A Day in the Life of Dennis Day Was a Natural Expansion of the Speak” That He Had Made at His Own Expense and Submitted to Various Agents and Producers
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thedayintheife.qxd:4 pg. Booklet 2/23/11 12:01 AM Page 1 In the audition recording for the series, Dennis finds himself attending a masquerade party…in a highly-embarassing A DAY IN THE LIFE OF costume. Sharon Douglas appears as Mildred. CD 1B: Dennis Tries to Save Weaverville From a Land Grab 03/24/48 DENNIS DAY Dennis decides to go into business for himself as a taxicab driver — and stumbles onto a devious businessman’s scheme Program Guide by Elizabeth McLeod to corner his town’s property market. It says much about the quality of character development on The Jack Benny Program that two CD 2A: Dennis Gives Up His Room for a New Boarder key members of its cast went on to enjoy considerable success in solo series. While Phil 09/25/48 Harris’s success might have been expected — he’d been a star on his own for years before Dennis is highly suspicious when Mr. and Mrs. Anderson take joining the Benny program — the stand-alone success of Dennis Day might have seemed more in a boarder with some very peculiar habits. Special surprising. But Dennis Day, despite his on-air image as a goofy post-adolescent, was a man of promotional appearance by Judy Canova. Dennis Day both great talent and great determination. CD 2B: Dennis Tries to Prevent a Boy From Running Away 10/02/48 Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty didn’t set out in life to be a comedian. A New York boy, born When a neighborhood boy decides he wants to run away to Hollywood and break into the to an Irish immigrant family in 1916, the future Dennis Day was steered first in the direction movies, Dennis does his best to talk him out of the idea. of the clergy. He attended a preparatory seminary and sang in the choir at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before catching the show-business bug in college, where his interests had shifted CD 3A: Dennis Tries to Get Football Plays 10/09/48 toward the study of law. His ringing tenor voice made a smooth transition from sacred to With the big high school football game coming up, Dennis and Mr. Anderson go on a secret secular music, and by his early twenties he was performing traditional Irish melodies on local mission to capture the rival team’s playbook. radio – and, in doing so, he became part of a long show-business tradition. CD 3B: Dennis Sells Mrs. Anderson Some Worthless Oil Property 10/16/48 Irish tenors and their Dennis loses his job and finds himself working as a salesman for a dodgy oil promoter. sentimental ballads had been a vital part of American CD 4A: Dennis Helps Mr. Anderson Get Fan Letters 12/04/48 popular music for fifty years Dennis enters a talent contest to help Mr. Anderson recover some long lost love letters that he by the time Day adopted his wrote…to someone other than his wife. stage name. The standard was set in the 1880’s by Chauncey CD 4B: Dennis Gets a Job as City Manager 01/08/49 Olcott, who enchanted After confusing the mayor of Weaverville into thinking that he knows President Truman audiences with his piercing personally, Dennis is astonished to receive an appointment as City Manager. voice and cut-glass diction. It was Olcott who popularized Elizabeth McLeod is a journalist, author, and broadcast historian. She received the 2005 “My Wild Irish Rose,” Ray Stanich Award for excellence in broadcasting history research from the Friends Of “When Irish Eyes Are Old Time Radio. Smiling,” and other such verbal shamrockery. Olcott was imitated, directly and indirectly, by all the Irish tenors who would follow, www.RadioSpirits.com from James Melton to Frank PO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424 Parker…to Dennis Day. © 2011 RSPT LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. For home use only. Benny had always wanted tenors on his radio program, Program Guide © 2011 Elizabeth McLeod and RSPT LLC. All Rights Reserved. Dennis Day and Barbara Eiler featuring both Melton and thedayintheife.qxd:4 pg. Booklet 2/23/11 12:02 AM Page 2 Parker in the first half of the decade. Their roles were primarily musical, but they soon began entertainment unit touring the Pacific theatre. Conflicts to participate directly in the comedy. However, it wasn’t until Kenny Baker joined the cast in between the mild-mannered Dennis and temperamental 1935 that the tenor became a specifically comic character. It was Baker who originated the role orchestra leader Claude Thornhill threatened to disrupt the of the slightly-daffy, naive young singer, bewildered by Jack, and nervous around women. He tour — until Thornhill was taken sick and dropped out, leaving played the role to perfection for more than four years. When he left in 1939, Benny knew the Dennis in command for the rest of the assignment. He had no characterization was too popular, and had too much comic value, to lose. taste for leading a band, and was relieved when he returned home in 1946, taking up his place again in the Benny cast and Dennis Day was a virtual unknown when he was invited to audition for the part. He’d appeared jumping into a new solo opportunity. in small-time vaudeville, and on local New York radio, and came to Benny’s attention through Mary Livingstone. She had stumbled onto a recording of “I Never Knew Heaven Could A Day in the Life of Dennis Day was a natural expansion of the Speak” that he had made at his own expense and submitted to various agents and producers. character he’d developed during his years on the Benny As the legend has it, he reported to the audition in a state of extreme nervousness — and when program. The show featured the misadventures of a character he heard his name being paged over the studio intercom, he yelped “Yes, please?” This who might be described as a singing Henry Aldrich — a bit Bea Benaderet response convulsed Benny and, as the story goes, earned Dennis a contract on the spot. older than Henry, but with the same good natured, well- meaning personality, and the same tendency to get into ridiculous scrapes through no fault of Baker had a strong following, and Benny and his writers understood that dropping a new tenor his own. This Dennis worked most often as a soda jerk in the local drugstore, but just like that into the cast as a straight replacement might backfire. They went to considerable lengths to fellow on The Jack Benny Program , this Dennis Day had a lovely singing voice and would make Dennis a sympathetic character all his own. This was done by introducing Dennis’s find a reason to use it each week. mother as a character as well. Played by actress Verna Felton, she was a sharp caricature of an overbearing stage mother, determined to protect her boy from the depredations of the Dennis was surrounded with an excellent cast. Sharon Douglas and Barbara Eiler in turn notorious exploiter Benny. This strategy proved a success. It took the edge off Baker’s played girlfriend Mildred, with character actor “Dink” Trout as her father — who found the departure by tacitly acknowledging that he had left the Benny show for more money on hapless young fellow not the least bit worthy of his daughter. Bea Benaderet (above) pitched another program — turning that into another “Jack Benny is a Cheapskate” joke. It also in equally well as Mildred’s skeptical mother, and John Brown offered a typically acid allowed Dennis to ease gradually into the program, with the experienced Felton taking the performance as Dennis’s boss, Mr. Willoughby. The series, however, was Dennis’s showcase, comedy burden. Dennis himself had few lines in his early appearances, establishing himself as and he was frequently called upon not just to sing, but also to show his versatility as an a fine, likable singer, acceptable even to the most devoted Baker fans. impersonator and dialectician. Through the fall and winter of 1939, Dennis eased his way into the cast and made the part his A Day in the Life of Dennis Day scored respectable, but never spectacular, ratings over the own. While Baker had something of a wisenheimer streak lurking behind his naiveté, Dennis’s course of its run. Dennis remained a regular on the Benny show, occasionally tweaking his characterization was one of utterly wide-eyed innocence — an overgrown boy under the boss for having two shows to Benny’s one. His own show enjoyed a healthy run through thumb of an overprotective mother, and both terrified and in awe of the great Jack Benny. 1951. When an attempt to transfer the series to television failed to make it past the pilot stage, While this characterization would be refined in the years to come, its basic outline would Dennis nonetheless found a niche in the new medium as the host of a variety program. He remain intact for the next thirty years. continued to make popular recordings during this era, featuring the traditional repertoire of the Irish Tenor alongside more contemporary ballads and the occasional comic song. The Benny program reached the zenith of its popularity during the early years of Dennis’s Through all this he kept up his affiliation with Jack Benny, appearing regularly for as long as tenure, and he became an indispensable Jack kept up his regular series — and making occasional appearances on Jack Benny specials member of the cast. As the 1940’s wore on, until the end of Jack’s life.