Following his final New Yorker column in 1940, Benchley signed with Paramount Pictures for another series of one-reel shorts, all filmed at Paramount's Long Island studio in Astoria, New York. [29], This freelancing attempt did not start out well, with Benchley selling just one piece to Vanity Fair and accumulating countless rejections in two months. He did especially well in his English and government classes. the son of writer and humorist Robert Benchley and the father of Anyone can read what you share. The format of Vanity Fair fit Benchley's style very well, allowing his columns to have a humorous tone, often as straight parodies. They have also lived in Sterling, MI. Another English professor recommended that Benchley speak with the Curtis Publishing Company; but Benchley was initially against the idea, and ultimately took a position at a civil service office in Philadelphia. [80], Benchley produced over 600 essays,[81] which were initially compiled in twelve volumes, during his writing career. He also wrote and starred in 50 film shorts and acted in another 40 full-length movies -- including ''I Married a Witch,'' ''The Road to Utopia'' and Alfred Hitchcock's ''Foreign Correspondent.''. The prominent styles of humor were then "crackerbarrel," which relied on devices such as dialects and a disdain for formal education in the style of humorists such as Artemis Ward and Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby, and a more "genteel" style of humor, very literary and upper-class in nature, a style popularized by Oliver Wendell Holmes. His family opted for a private funeral service, and his body was cremated and interred in a family plot on the island of Nantucket.[61]. His legacy includes written work and numerous short film appearances. (New York City: Athena Books, 1989. Although he was a great gag writer and parodist, Benchley's forte was personal essays on ''simple everyday things'' like trying to get information from telephone operators, listening to ''Turkey in the Straw'' or looking in the mirror to discover that you resembled Wimpy one day and Wallace Beery the next. And that was the point of the trip, which made it a happy one in every way that it could be. He also made many memorable appearances acting in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Nice Girl? [47] His reviews were known for their flair, and he often used them as a soapbox for issues of concern to him, whether petty (people who cough during plays) or more important (such as racial intolerance). The resulting film, How to Sleep, was filmed in two days, and it featured Benchley as both the narrator and sleeperthe latter a role Benchley claimed was "not much of a strain, as [he] was in bed most of the time. Benchley produced over 600 essays,[86] which were initially compiled in twelve volumes, during his writing career. an art of which this department is justly proud. His star is located at 1724 Vine Street. Benchley began at Vanity Fair with fellow Harvard Lampoon alumnus Robert Emmet Sherwood and future friend and collaborator Dorothy Parker, who had taken over theatre criticism from P. G. Wodehouse years earlier. [78] Even the more stereotypical characters held these qualities, such as the incapable sportscaster Benchley played in The Sport Parade.[79]. The revue was applauded by both spectators and fellow actors, with Benchley's performance receiving the biggest laughs. Most of them were adapted from his old essays ("Take the Witness!," with Benchley fantasizing about conquering a tough cross-examination, was filmed as The Witness; "The Real Public Enemies," showing the criminal tendencies of sinister household objects, was filmed as Crime Control, etc.). It is more because they are real islanders, deeply involved in the local community and passionate about the preservation of the natural beauty that surrounds them. He was promised a position at the Tribune's Sunday magazine when it launched, and he was moved to the magazine's staff soon after he was hired, eventually becoming chief writer. By this time Robert Benchley's screen image was established as a comic lecturer who tried but failed to clarify any given topic. He married his childhood sweetheart, Gertrude Darling, in 1914. Benchley.". Benchley's contribution to the program, "The Treasurer's Report," featured Benchley as a nervous, disorganized man attempting to summarize an organization's yearly expenses. While Benchley was more interested in writing than acting, one of his more important roles as an actor was as a salesman in Rafter Romance, and his work attracted the interest of MGM, who offered Benchley a lot of money to complete a series of short films. Copyright Jeff Schult. The situation was not positive for Benchley, as the studio "mishandled" him and kept Benchley too busy to complete his own work. Before heading back to New York, Benchley took a role in the feature film Dancing Lady,[52] which also featured Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy, and the Three Stooges. He admitted to occasional borrowing of a Benchley topic for his own reflection and writings. We have [41], The situation at Vanity Fair deteriorated upon management's return. I hadnt really had any idea about the Benchley family tree. [15], Robert grew up and attended South High School in Worcester and was involved in academic and traveling theatrical productions during high school. [57], Benchley's return yielded two more short films, and his high profile prompted negotiations for sponsorship