The Most Important Question Of The Day

[ericcoleman]

[Poll #1392371]

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Benny. Although, honestly, George Burns. Or Groucho.

[ericcoleman]

I claim that I don't supply context, but I'm usually lying.

Fred Allen's radio show was as popular as Benny's and now he's almost forgotten. It's a shame, he was brilliant, as was his show

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

Fran works in Waukegan, so I have to go with Jack Benny. There's a statue of him in the park near the library. Every once in a while I'll walk by and say "Hello Mr. Benny!"

[controuble.livejournal.com]

Say Goodnight Gracie!

[ericcoleman]

Ummm, that's Burns & Allen, not Fred.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Less so for Benny, and more for his support cast: Eddie Anderson, Mary Livingstone, Mel Blanc, Don Wilson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, and Kenny Baker.

[ericcoleman]

Kenny Baker was also on Fred's show.

[ericcoleman]

Oh, and of course one of the greatest leading men to ever grace a Marx Brothers movie

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I hadn't realized that. He was much better on Benny's show than he was in At the Circus (or The Mikado). And just checking his imdb entry, he also was a dancer in A Day at the Races, where at least he didn't sing.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

See my note below, since we clearly disagree on his contribution to the Marx Brother's canon.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

He was also fantastic in Star Wars. (ducks)

[ericcoleman]

Hey, he may be the only one who was better than the ever so brilliant Tony Martin.

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

Chuck Schaden FTW:

http://www.nostalgiadigest.com/Those%20Were%20The%20Days.htm

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

You seem to have misspelled John Carroll.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

I'm much more familiar with Benny, but, even from what little I've seen of Allen, Allen was MUCH funnier. Benny had some great writers though. And I always admired Benny's technique.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Chuck Schaden is the principal reason I can give an informed answer to this poll.

[ericcoleman]

I always thought of him as being the villain in Go West

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

You've been listening too long to Dan Wilson. Terry Turner just wants to marry Dan's little baby grand-daughter, Eve.

Walter Woolf King (John Beecher) and Robert Barrat (Red Baxter) are the villains of the piece. (and we can't forget Lulubelle, Mary Lou, and Melody (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana).

Of course, Go West does have one of my favorite exchanges between Groucho and Chico.

[xap]

Allen was brilliant, no question....but there's that whole 'young love makes an impression' that gives Benny an edge :) IIRC didn't hear about Allen until college