Benchley was cast in minor roles for various romantic comedies, some shoots going better than others. URL accessed May 21, 2007. [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. He did especially well in his English and government classes. URL accessed May 6, 2007. They are bothered when they cant have what they want. 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. (New York City: W. W. Norton, 1997. The British edition of the book carried a Leacock introduction, and Benchley, for his part in a tribute to Leacock later said he read everything Leacock ever wrote. Upon learning of her termination, Benchley tendered his own resignation. It was the perfect time Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 American film that depicts the Round Table from the perspective of Dorothy Parker. A lot of cousins, the present day Rob said, laconically. [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. May 2003. [37] He accepted and began work there in 1919.[38]. WebRobert Benchley. The liberty gave his work new life, and the success of his pieces in the magazine convinced his editors to give him a signed byline column in the Tribune proper. [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. Benchley showed at the Lobster Pot The character is often befuddled by many of the actions of society and is often neurotic in a "different" way the character in How to Watch Football, for instance, finds it sensible for a normal fan to forgo the live experience and read the recap in the local papers. [7] The film was included in the compilation Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin. While Benchley's books and Paramount contract were giving him financial security, he was still unhappy with the turn his career had taken. According to Mr. Altman, when the urn that was supposed to contain his ashes was delivered to the family burial plot in Nantucket, the undertaker discovered it was empty. Gallery as well as at AAN. Dave Barry, author, onetime humor writer for the Miami Herald, and judge of the 2006 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor,[75] has called Benchley his "idol"[76] and he "always wanted to write like [Benchley]. Those were priceless memories. In what the local press dubbed "the Chinese professor caper", Soong was played by a Chinese-American who had lived in the United States for over thirty years, and pretended to answer questions in Chinese while Benchley "translated. Nancy and I talked all the way home about how we, too, might live on the island perhaps wintering there, housesitting for the entitled while plying our crafts. The work on The Sport Parade caused Benchley to miss the fall theatre openings, which embarrassed him (even if the relative success of The Sport Parade was often credited to Benchley's role), but the lure of filmmaking did not disappear, since RKO offered him a writing and acting contract for the following year for more money than he was making writing for The New Yorker.[51]. In 1917, the Tribune shut down the magazine, and Benchley was out of work again. While he lived, Benchley was close to omnipresent -- in print, on film and on radio. A painter (and writer) from a family of writers, Benchley lived on Baxter Avenue, writer of whimsical musings on the vagaries of modern life. [39] Benchley's work was typically published twice a month. 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. [40] The column, titled "Books and Other Things," ran for one year and roved beyond literature to mundane topics such as Bricklaying in Modern Practice. "[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. The films enjoyed similar success and were critically acclaimed, and Benchley was signed to a deal to produce more films before heading back to New York to continue writing. Benchley's contribution to the program, "The Treasurer's Report," featured Benchley as a nervous, disorganized man attempting to summarize an organization's yearly expenses. Lillian Duryea, the bereaved, wealthy yeast heiress and fiancee of Edmund, undertook the funding of Robert's education; she made him a loan which, after he began to make money, she later called due. The New Yorker published an average of forty-eight Benchley columns per year during the early 1930s. 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 $(1901$) 18,301.' And that was the point of the trip, which made it a happy one in every way that it could be. 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). briefly as managing editor of the magazine Vanity Fair, where his The situation was not positive for Benchley, as the studio "mishandled" him and kept Benchley too busy to complete his own work. [45] The column, titled "Books and Other Things," ran for one year and roved beyond literature to mundane topics such as Bricklaying in Modern Practice. 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. 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. The Lampoon position opened a number of other doors for Benchley, and he was quickly nominated to the Signet Society meeting club as well as becoming the only undergraduate member of the Boston Papyrus Club at the time. By this time Robert Benchley's screen image was established as a comic lecturer who tried but failed to clarify any given topic. [72] Even the longer, plot-driven shorts, such as Lesson Number One, Furnace Trouble, and Stewed, Fried and Boiled, show a Benchley character overmatched by seemingly mundane tasks. [4], His father served in the Union army for two years during the Civil War and had a four-year hitch in the Navy before settling again in Worcester, marrying and working as a town clerk. They were designed to create a contrast between himself and the masses; the character is often befuddled by society and is often neurotic in a "different" waythe character in How to Watch Football, for instance, finds it sensible for a normal fan to forgo the live experience and read the recap in the local papers. We were too busy enjoying the present tense good food, long walks along the sand bluffs in Sconset, the bustle of an island household, Rose the tennis-ball fixated dog, skinnydipping in the Atlantic and stops in town to visit boutiques where Nancy would like to sell her fiber artist clothing creations mostly scarves and ponchos, but shell make about anything if someone gets her going and wants something specific. Son of Charles Henry Benchley and Maria Jane Benchley [80], Benchley produced over 600 essays,[81] which were initially compiled in twelve volumes, during his writing career. Unfortunately, the story he tells, though not much different from the one Nathaniel Benchley gave us 40 years ago, is blander and less witty. Time Magazine, January 8, 2006. When a job as a press agent for Broadway producer William A. Brady was offered, Benchley took the position against the advice of many of his peers. Siasconset. Anyone can read what you share. [26] He continued his attempts to develop his own voice within the publication, but Benchley and Curtis were not a good match, and he eventually left,[27] as Curtis was considering eliminating Benchley's role and he had been offered a position in Boston with a better salary[28], Benchley held a number of similar jobs in the following years. While some of his pieces would not have been out of place in a crackerbarrel-style presentation, Benchley's reliance on puns and wordplay resonated more with the literary humorists, as shown by his success with The New Yorker, known for the highbrow tastes of its readers. 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]. 2. Thanks to financial aid from his late brother's fiance, Lillian Duryea, he could attend Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire for his final year of high school. They became engaged during his senior year at Harvard University, and they married in June 1914. WebTop 3 Results for Robert C Benchley. Benchley died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver in 1945 at the age of 56. Does the garage still exist? But for $500 you better be good," Benchley was completely surprised. [65] This character, labeled the "Little Man" and in some ways similar to many of Mark Twain's protagonists, was based on Benchley himself; the character did not persist in Benchley's writing past the early 1930s, but survived in his speaking and acting roles. [3][7], Edmund's fiance Lillian Duryea, a wealthy heiress, doted on Robert for many years, and Edmund's death may have seeded the pacifist leanings seen in Robert's writing. [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. (Landing the position 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. [51], Benchley had continued to receive positive responses from his performing, and in 1925 he accepted a standing invitation from film producer Jesse L. Lasky for a six-week term writing screenplays at $500. 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 New York City and his peers at the Algonquin Round Table to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry.