of a Benchley radio program and numerous appearances on television shows, including the first television entertainment program ever broadcast, an untitled test program using an experimental antenna on the Empire State Building. Thanks to financial aid from his late brother's fiance, Lillian Duryea, he could attend Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire for his final year of high school. [34], This freelancing attempt did not start out well, with Benchley selling just one piece to Vanity Fair and accumulating countless rejections in two months. According to Mr. Altman, when the urn that was supposed to contain his ashes was delivered to the family burial plot in Nantucket, the undertaker discovered it was empty. His explanatory note: "I was loafing. It was not well received, and was removed from the schedule. Occasionally he is referred to, in passing, as the grandfather of Peter Benchley, the author of ''Jaws.'' "; accounts conflict as to whether Robert (who was nine at the time) heard this. The Washington Post, February 18, 2003. Initially consisting of Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and Alexander Woollcott during their time at Vanity Fair, the group eventually expanded to over a dozen regular members of the New York media and entertainment, such as playwrights George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly and journalist/critic Heywood Broun, who gained prominence due to his positions during the Sacco and Vanzetti trial. . From his beginnings at The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from his peers at the Algonquin Round Table in New York City to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry. ''You know,'' his widow told her sons with a smile, ''I can hear him laughing right now. As Life would say following his eventual resignation in 1929, "Mr. Benchley has left Dramatic Criticism for the Talking Movies". The act made him a campus celebrity -- and remained in ATTRACTIONS INCLUDE: MONDAY, 3rd Concert and Talent Quest. Amazon.com: Robert Benchley, a biography product listing. The radio program, Melody and Madness, was more a showcase for Benchley's acting, as he did not participate in writing it. They had a marvelous friendship. Paramount did not renew his contract in 1943, and Benchley signed back with MGM with an exclusive contract. [9], Robert Benchley met Gertrude Darling in high school in Worcester. Benchley is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. He also made a name for himself in Hollywood, when his short film How to Sleep was a popular success and won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards. [85] In 1944, Benchley starred as Mitty in an adaptation of the story for the radio anthology series, This Is My Best. al. URL accessed May 6, 2007. Because he cares about the island, not the houses, and that makes all the difference. Also, Benchley appeared as himself in Walt Disney's behind the scenes film, The Reluctant Dragon (1941). [28], Benchley filled in for P. G. Wodehouse at Vanity Fair at the beginning of 1916, reviewing theatre in New York. [66], In 1960, Benchley was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star at 1724 Vine Street.[67]. Source notes would have helped here, at the very least by giving readers some guidance in figuring out where Mr. Altman got his stories -- and how reliable they might be. While the session did not yield significant results, Benchley did get writing credit for producing the title cards on the Raymond Griffith silent film You'd Be Surprised (released September 1926), and was invited to do some titling for two other films. "[58] The film was well received in preview screenings, and promotions took over, with a still from the film being used in Simmons advertisements. Benchley and Parker soon held down one corner of the Algonquin Round Table, that collection of wits whose quips are still repeated. [50], Things changed again for Benchley a number of years into the arrangement. URL accessed May 21, 2007. WebGenealogy profile for Nathaniel Benchley Nathaniel Benchley (1915 - 1981) - Genealogy Genealogy for Nathaniel Benchley (1915 - 1981) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. WebRobert Benchley and Dorothy Parker were close friends and shared an office. The work of Robert Benchley is as funny as it was 80 years ago. The situation was not positive for Benchley, as the studio "mishandled" him and kept Benchley too busy to complete his own work. Jaws author Peter Benchley. In unthinking, stunned reaction, Maria ("Jenny") Benchley cried out "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! Benchley initially wrote the column under the pseudonym Guy Fawkes (the lead conspirator in the English Gunpowder Plot), and the column was very well received. Benchley resigned to become a publicity director for the federal government's Aircraft Board at the beginning of 1918. A guy would come in and pick out white appliances and then ask that they be shipped to Nantucket and held for pickup at the pier. "[43]) He was offered $200 per basic subject article for The Home Sector,[44] and a weekly freelance salary from New York World to write a book review column three times per week for the same salary he received at Vanity Fair. List of Robert Benchley collections and film appearances, Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin. Management attempted to issue "tardy slips" for staff who were late; on one of these, Benchley filled out, in very small handwriting, an elaborate