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, commerc... Read More
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, commerc... Read More
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: $17.95
Pages: 392
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date: 17th October 2017
ISBN: 9780520967946
Format: eBook
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
Author Bio
Kathryn Fuller-Seeley is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Communication Department at Georgia State University. She is author of At the Picture Show: Small Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture among other books.
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
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: $17.95
Pages: 392
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date: 17th October 2017
ISBN: 9780520967946
Format: eBook
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
Kathryn Fuller-Seeley is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Communication Department at Georgia State University. She is author of At the Picture Show: Small Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture among other books.
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
