Upon its completion, MGM invited Benchley to write and perform in a short production inspired by a Mellon Institute study on sleep commissioned by the Simmons Mattress Company. WebRobert Carol Benchley Resides in Hyannis, MA Lived In Nantucket MA Related To Carol Benchley Includes Address (2) See Results Robert Stafford Benchley, 72 Resides in His arrival put him on the scene of a number of productions almost instantly. Charles Townsend Copeland, an English professor, recommended that Benchley go into writing, and Benchley and future Benchley illustrator Gluyas Williams from the Lampoon considered going into freelance work writing and illustrating theatrical reviews. . From 1914, when he sold his first humorous essay to Vanity Fair, to 1943, when he gave up writing for film acting because ''I don't think I write funny anymore,'' Benchley published more than 2,000 essays and reviews in various magazines and newspapers. 24 Amelia Drive "[77] Horace Digby claimed that, "[M]ore than anyone else, Robert Benchley influenced [his] early writing style. His legacy includes written work and numerous short film appearances. Robert Benchley met Gertrude Darling in high school in Worcester. They became engaged during his senior year at Harvard University, and they married in June 1914. [10] Their first child, Nathaniel Benchley, was born a year later. A second son, Robert Benchley, Jr., was born in 1919. [11] On one of these, Benchley wrote out, in very small handwriting, an elaborate excuse involving a herd of elephants on 44th Street. So are the two Benchley biographies, the first published by his son Nathaniel in 1955, the second by Babette Rosmond in 1970. Benchley is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. "[36], Benchley was forced to take a publicity position with the Liberty Loan program, and he continued to freelance until Collier's contacted him with an associate editor position. (1941). 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 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, and his many memorable appearances in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent and a dramatic turn in Nice Girl?. Benchley became recognizable because of his short films, which would play in theaters before feature films, and he was already known for his humor writing. 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. He also wrote and starred in 50 film shorts and acted in another 40 full-length movies -- including ''I Married a Witch,'' ''The Road to Utopia'' and Alfred Hitchcock's ''Foreign Correspondent.''. Although by his own account Benchley was not quite a writer and not The situation was not positive for Benchley, as the studio "mishandled" him and kept Benchley too busy to complete his own work. 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. Benchley showed at the Lobster Pot 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. Paramount did not renew his contract in 1943, and Benchley signed back with MGM with an exclusive contract. 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. and comedians of his time. Then he invited my dad to bring my mom to the island for a visit. A painter (and writer) from a family of writers, Benchley lived on Baxter Avenue, The Washington Post, February 18, 2003. While he completed his year's work, his condition continued to deteriorate, and Benchley died in a New York hospital on November 21, 1945. Benchley was the protagonist in everything he wrote. 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. 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. 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]. 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. [88], Posthumously, Benchley's works continue to be released in books such as the 1983 Random House compilation The Best of Robert Benchley,[89] 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.[90]. [59], Benchley's roles primarily came as a freelance actor, as his Paramount shorts contract didn't pay as well as feature films. Perhaps it is just the fantasy of starving artists. 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. People say the darnedest things on that boat, Rob responded, when I told him in an e-mail about the comment. Gallery as well as at AAN. 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 short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from his peers at the Algonquin Round Table in New York City to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry. "[69] 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.[70]. [5] 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. [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. "[58] The film was well received in preview screenings, and promotions took over, with a still from the film being used in Simmons advertisements. 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. Benchley's humor inspired a number of later humorists and filmmakers. He was promised a position at the Tribune's Sunday magazine when it launched, and he was moved to the magazine's staff soon after he was hired, eventually becoming chief writer. By this time Robert Benchley's screen image was established as a comic lecturer who tried but failed to clarify any given topic. Amazon.com: Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin product listing. [82] He also appeared in a number of films, including 48 short treatments that he mostly wrote or co-wrote and numerous feature films. The table gained prominence due to the media attention the members drew as well as their collective contributions to their respective areas. They are bothered when they cant have what they want. Paramount did not renew his contract in 1943, and Benchley signed back with MGM with an exclusive contract. Benchley initially wrote the column under the pseudonym Guy Fawkes (the lead conspirator in the English Gunpowder Plot), and the column was well received. A founding member of the famous Algonquin Round Table in New York While he lived, Benchley was close to omnipresent -- in print, on film and on radio. He took a position with Curtis shortly after he received his diploma. A lot of cousins, the present day Rob said, laconically. [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. 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. [3] His brother Edmund was thirteen years older. 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.). "[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. spital Week DECEMBER 3 to DECEMBER 8. A trip to California was discussed on a date to be decided. He is from USA. Nathaniel Benchley, Robert Benchley, a biography. Son of Charles Henry Benchley and Maria Jane Benchley Management attempted to issue "tardy slips" for staff who were late. Jaws author Peter Benchley. Benchley kept these achievements in mind as he began to contemplate a career for himself after college. 