Duffy's Tavern

DUFFY’S TAVERN: A BROADCAST LOG AND HISTORY

Compiled and written by Martin Grams, Jr.

Walk into any office today, and you may be greeted by the man behind a shiny desk. “Leave us proceed with business.” A mental picture of Ed Gardner immediately flashes across the mind of your true radio listener when this corny bit of speech is used. Which is all well and good as far as the “master of malaprop” is concerned. In fact, Gardner has turned the malapropism into a national institution. But Gardner didn’t become such an influence on the nation’s conversational habits by growing up in a transom, as he might put it. What then, lies behind a man who could turn an English Grammarian’s nightmare into a highly profitable way of life?

Eddie Gardner was born Edward Poggenberg on June 29, 1901, in Astoria, Long Island. At the age of fourteen, Gardner secured his first after-school job as a pianist at O’Bryan’s café, a colorful neighborhood bistro that served partly as a model for Duffy’s. Had Ed suspected the significance of this position, things might have been different. As it was, his stay there was short-lived. His mother happened to walk by one day, caught a fleeting glimpse through the swinging door of her son at the piano, and that was that. Ed once remarked that this was one of the few jobs he ever left without being fired.

Gardner had dropped out of school at the age of sixteen, after his second year at Bryant High School, to begin what was to be a wild decade of odd jobs. “If Public School #4 was good enough for Archie, then why should I complain?” Gardner recalled in 1943. “The only degrees I’m interested in are Fahrenheit and Centigrade.” The six-foot-two Irish-German-American used to boss a rough, tough street gang named the One Ol’ Cats out in Astoria, Long Island. At the time, further exposure to knowledge was not deemed necessary. “The family,” he said, “thought I was pretty well educated and by that time and judging by the standards of the neighborhood, I was.”

After the piano playing business, Gardner began selling pianos in what became an experienced salesman of all sorts. He sold ink, pens, and even miniature golf courses! Other jobs followed in rapid succession. As a fight manager, he lasted through two minutes of the third round of his protégé’s maiden bout. Then he was a typewriter salesman and a paint salesman – at which he acquired a lisp. This, he explained once, was because receptionists and secretaries, who ordinarily threw salesmen out, would listen to him lisp, fascinated. Before they came out of their trance, Ed would be selling the boss a bill of goods. Always a quick thinker, he also told of the time when he was arrested for speeding one day, going through a Pennsylvania town. Before he left, he sold the city fathers an order for repainting the jail!

He used this talent to become a stenographer, and in 1929, met Shirley Booth. She too had dropped out of Public School, at the age of fourteen, for New York’s theater district and a distinguished career behind the footlights. Late that year – November 23, 1929 – Booth and Gardner were married.

Gardner first found himself involved in the theater business as a promoter in the publicity department of Crosby Gaige. This led to a position in the New York office of Jennie Jacobs where he promoted stock companies, signed actors, rented theaters, handled hotels and theatrical transportation, painted scenery, typed scripts, directed shows, acted as stand-in and understudy and was casting director. This work would later come in handy when he would begin Duffy’s Tavern, and apply the numerous trades the same time. “Collitch,” a skit about college life, was Ed’s first producing job. Then came another “classic” entitled “Coast-Wise Annie” which lasted eight weeks at the Belmont. Gardner’s supreme effort as producer was “After Such Pleasures” by Dorothy Parker, a Sunday-night show which he produced at the Barbizon Plaza with an advertising agency, in New York. “I was the guy who gave radio actors the brush-off,” Gardner

commented. The show won rave notices and a big agency offered Ed a job. Seeking more money, he turned it down and wound up as a WPA theatrical producer and director. He had become interested in summer stock as a producer.

Ed theatrical knowledge helped establish him a good reputation in radio broadcasting, which by now was earning him $30 a week as a director, having graduated from the WPA in the depths of the depression of the thirties. By 1940, Gardner had written and produced for many of the high-rated and popular radio programs such as Ripley’s Believe-it-or-Not, The Bing Crosby Show, The Al Jolson Show, The Rudy Vallee Show, The George Burns and Allen Show, and Good News of 1939. He was in Hollywood by now, working on The Texaco Star Theatre when he began putting Duffy’s Tavern together as a viable package.

Duffy’s Tavern was – in one aspect - born back in 1939 when Gardner, who talks like Archie but is a good deal smarter, was producing shows for an advertising agency. He had planned a show designed to contrast the cultural side of New York with the seamy side, and had set Deems Taylor as the protagonist for culture. When he listened to the playback of Taylor’s audition record, for which Gardner himself had cued Taylor’s lines, he suddenly realized that his own voice was just the one he had been looking for to play the other side of the coin. “That,” he says gloomily, “is what comes of bein’ born in Astoria.”

The character Archie was born more or less by accident. Gardner was director of the program and in one segment, needed the voice of a “typical New York mug” and couldn’t find an actor to fill the bill. “There was a radio program called This is New York,” Ed recalled. “We wanted a guy to talk New Yorkese, but all we could get was voices that sounded like Dodger fans in the left-field bleachers. There is as much difference between New Yorkese and Kings County English as there is between Oxford and Choctaw.”

Ever since Major Bowes staged his amateur hour on the Sunday night air from 8 to 9 p.m., EST., after which Charlie McCarthy enlivened the same waves, that sixty minutes had been one of the most highly competitive periods on the air. Veteran performers have shield away from it. They confessed the competition was too keen; Bowes was too much for them, so is McCarthy. Then Orson Welles came along and boldly selected that hour to win an audience. The thousands were listening to him was indicated by the “Martian scare” in October, but the radio surveyists estimated that a comparatively small percentage of the nation’s radio audience was in tune with Welles; the majority, they reported, were listening to the impish Charlie, and that was said to have averted “a major disaster” when the “hordes from Mars rocketed to Earth.”