excuse involving a herd of elephants on 44th Street. [42] His reviews were known for their flair, and he often used them as a soapbox for issues of concern to him, whether petty (people who cough during plays) or more important (such as racial intolerance). In Milwaukee last month a man died laughing over one of his own jokes. Amid accusations that both were pro-German (the United States was fighting Germany at the time), Benchley tendered his resignation in a terse letter, citing the lack of "rational proof that Dr. Gruening was guilty ofcharges made against him" and management's attempts to "smirch the character and the newspaper career of the first man in three years who has been able to make the Tribune look like a newspaper. WebRobert Benchley. These issues contributed to a general deterioration of morale in the offices, culminating in Parker's termination, allegedly due to complaints by the producers of the plays she skewered in her theatrical reviews. Upon its completion, MGM invited Benchley to write and perform in a short production inspired by a Mellon Institute study on sleep commissioned by the Simmons Mattress Company. The films enjoyed similar success and were critically acclaimed, and Benchley was signed to a deal to produce more films before heading back to New York to continue writing. Robert Benchley was born on September 15, 1889, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the second son of Maria Jane (Moran) and Charles Henry Benchley. Benchley, Parker, and Sherwood responded with a memo of their own, followed by placards around their necks detailing their exact salaries for all to see. "[24] While his public profile rose, Benchley continued with freelance work, which included his first paid piece for Vanity Fair in 1914, titled "Hints on Writing a Book,"[25][26] a parody of the non-fiction pieces then popular. [42], Benchley continued to freelance, submitting humor columns to a variety of publications, including Life (where fellow humorist James Thurber believed Benchley's columns were the only reason the magazine was read). The New Yorker published an average of forty-eight Benchley columns per year during the early 1930s. [43] He continued meeting with his friends at the Algonquin, and the group became popularly known as the Algonquin Round Table. "[69] His lighter fare did not hesitate to touch upon topical issues, drawing analogies between a football game and patriotism, or chewing gum and diplomacy and economic relations with Mexico.[70]. From Toronto Leacock closely followed the increasing body of Benchley's published humor and wit, and opened correspondence between them. Brother of Lt. Edmund Benchley. with Deanna Durbin, noteworthy for a rare dramatic performance by Benchley. [39] Benchley's work was typically published twice a month. We were too busy enjoying the present tense good food, long walks along the sand bluffs in Sconset, the bustle of an island household, Rose the tennis-ball fixated dog, skinnydipping in the Atlantic and stops in town to visit boutiques where Nancy would like to sell her fiber artist clothing creations mostly scarves and ponchos, but shell make about anything if someone gets her going and wants something specific. [32] Benchley accepted, and began work there in 1919.[33]. The British edition of the book carried a Leacock introduction, and Benchley, for his part in a tribute to Leacock later said he read everything Leacock ever wrote. He has been treated for hernia at Ashford General Hospital, ing wartime, 26,000 lives and 22,000 plantsmore than the combat toll exacted by Germans and Japanese. [46] Unfortunately for Benchley, however, his writing a syndicated column for David Lawrence drew the ire of his World bosses, and "Books and Other Things" was dropped. "[31], Benchley was forced to take a publicity position with the Liberty Loan program, and he continued to freelance until Collier's contacted him with an associate editor position. His legacy includes written work and numerous short film appearances. Owing to an academic failure in his senior year due to an illness,[22] Benchley would not receive his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard until the completion of his credits in 1913. [21], Benchley did copy work for the Curtis Company during the summer following graduation, while doing other odd service jobs, such as translating French catalogs for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Robert Benchley met Gertrude Darling in high school in Worcester. They became engaged during his senior year at Harvard University, and they married in June 1914. [10] Their first child, Nathaniel Benchley, was born a year later. A second son, Robert Benchley, Jr., was born in 1919. [11] As a Harvard undergraduate, Benchley gave Paramount did not renew his contract in 1943, and Benchley signed back with MGM with an exclusive contract. Owing to an academic failure in his senior year due to an illness,[17] Benchley would not receive his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard until the completion of his credits in 1913. The Lampoon position opened a number of other doors for Benchley, and he was quickly nominated to the Signet Society meeting club as well as becoming the only undergraduate member of the Boston Papyrus Club at the time. [63], 1939 was a bad year for Benchley's career. Does the garage still exist? Management attempted to issue "tardy slips" for staff who were late. From his beginnings at the Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from