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. In 1917, the Tribune shut down the magazine, and Benchley was out of work again. We never quite learn what it was about Benchley's style or subjects that made him the most admired humorist of his generation and prompted James Thurber to remark, years after Benchley's death, that ''one of the greatest fears of the humorous writer is that he has spent three weeks writing something done faster and better by Benchley in 1919.''. 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.. 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. ", then standing by her side at the age of nine. 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. When the editorial managers went on a European trip, the three took advantage of the situation, writing articles mocking the local theatre establishment and offering parodic commentary on a variety of topics, such as the effect of Canadian hockey on United States fashion. 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. 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). I hadnt really had any idea about the Benchley family tree. The revue was applauded by both spectators and fellow actors, with Benchley's performance in particular receiving the biggest laughs. Rob Benchley met his wife Carol at a Fourth of July party thrown in a Codfish Park house that has since washed out to sea. 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. The Paris Review: "The Art of Fiction No. And that was the point of the trip, which made it a happy one in every way that it could be. In Milwaukee last month a man died laughing over one of his own jokes. [41], The situation at Vanity Fair deteriorated upon management's return. [50], Things changed again for Benchley a number of years into the arrangement. Also hosted at the American Century Theater. 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 was the highly-respected author of many childrens/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the books historical settings. Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile, Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile. 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. He served Upon completion, MGM invited Benchley to write and perform in a short production inspired by a Mellon Institute study on sleep commissioned by the Simmons Mattress Company. Benchley enrolled at Harvard University in 1908, again with Duryea's financial help. 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. Benchley died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver in 1945 at the age of 56. [19] The first issue was roundly criticized by management, who felt it was "too technical, too scattering, and wholly lacking in punch. 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. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [34], This freelancing attempt did not start out well, with Benchley selling just one piece to Vanity Fair and accumulating countless rejections in two months. While the two styles were, at first glance, diametrically opposed, they coexisted in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Life. While the session did not yield significant results, Benchley did get writing credit for producing the title cards on the Raymond Griffith silent film You'd Be Surprised, and was invited to do some titling for two other films. [60] The early success of How to Sleep prompted MGM to rush two more short films featuring Benchley, How to Train a Dog, a spoof of dog-training techniques, and How to Behave, which lampooned etiquette norms. Of All Things (1921)Love Conquers All (1922)From Bed to Worse (1934)My Ten Years in a Quandary and How They Grew (1936)Inside Benchley (1941)Benchley Beside Himself (1943), Do you know something we don't? The two were given a good deal of freedom, but Benchley's coverage of the war and focus on African-American regiments as well as provocative pictorials about lynching in the southern United States earned him and Gruening scrutiny from management. [24] The first issue was roundly criticized by management, who felt it was "too technical, too scattering, and wholly lacking in punch. (the name being a pun of the European revue Le Chauve-Souris), "An Anonymous Entertainment by the Vicious Circle of the Hotel Algonquin." Benchley took this offer to Vanity Fair to see if they would match it, as he felt Vanity Fair was the better magazine, and Vanity Fair offered him the position of managing editor. URLs accessed June 6, 2007. The situation at Vanity Fair deteriorated on the managerial team's return. 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. Benchley's repertoire for the rest of his life. [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. Charles Townsend Copeland, an English professor, recommended that Benchley go into writing, and Benchley and future Benchley illustrator Gluyas Williams from the Lampoon considered going into freelance work writing and illustrating theatrical reviews. [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. [16], Benchley did copy work for the Curtis Publishing Company during the summer following graduation (1913) while doing other odd service jobs, such as translating French catalogs for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Benchley is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. . Nathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket. He did especially well in his English and government classes. [63], 1939 was a bad year for Benchley's career. [40] Sherwood, Parker, and Benchley became close, often having long lunches at the Algonquin Hotel. 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. This experience was a poor one, as Brady was extremely difficult to work for. [12] He was also a well-respected fiction and children's book author. On graduating from Harvard, where he had earned a reputation as an extraordinary after-dinner speaker, Benchley held a variety of jobs in publishing, business and social service. [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. It is more because they are real islanders, deeply involved in the local community and passionate about the preservation of the natural beauty that surrounds them. He was transferred to the Pacific in 1945. 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. Those were priceless memories. 