Subject: [removed] Digest V2013 #24
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 3/1/2013 4:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

    ------------------------------

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2013 : Issue 24
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re:Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto [removed]    [ Brent Pellegrini <brentpl@rocketmai ]
      Naming names on Jack Benny Show       [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
      re: Jack Benny minutiae               [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
      Re: Jack Benny intro                  [ "danhughes@[removed]" <danhughes@jun ]
      Jack Benny minutia                    [ "Don A. Holshuh" <marathondon@[removed] ]
      Re: Jack Benny minutiae               [ Alan/Linda Bell <alanlinda43@yahoo. ]
      Jack Benny                            [ A Joseph Ross <joe@[removed] ]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:54:12 -0500
    From: Brent Pellegrini <brentpl@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto [removed]
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Van Cliburn died so I listened to Tchaikovsky piano concerto [removed] That is
    what he played in 1958 when he "Jesse Owensed" the Russians at their own game.
    The begininng sounded like a radio show theme I've heard in the past. First
    Nighter? Lux? Can anyone refresh my memory?

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:54:49 -0500
    From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
    To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Naming names on Jack Benny Show

    A Digester, who declined to sign his posting, is wondering why every cast
    member is introduced by their name on the show, except Eddie Anderson, who is
    called by his character, "Rochester."

    That's pretty obvious, since everyone was called by their character name on
    the show; [removed] Jack Benny played "Jack Benny." If Don Wilson had been
    reciting real names instead of character names, he would have said, "Benjamin
    Kubelsky, Sadye Marks, Owen Patrick McNulty, Edmund Lincoln Anderson, Jr.,
    [removed]"  But of course, everyone in the cast were merely introduced by their
    character [removed](which usually was their professional name also.)

    Jack French
    Editor: RADIO RECALL
    <[removed]>

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:55:59 -0500
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  re: Jack Benny minutiae

    radioaz@[removed] queried the listing of actors in the credits of the Jack
    Benny show, noting that

>     Everybody gets listed by their
>     name except Eddie Anderson, he gets billed by the name of his character.

    Actually they are all listed by their character names. However, most of them
    used their character names when away from the mic (and camera) as well. Thus,
    Benjamin Kubelsky played a character named Jack Benny, a character whose name
    he used offstage as well. Ditto for Sadie Marks (Mary Livingstone) and Owen
    Patrick Eugene McNulty (Dennis Day). Only Phil Harris and Don Wilson kept
    their birth names when they went into show business. Eddie Anderson didn't go
    by Rochester Van Jones in his private or non-Benny professional life, and he
    is billed by his real name when he did movie and TV credits (often as Eddie
    "Rochester" Anderson, I suppose because people didn't know who Eddie Anderson
    was -- the same way Howard Duff was originally billed in films as "Howard
    Duff Radio's Sam Spade"). But to my knowledge he never used Rochester van
    Jones out in the real world.

    There's an episode -- can't remember which one -- in which Mary flubs and
    refers to Rochester by the actor's real name. And Jack corrects saying
    something like "Mary, when you meet him in the street he's Mr. Anderson, but
    on this show he's Rochester van Jones."

    Cheers,
    Kermyt

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:56:25 -0500
    From: "danhughes@[removed]" <danhughes@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Jack Benny intro

    radioaz asks:

>     Don Wilson always introduced the cast by saying "starring Jack Benny, with
>     Mary Livingstone, Dennis Day, Rochester, Phil Harris and me, Don WIlson."
>     Everybody gets listed by their name except Eddie Anderson, he gets billed by
>     the name of his character.  Anyone know why that was done?

    Sure.  He was giving ALL the character names!  Rochester was the only one who
    didn't use his real name as his character name.

