JACK BENNY & FRED ALLEN DISCOVERED RATINGS GOLD IN THEIR 20-YEAR "FEUD".
THE FEUD - ROUND 1
Network Radio was full of “feuds” of one sort or another - Walter Winchell vs. Ben Bernie, Bob Hope vs. Bing Crosby, Louella Parsons vs. Hedda Hopper, Eddie Cantor vs. George Jessell, Don McNeill vs.Tom Brenneman, etc. - mostly good natured squabbles intended to build each other’s ratings.
But none was as famous or long lasting as that between two old vaudeville pals, Ben Kubelsky and John Sullivan, who became radio enemies Jack Benny and Fred Allen. (1)
As detailed in the Gold Time Radio post The 1936-37 Season, it all began on Fred Allen’s NBC Town Hall Tonight show of Wednesday, December 30,1936. After ten-year old violin prodigy Stewart Canin flawlessly performed Francois Schubert’s short but challenging The Bee, Allen cracked, “After hearing you play, Jack Benny should hang his head in shame. Benny is the only violinist who makes you feel the strings would sound better back in the cat’s intestine”. (2) The 20 year feud was underway and the first few months were its best.
All was quiet on Benny's Jello Program on January 3, 1937, the first Sunday night after Allen‘s opening shot. There was no response until 28:30 of the show when Jack "dictated a telegram" to Fred in defense of his violin technique.
With another week to prepare, however, Benny’s writers, Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, had a field day with Fred Allen jokes from the beginning of January 10, 1937 Jello Program to its conclusion. Throughout the show, Don Wilson, Mary Livingston, Kenny Baker, Andy Devine and comedian Benny Baker, (as Buckingham Benny), all rave about Fred Allen’s most recent show to Jack’s frustration and comeback digs.
Fred Allen jokes and violin gags dominated the first half of Benny’s January 24, 1937 broadcast as the set-up for Jack performing The Bee on a future show. The second half - (bothered by ten minutes of annoying record surface scratch) - revolved around Phil Harris’s mother and sister visiting from Alabama. This funny episode is highlighted by a party scene featuring rare singing performances by Phil Harris, Mary Livingston and Andy Devine.
The big announcement that Jack will play The Bee came at 22:00 of the January 31, 1937 show when he asked Phil Harris to augment the show’s orchestra with 30 additional musicians to create a full symphonic ensemble for his performance of the classic on the next week’s show. Then, with the excuse, “…I haven’t been so sleepy since last Wednesday night between nine and ten,” (Fred Allen’s timeslot), Jack decides to take a nap and a produced dream sequence followed in which young comedian Peter Lind Hayes impersonated Fred Allen in a bang-up climax.
An encore by ten year old violinist Stewart Canin on Allen’s show earlier in the week tees up the February 7, 1937, Benny show. The entire episode points to the climax of the broadcast when the studio is crowded with well-wishers waiting to hear Jack’s performance of The Bee. Then the unexpected happened.
Jack's missing fiddle put The Bee on hold for several weeks until the broadcast of February 28, 1937, when at 10:15 mark dialect comic Pat C. Flick barges in as a “defective” bearing Jack’s stolen violin. Finally, at 19:45 Benny launches into the long awaited Schubert composition and after a short segue into the pop hit, With Plenty of Money And You, it was over in 90 seconds. Benny vindicated himself as a violinist but the question arose of how to keep this fraudulent feud alive which was actually invaluable cross-plugging between two highly rated shows.
Benny wrote in his autobiographic Sunday Nights At Seven, co-authored with his daughter, Joan: "Forty million listeners were caught up in our feud and followed it week-by-week. But the feud was as phony as my stinginess, my Maxwell and Mr. Kitzel having a son at Southern Methodist University. Allen admired me and I admired Allen - for his generous nature as a person and his cutting wit as a comedian."
Allen wrote in his autobiography, Much Ado About Me: "Jack is the best-liked actor in show business. He is my favorite comedian and I hope to be his friend until he is forty. That will be forever."
Nevertheless, they put up a good act. How popular was their feud with radio audiences? Benny and Allen benefited more than anyone could have imagined. Jack Benny’s Number One show leaped from a 26.9 Clark-Hooper rating in January, 1937, to a 36.5 in February. Fred Allen’s Town Hall Tonight and Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall were tied for sixth place with a 21.0 rating in January, then Allen jumped to a 25.3 and third place in February. Benny continued to ride his popularity to finish the season as Sunday’s most popular program while Allen was just a 7/10ths of a point behind George Burns & Gracie Allen for Wednesday’s highest rated show.
