Martin & Lewis on the radio
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 5:33 pm
I've got a local radio station up here in Wine Country that play's a 2 hr block of swing and pop tunes every day, from his own record collection. To fill out the time he throws in a program from the Golden Age of Radio. His mainstay go-to guy is usually the Benny show. Can't go wrong there. But lately he has been playing episodes of the Martin & Lewis show from the late 40's. They are definitely a mixed bag. Radio and Jerry are not a good fit. I've always found Lewis' verbal skills to be his most annoying attribute. He never knows when to shut up. Here, Jerry's manic visual humor is forsaken and he is turned into a low-rent Bob Hope at the mercy of his canned writers. It's similar to Abbott & Costello's show where every week the writers tried to recreate a new version of "Who's On First". The saving grace of both those series for me are the spontaneous ad-libs. Just as on The Colgate Comedy Hour, you can frequently hear Dean and Jerry crack up over something the other said.
In modern hindsight, it is Dean who comes off best on these shows. If you overlook the disparaging slap-in-the-face directed toward Martin at the beginning of each program, where he is introduced as "our emcee for the night..." -- as if he is some second-tiered Durward Kirby and not a member of the team, Dean sounds relaxed and charming behind the mike. Not surprising. And I've heard him sing up to three songs on some programs. Not bad for a half hour show that has to be shared with an ego-maniac.
Over all, the team was best served by television at this time, where Jerry could run amok on the sound stage and Dean could work at cultivating his relaxed, spontaneous manner that would pay off big time in the Sixties.
An ironic addendum to this series is the team's radio sponsor is Anacin. How apropo. The one comic who gave so many people headaches by being constantly on onced hawked the very product that would cure his audience of himself.
In modern hindsight, it is Dean who comes off best on these shows. If you overlook the disparaging slap-in-the-face directed toward Martin at the beginning of each program, where he is introduced as "our emcee for the night..." -- as if he is some second-tiered Durward Kirby and not a member of the team, Dean sounds relaxed and charming behind the mike. Not surprising. And I've heard him sing up to three songs on some programs. Not bad for a half hour show that has to be shared with an ego-maniac.
Over all, the team was best served by television at this time, where Jerry could run amok on the sound stage and Dean could work at cultivating his relaxed, spontaneous manner that would pay off big time in the Sixties.
An ironic addendum to this series is the team's radio sponsor is Anacin. How apropo. The one comic who gave so many people headaches by being constantly on onced hawked the very product that would cure his audience of himself.