Orson Welles had forsaken the Sunday witching hour shortly after the panic broadcast, and went over to Friday nights. This left the showmen of that hook-up with the old riddle again of finding a performance to compete with Charlie McCarthy. They have decided to offer, a variety show called, This Is New York. The program plan was described as follows:

“Only that which has well-rooted origin in some of the many varied elements that give New York its fascinating personality will find a place on this diversified program of comedy, drama, music and lively human interest. Beginning with an example in point, the first master-of-ceremonies is to be James Montgomery Flagg, noted illustrator. He will introduce, among the guests, Alexander Woollcott, author and critic, and Louis Armstrong, whose trumpet probably speaks best for him. Leith Stevens’s orchestra and a chorus led by Lyn Murray abetted by soloists will present the vast pattern of entertainment typical of New York.”

THIS IS NEW YORK

Since no one has yet to compile a log of This Is New York, the Ed Gardner produced/directed radio program, I thought this would be a great time to go through some files and compile one. Directed by Ed Gardner, then one of the producer-directors in the radio department at J. Walter Thompson. Gardner, had long been pondering a series that would give listeners a grasp of the real New York. “The sidewalks of New York and the people, famous and obscure, who tread them” was the cryptic description in Radio Guide. Thanks to William S. Paley and his ideas and beliefs that anyone who possessed a creative idea, try it on the air, CBS granted Gardner the facility and the supporting talent. The hope was that a sponsor would hear the show, like it, and take it on. This is New York roamed freely among celebrities and cab drivers alike. The premiere featured Thomas “Fats” Waller, noted small-group jazz artist. The show of January 29 took a look at the city’s Yiddish theater, with an appearance by actress Molly Picon. Episode five featured Shirley Booth, wife of Ed Gardner. An interesting show that never found a sponsor but served as the launch pad of one of the major comedy hits of the following decade. Lyn Murray and his Chorus supplied the vocals, Leith Stevens and his orchestra the background accompaniment. Broadcast over CBS, Sunday from 8 to 9 p.m., EST. Special thanks to Jessica Hucks who compiled the fifteen-episode broadcast log listed below.

1. (12/11/38) Ed Gardner, Alexander Woollcott, Louis Armstrong, and Fats Waller. According to Jay Hickerson’s Ultimate Guide, this broadcast is the only episode of the series, known to exist. Available from many collectors.

2. (12/18/38) Former Mayor Walker, Deems Taylor, and Sophie Tucker.

3. (12/25/38) Christmas concert with the Bowry Mission Carols, Raymond Scott Quintet, harlem Abyssinian Baptist Church Spirituals, and the Liederkrans Singers. Wollcott and Russell Crouse are the writers.

4. (1/1/39) Cornelia Otis Skinner, Grover Whalen (President of World’s Fair), Deems Taylor, Elsa Maxwell, comedians Howard and Shelton, Eddie Duchin, and Barry Wood.

5. (1/8/38) George Jessel, Ted Peckham, Hiram Sherman, Shirley Booth and Otto Saylow.

6. (1/15/39) Ethel Waters, Fredie Washington, Jose Ferrar, producer George Abbott, Lucius Beebe, mimic Sheila Barrett, and piano player Rosa Cinda.

7. (1/22/39) Morton Downey, Jack Pearl, attorney Samuel Leibowitz, photographer Margaret Bourke-White, Deems Taylor, and Sigmund Spaeth.

8. (1/29/39) Molly Picon, dance instructor Author Murray, Frank Fay, Bill Harrington, Gertrude Niessen, Marjorie Hills.

9. (2/5/39) Theresa Helburn of the Theatre Guild Board of Managers, Lucy Monroe, Jane Peerce, Bill Robinson, Irene Bordonii, and the Philharmonic Symphony Ensemble.

10. (2/12/39) Raymond Massey, Jane Froman, the Andrews Sisters, Erna Rubinstein, violinist Erna Rubinstein, Billy Rose, and Clyde Hagar.

11. (2/19/39) Raymond Paige, John Barrymore and his wife Elaine, Hildegard, and Deems Taylor.

12. (2/26/39) Julia Sanderson, Frank Crumit, Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Webb, Fred Dannay, and M.B. Lee.

13. (3/5/39) Lionel Barrymore, Walter Huston, Hope Williams, harpist Casper Reardon, Connie Boswell. Note: Deems Taylor is master of ceremonies on this broadcast.

14. (3/12/39) Kate Smith, playwright Marc Connelly, Jane Pickens, and James Melton.

15. (3/19/39) Walter Huston, Ethel Merman, Nancy Hamilton, the Dunbar Bell Singers, and the Hall Johnson Choir.

Almost a year and a half after This Is New York went off the air, CBS began making plans for a short-run summer series called Forecast. (The name of the program is rumored to have originated with William S. Paley himself.) Paley, then head of CBS programming, was highly in favor of experimental radio programs. The Columbia Workshop was once such example. Quality programming was what Paley really went for, and he always believed that if CBS presented quality entertainment, radio listeners would return to hear more. Paley sent a memo through the radio studios, directed toward all of the producers and directors, announcing a proposed hour-long time-slot to take the place of The Lux Radio Theatre. Two half-hour presentations would be aired each week, and anyone interested in presenting ideas for new radio programs would be more than welcome to take advantage of the time slot.

The result was illuminating. Creative geniuses from all over, Norman Corwin to Alfred Hitchcock, got into the act. Presentations such as Jubilee, Suspense, Hopalong Cassidy, Leave it to Jeeves, Mischa the Magnificent, and The Country Lawyer were a few that received much attention, and later had their own prime-time regular run. On July 29, 1940, after the half-hour presentation of “Angel” with Loretta Young and Elliott Lewis concluded, Ed Gardner introduced Duffy’s Tavern to the radio audience for the first time. Larry Adler and Mel Allen took supporting roles, while Gertrude Niesen and F. Chase Taylor (a.k.a. Colonel Stoopnagle) became the first Hollywood guests to walk through the tavern doors.