Unknown to the general public was another winner in this fight: Young & Rubicam Advertising which represented both Benny’s sponsor, General Foods’ Jello, and Allen’s sponsoring products, Bristol Myers’ Ipana toothpaste and Sal Hepatica laxative.
The Benny show of March 7, 1937, originated from New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel with Mary Livingston, Don Wilson and Kenny Baker from the regular cast and bandleader Abe Lyman substituting for Phil Harris who stayed behind in Hollywood. A surprise guest from past Benny broadcasts is Sam Hearn as Shleperman. The Benny-Allen skirmish is kept alive with the appearance of young violinist Stewart Canin, whose performance of The Bee ignited the feud in the first place. The youngster was grilled about his “true” age by Benny until he finally admitted that he was actually ten years and four months old.
Allen’s Town Hall Tonight of March 10, 1937 was surprisingly bland until 41:45 when Fred launched into a three minute jibe fest about Benny with Harry Von Zell and a scant hint of what was coming the following Sunday night.
By contrast, The Jello Program of March 14, 1937, was full of surprises and fireworks. Sam Hearn as Shleperman paid another visit, Mary Livingston sang a novelty solo With Those Eyes, and Jack followed with a Jello themed version of the song only to be interrupted at 14:45 of the show by Fred Allen who burst in unannounced. What followed for the second half of the show was a barrage of hilarious scripted and ad-lib insults and challenges between Benny and Allen leading to a, "... let's step outside and settle this." When they returned a few minutes later it was settled - at least temporarily.
But Jack Benny and Fred Allen knew they had a good thing when they had it. So did the network, their sponsors and their agency. Most importantly, the listening public wanted the feud to flare up again. They wouldn't be disappointed. Stay tuned.
(1) In a great dialog at the beginning of the feud, Jack Benny spouts to Mary Livingston, "Fred Allen isn't even his real name!" She snidely responds, "Is Jack Benny yours?"
2) Other reports of the day confused Shubert's The Bee with Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of The Bumble Bee. Unfortunately, no recordings of this broadcast were found nor were many other Fred Allen's Town Hall Tonight shows from this period.
Network Radio was full of “feuds” of one sort or another - Walter Winchell vs. Ben Bernie, Bob Hope vs. Bing Crosby, Louella Parsons vs. Hedda Hopper, Eddie Cantor vs. George Jessell, Don McNeill vs.Tom Brenneman, etc. - mostly good natured squabbles intended to build each other’s ratings.
But none was as famous or long lasting as that between two old vaudeville pals, Ben Kubelsky and John Sullivan, who became radio enemies Jack Benny and Fred Allen. (1)
As detailed in the Gold Time Radio post The 1936-37 Season, it all began on Fred Allen’s NBC Town Hall Tonight show of Wednesday, December 30,1936. After ten-year old violin prodigy Stewart Canin flawlessly performed Francois Schubert’s short but challenging The Bee, Allen cracked, “After hearing you play, Jack Benny should hang his head in shame. Benny is the only violinist who makes you feel the strings would sound better back in the cat’s intestine”. (2) The 20 year feud was underway and the first few months were its best.
All was quiet on Benny's Jello Program on January 3, 1937, the first Sunday night after Allen‘s opening shot. There was no response until 28:30 of the show when Jack "dictated a telegram" to Fred in defense of his violin technique.
With another week to prepare, however, Benny’s writers, Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, had a field day with Fred Allen jokes from the beginning of January 10, 1937 Jello Program to its conclusion. Throughout the show, Don Wilson, Mary Livingston, Kenny Baker, Andy Devine and comedian Benny Baker, (as Buckingham Benny), all rave about Fred Allen’s most recent show to Jack’s frustration and comeback digs.
Fred Allen jokes and violin gags dominated the first half of Benny’s January 24, 1937 broadcast as the set-up for Jack performing The Bee on a future show. The second half - (bothered by ten minutes of annoying record surface scratch) - revolved around Phil Harris’s mother and sister visiting from Alabama. This funny episode is highlighted by a party scene featuring rare singing performances by Phil Harris, Mary Livingston and Andy Devine.
