Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy by Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley - Available

Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy

by Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley
ebook
Read a sample Read a sample
The king of radio comedy from the Great Depression through the early 1950s, Jack Benny was one of the most influential entertainers in twentieth-century America. A master of comic timing and an innovative producer, Benny, with his radio writers, developed a weekly situation comedy to meet radio's endless need for new material, at the same time integrating advertising into the show's humor. Through the character of the vain, cheap everyman, Benny created a fall guy, whose frustrated struggles with his employees addressed midcentury America's concerns with race, gender, commercialism, and sexual identity. Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley contextualizes her analysis of Jack Benny and his entourage with thoughtful insight into the intersections of competing entertainment industries and provides plenty of evidence that transmedia stardom, branded entertainment, and virality are not new phenomena but current iterations of key aspects in American commercial cultural history.
Expand title description text
Publisher: University of California Press

Kindle Book

  • Release date: October 17, 2017

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780520967946
  • File size: 8957 KB
  • Release date: October 17, 2017

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780520967946
  • File size: 8957 KB
  • Release date: October 17, 2017

Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Biography & Autobiography Performing Arts Nonfiction

Languages

English

The king of radio comedy from the Great Depression through the early 1950s, Jack Benny was one of the most influential entertainers in twentieth-century America. A master of comic timing and an innovative producer, Benny, with his radio writers, developed a weekly situation comedy to meet radio's endless need for new material, at the same time integrating advertising into the show's humor. Through the character of the vain, cheap everyman, Benny created a fall guy, whose frustrated struggles with his employees addressed midcentury America's concerns with race, gender, commercialism, and sexual identity. Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley contextualizes her analysis of Jack Benny and his entourage with thoughtful insight into the intersections of competing entertainment industries and provides plenty of evidence that transmedia stardom, branded entertainment, and virality are not new phenomena but current iterations of key aspects in American commercial cultural history.
Expand title description text
Biography & Autobiography Performing Arts Nonfiction