Fred Allen & Jack Benny: Best of Frenemies

No video

Fred Allen & Jack Benny: Best of Frenemies - Decades TV Network

Рет қаралды 7,915

Күн бұрын

Comedians Fred Allen and Jack Benny were good friends who enjoyed playing comic adversaries. The long-running feud between the two began after an ad-libbed joke on Fred Allen’s radio show in 1936. Jack Benny went back at him on his radio show a week later and from there it was on. The pair announced an on-air fist fight to settle their differences. The “Battle of the Century” was held on March 14, 1937. It ended with the two singing a duet which made their “feud” more popular than ever. The verbal sparring between the two lasted well into the 1940s.

Пікірлер: 9

@savethetpc6406 5 жыл бұрын

I'm happy to see this tribute to the Benny-Allen feud but disappointed with the ending assumption of Fred Allen being "largely forgotten." Although it's true that more people of later generations remember Jack Benny, because he lived longer and continued to have a successful career and good exposure to the public throughout his 80-year life, there are many who have gotten to know and love Fred Allen through watching him on reruns and KZfaq videos of shows like _What's My Line?_ , as well as listening to the many radio episodes of his, which are archived online. I love both Jack Benny and Fred Allen, and though Jack Benny ultimately has a larger body of work and a much larger percentage of his old radio and TV shows are now available to the public, I still like to think that Fred Allen also has many fans, many of whom (myself included) weren't even born yet when he was alive.

@edwardklintworth2004 11 ай бұрын

I remember Fred Allen for Allen's Alley.

@ACcountryFan 8 жыл бұрын

That's a nice salute/remembrance of 2 comedic titans.

@Nyckname 4 жыл бұрын

Probably the nicest, most gracious men ever in show business. Mr. Benny had no problem with his costars getting the laughs, and wouldn't stay in hotel unless Eddie "Rochester" Anderson could stay there, too.

@jfuzz9083 5 ай бұрын

He made that point of not staying where Mr Anderson wasn't welcome at a time when he was pretty much the biggest name in show biz. Jack was a huge star and when he refused to stay somewhere it had reverberations! The role of Rochester on the Benny program was really groundbreaking ... a Black man that was truly a co-star in every sense, he was a hugely popular character with audiences all over the country.

@Gravydog316 7 жыл бұрын

Awesome!

@jfuzz9083 5 ай бұрын

Fred Allen is not remembered as well as he should be. He was truly unique ... a kind of jovial cynic, he was a satirist that had a great command of language yet never talked over his audience. A faithful New Yorker, he loved walking around the city and providing handouts to down and outers he knew in various ways. Of Hollywood he said: "You could take all the sincerity in Hollywood, put it in a flea's navel, and still have room left over for three caraway seeds and an agent's heart." Though he may not be widely known today, modern comedians with a respect for past humor do know him ... his influence is still felt. A bygone, one of a kind wit worth getting to know.

@JonasPolsky Жыл бұрын

4:01 the feud ended when Fred Allen died? You mean Jack Benny didn't keep on making jokes at the expense of a dead man? What a surprise...

@jfuzz9083 5 ай бұрын

He did go on talking about him though! Jack had enormous respect for Fred and loved recalling him and the feud on talk shows in the 60's and 70's. Jack was generous in his praise of Allen and others ... not many comedians were that unselfish.