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Radio Vaudevillians at Christmas



Christmas seems to bring out the best in most of us, even when our best isn't that much to brag about!
In 1936, Gracie Allen takes time out from her crush on Tony Martin to share with us a play she has written, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. George Burns is surprised, having thought that Charles Dickens had written it, but in the tradition of the Burns and Allen Show, he is corrected by his lovely bride. Of course for Gracie, we are haunted by the Ghosts Radio Past, Present and Future. These ghosts wind up being impressions of Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, and Fred Allen to George's Scrooge, the Joke Miser, who steals everyone else's jokes!
The real Fred Allen celebrates Christmas of 1937 with Portland Hoffa and the rest of the Town Hall Tonight crew, joined by his old Vaudeville pal, Jack Benny. This is a fun paring for Old Time Radio fans, taking place within a few months of the opening salvos of the famous Jack Benny, Fred Allen Feud. Benny manages to help the Mighty Allen Art Players portray a Sit-down strike by Santa Claus after trying to sell his Maxwell automobile to Fred.
In 1938 the Jello Program falls on Christmas Day, so Jack Benny holds a Christmas Open House at his Beverly Hills home. One of the biggest surprises is that Jack has provided seven olives for his six guests! But his plan to make Phil Harris jealous over the girl he has "stolen" from him, Barbara Whitney, when Phil shows up escorting Joan Bennet, Jack's co-star from Artists and Models Abroad (1938).
Christmas is a time for home and family, and we hope that you'll agree that Christmas with these great Christmas comics follows that tradition!

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