Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

The Benny radio shows are priceless and hold up so much better than some of the other comedy programs of that era. I have them on CD and they can still make me laugh even if I hear them several times. And the characters were great from Don Wilson to Dennis Day to Eddie Anderson to Phil Harris to Mary Livingston, et al.

There was more than one episode where the live audience fell into such a fit of convulsive laughter at Benny's shenanigans that the show had to halt recording and have it edited out later to fit the time slot.

It really is the dizzy limit, how far all those performers went for laughs; how they all participated in the running gags every week; how they constantly let themselves get ego-punctured and self-lampooned.

None more so than Benny of course, who embraced the most embarrassing jeers about every possible vanity a man might conceivably possess: lack of muscles, lack of hair, lack of musical talent, hypocrisy, lying, flattering, and of course his 'cheapness'. He played a petulant, self-infaturated, foppish, poppinjay.

Phil Harris too, was always playing not just drunk but also illiterate past the point of farce. Dennis Day played himself as nearly retarded. Don Wilson took every 'fat' joke the writers could think of.

Getting laughs was like, life-or-death for this program and several of its competitors. Manic.

quiz #13

Uh oh........this one may stump me even though he looks familiar.

ha! Well, even Muhammad Ali had off-days...

He looks a little bit like the great British character actor, Skelton Knaggs but it can't be him since I don't think he was ever in a color film and died in the early 1950s. The picture looks later than that.

This is a wild guess....Stan Freberg. I just don't think I know who this guy is.

The red hair must have tipped you off. You're correct! A radio comedian, he yet managed to get a cameo in Mad-Mad-Mad-Mad World as deputy to Andy Devine at the Santa Rosita PD. Ha

I think his name popped up when we were talking about Mad-Mad-Mad and I thought that maybe it could be him but honestly, that was just a wild guess.

quiz #14


quiz #15

#14.........She looks a lot like Florence Lawrence, the original Biograph Girl.

#15........huh? I don't think I know who that is

These are intended to be a little tougher. Each of these latest pics is from an actress in her earliest days of American vaudeville or British Variety Theater.

But they are more famous to us all, from much later stages in their careers.

And each actress is a supporting player in films we've recently discussed right here in recent group threads.

These are really tough......I have covered their hair, covered their eyes and covered their mouths which sometimes leads me to recognize a player.......but this time I am really having problems.

Yours (and Betsy's) visual recall is so sharp that I need to make this more of a cerebral exercise.

#14 is a British-born American actress who appeared in every entertainment format at one time or another, from vaudeville on. But she became best-known for playing an elderly character in a support role.

#15 was a British stage and screen star very active during her prime (the '20s and '30s). By the '40s she was a stalwart 'matronly' character actress. We've touched on several big movies recently in which she is cast.

That will give me some food for thought.

Here's an easy one while you sweat over the others. Who's this handsome rake?

quiz 16

#14.......Faye Bainter? I am really grasping at straws. C'mon, Betsy!!

You have to picture #14 with gray hair, I think.

I really hate to do this but I am not going to bring #13 and #14 out of the memory banks and am going to have to ask for the answers I hate to give up but they are just not coming to me. :>(

I agree with you, Jill. I fully admit that I'm stumped.

Well let's work on #14 first. As I said, picture her with gray hair --gray curly hair --and also, thick, round, granny glasses. A shawl. Bustling, fussing manner. And very plump. Dotty, and absent-minded manner.

The reason I think she's interesting is that, she perfected this role in a radio show which later became a TV series and a movie, (and I'm sure no one in the audience ever gave her more than a glance) but it's surprising just how many innocuous performers like this from the 1950s, had careers going all the way back to New York vaudeville.

It's often discouraging the way Hollywood treats its personnel but this one aspect is fine and noble, the way it almost always provides a little work to its "old war-horses" (for lack of better term).

Surely not Gertrude Berg?

Nooo. I suppose I will provide an updated picture, stand by. One more clue: in the series we all know her from, she plays a landlady.

A landlady so absent-minded she loses her train of thought in mid-sentence....

How about Jane Morgan?

Yes! Betsy for the win.

Jane played the wifty landlady to Eve Arden in 'Our Miss Brooks' (radio, tv series, and film) which we discussed here two weeks ago. Check out her pictures online.

Way to go, Betsy!!!!!! I was totally stumped. Now we have to look at #15.

Congrats definitely due.

Well, I have flunked #15.......it just isn't ringing any bells with me.

Clue: she often plays aunts, head nurses, head secretaries, mothers-in-laws, governesses, English peerage (Dames and Ladys) and we know her particularly for her role as a housekeeper. Think of recent films discussed here featuring a housekeeper.

I'm thinking.

She also appears in the cast of a film --of which a photo appears as a clue -- in a previous round of this thread

Barbara Everest

Yes! Betsy nabs it

Everest is the housekeeper in 'Gaslight' and Lady something-or-other in 'Jane Eyre' which also features John Sutton, guessed previously.

Good job!

She's the snobby Lady Ingraham, mother of the horrible Blanche.

Thank heavens......that was driving me nuts. Good job, Betsy.

That's some good visual recall

Now we need to look at #16 who may not be as easy as you thought, Feliks......he looks like a cross between John Derek and Gilbert Roland. I think it is the head scarf" :)0

Again, I deliberately chose the least characteristic photo. Some hunk o' man though, eh? Although never a big star, he certainly had a rugged physique and the necessary, progolithic jaw.

First wild guess......John Carrol?

no...

I am not avoiding this picture....I am just stumped. My second wild guess is John Russell.

Tip: remember that I sometimes like to select those stars who had radio as well as film careers

That gives me food for thought.

Somehow we have been ignoring this topic which is such a good one. My last guess was John Russell and then I think I am out of ideas and Betsy, who always comes through isn't guessing it either. Give us a name, Feliks!!!!

Do you need his name, or more clues?

I will re-emphasize that he was a major radio serial hero like the 'Lone Ranger'. Whereas, his career in front of a camera was mediocre.

His 'look' while playing the radio series: no pirate bandana of course and a much more precise, tiny mustache. And a distinctive hat with a wide, flat, brim.

His last name matches the name of another male star who was already 'solved' in this very thread. Which is why it occurred to me.

Here he is --dressed in casual outdoorsy wear --during his heyday.


not in uniform!

Okay! I guess this last installment of Photo Quiz was too tough.

I won't hold out on ya. You put in game effort. Admittedly, this was a thoroughly obscure brain-teaser.

It's Paul Sutton. Star of radio's "Challenge of the Yukon"

Our earlier quiz featuring John Sutton (who appeared in 'Jane Eyre') called it to mind for this follow-up head-scratcher.

To see the fruits of your patience, just Google 'Paul Sutton' to view this unusually 'husky' actor in all his Royal Canadian finery.

Now, on to the next puzzler!

Obscure indeed. I never would have guessed that one. Whew, bring on another one so I can obsess over it!!

Rolling right along

quiz 17

quiz 18

A couple of 'seedy' characters ...each of whom appears in movies about 'Okies and the dustbowl!

I've seen #18 in many movies and tv shows. can't think of his name and it's right on the tip of my tongue.