New York City and his peers at the Algonquin Round Table to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry. The character is often befuddled by many of the actions of society and is often neurotic in a "different" way the character in How to Watch Football, for instance, finds it sensible for a normal fan to forgo the live experience and read the recap in the local papers. ISBN 0151975213). WebRobert Benchley met Gertrude Darling in high school in Worcester. [82] He also appeared in a number of films, including 48 short treatments that he mostly wrote or co-wrote and numerous feature films. He later worked for Newsweek magazine as an assistant drama editor. [60] The early success of How to Sleep prompted MGM to rush two more short films featuring Benchley, How to Train a Dog, a spoof of dog-training techniques, and How to Behave, which lampooned etiquette norms. These issues contributed to a general deterioration of morale in the offices, culminating in Parker's termination, allegedly due to complaints by the producers of the plays she skewered in her theatrical reviews. [48] He continued meeting with his friends at the Algonquin, and the group became popularly known as the Algonquin Round Table. Some of Benchley's columns, featuring a character he created, were attributed to his pseudonym Brighton Perry, but most were attributed to Benchley himself. This experience was a poor one, as Brady was extremely difficult to work for, and Benchley resigned to became a publicity director for the federal government's Aircraft Board at the beginning of 1918. He was elected to the Lampoon's board of directors in his third year. Once he became well-known, therefore, people would often approach him at parties and at other social gatherings and greet him with, "Say something funny, Mr. In 1933, Benchley returned to Hollywood, completing the short films Your Technocracy and Mine for Universal Pictures, How to Break 90 at Croquet for RKO, and the lavish feature-length production China Seas for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, and Rosalind Russell; Benchley's character was a slurring drunk throughout the movie. A theatrical production by the members of the Round Table was put together in response to a challenge from actor J. M. Kerrigan, who was tired of the Table's complaints about the ongoing theatre season. [70] This character, labeled the "Little Man" and in some ways similar to many of Mark Twain's protagonists, was based on Benchley himself; the character did not persist in Benchley's writing past the early 1930s, but survived in his speaking and acting roles. Rob Benchley was raised in Connecticut and, as a boy, maybe he was one of the entitled ones. He fit the profile. Born in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Gertrude Darling and Robert Benchley (18891945), the noted American writer, humorist, critic, actor, and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City. "), and his common man observations often veered into angry rants, such as his piece "The Average Voter," where the namesake of the piece "[F]orgets what the paper saidso votes straight Republicrat ticket. A reprise of "The Treasurer's Report" was often requested for future events, and Irving Berlin hired Benchley for $500 a week to perform it nightly during Berlin's Music Box Revue. And as he said this his eyes filled with tears''). The radio program, Melody and Madness - with the Melody provided by Artie Shaw - was a showcase for Benchley's acting, as he did not participate in writing it. Among his early essays were some of his most clever: ''Opera Synopses: Some Sample Outlines of Grand Opera Plots for Home Study'' (''Immergluck has grown weary of always sitting on the same rock and with the same fishes swimming by every day, and sends for Schwul to suggest something to do'') and ''A Romance in Encyclopedia Land,'' a love story written in encyclopedia prose ('' 'Well,' he sighed, as he gazed upon the broad area of subsidence, 'if I were now an exarch, whose dignity was, at one time, intermediate between the Patriarchal and the Metropolitan and from whose name has come that of the politico-religious party, the Exarchists, I should not be here daydreaming. So are the two Benchley biographies, the first published by his son Nathaniel in 1955, the second by Babette Rosmond in 1970. Father of Nathaniel Benchley and Robert Benchley, Jr. WebBorn Robert Charles Benchley in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is from USA. spital Week DECEMBER 3 to DECEMBER 8. Mr. Altman, a magazine journalist, builds on the work of his predecessors, filling in some gaps, providing us with some new information. He was elected to the Lampoon's board of directors in his third year. We should all be so lucky. In what the local press dubbed "the Chinese professor caper", Soong was played by a Chinese-American who had lived in the United States for over thirty years, and pretended to answer questions in Chinese while Benchley "translated. Leacock admitted to occasional borrowing of a Benchley topic for his own reflection and writings. Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. A founding member of the famous Algonquin Round Table in New York third class in Bulgaria. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. WebFinkelstein visited Nantucket and Robert Benchleys house there and saw some of his originally owned books. Part of it was boutiques. The guy said, In five hundred years, this will all be gone.'