Frank Nelson Becomes Ed Beloin

[Yhtapmys]

There’s an exchange on the December 15, 1940 broadcast that goes as follows. Jack’s ad-libbing around Mary’s line:

Jack: Wasn’t he a different doctor than what we had the first show? (audience laughs) You know, folks, that’s what I like about radio. If your doctor gets sick, you can always use one of your writers.
Mary: Imagine that guy coming all the way from Los Angeles.
Jack: He was here, Mary, he didn’t come from Los Angeles, believe me. I see him every day.

Laura’s indispensable ’39 Forever’ makes no reference to this. But the Milwaukee Journal’s radio column of December 20, 1940 does. Here it is.

I’ve left in the rest of the column as it involves Jack, too.

Jack Benny Struggles to Broadcast Under Difficulties
It’s tough to make a network show sound well polished, even under normal conditions, and Jack Benny was working under conditions far from normal last Sunday.
At 6 o’clock Saturday night, 24 hours before air time, Benny was sure he’d never have a show to offer the public. Everything was going wrong, turmoil reigned supreme and his hair was turning grayer at a fast clip. As “on the air” was signaled, feverish script writing was still going on and actors were being rehearsed for last minute assignments.
When rehearsals began Saturday Jack was afraid he might have to do an entire show by himself, and most of it ad lib. Two actors whom Jack had imported from Hollywood to play important roles were down with bad colds. They were Mary Kelly, who plays “The Blue Fairy,” and Frank Nelson, the “Doctor.” Don Wilson and two other members of the cast were grounded in Texas by bad flying weather, Rochester was still shooting a picture in Hollywood and unable to get away. (That’s why he was supposedly lost in Harlem according to the script.)
Mayor Bide Tallcott of Waukegan, Ill., Jack’s old school chum, wired that he could not leave home until midnight. With so many unknown quantities, the writers hardly knew what to write about and turned up with half a script.
Things improved and then got worse. Wilson and the mayor arrived Sunday morning. But Mary Kelly’s cold was worse and she definitely was out, which called for a substantial change in the script. So the show went on, with Frank Nelson in his customary role, but right after the early broadcast he collapsed. So at the repeat program for the west coast, Writer Eddie Beloin filled in for him.
* * *
No Sting in ‘Bee’
Schubert never could have dreamt, when he wrote “The Bee,” that two comedians, trying to drum up interest on the radio, would give a struggling young violinist $1,000 in 1940 for playing his number on a broadcast. That’s what happened to Stuart Kanin, now 14. Master Kanin was responsible for the now famous feud between Jack Benny and Fred Allen. . . . The whole thing started four years ago this month, when Stuart showed up on the Fred Allen program, played “The Bee: successfully, and was rewarded by hearing Fred say he had done it better than a certain Waukegan fiddler ever could. That remark started the air feud, which resulted in Benny’s playing of “The Bee” some months later. It raged on until Paramount heard of it and hired Benny and Allen to put the battle on film in “Love Thy Neighbor.” . . . The stunt was such a hit, and meant so much to the two comedians, that Master Kanin was brought back on the Allen program last Wednesday night to do “The Bee” once more. This time he was given a check for $1,000 when he finished—the gift of Benny and Allen so he could continue his study of the violin and, perhaps, one day, be famous as a concert violinist. . . . It was a grand gesture for the two comedians, made even better because no advance publicity was sent out by their agencies in an attempt to cash in on Mr. Kanin’s good fortune. In fact, it has been ignored so completely by the advertising agencies concerned that there can be no question of the sincerity of Allen and Benny in making the reward.

transcribed by yhtapmys

[Jack Benny]

Wow! Great story! I wish I would have known this last year for my podcast on the episode, Oh well! Unfortunately, this is one of the many episodes that we don't have the east and west coast feeds.

[Yhtapmys]

Wow! Great story! I wish I would have known this last year for my podcast on the episode, Oh well! Unfortunately, this is one of the many episodes that we don't have the east and west coast feeds.

You know, I find these purely by accident. Generally, I'm looking for something else. Sometimes it's eerie. I was listening to a show with Blanche Stewart this morning and there was an obvious inside reference and I had no idea what Jack was referring to. I was peering through some newspapers and stumbled across who Jack was referring to (it was his producer in 1940).

Yhtapmys

[epeterd]

Anybody know what ever happened to Stuart Kanin?

peter

[Jack Benny]

Anybody know what ever happened to Stuart Kanin?

peter

I found this:

Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Stuart Canin the man who started the Benny/ Allen feud
Saturday February 6th at the REPS meeting ( 2-4pm )we will have the pleasure of interviewing Stuart Canin by telephone. Today Stuart is a world class violinist but back in 1936 his appearance on the Fred Allen radio program inspired the long running Benny/ Allen feud. It was during an unscripted 15-minute segment of
Fred Allen's Town Hall Tonight called "The Town Hall Varieties" on December 30, 1936 that a 10 year old Stuart Canin appeared. On his violin he played Shubert's "The Bee" masterfully. Fred Allen commented, "A little fella in the fifth grade at school and already he plays better than Jack Benny." It was enough to inspire Jack to spend much of the first half of January 10, 1937 show panning Fred Allen.
This started a heated comedic feud that would last, more or less, until Allen's death 20 years later. The feud was of course a gag. In reality Jack and Fred always remained each other's friend and admirer. The interview is February 6th. We'll get the audio on the REPS web site shortly thereafter for all to enjoy at www.repsonline.org.

Walden Hughes

[epeterd]

Well, it's cool that he turned out to be a world-class violinist afterall.

peter