The big announcement that Jack will play The Bee came at 22:00 of the January 31, 1937 show when he asked Phil Harris to augment the show’s orchestra with 30 additional musicians to create a full symphonic ensemble for his performance of the classic on the next week’s show. Then, with the excuse, “…I haven’t been so sleepy since last Wednesday night between nine and ten,” (Fred Allen’s timeslot), Jack decides to take a nap and a produced dream sequence followed in which young comedian Peter Lind Hayes impersonated Fred Allen in a bang-up climax.
An encore by ten year old violinist Stewart Canin on Allen’s show earlier in the week tees up the February 7, 1937, Benny show. The entire episode points to the climax of the broadcast when the studio is crowded with well-wishers waiting to hear Jack’s performance of The Bee. Then the unexpected happened.
Jack's missing fiddle put The Bee on hold for several weeks until the broadcast of February 28, 1937, when at 10:15 mark dialect comic Pat C. Flick barges in as a “defective” bearing Jack’s stolen violin. Finally, at 19:45 Benny launches into the long awaited Schubert composition and after a short segue into the pop hit, With Plenty of Money And You, it was over in 90 seconds. Benny vindicated himself as a violinist but the question arose of how to keep this fraudulent feud alive which was actually invaluable cross-plugging between two highly rated shows.
Benny wrote in his autobiographic Sunday Nights At Seven, co-authored with his daughter, Joan: "Forty million listeners were caught up in our feud and followed it week-by-week. But the feud was as phony as my stinginess, my Maxwell and Mr. Kitzel having a son at Southern Methodist University. Allen admired me and I admired Allen - for his generous nature as a person and his cutting wit as a comedian."
Allen wrote in his autobiography, Much Ado About Me: "Jack is the best-liked actor in show business. He is my favorite comedian and I hope to be his friend until he is forty. That will be forever."
Nevertheless, they put up a good act. How popular was their feud with radio audiences? Benny and Allen benefited more than anyone could have imagined. Jack Benny’s Number One show leaped from a 26.9 Clark-Hooper rating in January, 1937, to a 36.5 in February. Fred Allen’s Town Hall Tonight and Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall were tied for sixth place with a 21.0 rating in January, then Allen jumped to a 25.3 and third place in February. Benny continued to ride his popularity to finish the season as Sunday’s most popular program while Allen was just a 7/10ths of a point behind George Burns & Gracie Allen for Wednesday’s highest rated show.
Unknown to the general public was another winner in this fight: Young & Rubicam Advertising which represented both Benny’s sponsor, General Foods’ Jello, and Allen’s sponsoring products, Bristol Myers’ Ipana toothpaste and Sal Hepatica laxative.
The Benny show of March 7, 1937, originated from New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel with Mary Livingston, Don Wilson and Kenny Baker from the regular cast and bandleader Abe Lyman substituting for Phil Harris who stayed behind in Hollywood. A surprise guest from past Benny broadcasts is Sam Hearn as Shleperman. The Benny-Allen skirmish is kept alive with the appearance of young violinist Stewart Canin, whose performance of The Bee ignited the feud in the first place. The youngster was grilled about his “true” age by Benny until he finally admitted that he was actually ten years and four months old.
Allen’s Town Hall Tonight of March 10, 1937 was surprisingly bland until 41:45 when Fred launched into a three minute jibe fest about Benny with Harry Von Zell and a scant hint of what was coming the following Sunday night.
By contrast, The Jello Program of March 14, 1937, was full of surprises and fireworks. Sam Hearn as Shleperman paid another visit, Mary Livingston sang a novelty solo With Those Eyes, and Jack followed with a Jello themed version of the song only to be interrupted at 14:45 of the show by Fred Allen who burst in unannounced. What followed for the second half of the show was a barrage of hilarious scripted and ad-lib insults and challenges between Benny and Allen leading to a, "... let's step outside and settle this." When they returned a few minutes later it was settled - at least temporarily.
But Jack Benny and Fred Allen knew they had a good thing when they had it. So did the network, their sponsors and their agency. Most importantly, the listening public wanted the feud to flare up again. They wouldn't be disappointed. Stay tuned.
(1) In a great dialog at the beginning of the feud, Jack Benny spouts to Mary Livingston, "Fred Allen isn't even his real name!" She snidely responds, "Is Jack Benny yours?"
2) Other reports of the day confused Shubert's The Bee with Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of The Bumble Bee. Unfortunately, no recordings of this broadcast were found nor were many other Fred Allen's Town Hall Tonight shows from this period.
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