By David "Chet" Williamson Sneade
Among
his many claims to fame – and more than a few of infamy --
Worcester’s Robert Benchley was a card-carrying member of the
fabled Algonquin Round Table.
This coveted perch literally gave him a seat – along with a select group of authors, humorists, critics, wits, and other raconteurs – at the table of the best and brightest of his generation, known as the Jazz Age.
This coveted perch literally gave him a seat – along with a select group of authors, humorists, critics, wits, and other raconteurs – at the table of the best and brightest of his generation, known as the Jazz Age.
Artie
Shaw was quite simply one of finest jazz clarinetists ever to play
the instrument. This post is a snapshot of the time when these two
historic characters worked together on a nationally syndicated radio
show called, "Melody and Madness."
The
time frame is the winter of 1938 into the following snows of ‘39. In
addition to Benchley and Shaw, the show starred
vocalists Helen Forrest, Richard Todd, and the Four Clubmen. It
premiered at 10 p.m. on Sunday, November 20, 1938 on CBS and was sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes.
According
to On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio by John Denning,
this musical variety show was first designed as a “vehicle for
Robert Benchley, nationally known as a cerebral comic, who was much
ballyhooed in this his first radio series.” At the time of the
broadcast, Benchley already had more than 40 short films to his
credit and been a columnist at The New Yorker for more than a decade. And more
importantly, he was widely recognized as one of America’s best-known
humorists.
In
her book, Flappers: A Guide to an American Subculture by Kelly Boyer
Sagert, the author offers this portrait of Benchley: Born
on September 15, 1889, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to Charles and
Maria Jean (Morin) Benchley, Robert did not recall a happy childhood,
remembering bee stings, feelings of terror during 4th of July
fireworks, and more …. In 1898 tragedy struck the Benchley family
as Robert’s older brother, Edmond, died in action in the
Spanish-American War."
 |
| Harvard grad, Benchley |
Benchley
attended South High School from 1904 through 1907 before transferring to
Phillips Exeter Academy, "thanks to the influence and funding of the
woman who had been Edmond’s fiance, Lillian Duryea," Sagert said. "At this
academy, Benchley joined the drama club, acting in plays, and he
created illustrations for its publications. Duryea then helped
Benchley to get accepted to Harvard University, where he served as
editor of the Harvard Lampoon. During his senior year, he wrote a
daily column at the Boston Journal.
“Moving
to New York, Benchley began participating in the Algonquin Round
Table, and working for Vanity Fair, Life, and The New Yorker; he wrote
drama columns for The New Yorker through January 1940. In 1935, a
short-film How to Sleep, won an Academy Award for best short subject.
In November 1938 he and bandleader Artie Shaw begin their radio show,
Melody and Madness, on CBS Old Gold program which lasted 3 years.
Benchley also guest starred on other radio programs including Bing
Crosby’s show. Benchley's most famous quote may be “It took me 15
years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give
it up because by that time I was too famous.”
 |
| Benchley roaring |
In
describing Benchley's comic appeal and popularity, Tracy
Chevalier, author of The Girl with the Pearl Earring said, “This
comic representation of himself as a bumbling, insecure, somewhat
neurotic, middle-class American male challenged to comprehend, cope
with the rapid social and technological changes of his time was
central to his popular appeal, as both a writer and a performer.”
Like
Benchley, Shaw was also courted for “Melody and Madness.” In his
book, Artie Shaw, King of the Clarinet: His Life and Times, author
Tom Nolan reports that when the producers of “Melody and Madness”
first came calling, the bandleader was booked into the Blue Room in
the Hotel Lincoln in St. Louis from October to January of 1938.
Shaw’s manager at the time was Joe Shribman, a Boston-based
promoter, who along with his brother Charlie, booked a variety of
showcases and ballrooms throughout New England, including Sun Valley
in Northboro.
 |
| Artie Shaw and licorice stick |
“He
hadn’t been there more than a month, Shribman said of the
clarinetist, “when he got one of the biggest plums in the business:
The Old Gold radio show. And they came looking for Shaw.” Nolan
noted that Old Gold had sponsored big bands in the past, most notably,
orchestra leader Paul Whiteman. Now they were
organizing a new show where Benchley would provide the madness and Shaw
the melodies.
