This week, we present a new infrequent feature at the Picture Show blog, where I will be sharing radio shows from my collection featuring movie stars from the golden age of films. Some may be adaptations of movies you know and love…some may be programs where the stars play against type and some may be guest appearances on shows with other stars.
This month, we focus on Jack Benny, a man who was born on February 14th, 1894 and doubtlessly would’ve been 39 years old this year were he still with us. While Benny is more known for being a radio comedian, he did have a long, though sporadic career in films. We’ve occasionally showcased his films at the Picture Show and Cinevent and thought you may enjoy sampling some radio shows starring him that you may not have heard before.
First up, we have The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre from March 29th, 1942. The play is called Parent by
Proxy. It’s the story of the president of a plumbing supply material company who decides to adopt a French orphan. Benny is the adopter. Paulette Goddard co-stars as the adoptee. Roger Pryor and Frank Nelson add to the supporting cast in a script by future Benny writer Sam Perrin, Keith Fowler (George Burns & Gracie Allen; Fibber McGee and Molly) and Frank Galen (A Day in The Life of Dennis Day).
A second performance of the show with much of the same cast was performed in 1947. That program has recently been located and released among collectors of vintage radio material, but because the 1942 version has better sound quality, that’s the one that you get here.
Second on the docket is the March 4th, 1949 broadcast of The Ford Theatre. The story is the famous (or infamous) 1945 Jack Benny film The Horn
Blows at Midnight. This is the oft-maligned story of a junior grade angel that is sent to earth with an important task. The show is produced and directed by Fletcher Markle, with a gigantic cast of film and radio regulars including Claude Rains, Jane Morgan, Jay Novello, Jeanette Nolan, Shirley Mitchell, Anne Whitfield, Hans Conreid, Mercedes McCambridge and many many more.
Next, we have another one-hour adaptation, this one from The Lux Radio Theatre. While the show for decades provided adaptations of popular movies. For December 16, 1946, however, the presentation was what was billed as an unproduced Warner Brothers, script, Killer Cates. This is the story about an actor that is so used to being typecast in the role of gangsters and murderers that he starts to believe it. Benny plays against type in the title role with Gail Patrick, Alan Reed, Gail Gordon, GeGe Pearson, Jay Novello, Ken Christy, Gerald Mohr, Doris Singleton and many others in the cast.
Finally, we present something a little more in line with what you think of when you consider Jack Benny. But it’s not an episode of his decades running Jack Benny Program. It’s another episode of The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre this one from October 20, 1940. Instead of
providing a film or play adaptation for this episode, Jack’s writers at the time, Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin wrote a hilarious program in which Jack petitions himself to star opposite Claudette Colbert on the Gulf Screen guild show. In the supporting cast are no less great stars than Ernst Lubitsch and Basil Rathbone.
Each link will provide you to a flac file of the individual episode from my collection. If you want all four flac files, they’re available here: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZDDk45ZmzY3uJTHX6Y5EUUOD7I87H5BBYv7
Until next time, happy listening!
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