Posts Tagged ‘OTR Comedies’
*The Jack Benny Show with Guest Star Ronald Colman
For the two and a half decades The Jack Benny Show was on radio, Benny and his writers came up with some of the most And they mined them like gold. Just a few of the ongoing jokes were:
And of course there were many more. One of Jack’s favorite bits, and I dare say mine, was the ongoing relationship between Jack and his “next door neighbors,” Ronald Colman and Benita Hume (the real life Mrs. Colman). The Colmans first guest starred on the show in 1945. They played Jack’s neighbors, a prop that had been mentioned on prior shows but never actually dramatized. The episode was so popular (you can hear it below) that the Colmans were called back several times that season and for the next several seasons after that. The gag, of course, was that Ronald and Benita Colman were a proper British couple: Very refined and very reserved in their manners and social graces. Benny was — well, Benny. He constantly borrowed items from his neighbors and Mr. Colman quietly seethed at the audacity of Benny’s miserly ways. Looking out the front window, Colman regularly observed not only the spectacle next door, but also Jack’s antics in the neighborhood. He was constantly bewildered by the way Benny was followed around by his group of “dimwitted” friends, especially “that Phil Harris fellow.” Mr. Colman, much too much the proper English gentleman, could never actually be rude and tell Benny what he thought. Instead, he dumped all his frustrations on his his poor, long suffering wife Benita — who constantly got an ear full. And as the third person in the room, so did we. Jack, of course, was completely oblivious to Colman’s attitude. Benny considered himself equal to, or superior, to the Colman’s on every level: as an actor, as a star, in his social life . . . well, you get the picture. The results were hilarious. We will write more on The Jack Benny Show in the near future. In the meantime, here are some great episodes that featured Ronald Colman and Benita Hume. They are classics, each and every one! ***************************************** This is my YUSA Radio Show 3/23/2009: It featured two episodes of the Benny Show featuring Ronald and Benita Colman. The first episode is titled: Jack Loses Ronald Colman’s Oscar and originally aired in March, 1948. The second episode is titled: Last Week’s Mistakes and originally aired November, 1949. In this episode Jack visits Colman on the working set of his film Champagne for Caesar. My YUSA Show 3/23/2009 featuring 2 Jack Benny Show episodes with Ronald Colman Here is the first Benny episode that featured the Colman’s: Jack Benny Show 12-09-45 The first appeance by the Colemans Here are some of the other Benny Shows that featured the Colmans. I chose only the episodes with good sound quality: Jack Benny Show 12-23-45 The English Butler with the Colemans Jack Benny Show 11-17-46 Guests: Leo Durocher and Ronald Colman Jack Benny Show 4-27-47 The Colmans ride in Jack’s car Jack Benny Show 2-14-48 Jack and Mary go to see Ronald Colman’s new movie This episode of the Benny Show revealed what happened to the Ronald Colman Oscar. (This had been an ongoing subject of the show for several weeks, including an episode that found Jack trying to borrow Bing Crosby’s Oscar.) Jack Benny Show 5-9-48 What happened to Ronald Colmans Oscar? This Benny episode, titled At the Races, has some extremely funny bits. Listen for Sheldon Leonard as the handicapper — it is hilarious! Jack Benny Show 3-6-49 At the Races with Ronald and Benita Colman Here is a radio adaptation of Champagne for Caesar, the movie Coleman was filming when Benny visited the set on the 11/49 episode of The Jack Benny Show. This presentation, which appeared on The Screen Guild Players, features Ronald Coleman, Vincent Price, Audrey Totter, Barbara Britten and Art Linkletter. It is 60 minutes in length and the recording quality is excellent. |
