The king of radio comedy from the Great Depression through the early 1950s, Jack Benny was one of the most influential entertainers in twentieth-century America. A master of comic timing and an innovative... Read More
Description
The king of radio comedy from the Great Depression through the early 1950s, Jack Benny was one of the most influential entertainers in twentieth-century America. A master of comic timing and an innovative producer, Benny, with his radio writers, developed a weekly situation comedy to meet radio’s endless need for new material, at the same time integrating advertising into the show’s humor. Through the character of the vain, cheap everyman, Benny created a fall guy, whose frustrated struggles with his employees addressed midcentury America’s concerns with race, gender, commercialism, and sexual identity. Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley contextualizes her analysis of Jack Benny and his entourage with thoughtful insight into the intersections of competing entertainment industries and provides plenty of evidence that transmedia stardom, branded entertainment, and virality are not new phenomena but current iterations of key aspects in American commercial cultural history.
Details
- Price: $95.00
- Pages: 392
- Carton Quantity: 16
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Imprint: University of California Press
- Publication Date: 17th October 2017
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustration Note: 28 b-w
- ISBN: 9780520295049
- Format: Hardcover
- BISACs:
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century
PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Genres / Comedy
PERFORMING ARTS / Television / Genres / Comedy
PERFORMING ARTS / Radio / History & Criticism
PERFORMING ARTS / Comedy
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts
Reviews
- Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television"Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley’s monograph on Jack Benny provides the first full-length scholarly account of the comedian’s influential broadcasting career, which began in 1932 and ended with his death in 1974. As well as discussing his film and television work, she presents an extremely detailed analysis of Benny’s long-running, but largely overlooked, multifaceted radio program (1932–1955) which she calls his ‘greatest achievement’."
- Splitsider"By discussing in depth the ways the show was and wasn’t distributed during and after its initial run (including the balance of radio stations carrying the show vs. TV stations carrying the show throughout the ‘50s), Fuller-Seeley makes the book itself an intermedia experience, encouraging readers to contribute to the vital work of media archiving."
- The Journal of American History“…a deeply researched and powerfully argued analysis of Benny’s persona, productions, distribution, advertising, and sponsorship from the early 1930s through the late 1950s. …It is a must-read for scholars seeking to understand the inner workings, products, and impact of mass media and intermedia development, consumer culture, and celebrity culture during the heyday of mid-twentieth-century American commercial radio broadcasting and how to write about such issues incisively and inclusively.”
Author Bio
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 • Becoming Benny: Th e Development of Jack Benny’s Character-Focused Comedy for Radio
2 • “What Are You Laughing at, Mary?” Mary Livingstone’s Comic Voice
3 • Masculine Gender Identity in Jack Benny’s Humor
4 • Eddie Anderson, Rochester, and Race in 1930s Radio and Film
5 • Rochester and the Revenge of Uncle Tom in the 1940s and 1950s
6 • Th e Commercial Imperative: Jack Benny, Advertising, and Radio Sponsors
7 • Jack Benny’s Intermedia Juggling of Radio and Film
8 • Benny at War with the Radio Critics
9 • Jack Benny’s Turn Towards Television
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 • Becoming Benny: Th e Development of Jack Benny’s Character-Focused Comedy for Radio
2 • “What Are You Laughing at, Mary?” Mary Livingstone’s Comic Voice
3 • Masculine Gender Identity in Jack Benny’s Humor
4 • Eddie Anderson, Rochester, and Race in 1930s Radio and Film
5 • Rochester and the Revenge of Uncle Tom in the 1940s and 1950s
6 • Th e Commercial Imperative: Jack Benny, Advertising, and Radio Sponsors
7 • Jack Benny’s Intermedia Juggling of Radio and Film
8 • Benny at War with the Radio Critics
9 • Jack Benny’s Turn Towards Television
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
The king of radio comedy from the Great Depression through the early 1950s, Jack Benny was one of the most influential entertainers in twentieth-century America. A master of comic timing and an innovative producer, Benny, with his radio writers, developed a weekly situation comedy to meet radio’s endless need for new material, at the same time integrating advertising into the show’s humor. Through the character of the vain, cheap everyman, Benny created a fall guy, whose frustrated struggles with his employees addressed midcentury America’s concerns with race, gender, commercialism, and sexual identity. Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley contextualizes her analysis of Jack Benny and his entourage with thoughtful insight into the intersections of competing entertainment industries and provides plenty of evidence that transmedia stardom, branded entertainment, and virality are not new phenomena but current iterations of key aspects in American commercial cultural history.
- Price: $95.00
- Pages: 392
- Carton Quantity: 16
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Imprint: University of California Press
- Publication Date: 17th October 2017
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustrations Note: 28 b-w
- ISBN: 9780520295049
- Format: Hardcover
- BISACs:
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century
PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Genres / Comedy
PERFORMING ARTS / Television / Genres / Comedy
PERFORMING ARTS / Radio / History & Criticism
PERFORMING ARTS / Comedy
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts
– Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television"Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley’s monograph on Jack Benny provides the first full-length scholarly account of the comedian’s influential broadcasting career, which began in 1932 and ended with his death in 1974. As well as discussing his film and television work, she presents an extremely detailed analysis of Benny’s long-running, but largely overlooked, multifaceted radio program (1932–1955) which she calls his ‘greatest achievement’."
– Splitsider"By discussing in depth the ways the show was and wasn’t distributed during and after its initial run (including the balance of radio stations carrying the show vs. TV stations carrying the show throughout the ‘50s), Fuller-Seeley makes the book itself an intermedia experience, encouraging readers to contribute to the vital work of media archiving."
– The Journal of American History“…a deeply researched and powerfully argued analysis of Benny’s persona, productions, distribution, advertising, and sponsorship from the early 1930s through the late 1950s. …It is a must-read for scholars seeking to understand the inner workings, products, and impact of mass media and intermedia development, consumer culture, and celebrity culture during the heyday of mid-twentieth-century American commercial radio broadcasting and how to write about such issues incisively and inclusively.”
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 • Becoming Benny: Th e Development of Jack Benny’s Character-Focused Comedy for Radio
2 • “What Are You Laughing at, Mary?” Mary Livingstone’s Comic Voice
3 • Masculine Gender Identity in Jack Benny’s Humor
4 • Eddie Anderson, Rochester, and Race in 1930s Radio and Film
5 • Rochester and the Revenge of Uncle Tom in the 1940s and 1950s
6 • Th e Commercial Imperative: Jack Benny, Advertising, and Radio Sponsors
7 • Jack Benny’s Intermedia Juggling of Radio and Film
8 • Benny at War with the Radio Critics
9 • Jack Benny’s Turn Towards Television
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 • Becoming Benny: Th e Development of Jack Benny’s Character-Focused Comedy for Radio
2 • “What Are You Laughing at, Mary?” Mary Livingstone’s Comic Voice
3 • Masculine Gender Identity in Jack Benny’s Humor
4 • Eddie Anderson, Rochester, and Race in 1930s Radio and Film
5 • Rochester and the Revenge of Uncle Tom in the 1940s and 1950s
6 • Th e Commercial Imperative: Jack Benny, Advertising, and Radio Sponsors
7 • Jack Benny’s Intermedia Juggling of Radio and Film
8 • Benny at War with the Radio Critics
9 • Jack Benny’s Turn Towards Television
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index