Old Time Radio Shows

  We wanted to write this blog post for a long time, but we kept putting it off. Procrastination is often the reason we are late to get things one, but sometimes we are late for reasons which are beyond our control. Simply being late has led to some interesting situations in the plot of the episode, but keep in mind that many of the broadcasts during the Golden Age of Radio were broadcast live, so being late was a real possibility which happened on many occasions. Fred Allen , who was in seemingly constant warfare with the network and his sponsors anyway, was notorious for allowing his show to run over its allotted time slot. This happens on live programs because of the actor's timing or because the studio audience laughs longer than the writer and director expected. Sometimes the actors and director can pick up the pace, or the program might be allowed to run a few seconds over, but in Fred's case, given his reputation with the network, when it was time to ring the NBC Ch...

Valentine's Day is Benjamin Kubelsky's birthday. “There will be a slight pause while you say 'Who cares?'” Old Time Radio fans will recognize the quote as the second sentence uttered on the radio by Kubelsky's alter-ego, Jack Benny . The path from becoming Benjamin Kubelsky to Jack Benny is pretty typical for a vaudevillian on the radio. That is if there is anything typical about a 42 year career at the top of radio and TV. Little Ben Kubelsky was born to a Polish immigrant saloon owner in Chicago and grew up in Waukegan, Ill. Little Ben was given a violin at the age of six, and his parents had high hopes that he would become a concert violinist. Ben loved the violin, but the little boy lacked the discipline to practice seriously. He was able to use the violin to gain pocket money, playing with local dance bands by the time he was 14. A poor student, Ben was attracted to Vaudeville. In 1911, Minnie Marx invited Ben to join her son's act, but his parent would...

There is a revolution, of sorts, going on amongst professional comedians. Comics have always been at the heart of revolution and political discourse. Some of the earliest professional comedians, court jesters or "Royal Fool" were the only voices allowed to make fun of the King. Of course, that meant that the King would be the only one allowed to laugh (out loud) at the jokes, but that did not make them any less funny. A few scholars have pointed out that joke telling is becoming a lost art because we are getting more and more of our laughs from internet memes. A proper joke takes time, it is a small story which needs characters introduced, a situation and often conflicts developed, and then the punchline delivered. The explosion of social media means that everyone is on the same page. Rather than developing the involved story a joke requires, a simple meme with a picture and a few words will have to do. Since we are already on the same page, we all get it. During the Gol...

It is impossible to chronicle the birth of the Fred Allen-Jack Benny radio feud without going into the life and background of Fred Allen . At the age of fourteen, Fred Allen opened a book that would forever change the course of his life . Working as a stock clerk at the Boston Public Library, he picked up a book on the subject of humor. Not only did this literary work put him on the path of comedy, it also sparked a passion that culminated in a book collection. By the time of his death, Fred Allen’s personal library contained thousands of volumes written on the subject of comedy. Beginning his career in vaudeville, Allen soon learned that his comedic skills greatly outweighed his juggling ability and he decided to use the juggling act as an anchor for his comedy. He also appeared in a few short films, before getting his break on radio. At the age of thirty-eight, Fred Allen landed a job, as host of  The Linit Bath Club Revue . The show premiered on October 23, 1932 ...