When news reached the family, Maria's stunned reaction was to cry out, "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! 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. They include the writer and actor Nat and also Peter, most famous for writing Jaws Peter and Nats dad, Nathaniel Benchley wrote childrens literature, was a biographer of Humphrey Bogarts and wrote the novel on which the 1961 movie The Russians are Coming was based. [53], During the time that Benchley was filming various short films, he also began working at The New Yorker, which had started in February 1925 under the control of Benchley's friend Harold Ross. quite an actor, he managed to become one of the best-known humorists 10: James Thurber." Upon learning of her termination, Benchley tendered his own resignation. [75], In his films, the common man exaggerations continued. "; accounts conflict as to whether Robert (who was nine at the time) heard this. 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. 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. A short that Benchley completed for MGM, A Night at the Movies, was Benchley's greatest success since How to Sleep, and won him a contract for more short films that would be produced in New York. Benchley's humor was molded during his time at Harvard. The situation at Vanity Fair deteriorated on the managerial team's return. By 1944 he was taking thankless roles in the studio's least distinguished films, like the rustic musical National Barn Dance. By 1944 he was taking thankless roles in the studio's least distinguished films, like the rustic musical National Barn Dance. A trip to California was discussed on a date to be decided. Amazon.com: Robert Benchley, a biography product listing. The show was a compilation of Robert Benchleys best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson Nat, and combined with family reminiscences and friends perspectives.. On this day in 1889 the American writer and humourist Robert Benchley was born. is buried in the family plot on Nantucket. While Benchley's pieces were bought by Vanity Fair from time to time, his consistent work dried up, and he took a position with the New York Tribune. The Art of Fiction No. (1941). [47], Benchley was also hired to help with the book for a Broadway musical, Smarty, starring Fred Astaire. (New York City: Athena Books, 1989. 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 slurring drunk throughout the movie. 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. 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. On one of these, Benchley wrote out, in very small handwriting, an elaborate excuse involving a herd of elephants on 44th Street. Given that Benchley had two children at the time of his resignation, Parker referred to it as "the greatest act of friendship I'd ever seen. [2] Benchley reveled in the atmosphere at the Academy, and he remained active in creative extracurricular activities, thereby damaging his academic credentials toward the end of his term. New and Upcoming Science Fiction and Fantasy, (June 6, 1914 - November 21, 1945) (his death), The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966), View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. When a rumored opening for an editorial position at Vanity Fair fell through, Benchley decided he would continue freelancing, having made a name for himself at the magazine. 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 his skills as an orator were already known by classmates and friends, it was not until his work at the Lampoon that his style formed. The Blue Pencil: Interview with Horace J. Digby, January 19, 2007. The Robert Benchley Society. WebRobert Benchley and Dorothy Parker were close friends and shared an office. [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). Much of his time in the films was spent spoofing himself,[76] whether it was the affected nervousness of the treasurer in The Treasurer's Report or the discomfort in explaining The Sex Life of the Polyp to a women's club. [23] In September, he was hired by Curtis as a full-time staff member, preparing copy for its new house publication, Obiter Dicta. "[42], Following word of Benchley's resignation, freelance offers began piling up. [28], Benchley filled in for P. G. Wodehouse at Vanity Fair at the beginning of 1916, reviewing theatre in New York. 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. "[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. Although Benchley was known for misleading and fictional autobiographical statements about himself (at one point asserting that he wrote A Tale of Two Cities before being buried at Westminster Abbey),[1] he actually was the great-grandchild of the founder of Benchley, Texas: Henry Wetherby Benchley who was jailed for his help with the Underground Railroad. Management attempted to issue "tardy slips" for staff who were late. He worked constantly while claiming he was intensely lazy. Benchley dealt with diverse locales and topics such as Bright Candles, which recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II; and Small Wolf, a story about a Native American boy who meets white men on the island of Manhattan and learns that their ideas about land are different from those of his own people. Worn down, Benchley moved to his next commitment, an attempt at a talkie version of "The Treasurer's Report". 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. The situation was not positive for Benchley, as the studio "mishandled" him and kept Benchley too busy to complete his own work. We should all be so lucky. . The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers and actors who met regularly between 1919 and 1929 at the Algonquin Hotel. They have also lived in Sterling, MI. Word of it was published in Time by Alexander Woollcott, who was at a lunch with Benchley, Parker, and others. His humor and style began to reveal themselves during this time: Benchley was often called upon to entertain his fraternity brothers, and his impressions of classmates and professors became very popular. The format of Vanity Fair fit Benchley's style very well, allowing his columns to have a humorous tone, often as straight parodies. 