[Dixielandjazz] The Jack Benny Quartet

[Robert Ringwald]

This from another mailing list. 



Not “Dixieland” or “Traditional Jazz” but nostalgia. 



I’m sure some members will enjoy. 



-Bob





“The "Jack Benny Quartet"

   

I'm reading Joan Benny's book about her father, "Sunday Nights at Seven." It's a

two-part autobiography. Interwoven are Joan's comments about her life with an unpublished

autobiography by her father.

In the portion of Jack's autobiography that I was reading last night he relates a

"running gag" on the show about the Sportsmen's Quartet. Although I listen to the

Jack Benny radio program on satellite radio at least once a week and know the Sportsmen

well, the gag was new to me. According to the book, the Sportsmen were first introduced

on the program as a quartet that was forced upon him by his sponsor. Jack then tried

to reject the Sportsmen over a series of programs.

The routine that caught my interest last night was Jack's introduction of a quartet

that announcer Don Wilson advocated as a replacement for the Sportsmen. The quartet

consisted of Bing Crosby, Dennis Day, Andy Russell, and Dick Haymes. The broadcast

-- one which I've not heard -- became famous because one of the notes is too high

for Crosby and he utters over the air: "Who the hell picked out this key -- Dennis

Day?"

After the program, all hell broke loose from the public and member stations. NBC

demanded that Jack and Crosby apologize for the utterance. Jack refused. (Remember

this was not only a time when the word was not used on the air, but also came after

Bing Crosby had created a different image by playing Father O'Malley in Going My

Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945).) Jack commented to the irate network

executive, "The only thing that is going to happen is that in his next movie, Crosby

will wear his collar front-wards, that's all."

Joan Benny's book got me thinking about the sound the four may have created. The

autobiography doesn't mention the songs they sang, but in Googling it was a medley

of: Donnegal / Always / Ragtime Cowboy Joe / Carolina in the Morning and was broadcast

on March 16, 1947.

How did they sound? I've included a clip below. The "Always" part of the medley,

and Bing Crosby's utterance, was transcribed on V-Disc, and starts at 3:16 of the

YouTube clip. The audience laughs at Crosby's comment, in contrast to the published

comments that the switchboard lit up in protest after the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8NDeiAOKI8


-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there is a man on base." --Dave Barry