Letters poured in to CBS and the board of directors took the program into consideration. Contracts were issued, offers were counter-offered, and the end result? On March 1, 1941, Duffy’s Tavern became part of the regular CBS lineup of comedies. Just three days before, Meet Boston Blackie premiered at the Rialto, the first of what would be fourteen Boston Blackie pictures for Columbia, based on the popular radio mystery series. Gardner didn’t know it at the time, but Duffy’s Tavern would become so successful, that four years later, a film adaptation of their program would also make it to the big screen.

THE FIRST TWO SEASONS

“It ain’t that Duffy’s cheap,” Arch said of his boss’s exploit, “it’s just that he knows the value of money. He don’t think money is used for feedin’ pigeons. Duffy will buy a drink occasionally, usually on St. Patrick’s Day or, when he’s under terrific emotional stress.” Archie, whose voice is a cross between that of an aroused cop and a buzz saw, was like his creator, tall and lanky, with a nervous manner. “Archie is just Gardner,” was Ed’s own explanation, “an easy-going guy with tolerance and a terrific respect for knowledge. He’s not a dummy, but he looks up to informed people and has a regard for culture that is almost reverence. But Archie sees right through phonies.”

To begin with a touch of understatement, Duffy’s Tavern was a wonderful place. It was so fine that when the phone rang every Thursday evening at 8:30, Archie the bartender answered with Duffy’s Tavern – “where the elite meet to eat,” you knew a moment of paradoxical regret: You would like to find a place like Duffy’s Tavern, at the same time that you were aware that, alas, it was too good to be true. There were plenty of acceptable bar-and-grill resorts in this city, but none that measured up to Duffy’s, for the fairly simple reason that it represented the best features of each.

Duffy, the proprietor, was non-existent – or rather, you know him only as the other party to those telephone conversations with Archie, the presiding genius. Miss Duffy, the proprietor’s daughter, liked almost every man who walked into the tavern, and she had a friend, Vera, who also liked men. Officer Clancy, (played by the irreplaceable Alan Reed) was a sage whose legal knowledge is approached only by that of former Chief Justice Hughes. Clifton Finnegan (played by Charlie Cantor, and old vaudevillian and radio bit player who had once done criminal parts on The Shadow and Dick Tracy) was about the intellect of Lennie in Of Mice and Men, but comical. Eddie Green, who would later find greater fame as Stonewall the Lawyer on Amos n’ Andy, played Eddie the waiter, gripper-extraordinary at Duffy’s, an apprehensive citizen of Harlem, and was in real-life a well-known Negro comedian. He was also in the food business (ironically), and owned a chain of Harlem restaurants for a couple decades. John Reed King was the first announcer for the series, who welcomed the studio audience and performed the commercials. King was also emcee of CBS’ This Is the Life and announcer of Gay Nineties Revue.

Orchestras like John Kirby’s did not play in taverns like Duffy’s; and sooner or later it would occur to the listeners as odd that although Archie was a bartender, no one ever seemed to take a drink. But no one noticed it at the time, which said something about one of the most original and consistently entertaining of current programs. With the aid of John Kirby’s famed Negro band, the music somehow fit the Brooklyn Tavern. Kirby was alumnus of Fletcher Henderson, Chick Webb bands, and even started his own in 1937 at New York’s Onyx Club. He was once married to actress Maxine Sullivan.

The greatest of these is, of course, was Archie. He held the show together not only as a bartender, but he was always on hand, and because he was a fellow capable of handling practically any given situation. He had some pretty close escapes, because he was not the brightest guy in the world, but he was the brightest guy in Duffy’s Tavern, and even when he failed he saw to it that no one else was aware of it. All right, he was taken in by Mme. Cacciatore, the opera singer with the Greenpernt accent and her manager, the Duke, but who was it who installed the pinball game in a corner of the Tavern where the floor slanted and thus made it impossible for anyone to win? It was Archie.

The aforementioned visit of Mme. Cacciatore and the Duke was considered a fine one, broadcast in September of 1941. Critics and reviewers praised the series the month after in a specific broadcast of October 1941, which found Archie inviting the ladies of the Lord Byron Literary Society to convene at the Tavern, where they were to hear Quincy Polk, a literary critic, who didn’t appear. Whereupon they were treated to a thirty-second review by Finnegan of “Inside Latin America,” with a copy of the World Almanac resting on the bar. Other admirers, however, would tell you that the Tavern had its liveliest day when Gloria Swanson, in person, dropped by for a visit, shortly after Archie had given he boys to understand that Miss Swanson regarded him with no little approval.

How the panic-stricken Archie was rescued from his own bravado was a stirring epic, to be sure. But it is no slight upon Miss Swanson and such other guests such as Tallulah Bankhead, Joe E. Brown, Frank Fay, Deems Taylor and Bill Robinson to say that the Tavern was at its best when only the regulars were there and expressing themselves freely. As they used to say of the old-time saloon, it is the poor man’s club. “How can we add some class to the joint?” Archie asked one night, the thirty-five cent dinner having failed to draw any clients away from the Rainbow Room. “Get these people outa here,” says Eddie the waiter, referring to the usual clientele.

From the program’s inception to 1948, the comedy program was performed twice in the same evening, first for the East Coast, the second for the West Coast. At the early show, the studio was jammed with spectators, filling all the empty seats. The later performance did not feature an audience, and the seats remained empty so that the West Coast broadcast, the midnight repeat show, could be closed down in a faster and efficient motem. But although it was part of the radio life of New York, people talked about it as if it were around the corner, which in a sense, it was.

Gardner explained in a 1943 magazine interview that a New Yorker, for instance would say: “Laertes poisinned the point uf his foil.” In Brooklyn he says it would be: “Layoytees purzind the pernt of his ferl.”

Twenty-eight minutes before airtime, he was still auditioning actors for the part. In frustration, he took the mike himself, to demonstrate how the lines should be read. Out of his mouth popped Archie. One of the “guys” in the control room in hysterics was his J. Walter Thompson colleagues, George Faulkner, who by most accounts, was the first to see a character in that voice and may have been the one who even named him Archie.

