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Slapsie Maxie the waiter: Old-time radio listening, 9 November
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Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom.
Duffy’s Tavern: Eddie Quits (NBC, 1945)
Whether he was the first or the most successful to do so, one-time world light heavyweight boxing champion Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom forged quite a second career for himself in several media, including no few old-time radio appearances.
Usually playing a punch-drunk lout—not entirely against type, considering the volume of head blows he’s taken in the ring (his bouts are somewhat famous for having gone the full distance or close enough thereto), which leads (telegraphing Muhammad Ali as only the most sadly known of the pack) to motor function deterioration later in life—Rosenbloom showed a flair for comedy so long as it was kept simple. And, to guest appearances rather than trying to carry his own old-time radio show, as he did for a very brief period.
Which proves a little problematic on the deceptively subtle Duffy’s Tavern, a show that’s simple only on the surface. Its offbeat sophistication—inviting enough to numerous performers who hanker to appear on the show—comes wrapped in a dusty veneer, led by the loutish tavern manager created and portrayed by Ed Gardner, whose likewise loutish genius it was to forge a dusky, atmospheric comedy of anti-manners that somehow struck chords even in places where seedy urbanity was not necessarily the norm.
That Gardner sustains such a creation for slightly over a decade may be something of a miracle, considering the stories that will abound in due course about his peripatetic hiring and firing of numerous writers—and paying them so pitifully that some, including Robert Schiller (who tells the story in 1991), will send their Duffy’s Tavern jokes to Reader’s Digest to collect the five-dollars-a-joke stipends.
In due course, however, Rosenbloom will factor in one of early television’s most celebrated hours: he’ll be the ex-pug whose life revolves around boxing tales shared with his fellow former peers, showing the prospective fate of Jack Palance’s fading boxer if he can’t adjust to life away from the gloves and the ring, in Rod Serling’s Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Tonight, however, Rosenbloom stands to step into a line of work that may be disjointed slightly even by the standards of a wobbly ex-boxer. Because, hearing faithfully needling waiter Eddie (Green) plans to quit for a better gig across the street, Archie (Gardner) blows it trying to negotiate with him—and has to hire a new waiter (Rosenbloom) who proves only slightly less competent than his predecessor even by the lack of standards in this flea trap.
Finnegan: Charles Cantor. Miss Duffy: Sandra Gould. Music: Marty Malneck Orchestra. Writers: Ed Gardner, Abe Burrows, possibly Larry Marks and Larry Gelbart.
FURTHER CHANNEL SURFING . . .
The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny: Leo Durocher (NBC, 1941)---Jack (Benny) is excited about making a new film and his pals—including Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher---seem even more excited for a chance to needle him about it. Benny in his element. Cast: Mary Livingstone, Eddie (
Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network: The Bob & Ray Gourmet Club, Newly Refurbished (Three Guesses, 1959)—Newly refurbished and serving up a singular buffet of buffoonery from a dance act, a crowd of notable Larrys, and a sandwich giveaway. The incandescent, understated absurdist duo at peak power during the run radio fans usually cite—with plenty of evidence—as perhaps the most signature run of their long, distinguished career. Writers/improvisors: Bob Elliott, Ray Goulding.
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