Jack Benny - Guests Bacall & Bogart

(4 stars; 2 reviews)

Mrs. Bogart! The Lucky Strike Program - Guests Bacall & Bogart January 5th, 1947 Jack Benny is, of course, the perfect gentleman.  He would never take lightly the sanctity of marriage.  Every man, however, has something deep in their psyche (call it vanity) that drives him to prove, if only to himself, that he can still play the Lothario should the need arise. With Lauren Bacall dropping by the Benny house to rehearse her part in an upcoming Jack Benny Show, Jack goes into action.  To prepare for Lauren's arrival, he tells his valet Rochester (Eddie Anderson) to dim the lights, light a fire in the fireplace, move the divan close to the hearth, and put on some romantic music.  Of course, Jack knows that Lauren is married to Humphrey Bogart, but nevertheless plans to take this opportunity to verify his manliness. Jack's plans are spoiled, however, when Bogart drops by to watch the rehearsal.  One of the most memorable moments of the episode comes when Jack and Lauren do their version of the famous "If you want anything, just whistle" scene from her 1944 film To Have And Have Not.  Jack must kiss Lauren, while her husband Bogart watches.  Unimpressed with Jack's performance in the scene, Bogart instructs him on how to kiss a girl, ending his lesson with a demonstration.  Judging from the audience's reaction, the kiss that Bogart plants on his wife Lauren may have been the best kiss in radio history. Love is in the air throughout this episode.  In the opening segment, the show's naive singer, Dennis Day, develops a crush on Mary Livingstone and does all that he can to seduce her.  Day continues the love motif with a sweet, romantic song, 'I Love You For Sentimental Reasons', after which he delivers a wolf call that almost blows out the microphone. The Bogart & Bacall scene is a good illustration of why Jack Benny garnered such respect from his peers in the entertainment industry, and was able to attract such luminaries to his shows.  Jack's writers always gave his guests the best lines, the brightest moments, and the biggest laughs; it's no wonder that Bogart chose The Jack Benny Show for his television debut, on October 25, 1953.  (That episode, featuring rough-and-tumble Detective Lt. Benny handling thug 'Baby-Face Bogart', is available on Internet Archive.) The Extra Files: Included in the player is one of the many PSAs (Public Service Announcement) that Benny did promoting tolerance and good citizenship. Also in the player is another recording of the same episode which includes the commercials (the first mp3 has the commercials edited out), and which is digitized at a higher bitrate.  Despite the larger size of this file, you may find the sound of the 32Kbps version to be more pleasing. Glossary: Upset The Dope:   "In the Rose Bowl Game on New Year's Day, Illinois upset the dope."   In this era, a sportswriter who was prognosticating was said to be 'reaching into the dope bucket', dope being inside information.  Several sports writers, in fact, titled their columns 'The Dope Bucket'.  When an underdog team beat the odds for an upset victory, they were said to have upset, or kicked over, the dope bucket.  For the purpose of the joke, 'upset the dope bucket' was abbreviated to 'upset the dope'. Buddy Young:   "Elliot got in touch with Buddy Young, and fortunately, Buddy Young happens to be a very good friend of Rochester."   Legendary football player who played for University Of Illinois in their 45-14 upset of UCLA in the 1947 Rose Bowl.  Buddy Young, along with his fellow halfback Julius Rykovich, was named 'Co-Player Of The Game'.  Rubbing salt into the wounds of UCLA fans was the fact that Buddy Young was originally rumoured to be headed to UCLA, and not Illinois, upon his release from the military after WWII. Al Hoisch:   "Illinois 45; UCLA 14; Al Hoisch 103."   UCLA football player who, in the second quarter of the 1947 Rose Bowl, returned Don Maechtle's kick for a 103 yard touchdown, a Rose Bowl record that still stands as of 2017. Petrillo (James):   Jack Benny: "R.I.P., what's that?"    Phil Harris: "Rest In Petrillo"   Powerful head of The American Federation of Musicians, 1940-58. Portland:   "Some great show; comes on and jabbers for a few minutes, and then calls 'Portland, Portland, Portland, Portland'"   Portland Hoffa, wife and co-star of radio comedian Fred Allen.  Also, the name of cities in both Maine and Oregon. Ramona:   "Ramona Benny!"   Classic love story of the early days of the American south-west; an archetype of the 'rose-in-the-teeth' stereotype of Latin romance. Mrs. Nussbaum   "You were expecting maybe Mrs. Nussbaum?"   Pansy Nussbaum, the character played by Minerva Pious in the 'Allen's Alley' segment of Fred Allen's radio show. Whenever Allen greeted her with a cheery "Mrs. Nussbaum", she would reply in her heavy Eastern Yiddish accent "You were expecting maybe...", followed by the mispronounced name of a famous person, such as "Cecil B. Schlemeil". F. E. Boone:   "Gee, F. E. Boone never sounded like that."   The auctioneer and Lucky Strike spokesman heard at the beginning of most Jack Benny shows of this era.  Lucky Strike's famous tagline was "They're so round, so firm, so fully-packed, so free and easy on the draw". There's Good News Tonight:   "Ah, yes, there's good news tonight."   Popular catchphrase of radio news commentator Gabriel Heatter, who was renowned for finding a silver lining in even the darkest clouds.  During a particularly bleak period of WWII, American forces sank a Japanese destroyer, prompting Heatter to open his nightly broadcast with "There's good news tonight!"  This resulted in a flurry of calls and letters of gratitude, and the phrase soon became Heatter's tagline. The Big Sleep:   "And they called our last picture The Big Sleep."   Bogart and Bacall's most recent film at the time of this episode, released August 31, 1946. Links: To visit a Jack Benny page on The Archive with 143 episodes available, click here . To visit the OTRR's massive Jack Benny collection (in downloadable zip files), click here . To watch Humphrey Bogart's 1953 television debut on The Jack Benny Show, click here . To visit Introduction To Old-Time Radio's Jack Benny page, click here . To view the entire ITOTR collection, click here . Digitally restored photos of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart courtesy of Doctor Macro .  The full-size (1534x1600) version of the wedding-day picture can be found behind the JPEG link on this page The set-up for the show's premise: Bogart and Bacall's wedding day. Text © 2017 W.H.Wilson

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.