What happened to Don, Jon, and Frank?

[krledu]

I have started listening to the JB episdoes from the beginning (again) and heard some characters that I wasn't very familar with. These were people like Don Bestor, Johnny Green and Frank Parker. ( I don't know if I spelled there names right or not.) But they all were replaced and I was wondering if anyone knew why they left. Especially like Johnny Green left in the middle of the season if I remember correctly. Does anyone know anything about them?

Also, I thought the early shows were just not as funny as some of the later ones. Now I am talking about the show from the mid- 30's. Maybe because I didn't undestand the humor or something but the audience didn't seem to be lauging a whole bunch either. Jack and Same Hearn seem to carry show because the characters were not that strong and didn't seem to get many laughs. Interesting to listen to those shows because you can hear where some gags got thier start and how some of the jokes that Kenny Baker and the various orchestra leaders had re-appeared in later shows.

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

Frank Parker sang for years with Arthur Godfrey and appears in "Paris Follies of 1956", which also features The Sportsmen Quartet

Johnny Green became musical director at MGM and is a noted composer.

[Yhtapmys]

I have started listening to the JB episdoes from the beginning (again) and heard some characters that I wasn't very familar with. These were people like Don Bestor, Johnny Green and Frank Parker. ( I don't know if I spelled there names right or not.) But they all were replaced and I was wondering if anyone knew why they left. Especially like Johnny Green left in the middle of the season if I remember correctly. Does anyone know anything about them? .

No, Johnny left at the end of the 1936-37 and ended up on a show on CBS. I think there's a reference to it on one of the first shows with Phil.

Parker went to CBS in the 1935-6 season. He had his own 7pm Saturday show. He also seems to have guesting on a number of shows of serious music; operattas and such. Don Bestor also had his own show, Sunday night at 10:30. I can't tell if it was on a network or transcribed.

Speaking of Parker, here's a newspaper item from July 6, 1935 which probably explains why he left the Benny show:

Frank Parker, the tenor who likes to be a comedian on the Jack Benny broadcasts, went to Hollywood in vain. In addition to appearing on Jack's Sunday night sessions over NBC, the young vocalist hoped to get a job in the movies but failed to land anything.
On June 29 he signed a contract with a film company but one of the clauses states that Parker must make the picture in New York. So, after travelling from coast to coast, he is just where he started.

Ythapmys

[Mister Kitzel]

There was a different approach to humor in the 1930's. It is not just the Jack Benny shows from that time period that seem to have a lower level of "funny." By the late thirties writers on all shows were figuring out how to make radio comedy work better. Also, Jack had a different set of writers at the time.

[Yhtapmys]

There was a different approach to humor in the 1930's. It is not just the Jack Benny shows from that time period that seem to have a lower level of "funny." By the late thirties writers on all shows were figuring out how to make radio comedy work better. Also, Jack had a different set of writers at the time.

You raise a good point, Mr. K. Radio was so new. Radio variety show humour was different in structure from vaudeville whence most of the comedians came. It took time to fine-tune.

I think hindsight is something else to consider. We're used to Jack's show sounding a certain way today. It's a bit disconcerting to hear it sound differently. There are jokes in 1935 that would never fit his character in 1945.

Listen to other shows of the era and then listen to Jack's. It compares very favourably and deserved its high rating. I happen to like the mid-30s shows (the late 30s are even better) and am sorry a lot more of them aren't available to listen to.

Yhtapmys

[krledu]

Jack's show slowly evolved from more of a vaudville sounding show to more of what we are used to over a period of quite a few years. But also, Jack's character was shaped and set in stone so the jokes became funnier. The audience became so familar with each character that even a joke hinted at became funny because they knew each person on the show so well.