Denning
describes the show as having a fairly basic format where Benchley
would do three monologues, and Shaw would then play three song
selections. “That was the weekly format of ‘Melody and Madness,’”
he said, “but the show caught the Shaw band on the upswing, perhaps
two pieces short of greatness. When Shaw hired Georgie Auld on reeds
and Buddy Rich on drums in December of 1938, the orchestra bloomed
into a swing giant. The band burst into 1939 with a free and happy
sound: heighten by the trumpet of Bernie Privin, the trombone of
George Arus, Shaw’s clarinet and the vocals of Helen Forrest it
captured its moment as vividly as a photograph.”
Shaw
may have been a meteor, but Benchley’s star was also shining
brightly in the firmament. In
his column, "The New York Radio Studios," Jack Sher wrote, "Once in
awhile someone in a studio audience will throw a fit of a hysterics
because of something a comedian says. It doesn't happen often enough,
according to some comedians, but when it does the results are sometimes disastrous. Recently at Robert Benchley's 'Melody
and Madness' show, a woman went into gales of uncontrollable laughter
because of one of the gags in Robert’s 'Bounding Broomstick Skit.' She just couldn't stop laughing.
"When the program was over and the
last fanfare had died way she was still laughing. Only a strong
solution of spirit of ammonia brought her around. The CBS house
manager was upset, Benchley was quite unperturbed. 'She probably
just caught on to one of a Fred Allen's gags,' he said."
As
far as interaction between Benchley and Shaw, in her book, Robert
Benchley: His Life and Good Times, Babette Rosmond shares this:
Benchley didn’t write his own material, but he was himself; so it
was a funny show. He had his own little mock company for
five-minute skits and the orchestra was led by young Artie Shaw, who
was very much the radical in those days.
In fact, Artie Shaw would try to get Benchley to discuss Marxist economic systems, realizing that Benchley was an Establishment Intellectual. ‘I can’t even keep my check book balanced,’ Robert would say kindly.”
In fact, Artie Shaw would try to get Benchley to discuss Marxist economic systems, realizing that Benchley was an Establishment Intellectual. ‘I can’t even keep my check book balanced,’ Robert would say kindly.”
On
paper, the pairing of Benchley and Shaw was a perfect match. The
reality is that it was doomed from the start. A few
uncomfortable social circumstances along with Shaw’s disposition
and attitude about popular music helped end it.
First,
Billie Holiday, the singer in the band, was black and according to
numerous sources, Shaw
was forced to ask her to leave the band because of the color of her skin. It was reported that neither
the sponsor nor the network wanted any controversy – typical Jim
Crow-segregationist practices of the time. Singer
Helen Forrest, who got the gig, says, “A lot of people including
[Art’s] manager, booking agents, and producers, put pressure on
him not to use [Billie], and [Shaw] used her less and less as time
went on. He had it in his mind to do right by her, but his skull was
caving in from the pressure.”
 |
| Shaw and Holiday |
Shaw
claims there were other factors which led to the decision not to hire Holiday. “She quit because some guys got a hold of her and
promised her the sun, the moon and the stars,” Shaw said. “And
by that time she was becoming well known. My band just got over, and
pow! – we were stars; and so she was a star, right away. And people
got their hooks into her, and they wanted her to do a single.”
According
to Nolan, Holiday never blamed Shaw for the situation. He quotes the
singer saying, “There aren’t many people who fought harder than
Artie against the vicious people in the music business or the crummy
side of second-class citizenship which eats at the guts of so many
musicians. He didn’t win. But he didn’t lose either.”
Another
consideration for Shaw’s departure was his health. Author John
White wrote: “The
physical strains of an exhausting schedule also took their toll. In
addition to recordings, personal appearances, and broadcasts from the
Lincoln Hotel, Shaw was musical master of ceremonies on the CBS
‘Melodies and Madness’ program, sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes.
In the spring of 1939, the Shaw band opened at the Palomar Ballroom
in Hollywood – where, four years earlier, the Goodman orchestra had
made its sensational breakthrough.
"On the opening night, Shaw – who
was already suffering from a sore throat collapsed on the bandstand
and was rushed to the hospital. Unconscious for five days with a form
of leukemia, diagnosed as leucopenia or agranulocytosis, with a
temperature of 105 degrees, he was not expected to live. Confounding
medical opinion, he made a slow recovery and remembers that on first
gaining consciousness, he saw his friend, singer/actress Judy
Garland, sitting at his bedside.”
