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Digging into the Retro Vault, we pull out this early installment, and first time we did a salute.
Clips include:
Movie promo and trailer of the film, Love Thy Neighbor, that featured Jack Benny and Fred Allen, Also musical numbers by Mary Livingston, the Merrymacs, and even Rochester.
One feature of Jack’s early shows was a farewell to the old year. In this clip, Fred Allen visits to help out by playing the part of Uncle Sam in the sketch, after a healthy dose of swapping insults of course. The band plays a smooth, swinging interlude then the play starts, Good bye 1942.
Over on Fred Allen’s program, we find him talking a little trash about Jack Benny. Meanwhile, we visit Jack as he tells Don and Mary how he and Fred first met in vaudeville. Rochester hears a different version of that first encounter from Fred.
During a stray Summer broadcast, Jack and the gang are on the air on Friday. They put on a version of Allen’s Alley. The stroll down Benny’s Boulevard tries to answer the question, Who’s the funnier comedian, Jack Benny, or Fred Allen?
Back over to Fred Allen, he shares a word with Talulah Bankhead. What new idea does he have for a radio show? It’s actually Portland who describes it. The Pinch Penny show sounds eerily like Jack Benny’s show. Hmm…
