New user, HUGE Jack Benny radio fan

[Radioman]

Hello,
I just joined and a huge Jack Benny radio program fan. I am 33, and have listened to Jack Benny and other Old Time Radio since I was 13. I have just recently found the website Antiqueradios.com which offers free dowload of nearly every Jack Benny program recorded. So, I since I am able to listen online to these while I work my boring eight hour job, I can listen all day to program after program. I have since rediscovered everything I love about the Jack Benny shows, and also ask questions of the other members of this board.

First off, I have never seen the Jack Benny TV show, and have no idea what they were like. I have only seen him for a few minutes in a couple of movies, one of which was I think Meanest Man in the World. That had both JB and Rochester.

I first discovered JB when I tuned in an NPR station in Cincinnati which played swing all weekend, and OTR shows in weekend evenings. At that point I had never heard swing and realized I really liked it. When the OTR shows started, I had never heard one before and enjoyed it. I believe the first one I heard was Great Gildersleeve. That was followed by JB. I thought GG was funny, but thought JB was even better. I didn't know exactly what I was listening to, since I had never heard an OTR show before. What I THOUGHT it was was a very well-miked stage show of some sort. It was later when I found out it was simply a group of actors standing around one microphone reading from scripts.

I've liked JB ever since and have bought a few tapes of the shows over the years.

Here's a question I have always had.

Since the actors were just standing around a microphone, how did they "perform" to the audience? I mean, even though this show is ONLY audio, we can't see what the performers are doing, which is mostly just reading. But the audience sees what they are doing (Jack's pauses, expressions and hand gestures. . . Well!) and react to it. I get disappointed when the audience is roaring with laughter at Jack's expressions that we can't see. But what we can hear is absolutely golden. Awesome writing and very funny material. Nonstop funny material. Over all the episodes of JB I have ever heard, I have never been disappointed with any of them (like, "that one wasn't so great"). Compare this to today's television. I can only think of a few shows that never disappoint me after so many years. Simpsons is one. Other shows, like MASH were hilarious at times, and oftentimes not so great.

It's amazing that we can listen to radio comedy from over half a century ago and still find it funny.

I like the aspect of the "show within a show" concept. Great Gildersleeve, for instance, was a situation comedy that rarely broke the 4th Wall. But JB was literally listening to a funny group of people, who for many of the shows were just experiencing situations before the actual shows would start. I love that.

And Rochester's voice has to be one of the funniest and most unusual voices I've ever heard. And the relationship between him and Jack is just priceless.

I've got a million things I'd like to discuss, so I'd like to stop here and open the forum up for comments.

What do you like (or dislike) about Jack Benny and other OTR?

radioman

[shimp scrampi]

Hi Radioman

I'm thereabouts the same age as you, funny to be one of those kids listening to Jack Benny instead of Duran Duran or whatever in the '80s!

Check out the film clip under "Programs" to see what the radio show looked like when it was performed (Thanks Laura!), that was a real revelation for me. And the internet does make it all so much more accessible.