Recalling Fueds Of Long Ago


There was a time when every kid in the country knew all about the Jack Benny/Fred Allen feud. For years, it was a national fixation. Now both comedians are sadly forgotten, at least by younger generations. You’d have a hard time getting recognition signals at the mention of Allen’s name from even folks in their sixties. He’s been gone since 1956, and a lot of his radio humor seems droll to the point of abandoning comedy altogether. His legacy would seem to have become the chief concern of serious airwave archeologists, while Benny’s humor can still click with listeners otherwise disinterested in vintage broadcasting. Fox is releasing O.Henry’s Full House on DVD in a few weeks, an omnibus for which Fred Allen did one segment cut prior to release. The Ransom Of Red Chief was only seen during a few initial engagements in 1952, but apparently it still exists. The director was Howard Hawks, which is reason enough to restore the footage. As it is, the title O.Henry’s Full House is itself a misnomer, since there are actually only four stories in the show as presently constituted. I’d like to think Fox has remedied that, but nothing in the DVD announcements would indicate they have. Update --- as of 8:12 a.m., there have been several readers who report having seen O.Henry's Full House on television, complete with the Fred Allen story, so I'm happy to report I'm mistaken as to its latter-day absence. The question now is this --- when did Fox put the segment back into the feature, as it was definetely cut for general theatrical release ... ?