Jack and the Mills Brothers

[Maxwell]

I guess this could be in a section called Jack Benny yesterday, since it was on 24 hours ago. WWME, a low-powered TV station in Chicago is showing reruns of Jack Benny and the Burns & Allen show on Sunday nights. Last night was Jack in Las Vegas. The part I enjoyed was that the first half of the show was devoted to the Mills Brothers, one of my favorite vocal groups from the '30s through the '60s. (I inherited all of my dad's Mills Brothers 78s when he died.)

The part that irritated me was the laugh track when the brothers were singing. Of course the lead in more than made up for my irritation. Jack hires Harry and Donald to sing because he doesn't want to pay all four people in the act. But Donald insists so Herbert and their accompanist are brought in for as Jack said, "the first time in television hisotry that the guests stars have guest stars." This, of course, leads to the brother's manager shooting himself offstage.

That's one part of Jack's program that has always been interesting to me: Jack's actions resulting in nervous breakdowns, attempted suicides, etc. And you have to admit, it's certainly a logical consequence of his exasperating behavior.

Jack's reaction in the Las Vegas segment to slot machines is also hilarious.

[Sidebar: The B&A episode that followed happened to be the one in which Larry Keating replaced Fred Clark as Harry Morton. I hadn't seen that episode in years. I think it must have been one of the first episodes in which George acknowledged, other than the usual monologues, that this was a TV show. The action stops and George and Larry have a brief conversation to introduce himself to the audience as Bea Benadaret as Blanche stands waiting to hit him with a book. George then calls Bea over, and they chat briefly before George sends her back and then Larry goes to the chair to be hit. It wouldn't be long in the run of the program that George would soon be watching all of the action on TV in his study.]

[shimp scrampi]

Jack tells a very honest story in Sunday Nights at Seven about working with the Mills Bros. - one of those anecdotes that just makes you wince - when the Mills Bros. came to rehearsal to be on Jack's show, he went up and warmly greeted them with a chorus of "If I Didn't Care" - confusing them with the Ink Spots who had appeared on the show years earlier. When one of them very politely pointed out Jack's mistake, he quite understandably felt like he wanted to crawl under a rock! Ouch.

Also as a sidebar - George pulled variations of that same stunt for each of the three times "Harry Morton" was replaced on the B&A TV show!

[David47Jens]

George [Burns] pulled variations of that same stunt for each of the three times "Harry Morton" was replaced on the B&A TV show!

Aha! (Or, should I say, "Hoo-hoo-hooooooo?") Can you supply us with more details of the above? If there were indeed three "variations of that same stunt," it would/could explain why I've heard of three different versions of the same scene.

I myself have seen the version posted earlier, wherein Larry was "introduced" to Bea as her "new" husband, but I've also heard that one "old Harry" was swapped for a "new Harry" on-camera; both actors appeared together in the scene. Additionally, I read an interview with George himself where George states that he not-so-tactfully explained to the audience that the old Harry wanted too much money(!) at contract negotiation time, hence... a new Harry.

Any clarifying info would be greatly appreciated!

[Maxwell]

Hal March was replaced when the show was still live. I've read that Burns announced that he was going to be doing another show or something like that. He was replaced by John Brown who was soon blacklisted, so it couldn't have been him. I think I remember hearing George say that Clark was going to New York. (The brain is going fast, obviously.) So maybe Burns was mixing what was actually going on with what was shown on the air.

[shimp scrampi]

Sorry for the veer into B&A territory Jack Benny fans - but, hey a request is a request!

When Hal March left, to be replaced by John Brown, George basically just turned to the audience and announced that Hal had gone to New York to do his own show and wished him luck (no, he did NOT say he was asking for too much money) - also, March eventually came back to the show as Harry Morton's (Fred Clark) partner, Casey as a semi-regular.

When John Brown left - yep, because of the blacklist - and Fred Clark came on the scene, this is how it played out - George mentioned John Brown had to leave because of 'other commitments' and brings Fred Clark out on stage and introduces him to the audience. Here's the dialogue:

Fred: Thank you George, I'm happy to be here. By the way, I haven't met my wife yet.
George: Blanche Morton. (Bea walks on) Bea, I'd like you to meet...
Bea: Fred Clark!
Fred: Bea...Bea Benaderet! (they embrace)
George: Oh, you know one another.
Bea: Sure.
George: Well, from now on you two will be husband and wife.
Fred: Then we'd better cut this out.

None of the transitions were done with both actors on stage at the same time.

For the definitive B&A TV book, I HIGHLY recommend Say Goodnight Gracie by Cheryl Blythe and Susan Sackett. Out of print but not hard to find (that's where the info here is from).

[David47Jens]

Sorry for the veer into B&A territory Jack Benny fans - but, hey a request is a request!

For the definitive B&A TV book, I HIGHLY recommend Say Goodnight Gracie by Cheryl Blythe and Susan Sackett. Out of print but not hard to find (that's where the info here is from).

Hmm, and I could swear I have a copy of Say Goodnight, Gracie somewhere around here -- "here" being an apartment that resembles the warehouse in the last scene of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" -- but if so, I guess it's one of countless books I have yet to read.

Anyway, thanks so much for the clarification, shimp (and thanks also to Maxwell, for his input). And finally, thanks to all of the Forum readers for remaining silent while we went off-topic for a bit!

[shimp scrampi]

David - it just struck me where some of that story confusion might have originated - when Harry Von Zell replaced Bill Goodwin on the show- the two actors were seen together in a crossover episode, with Harry Von Zell outdoing Bill Goodwin in blathering on about Carnation milk! Harry Von Zell took over solo the next show, with George again making the announcement to the audience.

[Maxwell]

I probably should have mentioned that the Benny episode showed last week was announced (by Jack) as the television debut of Ann-Margret who was then a sophomore at Northwestern. George Burns made an appearance as she had appeared in Burns's Las Vegas show. The copyright date shown was 1961, so I feel all that much older as a result because I probably saw that show when I was 10 or 11 years old (depending on the telecast date).

[LLeff]

David - it just struck me where some of that story confusion might have originated - when Harry Von Zell replaced Bill Goodwin on the show- the two actors were seen together in a crossover episode, with Harry Von Zell outdoing Bill Goodwin in blathering on about Carnation milk! Harry Von Zell took over solo the next show, with George again making the announcement to the audience.

And to stay a little off-topic, there's an item in our video library called "Weekend in Hollywood" (or something close to that) with a really fun exchange between Harry Von Zell and Harlow Wilcox talking about those shows they put on as a joiner between their commercials.

And John Brown (and lots of other usually unseen supporting actors) playing an undertaker.

[Maxwell]

Darn, I forgot to mention another Benny show a couple of weeks ago that I didn't remember at all. Jack was cleaning his attic and I think Rochester pulls out a large collar and leash and says, "Remember this?" I think Jack's only response was, "Ah, yes," or something like that. Not another word was said about the polar bear it obviously had once belonged to.

It's amazing how much Jack Benny lore became a part of the public consciousness.