FRED ALLEN AND....MAXWELL STROUD (?)...FOUGHT LIKE DOGS AND PUSSYCATS.
THE FEUD - ROUND TWO
Jack Benny, Fred Allen, NBC and their sponsors - General Foods and Bristol Myers with the common ad agency, Young & Rubicam - all agreed that they had something going with the two comedian’s feud that began in January, 1937. The mock battle had helped to make Benny’s Sunday show the Number One rated program of 1936-37 season and Allen’s Wednesday night variety hour, Number Six. (See The 1936-37 Season on this site.)
After their “armistice” the previous March, (See The Feud - Round One), the Allen vs. Benny “feud” seemed to settle back to occasional sniping over the spring and fall of 1937. Then, Fred’s Town Hall Tonight of December 22, 1937, originated from Jack’s home turf of Hollywood where Fred was filming Sally, Irene & Mary. (1) Benny first appears briefly unannounced at the top of the program and then at the :13 mark. After several false starts, he engages in an entertaining 15-minute barrage of insults with Allen. The feud was back in business.
Jack gave Fred’s movie, Sally, Irene & Mary, kidding plugs on his shows of early 1938, but the feud didn’t kick into high gear again until he visited Allen’s home town, New York City, with Eddie (Rochester) Anderson and his Jello Program of March 27, 1938. Originating from Radio City, announcer Harry Von Zell substitutes for Don Wilson and bandleader Abe Lyman for Phil Harris.. “Surprise” guests on the show included Robert (“Believe It Or Not”) Ripley and Kate Smith, both of whom, like Benny, had weekly programs sponsored by General Foods. But the fun really begins at 22 minutes into the broadcast when Fred Allen bursts in to trade insults with Jack for the rest of the show.
A few weeks later at the 45 minute mark of Town Hall Tonight on May 18, 1938, Fred launches into “The House That Jack Built,” a twelve-minute “historical” tableau presenting a lineage of five cheap Bennys through history who never occupied their newly constructed homes. (2) On the January 22, 1939, Jello Program, Allen comes in for blasting at 20 minutes of the show in “How I Saved Fred Allen’s Life,” (with a blood transfusion in a hilarious hospital sequence).
Benny opens his January 29, 1939 show dictating a threatening telegram to Fred Allen and signing it as The Clutching Hand. The show introduces his “bodyguard” Aubrey, and after whacks at Allen a bizarre scene in the dark streets of Beverly Hills set up by a call from Rochester telling Jack of a collect Western Union wire from Allen and warning him of a prowler in the backyard. On the trip home Aubrey reveals himself to be a mugger, taking Jack’s watch, his pants and worse yet, his money. .
Jack trains for a fight with Fred at Andy Devine‘s farm on the show of February 5, 1939. After their trip to the country, Jack enlists Rochester as his sparring partner with predictable results. But the main event with Allen was never fought and the running gag ran out of gas at the end of the broadcast while the writers convened to come up with the next one.
Jack is “home” sick with a cold he caught from his pet polar bear, Carmichael, (voiced by Mel Blanc), on the Jello Program of March 19, 1939. (3) But the gang visits him to learn his reaction to Allen’s charge earlier in the week that he is really an imposter named Maxwell Stroud. It’s a strong hint that Allen and Benny’s writers were colluding to keep the gag running.
At 31 minutes of the March 22, 1939 Town Hall Tonight Fred interviews the “real” Jack Benny from Waukegan who produces two witnesses to attest to his identity. Benny’s show the following Sunday, March 26, 1939, is interrupted at 10:30 by the arrival of Ed Sullivan. (4) Sullivan says he's was in town so his syndicated newspaper column could get the scoop on Allen’s allegation that Benny is really Maxwell Stroud. The following skit, Murder At The Hotel Chafing Dish, seems to have nothing to do with the gag until its bang-up climax. The “murder” of Maxwell Stroud brought an abrupt end to the gag.
Fred and wife Portland spend several minutes discussing Jack’s latest movie, Man About Town, at 30:30 of the June 21, 1939, Town Hall Tonight broadcast. They sprinkled his barbs with a heavy plugs for the following Sunday’s Jello Program originating from Benny’s home town of Waukegan, Illinois. But those were the feud’s parting shots of a relatively mild season.
Both Allen and Benny were both warming up for a heated Round 3 beginning in the fall as a promotional buildup for their first co-starring movie.
(1) Allen had a supporting role in 20th Century Fox’s musical comedy, Sally Irene & Mary, co-starring Alice Faye and her first husband, Tony Martin.
(2) Again, only a few recordings of Allen’s Town Hall Tonight broadcasts from the 1938-39 season exist, which make reporting the verbal sparring appear to be one-sided.
(3) Mel Blanc’s many roles on Jack Benny’s programs are covered at the post Mel Blanc.
(4) Jack Benny made his first radio appearance on Sullivan’s CBS program March 19th, 1932, with a routine that led to the his first series for Canada Dry two months later on the Blue Network.