“But,” Gardner resumes, “as I was sayin’, one guy after the other gets up in front of the microphone and talks Brooklyn. Finally, I went out in front of the mike myself, because I have one guy who shows promise. He is only half-breed Brooklyn, on the distaff side. While I was demonstrating how it should sound, the gang in the control room is having hysterics.”

“Why bother with an actor?” George Faulkner and others suggested, “Read it yourself.”

“So who am I to argue with the fates? I went ahead and did it.”

Ed may not argue with the fates but he had stirred up some of the hottest arguments this side of Marconi. However, despite the arguments engendered by his butchering of the mother tongue, the “biggies” of show business seemed to delight in appearing on Duffy’s Tavern. Maybe they enjoyed being the butt of his “naïve” japery (and the checks too, of course). Erudite Clifton Fadiman was introduced as “A sort of grown-up quiz kid.” Vera Zorina as “the terpsicorpse from the ballet.” Foppish Adolphe Menjou as the “guy who presses his trousers up to his chin.”

When you heard a guest star on Duffy’s Tavern, the audience was sure that he had proved his ability to “take it.” It was practically the only requirement, but on that point he was adamant. But his best insults were reserved for his phantom boss, Duffy. As Archie once told Miss Duffy, “I ain’t never said a thing to his face that I wouldn’t say behind his back. Besides, in regard to him firin’ me, I have me own philofosy. If he fires me, I ain’t got a job. If I ain’t got a job, I don’t eat. When I don’t eat, I get skinny and emancipated-lookin’. And when that happens, I’d be so changed that Duffy could pass me on the street without even recognizin’ me. So what? So you think I’m goin’ to worry about a guy that won’t even speak to me when he passes me on the street?”

The regular prime-time broadcast run of the series began in March of 1941. The Magazine Repeating Razor Company (Schick Injector Razors) signed as sponsor for a fifty-two week, one-year contract, which stipulated that Duffy’s Tavern would have a three-month trial run, after which, a summer vacation would be taken and if Chick wished to drop sponsorship at that time, they could do so. If they decided to stay (which they did), the series would resume in September with major publicity, and the contract would allow Schick to remain as sponsor until March of 1942, when the one-year contract ended.

One of the things that happened to the unsuspecting tuner-in on the Saturday and Thursday night was to suddenly find themselves transported smack-dab into a Brooklyn tavern, ushered to a table by a loquacious, low-life bartender guy named Archie, and entertained by celebrities who occupied neighboring tables. Duffy’s Tavern was quite the most fascinating make-believe backdrop for radio humor, which had yet been devised. The humorist was head-writer Ed Gardner, whose Brooklyn accent was glamorously funny to average Americans, and hometown stuff to Brooklynites themselves.

Very little is known regarding the first two seasons, especially the second season. Scripts are hard to come by, and with the exception of two episodes broadcast during the last month of the third season, there is virtually no known existing episodes in circulation. So sadly, I have a lot of gaps throughout the second season, unlike the rest of the broadcast log. It seems likely at this early stage of the series, that there was a guest star for every episode during the second season. Perhaps someone might be able to fill those gaps in?

Season One Broadcast on Saturday evenings from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m., EST.

1. (3/1/41) Col. Stoopnagle 9. (4/26/41) Tallulah Bankhead

2. (3/8/41) Deems Taylor 10. (5/3/41) Hildegarde and Maxie Rosenbloom

3. (3/15/41) Orson Welles 11. (5/10/41) Elsa Maxwell

4. (3/22/41) Bill Robinson 12. (5/17/41) Milton Berle

5. (3/29/41) Hildegarde and Arthur Treacher 13. (5/24/41) Paul Lukas

6. (4/5/41) Morton Johnson and Vox Pop Boys 14. (5/31/41) James J. Walker

7. (4/12/41) --------------------- 15. (6/7/41) Ilka Chase

8. (4/19/41) --------------------- 16. (6/14/41) ---------------------

Season Two Broadcast on Thursday evenings from 8:30 to 8:55 p.m., EST.

17. (9/18/41) Joe E. Brown 30. (12/18/41) --------------------

18. (9/25/41) Joe E. Brown returns 31. (12/25/41) --------------------

19. (10/2/41) Frank Fay 32. (1/1/42) --------------------

20. (10/9/41) Gloria Swanson 33. (1/8/42) --------------------

21. (10/16/41) ------------------ 34. (1/15/42) --------------------

22. (10/23/41) ------------------ 35. (1/22/42) --------------------

23. (10/30/41) ------------------ 36. (1/29/42) --------------------

24. (11/6/41) ------------------ 37. (2/5/42) --------------------

25. (11/13/41) ------------------- 38. (2/12/42) --------------------

26. (11/20/41) ------------------- 39. (2/19/42) --------------------

27. (11/27/41) ------------------- 40. (2/26/42) --------------------

28. (12/4/41) ------------------ 41. (3/5/42) --------------------

29. (12/11/41) ------------------- 42. (3/12/42) --------------------

With the one-year contract ended, Schick decided not to continue sponsoring Duffy’s Tavern, so another sponsor, Sanka Coffee, took over, filling the void for the remaining sixteen broadcasts. The program moved to a new time slot as well, now heard Tuesday evenings from 9 to 9:30 p.m., EST.

43. (3/17/42) ----------------- 51. (5/12/42) ------------------

44. (3/24/42) ----------------- 52. (5/19/42) -----------------

45. (3/31/42) ----------------- 53. (5/26/42) -----------------

46. (4/7/42) ----------------- 54. (6/2/42) -----------------

47. (4/14/42) ----------------- 55. (6/9/42) -----------------

48. (4/21/42) ----------------- 56. (6/16/42) -----------------

49. (4/28/42) ----------------- 57. (6/23/42) -----------------

50. (5/5/42) ----------------- 58. (6/30/42) -----------------

Beginning July 7, 1942, Duffy’s Tavern came to a close over the Columbia Broadcasting System.

The Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou musical variety program took over the old Duffy’s Tavern time-slot. Johnny Cash was a regular for the summer run.

SEASONS THREE AND FOUR

Ed Gardner was not so much a person as a human symbol variously associated with Brooklyn, Hell’s Kitchen or First Avenue. This husky man with the rugged features and aggressive manner provoked the feeling that pretty soon someone would belabor the floor with a cue stick and shout: “Rack ‘em up.” Or else that a pop bottle will hurtle into space, accompanied by “T’row yuh spikes at ‘im, will yuh, yuh bum!” But there was no mistaking the flat, slightly nasal voice with the sarcastic edge, even when it bounced off the modern French decors of the Hotel St. Regis suite where Gardner had stayed in recent years.

As conceived by Gardner himself, who drinks only milk, Duffy’s Tavern was an old-fashioned, mirrored, and sawdusty place that attracted “mostly ordinary people but a few of the hoi polloi.” Duffy himself was never around, but while he was the little man who wasn’t there, he had a definite character nevertheless. “Duffy,” Gardner explained, “is a thick-hearted old gent who might have started as a bartender and built up the place that I’m now running for him. When I was a kid out in Astoria there was an old-fashioned place like it. My Uncle Henry, who was a carpenter, used to hang out there most of the time and I used to work there occasionally. They’d have pig roasts on Saturday nights and I used to play the piano, a fellow named Fredy Vopat the drums, and a guy called Theodore Smith the violin. We were the band and we were rotten. It was a nice place, though, and everybody had a good time.”

“Duffy’s Tavern is sort of like that,” Gardner continued, “only John Kirby’s music is good and he gets more money than we did. Duffy himself is the old, conservative-type. He’s the kind of guy who still thinks John L. Sullivan was the greatest heavyweight champion of the world. No fads for him; he’s sort of allergic to progress. In fact, Duffy is waiting for radio to blow over.”

Duffy’s daughter, although more modern-minded than her imaginary father, was not particularly bright. Quick to defend Duffy’s beliefs against Archie, she had a complete disregard of logic that usually defeated his loftiest arguments. As Archie explained it, “She’s the sort of girl that comes in from left-field in her approach to anything.” Miss Duffy was a very proper lady, however, and her presence on the program, apart from providing a willing to foil for Archie’s wit, indicated that Duffy’s was a thoroughly respectable establishment. In fact, prices had been increased to 20 cents a drink “to keep out the riff-raff,” as Archie explained it, and the clientele thus far has been of a high type.

By the end of the first season, the radio audience seemed to have appreciated the movie stars’ patronage as much as Archie. Letters kept coming in asking the location of Duffy’s Tavern. Duffy himself likes the kind of crowd being attracted those days, and it was for Deems Taylor that he ordered that “drink,” adding incidentally that the free-lunch counter should be shut down until he regained control of himself.

While Ed Gardner was attending New York’s Public School #4, his future wife Shirley Booth, was becoming the voice of Brooklyn in that borough’s Public School #152. They met at a party and were married November 23, 1929. Everything was fine until Ed’s wife, actress Shirley Booth, became a big star in the hit Broadway play, Three Men On a Horse. The result was that Ed was removed from the WPA and had to accept the agency job (at less than half the salary originally offered) in a specially created position. He even wrote and produced for many shows such as The Joe Penner Show. Gardner finally ended up on the West Coast as a writer and director of the M-G-M Good News program (only during the year of 1939). He returned to NY for This is New York, only to be sent back to California in August 1939, to take over the variety half of the hour-long Texaco Star Theater. (The dramatic half was done in New York).

The popularity of the comedy program was evident as people from all wakes of life, across the country, began talking like a “New Yorker.” Convicts at San Quentin voted Duffy’s Tavern as their favorite radio program. A premium, Duffy’s First Reader, was published in 1943, written by Gardner himself, and Abe Burrows wrote the forward. Duffy’s Tavern was awarded the Award of Merit in 1942 to Ed Gardner by one radio magazine.

The New York Times reviewed:

“The delightful half hour at Duffy’s each week is rapidly becoming one

of radio’s best comedy programs. One bad feature, however, is the applause after

each character finishes his chore. Let Hope, Benny, Allen and the rest continue

with this routine; perhaps it compensates their players, but phase, Archie, in situation

comedy let the unseen audience remember that the scene is at Duffy’s on Thoid

Avenue and not Studio 6B. For the guest star it’s all right. It “flatters them with

flattery,” as Miss Duffy might say, and also pays for their transportation from and

back to Hollywood. But when our real friends, Eddie the waiter, Finnigan, Clancy

the cop and the rest start taking bows – look out!”

Variety reviewed: “The comic grief, consternation and naïve inspirations of the bartender-manager and the cross-play of characters, add up to first-rate diversion, in which the writers and directors do well by the several performers and vice versa.”

Beginning with season three, Duffy’s Tavern gained a new sponsor. Sanka was only interested in sponsoring the remaining second season, and had no thoughts about continuing into another season. Bristol Myers eventually signed as sponsor, to promote their product, Ipana. The program remained on Tuesday evenings, but pushed back a half-hour to it’s original time slot, 8:30 p.m. One change was made, however.

Beginning October 6, 1942, the program was titled Duffy’s instead of Duffy’s Tavern. An employee working for Bristol Myers felt the “saloon” connection was unsavory, and with a little persuasion, convinced the head publicity department at Bristol Myers to demand the word “tavern” be dropped from the title. A press release explained in more detail that “some listeners - the majority being Catholics - had started public protests in an attempt of having the word “tavern” dropped from the title. The protestors’ excuse was that the word “tavern” was partly advertising the hobby of drinking, and should not be used over the radio.” Fans, however, went on calling the show Duffy’s Tavern as before. Gardner even suggested the title Duffy’s Variety, which was used for only a few episodes, but that idea was soon dropped.

