A founding member of the famous Algonquin Round Table in New York Please advise, was humorist Robert Benchleys famous telegram to the New Yorker magazine after arriving in Venice. He wrote brilliantly and hilariously for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, won an Oscar and, by all accounts, acquitted himself with distinction at the Algonquin in New York.Up there with Dorothy Parker, et. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor and served as a public relations officer and on convoy duty in the Atlantic on destroyers and patrol craft. 2. While Benchley's books and Paramount contract were giving him financial security, he was still unhappy with the turn his career had taken. How to Sleep was named Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards, while the latter two shorts were not as well received. Eventually, he began lobbying gently for Robert Benchley to compile his columns into book form, and in 1922 was delighted with the result of his nagging. prompted producer Sam H. Harris to request Benchley to perform it as part of Berlin's Music Box Revue. [77] The longer, plot-driven shorts, such as Lesson Number One, Furnace Trouble, and Stewed, Fried and Boiled, likewise show a Benchley character overmatched by seemingly mundane tasks. In unthinking, stunned reaction, Maria ("Jenny") Benchley cried out "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! Paramount did not renew his contract in 1943, and Benchley signed back with MGM with an exclusive contract. Copyright Jeff Schult. [33], Benchley filled in for P. G. Wodehouse at Vanity Fair at the beginning of 1916, reviewing theatre in New York. WEDNESDAY, 5th Rodeo & Wood, chop. arged from an Army hospital, where he is convalescing from a minor operation. The situation was not positive for Benchley, as the studio "mishandled" him and kept Benchley too busy to complete his own work. Benchley is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. The resulting film, How to Sleep, was filmed in two days, and featured Benchley as both the narrator and sleeper, the latter a role Benchley claimed was "not much of a strain, as [he] was in bed most of the time. I remember a garage loft just across the street where the Benchley did his writing. 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. 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. R.B. A second son, Robert Benchley, Jr., was born in 1919. 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. When his older brother, Edmund, was killed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, Edmund's fiancee, Lillian Duryea, the daughter of a wealthy starch-manufacturing family in Nyack, N.Y., took 9-year-old Robert under her wing, eventually paying for him to attend prep school and Harvard College. 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. . Before heading back to New York, Benchley took a role in the feature film Dancing Lady (1933),[57] which also featured Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy, and the Three Stooges. [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. URL accessed May 21, 2007. By 1944 he was taking thankless roles in the studio's least distinguished films, like the rustic musical National Barn Dance. Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchleys 1961 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. ATTRACTIONS INCLUDE: MONDAY, 3rd Concert and Talent Quest. He worked constantly while claiming he was intensely lazy. Writing career 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. Anyone can read what you share. [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. Worn down, Benchley moved to his next commitment, an attempt at a talkie version of "The Treasurer's Report". Upon learning of her termination, Benchley tendered his own resignation. 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. He was How to Sleep was named Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards, while the latter two shorts were not as well received. 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 and Parker soon held down one corner of the Algonquin Round Table, that collection of wits whose quips are still repeated. Respectfully submitted, /s/ Sharon Lyon (Mrs.) BOSTON, September 15, 2003 -- Boston RBS Chapter Celebrates Benchley's Birthday. It was the perfect time The result was No Sirree! Traveling with children corresponds roughly to traveling Mr. Harvey asked him when he next had a vacation. He was a very poor one, unable to get statements from people quoted in other papers, and eventually had greater success covering lectures around the city. (the name being a pun of the European revue La Chauve-Souris), "An Anonymous Entertainment by the Vicious Circle of the Hotel Algonquin." Worn down, Benchley moved to his next commitment, an attempt at a talking film version of "The Treasurer's Report." When news reached the family, Maria's stunned reaction was to cry out, "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! 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.[65]. The New Yorker published an average of forty-eight Benchley columns per year during the early 1930s. During his first two years at Harvard, Benchley worked with the Harvard Advocate and the Harvard Lampoon. 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. Reluctant to appear onstage as a regular performer, Benchley decided to ask Harris for the outlandish sum of $500 a week for his short act in order to get out of the situation entirely; when Harris replied "OK, Bob. Benchley, who had also been offered a syndicated column by Hearst, was able to film the shorts in New York and keep up with his new column. [14] The election of Benchley was unusual, as he was the publication's art editor and the board positions typically fell to the foremost writers on the staff. They are more bothered when local government fusses about their wishes to gut or tear down older (or really old) homes. "[82] Horace Digby claimed that, "[M]ore than anyone else, Robert Benchley influenced [his] early writing style. "[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. Robert grew up and attended school in Worcester and was involved in academic and traveling theatrical productions during high school. Leacock admitted to occasional borrowing of a Benchley topic for his own reflection and writings. 