Eddie Carroll

[mrdj]

For Christmas, my daughter and son-in-law gave me tickets to see Eddie Carroll perform last Saturday night in Arroyo Grande. What a treat it was! We all loved it! My daughter isn't old enough for even the TV Jack Benny, but when she was little, I would play Jack Benny tapes and listen to the KNX Drama Hour when putting the kids to bed. I guess that got her started. Eddie was wonderful. He told Jack's life story, incorporating a few 'Las Vegas' jokes (but by no means blue material-bawdy would be a better word). One my best gifts ever. We were front row-dead center. After the show, we got our picture taken with Mr. Carroll. He was so very gracious. As an aside: What are the odds that part of his show includes recreating a portion of a radio show that happend to be the very one we were listening to as we were driving to the performance( Jack going to Houston for a benefit and the requiste hillarity at the train station)...trains leaving for various rhyming places, followed by drums and cymbal crash. Another announnement of rhyming names but no drums. Jack waits and finally begins speaking, but is drowned out by the late drums. Mel announces ''Watch it Sam''. It ends with Frank Nelson and Jack at the newstand arguing in rhyme closing with ''You big Jerk!'' and then Mel announcing ''train now leaving for Alberquerk'' drums and cymbal crash!! All in all-a great evening!! Thank you Eddie Carroll for keeping Jack alive and thank you Tracy and Mike for a great Christmas present!

[Brad from Georgia]

Mrdj, you've got me eager for next month--Eddie is coming to our college for a performance of the show on March 24. Just today I lined up the violin for his use!

I agree, it's a wonderful show, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it again.

By the way, what kind of microphone did Eddie use for thye show recreation?

[mrdj]

The mike looked like one of the big ones that you see in photos from the radio era. I'm pretty sure it was only a prop and he used a mike clipped to his suit-jacket lapel.

[Brad from Georgia]

The mike looked like one of the big ones that you see in photos from the radio era. I'm pretty sure it was only a prop and he used a mike clipped to his suit-jacket lapel.

Great, that's the type we're preparing for! Yes, he uses a lapel mike "for real," and the radio mike is just a prop. If that one had NBC on it, it was actually made by a friend of mine!

[Brad from Georgia]

Whoosh! The Eddie Carroll show will have its one-night run one for our college and our sister institution just one week from this coming Friday. Laura, I really sympathize with your memories of planning and running "39 Forever"! This is our spring break week, and I'm spending it mostly on Benny so far....

Went into a local radio station and recorded a 26-second "tag" for Eddie's radio spot;

wrote a feature article for the regional newspaper's Entertainment section;

laid out and typed the program booklet for the show (btw, I included a little "Want to know more about Jack Benny? Check out www.jackbenny.org");
found a music store (owned by a former student of mine) to lend us a violin;

and went with my wife to a friendly antiques store (the owners' children went to our college) to pick out "Jack's" living-room furniture for the set.

But...I'm a Producer!

(Though I feel more like Gene Wilder than Matthew Broderick!)

[Brad from Georgia]

The regional newspaper ran my article promoting Eddie's show in the "Entertainment Guide" section:

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/st ... 7332.shtml

[Brad from Georgia]

Woohoo! It's a sellout crowd for "Jack Benny: Laughter in Bloom" tonight. Eddie and Carolyn have been just wonderful. And when "Jack" discovered a sculplture in front of the college theater that seemed to be an abstract conceptualist imagistic representation of what Benny does to a violin--well! There had to be a picture:

[shimp scrampi]

Great pic! So, how did the show go over, Brad?

[Brad from Georgia]

Hoo hoo HOO, Shimp, I've been waiting for someone to ask!

The show went tremendously well, despite the fact that I was running around like an idiot trying to make sure everything came together. There was an accident that tied up traffic coming north from Atlanta, so we held the curtain for eight minutes. There were a couple of light miscues, but nothing serious.

And the audience sat and roared and applauded for the whole show. Afterward, Eddie greeted fans for forty-five minutes in the lobby. Our theater garnered tons of goodwill, and I heard nothing--absolutely nothing--but praise for Eddie's talents, for the show, even for the set! Charles Dilman, whose Oz Design Studios actually created the prop microphone for Eddie, was able to make it and for the first time saw the mic "in action." My son, daughter-in-law, and daughter saw the show--and my daughter asked me to burn her some Benny shows to CD. I did an assortment from 1947 to 1950, some of my personal favorites, including "Drear Pooson" and "Oh, shut up!" as well as a couple of prime Mel Blanc episodes. By the way, when Eddie mentioned Mel Blanc in the act, there was a gratifying murmur of recognition and fondness.

The recreation of the radio broadcast was phenomenal, despite one light miscue (the lighting board operator got nervous during a HUGE laugh and hit the dimmer too early, but the lights came right back up). I think it's safe to say that, for that one night, everyone in our neck of the woods was a Jack Benny fan all over again.

And I just can't say enough about how kind, thoughtful, gracious, and easy to please the Carrolls were through it all.

[shimp scrampi]

Fantastic! I am really looking forward to catching Eddie Carroll's show one day. I'm impressed the show gathered so much attention and enthusiasm.