What's Playing On MPIR
Hello MPIR Fans, Some outstanding and variety of old time radio playing on all the streams. All for your listening enjoyment!
MPIR Mystery stream: Single episodes from various series in the drama, fantasy sci-fi genre.
MPIR's Old Time Radio Dial Now Playing: Several episodes of western genre OTR, Gunsmoke, Six Shooter, Have Gun Will Travel, Luke Slaughter, Frontier Town, etc. Plus Jack Benny, Our MissBrooks, and history type shows, along with Suspense, Whistler. All mixed up, and hopefully(fingers crossed) only playing once or at least spread out through 20 hours of play.
MPIR History Capsule: Cavalcade America, All Star Western Theatre, Command Performance, Guest Stars, with several interview shows from The Golden Days of Radio.
MPIR Comedy OTR: The Radio Works of Jack Benny Nothing gets me in a better mood than theone-liners of Jack Benny and Fred Allen feuding!
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky; February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American comedian, vaudevillian, radio, television and film actor, and violinist. Recognized as a leading American entertainer of the 20th century, Benny portrayed his character as a miser, playing his violin badly. In character, he would claim to be 39 years of age, regardless of his actual age. Benny was known for comic timing and the ability to create laughter with a pregnantpause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated "Well!" His radio and television programs, popular from the 1930s to the 1970s, were a major influence on the sitcom genre.
The Benny-Allen feud
In 1937, Benny began his famous radio feud with rival Fred Allen. Allen kicked the feud off on his own show on his December 30, 1936 show, after child violinist Stuart Canin gave a performance of François Schubert'sThe Bee credible enough that Allen wisecracked about "a certain alleged violinist" who should by comparison be ashamed of himself. Benny, who listened to the Allen show answered in kind at the end of his January 3, 1937 show. And the two comedians were off and running.
For a decade, the two went at it back and forth, so convincingly that fans of either show could have been forgiven for believing they had become blood enemies. In fact, the two men were good friends and each other's greatest admirers. Benny and Allen often appeared on each other's show during the thick of the feud; numerous surviving episodes of both comedians' radioshows feature each other, in both acknowledged guest spots and occasional cameos. On one Christmas program Allen thanked Benny for sending him a Christmas tree, but then added that the tree had died. "Well, what do you expect," quipped Allen, "when the tree is in Brooklynand the sap is in Hollywood." Benny in his eventual memoir (Sunday Nights at Seven) and Allen in his Treadmill to Oblivion later revealed that each comedian's writing staff often met together to plot future takes on the mock feud. If Allen zapped Benny with a satire of Benny's show ("The Pinch Penny Program"), Benny shot back with a parody of Allen's early favorite, Town Hall Tonight. Benny's parody was "Clown Hall Tonight." And their playful sniping ("Benny was born ignorant, and he's been losing ground ever since") was also advanced in the films Love Thy Neighbor and It's in the Bag!.
However, the original audio of the Dec 30 1936 show is so far, lost to history. But there are many clips of the feud playing, and the Benny program parody of Allen's Town Hall Tonight in the playlists.
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