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. When news reached the family, Maria's stunned reaction was to cry out, "Why couldn't it have been Robert?! His contract concluded with only four short films completed and no chance of signing another contract. The revue was applauded by both spectators and fellow actors, with Benchley's performance receiving the biggest laughs. ISBN 1557781699). 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. By 1944 he was taking thankless roles in the studio's least distinguished films, like the rustic musical National Barn Dance. 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 New Yorker published an average of forty-eight Benchley columns per year during the early 1930s. From Toronto Leacock closely followed the increasing body of Benchley's published humor and wit, and opened correspondence between them. 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. His arrival put him on the scene of a number of productions almost instantly. "[82] Horace Digby claimed that, "[M]ore than anyone else, Robert Benchley influenced [his] early writing style. "[37], Following word of Benchley's resignation, freelance offers began piling up. Robert grew up and attended school in Worcester and was involved in academic and traveling theatrical productions during high school. The Benchley family was attending a public Fourth of July picnic when a bicycle messenger brought the notification telegram. (Landing the position WebAlthough by his own account Benchley was not quite a writer and not quite an actor, he managed to become one of the best-known humorists and comedians of his time. His elder son, Peter Benchley (19402006), was a writer best known for writing the novel Jaws and the screenplay of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film made from it. WebRobert Benchley and Dorothy Parker were close friends and shared an office. 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. In 1941 Benchley 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? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Benchley. [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. [11] Nathaniel also became a writer, and he published a biography of his father in 1955. 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 such as Artemis Ward and Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby, and a more "genteel" style of humor, very literary and upper-class in nature, a style popularized by Oliver Wendell Holmes. 2. WebRobert Benchley. Though his work was anthologized during his lifetime in 12 different volumes -- and posthumously in five or six more -- almost all of them are now out of print. Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. Robert's older brother, Edmund, was rushed to the Spanish-American War days after graduation from West Point (1898), and was a casualty almost immediately. He told me about some famous scientist who spent some time studying Nantucket a few years ago. "[53] The film was well-received in preview screenings, and promotions took over, with a still from the film being used in Simmons advertisements. 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 The Writer: Dave Barry. One theory holds that Edmund's death in battle seeded pacifist leanings in his writings. He wrote The Off-Islanders (filmed as The Russians Are https://www.robertbenchley.org/sob/edmund.htm, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/a/altman-laughter.html, "Hollywood Walk of Fame - Robert Benchley". 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. But now he has been an islander for a long time. Part of it was Benchleys. [28], Benchley filled in for P. G. Wodehouse at Vanity Fair at the beginning of 1916, reviewing theatre in New York. [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. [87] He also appeared in a number of films, including 48 short treatments that he mostly wrote or co-wrote and numerous feature films. 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. 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 (from Wikipedia). Matt Haber, "A One-Man Band Who Created an Oeuvre." Husband of Gertrude Benchley (the name being a pun of the European revue La Chauve-Souris), "An Anonymous Entertainment by the Vicious Circle of the Hotel Algonquin." 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? As Life would say following his eventual resignation in 1929, "Mr. Benchley has left Dramatic Criticism for the Talking Movies". Benchley and Parker soon held down one corner of the Algonquin Round Table, that collection of wits whose quips are still repeated. He admitted to occasional borrowing of a Benchley topic for his own reflection and writings. [42], Benchley continued to freelance, submitting humor columns to a variety of publications, including Life (where fellow humorist James Thurber believed Benchley's columns were the only reason the magazine was read). 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. [55] The early success of How to Sleep prompted MGM to rush two more short films featuring Benchley, How to Train a Dog, a spoof of dog-training techniques, and How to Behave, which lampooned etiquette norms. [21] He also held the position of for the Pudding in 1912. Literary 'Sconset, the Benchleys, and John Steinbeck, Robert C. Benchley Biography, Photos and Works, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Benchley&oldid=1148971771, Male actors from Worcester, Massachusetts, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 April 2023, at 10:45. children. By 1944 he was taking thankless roles in the studio's least distinguished films, like the rustic musical National Barn Dance. ultimately used: "This is all above my head.". [43] He continued meeting with his friends at the Algonquin, and the group became popularly known as the Algonquin Round Table. "[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. Siasconset. . 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]. Worn down, Benchley moved to his next commitment, an attempt at a talking film version of "The Treasurer's Report." [73] Even the more stereotypical characters held these qualities, such as the incapable sportscaster Benchley played in The Sport Parade. [ 21 ] he continued meeting with his friends at the age of nine when told. And filmmakers ], Following word of Benchley 's humor inspired a of! Theatrical productions during high school in Worcester was attending a public Fourth of picnic... And Benchley became close, often having long lunches at the Algonquin product listing written work and short! Has been an islander for a visit have what they want Sherwood Parker! 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