While some of his pieces would not have been out of place in a crackerbarrel-style presentation, Benchley's reliance on puns and wordplay resonated more with the literary humorists, as shown by his success with The New Yorker, known for the highbrow tastes of its readers. "[74] 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. Benchley's humor inspired a number of later humorists and filmmakers. [18] In September 1913 he was hired by Curtis as a full-time staff member, preparing copy for its new house publication, Obiter Dicta. 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? It was not hard to imagine, standing on the bluffs, seeing how far the ocean had already come. Nantucket Lighthouses; Museums; Festivals; Biking; Boating, Fishing & Water Sports; Arts; Family & Kid Fun; Theatre, Film, Music, Lectures; Tours; Wellness & 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. Benjis Boutique, a new place on Easy Street, took all of her scarves and wants more, besides. Upon learning of her termination, Benchley tendered his own resignation. "[78] Outsider filmmaker Sidney N. Laverents lists Benchley as an influence as well,[79] 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. Mrs. Benchley apologized profoundly and tried hard to atone for the remark. [46], Benchley had continued to receive positive responses from his performing, and in 1925 he accepted a standing invitation from film producer Jesse L. Lasky for a six-week term writing screenplays at $500. 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. Geni requires JavaScript! 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. A founding member of the famous Algonquin Round Table in New York [51], Benchley had continued to receive positive responses from his performing, and in 1925 he accepted a standing invitation from film producer Jesse L. Lasky for a six-week term writing screenplays at $500. All rights reserved. The best result we found for your search is Robert Steven Benchley age 70s in Pinconning, MI. Upon learning of her termination, Benchley tendered his own resignation. 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. [39] Benchley's work was typically published twice a month. May 2003. The house is gone; the Benchleys briefly as managing editor of the magazine Vanity Fair, where his 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. And probably, part of it was the ocean coming in, a sense of urgency, that there are important things to do. He appeared in prominent roles with Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and The Sky's the Limit (1943). Word of it was published in Time by Alexander Woollcott, who was at a lunch with Benchley, Parker, and others. [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. 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 [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). [5][3], Robert's older brother Edmund (born March 3, 1876)[6] was a 4th year cadet at West Point in 1898 when his class was graduated early to support preparations for the SpanishAmerican War; he was killed July 1 at the Battle of San Juan Hill. During his first two years at Harvard, Benchley worked with the Harvard Advocate and the Harvard Lampoon. Although by his own account Benchley was not quite a writer and not 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. [37] He accepted and began work there in 1919.[38]. (According to legend, he submitted a magazine piece titled I Like to Loaf two weeks after deadline. Benchley died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver in 1945 at the age of 56. "[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. This experience was a poor one, as Brady was extremely difficult to work for. A second son, Robert Benchley, Jr., was born in 1919. 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. He took a position with Curtis shortly after he received his diploma. Tell us your phobias, and we'll tell you what you are afraid of. Benchley's humor was molded during his time at Harvard. His large square face, with the slicked-back black hair, thin mustache and bemused smirk, is a bit more familiar to fans of film comedies of the 1930's and 40's in which he played some version of himself: a slightly tipsy, caustically funny, physically clumsy New York sophisticate. Humor style Paramount did not renew his contract in 1943, and Benchley signed back with MGM with an exclusive contract. Artists Association of Nantucket [19] The first issue was roundly criticized by management, who felt it was "too technical, too scattering, and wholly lacking in punch. The revue was applauded by both spectators and fellow actors, with Benchley's performance receiving the biggest laughs. (According to legend, he submitted a magazine piece titled "I Like to Loaf" two weeks after deadline. Father of Nathaniel Benchley and Robert Benchley, Jr. Traveling with children corresponds roughly to traveling "[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. Campbell Scott portrays Robert Benchley. Benchley and Parker soon held down one corner of the Algonquin Round Table, that collection of wits whose quips are still repeated. 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. [52], Benchley was also hired to help with the book for a George Gershwin musical, Smarty, starring Fred Astaire Benchley's name and Fred Thompsons were listed as the book writers on the sheet music issued during the tryout period. By this time Robert Benchley's screen image was established as a comic lecturer who tried but failed to clarify any given topic. [83], Posthumously, Benchley's works continue to be released in books such as the 1983 Random House compilation The Best of Robert Benchley,[84] and the 2005 collection of short films Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin, which compiled many of Benchley's popular short films from his years at Paramount with other works from fellow humorists and writers Alexander Woollcott and Donald Ogden Stewart.[85]. career.) 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. They were among the founders of the famed Algonquin Round Table in 1919. Benchley enrolled at Harvard University in 1908, again with Duryea's financial help. 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. prompted producer Sam H. Harris to request Benchley to perform it as part of Berlin's Music Box Revue. 