Dennis question

[shimp scrampi]

Does anyone know if our buddy Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty adopted his stage name "Dennis Day" prior to starting on Jack's show, or was it invented at that time? Just curious.

[Roman]

Did Dennis have a stage career before the Benny Program? I had always thought that he had very little prior professional experience.

[shimp scrampi]

I don't know about stage (didn't mean to imply that with 'stage name'), but apparently he'd done some singing on local east coast radio programs. Certainly not anything 'big' prior to Jack's show.

[shimp scrampi]

OK, answering my own question for anyone else interested ...

Dennis was billed on air as "Gene McNulty" when he appeared in 1938 on the "RCA Victor Campus Club". So my guess is that his name may have been changed for his debut as a character on the Benny program.

I just find it kind of interesting that with that info, at least three cast members - Mary, Rochester and Dennis - adopted their "Benny show" names to one extent or another in their real lives.

[Yhtapmys]

I just find it kind of interesting that with that info, at least three cast members - Mary, Rochester and Dennis - adopted their "Benny show" names to one extent or another in their real lives.

Steve, it appears the media was pretty quick to start using Mary's name. There's a Chicago Tribune story dated November 6, 1932 which goes "Comedian Jack Benny, his wife, Mary Livingstone..." That's the earliest reference I could find.

Btw, as an irrelevant side note, I found Jack on a 1931 stage show bill with someone named "Betty Veronica."

Yhtapmys

[shimp scrampi]

There's a Chicago Tribune story dated November 6, 1932 which goes "Comedian Jack Benny, his wife, Mary Livingstone..." That's the earliest reference I could find.

Wow, that IS early. Mary must have really hated that Sadye name.

Btw, as an irrelevant side note, I found Jack on a 1931 stage show bill with someone named "Betty Veronica."

What, no Jughead?

[Roman]

I just find it kind of interesting that with that info, at least three cast members - Mary, Rochester and Dennis - adopted their "Benny show" names to one extent or another in their real lives.

Four - there's Jack himself!

Of course, this was in the era when just about everyone in show business used a stage name, especially anyone with a remotely ethnic-sounding name. I think I read though that Dennis's real name appears on his headstone.

[Mister Kitzel]

Here is a photo Dennis Day's grave from http://www.findagrave.com.

[shimp scrampi]

Four - there's Jack himself!

True, Jack didn't use his birth name professionally, like many, many other entertainers. What I find especially odd about Mary, Roch and now maybe Dennis - is that they took their names from presumably fictional characters created for the show. I can't think of a lot of (any?) other examples where performers did that. Like imagine Fannie Brice asked her friends to call her "Snooks"!

[Roman]

Looking at the website cited by Mister Kitzel, it appears that Rochester's real name is on his headstone as well (although it's a bit hard to read). This makes me think that Dennis and Rochester probably did not use their stage names away from the stage and that their friends and families may not have called them by these names. I wonder though what Jack called Mary after she assumed that name. Since Jack was already "Jack Benny" when he met Mary, I assume she may have called him Jack. But did he call her "Mary" outside of the show? I'd be surprised if he did but then apparently she hated "Sayde" so I don't know what he called her. I seem to recall him signing off a couple of the shows where Mary was absent with something like "See you soon Doll."

[shimp scrampi]

Oh, Mary definitely preferred to be called "Mary" offstage, by Jack and everyone else, though "Doll" or "Dollface" was Jack's pet name for her.

I've heard variable things on Eddie Anderson - often off the Benny show his billing was "Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson" rather than just "Rochester" as on the Jack's program; Jack in his portions of Sunday Nights at Seven claimed Eddie's wife and kids called him "Rochester", or "Roch". I remember his daughter saying on the CABIN IN THE SKY DVD commentary that she was "Proud to be Rochester's daughter". Of course, I think in Eddie's case there are complicating racial/political/power questions at play in how much the nickname or his professional billing was entirely within his control. I wish there were more in the way of serious interviews with him out there so some of these questions could be answered.

Don't know much about Dennis and what he preferred to be called off-stage, but he certainly adopted the "Dennis" as his professional name in many ventures outside and after the Benny show. At the same time, you'll hear a lot of "McNulty" gags on the program, much as you'll hear a "Kubelsky" or two worked into the dialogue.

[epeterd]

I would bet that Eddie was billed as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson because most people didn't know his real name. He was only referred to as Rochester on the show. Even on the shows where they introduce everyone they didn't do it with him. That's one thing that really bugged me.

[shimp scrampi]

Yeah, it seems like Eddie accepted or tolerated a certain level of being called "Rochester" offstage, as a nickname, but the fact that he apparently insisted on his real name being part of his billing everywhere else sticks in my craw too. If he was really enamored and not bothered by the idea, (like Mary Livingstone) it seems like he'd have changed his professional name to "Rochester Anderson" or something.

I think we can all point to the many positive aspects of the Rochester character and Jack's commitment to racial equality - and we certainly have - but with 20/20 hindsight it is symptomatic of a kind of thoughtless racism. Not intentionally malicious, but somewhat disrespectful when you consider how the rest of the cast was billed.

Seems like both people of color, and also kids (think "Our Gang") got this treatment frequently - it's a subtle way of diminishing the contributions an actor makes to a character - i.e., the character is the more significant of two identities.

Of course, Jack's show is especially screwy in this regard, since you have this motley assortment of actors playing broad characters while using their real names (Don, Phil, "Nelson", etc.), and real actors adopting their character names offstage (Mary, Dennis), and then the wise handful who didn't get caught up at all in this blurred identity nonsense (Bea Benaderet, Joe Kearns, Artie Auerbach, etc)!

[Yhtapmys]

Looking at the website cited by Mister Kitzel, it appears that Rochester's real name is on his headstone as well (although it's a bit hard to read). This makes me think that Dennis and Rochester probably did not use their stage names away from the stage and that their friends and families may not have called them by these names.

I don't think a blanket, general statement can be made, Roman. I've worked with some people who are always called by their professional names and others who aren't off the air. Some prefer it.

Yhtapmys

[Roman]

Saying that "Dennis and Rochester probably did not use their stage names away from the stage and that their friends and families may not have called them by these names" is hardly a blanket statement. It's just a guess based on the fact that their real names appear on their graves. That's the ultimate statement I would think as to the name a person wished to be remembered. But still it's just a guess.