    ---Dan

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:58:03 -0500
    From: "Don A. Holshuh" <marathondon@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jack Benny minutia

    Hello,
    Regarding the recent posting about the introduction of characters at
    the beginning of the Jack Benny show. Each participant was indeed
    introduced using their real name (of course, Mary Livingstone, famous
    for her faux pas utterance of "Chiss sweeze", was actually Jack Benny's
    wife,whose real name was Sadie Marks). Although it is pure conjecture
    on my part, I believe that Eddie Anderson was introduced only as his
    character, Rochester, in the same way that Sadie Marks was introduced
    as Mary Livingstone. I know that I listened to a great many Jack Benny
    programs before I realized that Mary Livingstone was indeed his wife. I
    suspect that very few people knew that Rochester's real name was Eddie
    Anderson. I recently read Joan Benny's (their adopted daughter)
    semi-autobiographical book  "Sunday Night at Seven-The Jack Benny
    Story" in which she stated that it was not uncommon for people to ask
    her about their butler, Rochester. She also mentioned that she was
    often questioned about the "heavily guarded safe" in the basement. She
    was surprised that so many people thought that what was portrayed on
    the program was actually a representation of Jack Benny's home.
    Don A. Holshuh

    ------------------------------

    Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:58:45 -0500
    From: Alan/Linda Bell <alanlinda43@[removed];
    To: Old Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Jack Benny minutiae

>     Everybody gets listed by their
>     name except Eddie Anderson, he gets billed by the name of
>     his character. Anyone know why that was done?

    Actually, that's not quite true. Mary Livingston is also the name of her
    character. The only difference is that at some point, the former Sadie (Sadye
    ... or however she spelled it) Marx had her named legally changed to her
    character's name. So the woman and the African-American are the only people
    in the cast not using their own names. Hmmm.

    Sadie/Mary had started earlier, playing some sort of swooning fan of Jack's
    on an early version of the show. The character's name was Mary Livingstone.
    And of course, Eddie Anderson was not given a name at all in his first
    appearance, portraying a train porter who never heard of Albuquerque. It was
    supposed to be a one-off but he was so funny that they decided to bring him
    back, at first as other nameless characters, then finally as Jack's
    butler/valet/whatever.

    In fact, to be really picky, both Jack and Dennis Day are using stage names
    that they eventually changed legally. As most of us know, Jack was Benjamin
    Kubelsky and Dennis was Owen Patrick McNulty. So I guess you could say that
    only Phil Harris and Don Wilson are actually using their own names. (Though I
    just learned from Wiki-"I know everything"-pedia that Harris' first name was
    Wonga! Wonga???)

    AB
    _________________
    Alan/Linda Bell
    Santa Rosa, CA

    ------------------------------

    Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 10:25:41 -0500
    From: A Joseph Ross <joe@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jack Benny

>     Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:20:11 -0500
>     From: <radioaz@[removed];

>     First, the theme strikes me as the comingling of two songs.  The first few
>     bars sound like they come from George M. Cohan's "I'm a Yankee Doodle
>     Dandy."  Then it segues smoothly into "Love in Bloom."  Is that what it
>     actually was, or is there some other explanation for they way it sounds?

    That's what it was.  I believe that opening theme, which returns at the
    end to "Yankee Doodle Dandy," was used starting with Lucky Strike's
    sponsorship in the late 1940s.  The closing theme was "Hooray For
    Hollywood."

>     Second, at the beginning of the show ... Everybody gets listed by their
>     name except Eddie Anderson, he gets billed by the name of his character.
>     Anyone know why that was done?

    The name Mary Livingstone (originally without the final e) started as
    the name of a character, a fan from Plainfield, [removed], who appeared on
    the show to read a poem. The character was  played by Jack's wife, Sadie
    Marks.  The character's name took over and became her name, as the name
    Rochester took over at least to the extent that he tended to be called
    that off-stage.  At least Eddie Anderson still was known by his original
    name some of the time.  Sadie Marks's name completely disappeared.

    --
    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]| 92 State Street| Suite 700| Boston, MA 02109-2004
    [removed]|[removed]| [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2013 Issue #24
    ********************************************

    Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
      including republication in any form.

    If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
       [removed]

    For Help: [removed]@[removed]

    To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

    To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
      or see [removed]

    For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
      in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

    To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

    In the event of a major mail problem, please contact the listmaster via
      the web-based contact form available at [removed]
      (on the sidebar) or follow/DM CFSummers on Twitter

    To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]