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. They were designed to create a contrast between himself and the masses, who had less common sense. "), 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. The Lampoon primarily used the latter style, which suited Benchley. I remember a garage loft just across the street where the Benchley did his writing. with Deanna Durbin, noteworthy for a rare dramatic performance by Benchley. "[20] Things did not improve for Benchley and Obiter Dicta, and a failed practical joke at a company banquet further strained the relationship between Benchley and his superiors. URL accessed May 21, 2007. [45] The column, titled "Books and Other Things," ran for one year and roved beyond literature to mundane topics such as Bricklaying in Modern Practice. James R. Gaines, Wit's End: Days and Nights of the Algonquin Round Table. 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. [19] The first issue was roundly criticized by management, who felt it was "too technical, too scattering, and wholly lacking in punch. The filming went by quickly, and though he was convinced he was not good, The Treasurer's Report was a financial and critical success upon its release in 1928. He appeared in prominent roles with Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and The Sky's the Limit (1943). His humor and style began to reveal itself during this time; Benchley was often called upon to entertain his fraternity brothers, and his impressions of classmates and professors became very popular. While the two styles were, at first glance, diametrically opposed, they coexisted in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Life. [23], Benchley held a number of similar jobs in following years. Benchley was invited to be theatre critic for The New Yorker in 1929, leaving Life, and contributions from Woollcott and Parker became regular features in the magazine. WebRobert Benchley met Gertrude Darling in high school in Worcester. 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]. [47], Benchley continued to freelance, submitting humor columns to a variety of publications, including Life (where fellow humorist James Thurber stated that Benchley's columns were the only reason the magazine was read). Benchley died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver in 1945 at the age of 56. 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.). He was not afraid to poke fun at the establishment (one piece he wrote was titled "Have You a Little German Agent in Your Home? WebWas a teetotaler until age 31, after which he became a serious alcoholic. "[64], Benchley's characters were typically exaggerated representations of the common man. Dave Barry, author, onetime humor writer for the Miami Herald, and judge of the 2006 and 2007 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor,[80] has called Benchley his "idol"[81] and he "always wanted to write like [Benchley]. Siasconset. He was transferred to the Pacific in 1945. A painter (and writer) from a family of writers, Benchley lived on Baxter Avenue, The guy said, In five hundred years, this will all be gone.'. He also made many memorable appearances acting in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Nice Girl? with Deanna Durbin, noteworthy for a rare dramatic performance by Benchley. [50], With the emergence of The New Yorker, Benchley was able to stay away from Hollywood work for a number of years. A lot of cousins, the present day Rob said, laconically. My partner, Nancy, and I didnt visit there this past weekend, in our time on Nantucket. There was a lot of begatting in the Benchley family. About Robert Charles Benchley He was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor who is best remembered for his The work of Robert Benchley is as funny as it was 80 years ago. May 2003. And that was the point of the trip, which made it a happy one in every way that it could be. (New York City: Harcourt Brace, 1977. The format of Vanity Fair fit Benchley's style very well, allowing his columns to have a humorous tone, often as straight parodies. . 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. Husband of Gertrude Benchley Be the first to ask a question about Robert Benchley Lists with This Book In his review of ''Hurricane'' from 1924, he describes in detail how he slept ''during annunciation and denunciation scenes . 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.). Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 American film that depicts the Round Table from the perspective of Dorothy Parker. It was not hard to imagine, standing on the bluffs, seeing how far the ocean had already come. He married his childhood sweetheart, Gertrude Darling, in 1914. [44] In April 1920, Benchley landed a position with Life writing theatre reviews, which he would continue doing regularly through 1929, eventually taking complete control of the drama section. WebTop 3 Results for Robert C Benchley. Back in the late forties after the war my dad ran a Sears store in Yonkers. While he completed his year's work, his condition continued to deteriorate, and Benchley died in a New York hospital on November 21, 1945. lieutenants were, Hangdog face offset by a thin, elegant mustache. 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. His experience there was not much better, and when an opportunity was offered to return to the Tribune under new editorial management, Benchley took it. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/20/books/exit-laughing.html. Jeff Chu, "10 Questions for Dave Barry." Benchley was cast in minor roles for various romantic comedies, some shoots going better than others. Son of Charles Henry Benchley and Maria Jane Benchley an art of which this department is justly proud. This character was apparent in Benchley's Ivy Oration during his Harvard graduation ceremonies,[71] and would appear throughout his career, such as during "The Treasurer's Report" in the 1920s[72] and his work in feature films in the 1930s. The New Yorker published an average of forty-eight Benchley columns per year during the early 1930s. 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. 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. 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. [34] Benchley's work was typically published twice a month. "[37], Following word of Benchley's resignation, freelance offers began piling up. [10] Their first child, Nathaniel Benchley, was born a year later. After brief stints at The New York Tribune and Vanity Fair, where he began taking long lunches at the Algonquin with his colleagues Dorothy Parker and Robert Sherwood, Benchley became a full-time theater critic for Life magazine and, in 1929, for The New Yorker. 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. The liberty gave his work new life, and the success of his pieces in the magazine convinced his editors to give him a signed byline column in the Tribune proper. List of Robert Benchley collections and film appearances, Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin. [9], Robert Benchley met Gertrude Darling in high school in Worcester. Campbell Scott portrays Robert Benchley. 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. He was 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. [68], Benchley's definition of humor was simple: "Anything that makes people laugh. Benchley also received two more feature-length roles: Walt Disney's The Reluctant Dragon, in which Benchley tours the various departments of the Disney studio, and Nice Girl? WebNathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket. . We have He appeared in prominent roles with Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and The Sky's the Limit (1943). They were among the founders of the famed Algonquin Round Table in 1919. Benchley died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver in 1945 at the age of 56. [85] In 1944, Benchley starred as Mitty in an adaptation of the story for the radio anthology series, This Is My Best. Besides the cancellation of his radio show, Benchley learned that MGM did not plan to renew his contract, and The New Yorker, frustrated with Benchley's film career taking precedence over his theatre column, hired a new critic. [17] He joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity in his first year, and continued to partake in the camaraderie that he had enjoyed at Phillips Exeter while still doing well in school. [50], Things changed again for Benchley a number of years into the arrangement. 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. "[83] Outsider filmmaker Sidney N. Laverents lists Benchley as an influence as well,[84] and James Thurber used Benchley as a reference point, citing Benchley's penchant for presenting "the commonplace as remarkable" in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. [63], 1939 was a bad year for Benchley's career. "[25] Things did not improve for Benchley and Obiter Dicta, and a failed practical joke at a company banquet further strained the relationship between Benchley and his superiors. [35], At the Tribune, Benchley, along with new editor Ernest Gruening, was in charge of a twelve-page pictorial supplement titled the Tribune Graphic. Amazon.com: The Best of Robert Benchley product listing. URL accessed May 21, 2007. ''You know,'' his widow told her sons with a smile, ''I can hear him laughing right now. We were with a living Benchley, Rob (the third) and his lovely wife Carol, and we didnt talk about literature or the family tree much at all. Benchley was cast in minor roles for various romantic comedies, some shoots going better than others. The radio program, Melody and Madness, was more a showcase for Benchley's acting, as he did not participate in writing it. writer of whimsical musings on the vagaries of modern life. His re-entry into public speaking followed the annual HarvardYale football game in 1914, where he presented a practical joke involving "Professor Soong" giving a question-and-answer session on football in Chinese. The first Robert Benchley was the one I thought I sort of knew, as much as you can know someone who died 11 years before you were born. [21] He continued his attempts to develop his own voice within the publication, but Benchley and Curtis were not a good match and he eventually left,[22] as Curtis was considering eliminating Benchley's role and Benchley was offered a position in Boston with a better salary. A short that Benchley completed for MGM, A Night at the Movies, was Benchley's greatest success since How to Sleep: it was Oscar-nominated, and secured him a contract for more short films that would be produced in New York. WebRobert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. His star is located at 1724 Vine Street. He told me about some famous scientist who spent some time studying Nantucket a few years ago. In unthinking, stunned reaction, Maria ("Jenny") Benchley cried out "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! [15], Robert grew up and attended South High School in Worcester and was involved in academic and traveling theatrical productions during high school. 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