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. Humor style 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. Select this result to view Robert Steven Benchley's phone number, address, and more. Mrs. Benchley apologized profoundly and tried hard to atone for the remark. Benchley's alcoholism, already a problem, worsened and he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. His performances gave him some local fame, and most entertainment programs on campus and many off-campus meetings recruited Benchley's talents.[13]. In this capacity Paramount cast him in the 1945 Bob Hope-Bing Crosby comedy Road to Utopia: Benchley interrupts the action periodically to "explain" the nonsensical storyline. In his review of ''Hurricane'' from 1924, he describes in detail how he slept ''during annunciation and denunciation scenes . At the age of 31, Benchley took his first alcoholic drink -- an orange blossom -- and was, Mr. Altman tells us, instantly transformed from a sober, faithful husband and provider into a hopeless alcoholic and serial adulterer. [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). "[37], Following word of Benchley's resignation, freelance offers began piling up. [35] Sherwood, Parker, and Benchley became close, often having long lunches at the Algonquin Hotel. Benchley's repertoire for the rest of his life. Radio Announcer, Author of books: is buried in the family plot on Nantucket. This experience was not as positive, and most of Benchley's contributions were excised and the final product, Funny Face, did not have Benchley's name attached. [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. Time Magazine, January 8, 2006. In unthinking, stunned reaction, Maria ("Jenny") Benchley cried out "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! 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. "[53] The film was well-received in preview screenings, and promotions took over, with a still from the film being used in Simmons advertisements. 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 Benchley re-entered Hollywood at the height of the Great Depression and the large-scale introduction of the talkie films he had begun working with years before. 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. [18] In September 1913 he was hired by Curtis as a full-time staff member, preparing copy for its new house publication, Obiter Dicta. Which was plenty to go on, when I got home. The table gained prominence due to the media attention the members drew as well as their collective contributions to their respective areas. But there was a vibe there we really liked. [30], At the Tribune, Benchley, along with new editor Ernest Gruening, was in charge of a twelve-page pictorial supplement titled the Tribune Graphic. "), 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. 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. spital Week DECEMBER 3 to DECEMBER 8. [27], Benchley started at the Tribune as a reporter. ''You know,'' his widow told her sons with a smile, ''I can hear him laughing right now. Benchley's humor was molded during his time at Harvard. [49] 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. While Benchley, along with many of his Algonquin acquaintances, was wary of getting involved with another publication for various reasons, he completed some freelance work for The New Yorker over the first few years, and was later invited to be newspaper critic. This character was apparent in Benchley's Ivy Oration during his Harvard graduation ceremonies,[66] and would appear throughout his career, such as during "The Treasurer's Report" in the 1920s[67] and his work in feature films in the 1930s. founded it. On this day in 1889 the American writer and humourist Robert Benchley was born. . 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. [40] The column, titled "Books and Other Things," ran for one year and roved beyond literature to mundane topics such as Bricklaying in Modern Practice. [4] The period, however, was full of literary abreaction to the Great War, and Benchley was aware of the published remorse of A.A. Milne. [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. Because he cares about the island, not the houses, and that makes all the difference. [73], Topical, current-event style pieces written for Vanity Fair during the war did not lose their levity, either. He wrote two articles a week; the first a review of non-literary books, the other a feature-style article about whatever he wanted. 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? 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. Benchley was later known for writing elaborately 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). 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. WebRobert Benchley. He was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor who is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. Also hosted at the American Century Theater. The Art of Fiction No. 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. [40] Sherwood, Parker, and Benchley became close, often having long lunches at the Algonquin Hotel. Connect to the World Family Tree to find out, "Then, after dinner or supper or the Hv, "WHAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT WILSON AND HUGHES Bv, that my voice changed about twelve years ago, MEGG AND ILK, By, "HOW MANY MILES DO YOU WALK AT LUNCH? 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