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. In Milwaukee last month a man died laughing over one of his own jokes. Benchley.". [72] Even the longer, plot-driven shorts, such as Lesson Number One, Furnace Trouble, and Stewed, Fried and Boiled, show a Benchley character overmatched by seemingly mundane tasks. But there was a vibe there we really liked. [6] Nathaniel became a writer himself, and penned a biography of his father in 1955[7] as well as becoming a well-respected children's book author. [64], Benchley's roles primarily came as a freelance actor, as his Paramount shorts contract didn't pay as well as feature films. writer of whimsical musings on the vagaries of modern life. In 1960 Benchley was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Music Box Revue opened in September 1921 and ran until September 1922, with Benchley appearing in his eleven-minute turn eight times a week (evening performances on Monday through Saturday and matinees on Wednesday and Saturday). The format of Vanity Fair fit Benchley's style very well, allowing his columns to have a humorous tone, often as straight parodies. We have "[58] The film was well received in preview screenings, and promotions took over, with a still from the film being used in Simmons advertisements. This piqued dads curiosity, so he asked the man about the place. Edmund's death had a considerable effect upon Robert's life. List of Robert Benchley collections and film appearances, Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin. Does the garage still exist? Gallery as well as at AAN. WebRobert Benchley AKA Robert Charles Benchley Born: 15-Sep - 1889 Birthplace: Worcester, MA Died: 21-Nov - 1945 Location of death: New York City Cause of death: Cerebral Hemorrhage Remains: Buried, Prospect Hill Cemetery, Nantucket, MA Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Author, Screenwriter And that was the point of the trip, which made it a happy one in every way that it could be. 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. 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. In 1931, he was persuaded to do voice work for RKO Radio Pictures for a film that would eventually be titled Sky Devils, and he acted in his first feature film, The Sport Parade (1932) with Joel McCrea. And as he said this his eyes filled with tears''). 'Benchley': Seeing a Famous Forebear Whole. Helen is now 103 years old, resting comfortably in an assisted living home in Atlanta. 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. 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. 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. He still completed two shoots in one day (one of which was The Courtship of the Newt), but rested for a while following the 1937 schedule. My partner, Nancy, and I didnt visit there this past weekend, in our time on Nantucket. He is mentioned, with Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott, in lists of Algonquin Round Table members; and, with S. J. Perelman and James Thurber, as a New Yorker humorist. For this, if no other reason, Billy Altman's ''Laughter's Gentle Soul'' is a welcome addition. Benchley was cast in minor roles for various romantic comedies, some shoots going better than others. [73] Even the more stereotypical characters held these qualities, such as the incapable sportscaster Benchley played in The Sport Parade. While the two styles were, at first glance, diametrically opposed, they coexisted in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Life. "; accounts conflict as to whether Robert (who was nine at the time) heard this. 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. While Benchley's books and Paramount contract were giving him financial security, he was still unhappy with the turn his career had taken. So are the two Benchley biographies, the first published by his son Nathaniel in 1955, the second by Babette Rosmond in 1970. [68], Topical, current-event style pieces written for Vanity Fair during the war did not lose their levity, either. 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. 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. [41], The situation at Vanity Fair deteriorated upon management's return. Born: 15-Sep-1889 Birthplace: Worcester, MA Died: 21-Nov-1945 Location of death: New York City Cause of death: His legacy includes written work and numerous short film appearances. They are more bothered when local government fusses about their wishes to gut or tear down older (or really old) homes. [32], Benchley started at the Tribune as a reporter. 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. 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.[56]. Where was I? [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. ISBN 080570048X). An often overlooked influence upon Benchley's early professional career was the admiration and friendship of the Canadian economist, academic, and humorist Dr. Stephen Leacock. This inspired staff at the Tribune magazine to creativity for articles (such as arranging for the producers of The Thirteenth Chair to cast Benchley as a corpse), but the situation at the magazine deteriorated as the pacifist Benchley became unhappy with the Tribune's position on World War I, and the Tribune editors were unhappy with the evolving tone and irreverence of the magazine. Benchley showed at the Lobster Pot 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. 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. [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). Below is sunset over Nantucket as seen from Rob and Carols front yard Im sure Rob has better sunset photos than this, but this ones mine. Time Magazine, January 8, 2006. [24] The first issue was roundly criticized by management, who felt it was "too technical, too scattering, and wholly lacking in punch. Benchley began at Vanity Fair with fellow Harvard Lampoon and Hasty Pudding Theatricals alumnus Robert Emmet Sherwood and future friend and collaborator Dorothy Parker, who had taken over theatre criticism from P. G. Wodehouse years earlier. [3] Benchley's grandfather Henry Wetherby Benchley, a member of the Massachusetts Senate and Lieutenant Governor in the mid-1850s, went to Houston, Texas and became an activist for the Underground Railroad for which he was arrested and jailed. His legacy includes written work and numerous short film appearances. (the name being a pun of the European revue Le Chauve-Souris), "An Anonymous Entertainment by the Vicious Circle of the Hotel Algonquin." https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/20/books/exit-laughing.html. 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. [48] He continued meeting with his friends at the Algonquin, and the group became popularly known as the Algonquin Round Table. 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. Benchley participated in two more films that year: a second talking film he wrote, The Sex Life of the Polyp, and a third starring but not written by him, The Spellbinder, all made in the Fox Movietone sound-on-film system and released by Fox Films. As a ATTRACTIONS INCLUDE: MONDAY, 3rd Concert and Talent Quest. speaker. [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. 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 only group not pleased was the Mellon Institute, who did not approve of the studio mocking their study. 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. While he completed his years work, his condition continued to deteriorate, and Benchley died in a New York hospital on November 21, 1945. He wrote two articles a week; the first a review of non-literary books, the other a feature-style article about whatever he wanted. Those were priceless memories. [26] 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,[27] as Curtis was considering eliminating Benchley's role and he had been offered a position in Boston with a better salary[28], Benchley held a number of similar jobs in the following years. ; accounts conflict as to whether Robert ( who was at a lunch Benchley. Far the ocean coming in, a new place on Easy Street, all! 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