Finally, in early March, the truth became known. There was very little to support the statements of the employee working at Bristol Myers. Apparently there were no protests whatsoever. A handful of letters, maybe, but no protests and petitions. On March 5, 1944, another press release, this time issued: “The sponsor of Duffy’s apparently has come to the conclusion that the citizenry was not greatly outraged by the alcoholic connotation in the word “tavern.” In any event, the Ed Gardner show is reverting to it’s original titled Duffy’s Tavern.” Beginning with the March 9, 1944 broadcast, Duffy’s Tavern returned with full title, and here it was to stay. And to celebrate, Colonel Stoopnagle, who was guest on both the audition and March 1941 premiere, paid a return visit to Duffy’s Tavern.

Duffy’s Tavern also switched networks, leaving CBS for the Blue network. This didn’t make too much of a difference, but the name of the program was noticeable, perhaps too noticeable.

Season Three (10/6/42 to 6/29/43) Tuesday 8:30 p.m., EST

Besides the title of Duffy’s being shortened, the first four episodes of this new season did not feature any guest stars at all. The reason for this is not yet known, but that too, might have been the decision of the sponsor. Beginning with episode sixty-three, Hollywood stars began entering through the doors of the tavern, and a regular singer and a big band was added. The full-fledged orchestra – Peter Van Steeden’s – remains a good orchestra, to be sure, but certainly much too fancy for Duffy’s place.

59. (10/6/42) No guest for this broadcast

61. (10/20/42) No guest for this broadcast

60. (10/13/42) No guest for this broadcast

62. (10/27/42) No guest for this broadcast

Because the program was transcribed and not broadcast live, Gardner signed a contract with NBC to produce fifty-two transcribed episodes for a one-year broadcast run. Beginning September 28, NBC replaced the time slot for We, The People, sponsored by Gulf Gasoline.


Episode #364 featured Hedda Hopper, often mis-credited with an earlier broadcast date then listed above.
Episode #296 was actually the same transcription of February 16, 1950, a repeat broadcast.
Episode #404 was actually the same transcription of May 25, 1950, a repeat broadcast.

Season Eleven (11/10/50 to 5/4/51) Friday 9:30 p.m., EST

383. (11/10/50) Sir Cedric Hardwicke
384. (11/17/50) Archie’s nephew Morton visits.
385. (11/24/50) Archie helps his nephew Morton with homework, leading to a visit by Morton’s teacher.
386. (12/1/50) The Latin Night with Bobby Capo
387. (12/8/50) -------------------
388. (12/15/50) ------------------
389. (12/22/50) -------------------
390. (12/29/50) Archie plans to cut the Tavern’s prices by 10%
391. (1/5/51) Archie dates guest Joan Bennett
392. (1/12/51) A lady visits from the draft board
393. (1/19/51) The literary society meeting
394. (1/26/51) The exclusive actor’s club with Vincent Price
395. (2/2/51) Archie runs for political office
396. (2/9/51) The mystery valentine, with guest Shelley Winters
397. (2/16/51) Archie the hypnotist
398. (2/23/51) Maxine Rosenbloom makes one of his many guest appearances.
399. (3/2/51) Peter Stuyvesant’s 1670 diary with Arthur Treacher.
400. (3/9/51) Archie writes an opera
401. (3/16/51) The Fashion Lecture with Arthur Treacher
402. (3/23/51) Bringing culture to the tavern with Arthur Treacher
403. (3/30/51) Archie throws a block party with Bert Gordon, and guest Artie Shaw
404. (4/6/51) The singing detective, with guest Rudy Vallee
405. (4/13/51) The new floor show, with guest Maxie Rosenbloom
406. (4/20/51) Archie, the lion tamer with Bert Gordon
407. (4/27/51) The book don’t balance, with guest Phil Baker

Duffy’s Tavern was not broadcast on May 4, 1951. A few collectors offer an episode about Latin Night with guest Bobby Capo, dated May 4, but in reality, NBC began broadcasting The Man Called X for a two-month summer replacement in that same Friday evening time-slot.

Season Twelve (10/5/51 to 1/18/52) Friday 9 p.m., EST

408. (10/5/51) When Duffy decides to sell the tavern, Archie gets Boris Karloff to scare off any buyers.
409. (10/12/51) Party for columnists and the nation’s famous film critics. *
410. (10/19/51) Archie’s nephew Morton visits. (a repeat of episode #384)
411. (10/26/51) Archie helps with Morton’s schoolwork. (a repeat of episode #385)
412. (11/2/51) Archie invites Diego Dinero, wealthy South American, to tavern for Spanish floorshow
413. (11/9/51) The cultural singing contest
414. (11/16/51) Deems Taylor is guest.
415. (11/23/51) Archie open a tearoom in order to marry wealthy widow Abigail.
416. (11/30/51) A weighing machine predicts good luck for Archie, so he buys a racehorse!
417. (12/7/51) Archie the father. Someone left a baby on the tavern doorstep.
418. (12/14/51) Archie’s schoolteacher visits
419. (12/21/51) Archie wants to split the atom
420. (12/28/51) Archie enters a slogan contest and is sure that he’s won the trip to Hawaii!

* There are copies of these two broadcasts, 10/5 and 10/12, that are circulating with the dates switched.
These are the correct dates, Karloff was definitely on the season premiere.

Regardless of what encyclopedias have been saying the past years, the final episode of Duffy’s Tavern was on December 28, 1951. There were no 1952 broadcasts, not even syndications as time fillers. NBC Presents: Short Story began broadcast on January 4, 1952 in the same time slot.

Later, in the late fifties, Duffy’s Tavern began showing up as excerpts on NBC’s Monitor. About 53 five-minute shows are circulating among collectors.

DUFFY’S TAVERN GOES ON TV, BUT STILL NO DUFFY TO BE SEEN

In fall of 1954, Duffy’s Tavern, the long remembered radio show, was then beginning to show its face on television, and was probable cause for considerable rejoicing among the former listeners. One of the most literate illiterate shows on the air, it had a flavor all its own and was perhaps the forerunner of the informal school of radio programming. Ed Gardner, the “Archie” of the famed restaurant, was not particularly overjoyed with the turn of events. Both as a result of how it previously effected the radio series, and how the television productions failed to meet his expectations.

