East/West Coast Versions

[Fred Allen]

The thought struck me some time ago....When listening to episodes of the radio series, how would I know which version of an episode I'm hearing...the East or West Coast version? It doesn't really matter, but sometimes it's obvious which, because someone might utter something like "That joke went over better for the East..." or "Let's save that for the late broadcast." Maybe the info was typed on the labels of the actual transcription discs....and while we're on that subject....Exactly where are the known transcription discs on the Benny program stored?

[Sammy Jones]

A dead giveaway is if the program carries a station ID at the end following the network ID. If a show has a KFI, Los Angeles ID, then you're definitely listening to the repeat show. WEAF or WJZ means you're hearing the early (east coast) show.

As many of us know, Jack had almost all of his radio shows recorded off-air by an aircheck service (Electro-Vox at least in the '30s after the move to Hollywood). Late in life Jack donated his entire aircheck and script collection to UCLA. That is where most of the shows that are in circulation have come from, and thus most versions out there are west coast repeats.

That being said, Jack's personal airchecks weren't the only recordings being made. Some resided at NBC 30 Rock in New York (I have a tape dub from one of the discs), and those are probably the east coast version. Also, American Tobacco had the show recorded on very high quality lacquers (three sides to a 30-minute show for maximum sound quality) right off the NBC line. These are not airchecks, and so sound just like you're sitting the the control room at NBC's studio. Many of these recordings are around and in private collections. The one's I've heard (from 1948, 49, and 50) are probably after the repeat performance stopped, and so the east/west question becomes moot.

A collector friend of mine says he has a long run of both east and west versions from Benny shows in the early '40s. I'm dying to hear these, and hope he can find time to dig them out...

[Moose Hatrack]

Those would likely be optimal for digitization. Little or no cleanup needed.

[Sammy Jones]

I suspect these high quality linecheck recordings have all been transferred. I have a small collection and have been working to transfer mine. I'm positive the ones in my hands have been dubbed by others...