Copyright © 2018, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
Jack Benny, Fred Allen, NBC and their sponsors - General Foods and Bristol Myers with the common ad agency, Young & Rubicam - all agreed that they had something going with the two comedian’s feud that began in January, 1937. The mock battle had helped to make Benny’s Sunday show the Number One rated program of 1936-37 season and Allen’s Wednesday night variety hour, Number Six. (See The 1936-37 Season on this site.)
After their “armistice” the previous March, (See The Feud - Round One), the Allen vs. Benny “feud” seemed to settle back to occasional sniping over the spring and fall of 1937. Then, Fred’s Town Hall Tonight of December 22, 1937, originated from Jack’s home turf of Hollywood where Fred was filming Sally, Irene & Mary. (1) Benny first appears briefly unannounced at the top of the program and then at the :13 mark. After several false starts, he engages in an entertaining 15-minute barrage of insults with Allen. The feud was back in business.
Jack gave Fred’s movie, Sally, Irene & Mary, kidding plugs on his shows of early 1938, but the feud didn’t kick into high gear again until he visited Allen’s home town, New York City, with Eddie (Rochester) Anderson and his Jello Program of March 27, 1938. Originating from Radio City, announcer Harry Von Zell substitutes for Don Wilson and bandleader Abe Lyman for Phil Harris.. “Surprise” guests on the show included Robert (“Believe It Or Not”) Ripley and Kate Smith, both of whom, like Benny, had weekly programs sponsored by General Foods. But the fun really begins at 22 minutes into the broadcast when Fred Allen bursts in to trade insults with Jack for the rest of the show.
A few weeks later at the 45 minute mark of Town Hall Tonight on May 18, 1938, Fred launches into “The House That Jack Built,” a twelve-minute “historical” tableau presenting a lineage of five cheap Bennys through history who never occupied their newly constructed homes. (2) On the January 22, 1939, Jello Program, Allen comes in for blasting at 20 minutes of the show in “How I Saved Fred Allen’s Life,” (with a blood transfusion in a hilarious hospital sequence).
Benny opens his January 29, 1939 show dictating a threatening telegram to Fred Allen and signing it as The Clutching Hand. The show introduces his “bodyguard” Aubrey, and after whacks at Allen a bizarre scene in the dark streets of Beverly Hills set up by a call from Rochester telling Jack of a collect Western Union wire from Allen and warning him of a prowler in the backyard. On the trip home Aubrey reveals himself to be a mugger, taking Jack’s watch, his pants and worse yet, his money. .
Jack trains for a fight with Fred at Andy Devine‘s farm on the show of February 5, 1939. After their trip to the country, Jack enlists Rochester as his sparring partner with predictable results. But the main event with Allen was never fought and the running gag ran out of gas at the end of the broadcast while the writers convened to come up with the next one.
Jack is “home” sick with a cold he caught from his pet polar bear, Carmichael, (voiced by Mel Blanc), on the Jello Program of March 19, 1939. (3) But the gang visits him to learn his reaction to Allen’s charge earlier in the week that he is really an imposter named Maxwell Stroud. It’s a strong hint that Allen and Benny’s writers were colluding to keep the gag running.
At 31 minutes of the March 22, 1939 Town Hall Tonight Fred interviews the “real” Jack Benny from Waukegan who produces two witnesses to attest to his identity. Benny’s show the following Sunday, March 26, 1939, is interrupted at 10:30 by the arrival of Ed Sullivan. (4) Sullivan says he's was in town so his syndicated newspaper column could get the scoop on Allen’s allegation that Benny is really Maxwell Stroud. The following skit, Murder At The Hotel Chafing Dish, seems to have nothing to do with the gag until its bang-up climax. The “murder” of Maxwell Stroud brought an abrupt end to the gag.
Fred and wife Portland spend several minutes discussing Jack’s latest movie, Man About Town, at 30:30 of the June 21, 1939, Town Hall Tonight broadcast. They sprinkled his barbs with a heavy plugs for the following Sunday’s Jello Program originating from Benny’s home town of Waukegan, Illinois. But those were the feud’s parting shots of a relatively mild season.
Both Allen and Benny were both warming up for a heated Round 3 beginning in the fall as a promotional buildup for their first co-starring movie.
(1) Allen had a supporting role in 20th Century Fox’s musical comedy, Sally Irene & Mary, co-starring Alice Faye and her first husband, Tony Martin.
(2) Again, only a few recordings of Allen’s Town Hall Tonight broadcasts from the 1938-39 season exist, which make reporting the verbal sparring appear to be one-sided.
(3) Mel Blanc’s many roles on Jack Benny’s programs are covered at the post Mel Blanc.
(4) Jack Benny made his first radio appearance on Sullivan’s CBS program March 19th, 1932, with a routine that led to the his first series for Canada Dry two months later on the Blue Network.
Copyright © 2018, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
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