. The town of Benchley, Texas, is named after his grandfather, who Of All Things (1921)Love Conquers All (1922)From Bed to Worse (1934)My Ten Years in a Quandary and How They Grew (1936)Inside Benchley (1941)Benchley Beside Himself (1943), Do you know something we don't? Be the first to ask a question about Robert Benchley Lists with This Book While Benchley's pieces were bought by Vanity Fair from time to time, his consistent work dried up, and Benchley took a position with the New York Tribune. Benchley's humor was molded during his time at Harvard. Geni requires JavaScript! [1][2] They were of Northern Irish (Protestant) and Welsh descent, respectively, both from colonial stock. A painter (and writer) from a family of writers, Benchley lived on Baxter Avenue, "[42], Following word of Benchley's resignation, freelance offers began piling up. Their first Following the printing of two books of his old New Yorker columns, Benchley gave up writing for good in 1943, signing one more contract with Paramount in December of that year.[60]. His family opted for a private funeral service, and his body was cremated and interred in a family plot on the island of Nantucket.Altman, 352362. [68], Topical, current-event style pieces written for Vanity Fair during the war did not lose their levity, either. They can get positively irate at the prospect that their summer homes and mansions on the bluffs will not last forever, that the Atlantic is reclaiming Nantucket fast enough to make everyone jittery. Oh, yeah. Benchley was the protagonist in everything he wrote. Though Benchley had been a teetotaler in his youth, in later life he drank with increasing frequency, and eventually he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Thanks to financial aid from his late brother's fiancee, Lillian Duryea, he could attend Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire for his final year of high school. Nancy and I talked all the way home about how we, too, might live on the island perhaps wintering there, housesitting for the entitled while plying our crafts. Died: Luke Lea, 66, former U. S. s Wilmington, New Hanover, North Carolina, USA, Private Family Plot, Nantucket, Nantucket, MA, United States, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1791-1963, The MacLeay Chronicle (Kempsey, Nsw) - Nov 21 1945, The Wilmington Morning Star - Nov 25 1945. Among his more self-deprecating bons mots: It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldnt give it up because by that time I was too famous.. [62], Benchley's return yielded two more short films, and his high-profile prompted negotiations for sponsorship of a Benchley radio program and numerous appearances on television shows, including the first television entertainment program ever broadcast, an untitled test program using an experimental antenna on the Empire State Building. When news reached the family, Maria's stunned reaction was to cry out, "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! May 2003. During his first two years at Harvard, Benchley worked with the Harvard Advocate and the Harvard Lampoon. [73], Topical, current-event style pieces written for Vanity Fair during the war did not lose their levity, either. By this time Robert Benchley's screen image was established as a comic lecturer who tried but failed to clarify any given topic. and comedians of his time. WebRobert Benchley was an actor who had a successful Hollywood career. He also made a name for himself in Hollywood, when his short film How to Sleep was a popular success and won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards, and his many memorable appearances in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent and a dramatic turn in Nice Girl?. Benchley took this offer to Vanity Fair to see if they could match it, as he felt Vanity Fair was the better magazine, and Vanity Fair offered him the position of managing editor. He was transferred to the Pacific in 1945. On April 22, 1945, he guest starred on the Blue Network's (soon to be ABC) top-rated radio series The Andrews Sisters Show, sponsored by Nash motor cars & Kelvinator home appliances. The work on The Sport Parade caused Benchley to miss the fall theatre openings, which embarrassed him (even if the relative success of The Sport Parade was often credited to Benchley's role), but the lure of filmmaking did not disappear, since RKO offered him a writing and acting contract for the following year for more money than he was making writing for The New Yorker.[51]. They sent out a memo forbidding the discussion of salaries in an attempt to rein in the staff. Benchley's contribution to the program, "The Treasurer's Report," featured Benchley as a nervous, disorganized man attempting to summarize an organization's yearly expenses. '', See the article in its original context from. Dave Barry, author, onetime humor writer for the Miami Herald, and judge of the 2006 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor,[75] has called Benchley his "idol"[76] and he "always wanted to write like [Benchley]. He wrote a biography of his father Robert in 1955. The prominent styles of humor were then "crackerbarrel" which relied on devices such as dialects and a disdain for formal education, in the style of humorists like Artemis Ward and David Ross Locke, through his alter-ego Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby and a more "genteel" style of humor, very literary and upper-class in nature, a style popularized by Oliver Wendell Holmes.