As early as summer of 1949, Ed Gardner had begun talking to producers and network executives about bringing Duffy’s Tavern to television. A press release dated May 24, 1949 read: “Ed Gardner arrives in New York today from the coast to carry on discussions with network officials and sponsors, who may be interested in his Duffy’s Tavern program. Looking for a deal that could involve both radio and television commitments, Gardner recently obtained a release from Bristol-Meyers from his Wednesday night show on NBC. Among other interested persons, it is known that CBS officials are anxious to discuss future plans with Gardner.” A month later, in June of 1949, Duffy’s Tavern went off radio for the summer and sadly, Gardner had failed to convince network executives that a television version would be just as successful as his radio counterpart. (Another reason Gardner wanted a release from his sponsor, Bristol-Meyers, was so he could move the show to Puerto Rico.) So during the summer of 1949, Gardner went in search of a new sponsor for the radio program. And he did, ironically Blatz Beer, for a one-year contract of fifty-two transcribed broadcasts. A much longer run than a late fall to late spring season.

Another press release in early September of 1949 read: “Although program changes are a normal occurrence with each new season, next fall is going to witness a record number of shifts and cancellations. The latest show to be parting company with its sponsor is Duffy’s Tavern. Its star, Ed Gardner, having secured a release from his contract, reportedly has his eye on a television venture, among other activities.”

With the radio program off the radio waves permanently 1952, Ed Gardner took a little rest and relaxation, which was long overdue. Moving back to his Beverly Hills home with his family, Gardner began negotiations with Hal Roach studios, who possessed an interest in marketing a television syndication. Contracts and proposals went back and forth between Ed and Hal Roach’s executives and board members. Regardless of the age showing, Ed insisted that he star in each episode. The board of directors had no problem with that request, but the post-production was a different matter. Gardner had very little choice in casting or scripts, only to give a final “go ahead” when all was said and done. The initial contracts stated that only 26 episodes would be filmed, and later syndicated for stations across the country. The CBS network would be host. This way, if local stations had to pre-empt any programs due to elections or other local events, Duffy’s Tavern could be broadcast later at a different day and time. If the program was successful, reruns would give them an additional 26 weeks (thus an entire year) to begin production on shooting additional episodes. The manpower and work that went into a television production was much more than Gardner put into one of his radio productions, and he found that out the hard way.

If it just weren’t for the physical activity, Gardner actually would have found the TV film version of Duffy’s Tavern a good deal easier than the radio show. “In radio,” Gardner recalled, “I was the producer and director, and half the time the writer, and also Archie. I was goin’ all the time. It was an awful mental strain. But here it’s different. Hal Roach, Jr. does the producing and Harve Foster directs and they bring the scripts in and they’re in pretty good shape. All I have to do is memorize the lines and I’m not so sharp at it. But it’s them hot lights and all that standin’ around that gets me.”

Developments for the program changed from pre-production to actual filming. Shortly after filming the first couple episodes in color, it was decided that the cost factor was too high and the series went black and white. (The episodes that were filmed in color were developed and syndicated in black and white.)

Gardner was interviewed about the other difficulties of the television series. “We’re shootin’ in color so they gotta light the place up like it was the third degree and five in the afternoon I tell ya I’m shot. We figured to make only twenty-six films, but just this morning they tell me we’re set for thirteen more and I should bust my head against a wall or something.” Roach, Jr. decided shortly after that interview they were not going to shoot any additional episodes, even if thirteen was an additional quarter of a year.

The show’s supporting cast included the veteran Jimmy Conlin as Charley the waiter, television’s approach to a more “politically correct” waiter compared to radio’s Eddie. This choice was made by executives after the events of Amos ‘n’ Andy on television and the protests that resulted. Alan Reed played the role of Finnegan. (Reed was Clancy the cop on the radio series of Duffy’s Tavern.) Miss Duffy, the role originated by Gardner’s former wife, Shirley Booth, was now being played by Pattee Chapman, whom Gardner found behind the counter of a Beverly Hills ice cream shop, and one of the only television roles he successfully convinced executives was the right person for the job. A French Chef was added to the cast, who lived in the kitchen. The Tavern itself looked much cleaner than the “fly-infested dive” people imagined on radio.

The broadcast log below represents all twenty-six syndicated episodes of television’s Duffy’s Tavern. Many publications and magazine articles have been listing the series April to September 1954. Perhaps in other areas of the country, New York for example, the series did premiere in April, but I couldn’t find anything to substantiate that. The dates I have are from the East Coast and broadcast May to October of 1954. CBS network, Tuesday evenings from 8:30 to 9 p.m., EST. Two of these episodes had script titles, the rest apparently did not. I don’t know why this was, there might have been titles for all 26 scripts and I could only find two, perhaps they started giving titles and gave up early. (Perhaps the early color filmed episodes were titled?) You’ll also note that some of the television broadcasts were actually adaptations of earlier radio episodes. Valley Forge was the sponsor.