The
other reason for Shaw’s departure from “Melody and Madness,”
was his public announcement that he did not particular like playing
popular music. Back in New York, he made a miraculous recovery from
his illness and returned to the bandstand.
According to Nolan, in early fall of ‘39, Shaw began receiving a great deal of negative publicity for criticism of the “jitterbug generation.” And as it happened, Old Gold used the phrase: “Modern as a ‘jitterbug” to pitch its Double-Mellow cigarettes aimed at young consumers.
According to Nolan, in early fall of ‘39, Shaw began receiving a great deal of negative publicity for criticism of the “jitterbug generation.” And as it happened, Old Gold used the phrase: “Modern as a ‘jitterbug” to pitch its Double-Mellow cigarettes aimed at young consumers.
The
September 26, 1939 issue of the New York Post read: "Band Leader
THINKS."
In
an interview with Post columnist Michael Mok, Shaw announced: ‘I
hate the music business. I’m not interested in giving people what
they want. I’m interested in making music.” Nolan says that
following complaints from outraged fans, the cigarette company
canceled its sponsorship of Shaw’s radio show.
Publicly
speaking, Shaw said he was okay with the decision. “The show was
built all wrong for me,’ he told Metronome. Besides, it was on a
weak network, thus killing its rating … . When I asked for a
one-week vacation because I was so tired, and they wouldn’t give it
to me unless I quit the show entirely, I quit the show entirely.” Nolan
says Old Gold and its ad agency had a different take: “He asked for
a week’s rest, so we gave him seven.”
George
T. Simon, who also interviewed Shaw, shortly after the Post comments.
“I don’t like jitterbugs,” Shaw said. “I don’t like the
business angles connected with music. I can’t see autograph
hunters. I thought the Old Gold program was lousy for my music. Frankly,
I’m unhappy about the music business. Maybe I don’t belong in it.
I like music – love it and live it, in fact – but for me the
business part plain stinks.’”
The
interview turned out to be prophetic. On November 18, 1939, while in
performance at the Cafe Rouge in the Pennsylvania Hotel, Shaw did
just that; he quit the business. Although it was short-lived, the
bandleader would eventually leave his music business for good at the
height of his career. “I walked off the bandstand, went up to my
room, called my lawyer and told him I was leaving,” Shaw said.
Shaw was born
Arthur
Jacob Arshawsky on
May 23, 1910. He died in Thousand Oaks, CA on December 30, 2004. For
more on his life and times, see:
http://www.biography.com/people/artie-shaw-9480862
Benchley
died in New York on November 21, 1945. For more, see:
http://www.robertbenchley.org/sob/
For
sound samples of the “Melody and Madness, see: –
http://www.emusic.com/album/artie-shaw/old-gold-melody-madness-shows/11028576/
Here’s
a clip of Shaw playing his theme song “Nightmare” from the show –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngY85zMjsgA
Here’s
a clip of Shaw with Helen Forrest singing Worcester songwriter
Charlie Tobias’ “Comes Love” –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8JoCSoOcPM
Note:
This is a work in progress. Comments, corrections, and suggestions
are always welcome at: walnutharmonicas@gmail.com. Also see:
www.worcestersongs.blogspot.com
Thank
you.
Resources
http://books.google.com/books?id=8vF1JYl8zhwC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Robert+Benchley+and+jazz&source=bl&ots=3hV5GkpdFz&sig=Fg1LPDIjiHaQsCD9ZjlKVvi6zZY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JLvOUtCGC_PfsATQ4IDoCw&ved=0CFoQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=Robert%20Benchley%20and%20jazz&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=yT56t7hriTEC&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=Robert+Benchley+and+jazz&source=bl&ots=1Rsd0AxUL7&sig=X_Eug5EmKAeVI4WtDwH8qrSpqno&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ObzOUr6UOZKzsAT92oHIDA&ved=0CCsQ6AEwADgU#v=onepage&q=Robert%20Benchley%20and%20jazz&f=false
Thanks! I never knew about that show--what a meeting of minds! Will track down that Shaw bio to see how it complements THE TROUBLE WITH CINDERELLA, one of the autobios I've read.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. Hey, I have a project that I would like to talk with you about. Could you send me a hello to my e-mail address? at: chromatic@charter.net
DeleteMost of the time I don’t make comments on websites, but I'd like to say that this article really forced me to do so. Really nice post!
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