he sat in the cashiers’ booth himself for about 10 minutes, handing over $2 rolls of nickels to the tuxedoed and be jeweled celebrities, who then bought their own dinners at the slot machine windows or in the cafeteria section.
The giveaway totaled $840 by the end of the party.
The guest list included Broadway and Hollywood stars, writers and singers, and a monkey named Kokomo Jr.
Kokomo played the violin.
So did Benny. He joined the six-piece orchestra on the bandstand to play “Sweet Georgia Brown,” but he had some reservations.
“This is a lousy key,” he grumbled as he started a solo. “Let's try the key of C.”
The accordionist picked up the chorus in C. Benny tucked his violin under his chin and started sawing away again.
“Let’s try D-flat,” he suggested a couple of notes later.

In front of the bandstand, actress Helen Hayes and Iggie Wolfington, now playing in the “Music Man,” danced a jitterbug. The song ended, but Miss Hayes wouldn’t let Benny quit.
“Get up there and play some Bach for us so we can dance legitimately,” she ordered. Benny played his encore.
He then threaded his way through the closely packed cafeteria tables to join Kokomo Jr. for a short, scratchy duet. The knee-high chimpanzee, flashily dressed in a black, spangled suit, sat on the table and warily watched the bow of Benny’s violin. The bow came up. Kokomo ducked, and sneered. He didn’t seem too interested in the duet.
Kokomo, in his spangled suit, wasn’t the only strikingly dressed guest.
Seated across the room at the same table were Mrs. Cindy Adams, wife of comedian Joey Adams, and Mrs. Charles A. Berns, wife of the owner of the 21 Club, both wearing dresses costing close to $1,000. Each outfit was a combination dress and jacket. Each was gold brocade, with floral designs appliqued on. Each looked almost exactly like the other.
When Mrs. Adams left several hours later, she was carrying a rumpled paper bag filled with nickels she hadn’t spent. She jingled them as she said goodnight to Benny.
“I know,” Benny said. “A lot of people made money. A lot of people didn’t eat—they just took the nickels.”