1. (5/4/54) Premiere episode of the series.
2. (5/11/54) “Archie’s Boys Club” Archie starts a boys club in the tavern to make a hit with a pretty grown-up sister.
3. (5/18/54) “Date for Miss Duffy” Archie pawns Miss Duffy of as an heiress to an oil millionaire.
4. (5/25/54) Duffy helps Clancy the cop apprehend Saloomi the safe cracker.
5. (6/1/54) Archie tries to sell the tavern and ends up dunked in Central Park Lake.
6. (6/8/54) Archie poses as a long-long heir and comes close to being poisoned.
7. (6/15/54) In order to attract more wealthy patrons, Archie hires a French chef, keeps him in the kitchen sight-unseen, and then tells the wealthy patron that he cooked the meal himself.
8. (6/22/54) Archie buys a half-interest in a racehorse but fails to read the fine print of the contract.
This is an adaptation of radio episode #406.
9. (6/29/54) Archie decides he wants to become a lawyer, but not having enough money to pay for school, he persuades Finnegan to have an accident in the tavern. He intends to collect from the insurance company, enough money to study law, not realizing he’s breaking the law!
10. (7/6/54) Claude brings a time bomb into the tavern, which is set to explode when his girl Gladys marries someone else.
11. (7/13/54) Thanks to Duffy’s generosity, the entire Tavern is treated to a major feast. Now the only thing that can prevent their benefit is a viral quarantine. Oops. Did we speak too soon?
12. (7/20/54) Finnegan poses as a gypsy fortuneteller to entertain a ladies’ literary society.
13. (7/27/54) Archie buys a dog and resells it for what appears to be a profit.
14. (8/3/54) His girl turns down Archie so he accepts the proposal of a rich dowager who opens a charge account for him.
15. (8/10/54) Duffy goes on a quiz program to win money so he can give presents to his girl.
16. (8/17/54) Archie tries to dupe a prince into paying for an expensive dinner with Peaches La Tour.
17. (8/24/54) Archie finds an apparently abandoned baby and his dream of fatherhood is recognized. This is an adaptation of radio episode #417.
18. (8/31/54) Archie plans to marry a rich woman.
19. (9/7/54) Archie demands a vacation while under a hypnotist’s spell. This is an adaptation of radio episode #397.
20. (9/14/54) Finnegan inherits a diamond mine. This is an adaptation of radio episode #166.
21. (9/21/54) Archie gets a date for Miss Duffy through an escort bureau.
22. (9/28/54) City supervisors inspect the tavern.
23. (10/5/54) A wealthy and prominent man gives Archie’s girl a rush.
24. (10/12/54) Archie buys an original Stradivarius for $15 – or so he thinks.
25. (10/19/54) Archie receives a letter from his uncle, a gold miner and thinks he’s coming into a fortune.
26. (10/26/54) Archie wangles a part in a play to prove to a girl that he is an actor. Final episode of the series, replaced by television’s The Halls of Ivy.


DUFFY’S TAVERN – THE MOVIE

With other radio programs making the successful transition to the big screen, it was no surprise that Duffy’s Tavern would do the same. Talk at M-G-M studios about filming and releasing the picture is positive, proposals and contracts can be found among their vast library of files, but it took the studio executives at Paramount to attract Gardner’s attention. Hollywood stars were under contract to the studios at that time, and if the big boss said they were to appear in this picture, they had to. But what attracted Gardner was the stipulation that Paramount offered more than thirty of their contract stars to appear as an all-star ensemble.
Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, Robert Benchley, Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd, and many others would be filmed for the picture and this, in Gardner’s opinion, promised big box office receipts. The more stars the marrier. So the contracts were signed and the filming commenced.

A glorious potpourri of almost every star on the Paramount lot was centered about Gardner as the irrepressible Archie. This marked Gardner’s only acting credit in a movie. Archie learns that his tee-totaling customer Moore is going broke and has to lay off a bunch of ex-servicemen. Gardner goes into action, persuading a truckload of stars to pitch in, perform their bits, and help raise enough money for Moore’s record company to go back into business. It’s a flimsy excuse for a film but the entertainment is nonstop, with some truly memorable numbers performed by Betty Hutton, who whirlwinds through “Doin’ It the Hard Way” (written by Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen), and Cass Daley performing an equally frenetic “You Can’t Blame a Gal for Trying” (written by Ben Raleigh and Bernie Wayne). Crosby and Hutton also do an unusual rendition of “Swinging on a Star.”

Eddie Green, Charles Cantor and Ann Thomas (one movie guide commented she was the then current Miss Duffy, but I have not found anything to support this) reprised their radio roles in the movie. Sprinkled throughout are various burlesque bits, gag sequences, and even an oddball radio murder skit performed by Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and Howard Da Silva, stars of the recent The Blue Dahlia. As the lights go out Da Silva seems to be punching Lake silly, with Ladd daring him to continue. When the lights go on, Ladd gives Lake an arch look and says: “Lady, you’d better get out of here before you get your teeth kicked in!”

Duffy’s Tavern made it’s debut, appropriately enough, at the Times Square Paramount in New York on the same bill with such “live” entertainment as The Andrews Sisters, movie actor Tim Herbert, Charles Leighton (“New King of Harmonica”), Foy Willing’s “Riders of the Purple Sage” and Vic Schoen and his recording orchestra. The opening credits of the movie featured that familiar song, “When Irish Eyes are Smiling,” the same opening theme for the radio series.

Produced by Danny Dare. Directed by Hal Walker. Released through Paramount Studios.
Written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, based on the characters created by Ed Gardner.
Sketches were written by Melvin Frank, Frank Panama, Matt Brooks, Eddie Davis, George
White, Barney Dean, and Abe S. Burrows.

Director of Photography by Lionel Lindon.
Process Photography by Farciot Edouart.
Music Direction was supplied by Robert Emmett Dolan.
Music Associate was Arthur Franklin.
Vocal Arrangements supplied by Joseph J. Lilly.
Editorial Supervision by Arthur Schmidt.
Set Decorator was Stephen Seymour.

Dorothy Lamour and Betty Hutton’s gowns were designed by Edith Head.
Paulette Goddard’s gowns were designed by Mary Kay Dodson.
Special Photographic Effects by Gordon Jennings.
Dances were staged and choreographed by Billy Daniel.
Sound Recording by John Cope and Wallace (Nogs?)
Art Direction by Hans Dreier and William Flannery
Makeup by Wally Westmont.


CAST
Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken, Brian Donlevy, Sonny Tufts, Veronica Lake, Arturo De Cordova, Philip Crosby, Gary Crosby, Diana Lynn, Cass Daley, William Bendix, Maurice Rocco, James Brown, Joan Caulfield, Dennis Crosby, Lindsay Crosby, Gail Russell, Helen Walker and Jean Heather.
All of the above played themselves.