Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1948 • Baseball Clip • Jack Benny & Bob Feller - Radio Interview

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1948 • Baseball Clip • Jack Benny & Bob Feller - Radio Interview · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is RetroSports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:07
  Now who can that be? Come in.
• 0:11
  Pardon me for disturbing you, Mr. Benny, but may I have your autograph?
• 0:14
  Certainly. Certainly. Who shall I make it out to?
• 0:17
  Bob Feller. Bob Feller!
• 0:36
  Well, Bob Feller, it's certainly a pleasure having you drop into see me.
• 0:40
  Well, Jack, when I saw your name in front of the theater, I just couldn't walk right on by like everybody else.
• 0:46
  Oh, you mean you bought a ticket and saw my stage, though?
• 0:54
  I sure did, Jack. I thought you saw me. When you took a bow, you knocked a bag of popcorn out of my hand with your eyelashes.
• 1:01
  Oh, I'm sorry. Well, let me wipe the chicken fat off your sleeve.
• 1:06
  Well, Bob, you're still with the Cleveland Indians, aren't you?
• 1:12
  Yes, this is my 12th season, Jack.
• 1:14
  You're a pitcher, isn't that right?
• 1:16
  That's what it says in my book.
• 1:20
  Well, yeah, you wrote a book, didn't you? How to become a pitcher? I read it.
• 1:23
  You know, maybe I should.
• 1:25
  No. Not after that game today. Not after that game today.
• 1:32
  All that's pretty good. You must have brought your own writer, too.
• 1:35
  Hey, Jack, how do you expect anybody to get any sleep around here at home?
• 1:38
  Oh, Phil, come on in. I want you to meet Bob Feller, pitcher for the Cleveland Indians.
• 1:42
  Oh, hiya, Bob.
• 1:44
  Hiya, Phil. Say, Phil, you're a pitcher, too, aren't you?
• 1:46
  Me a pitcher? No, I'm a musician. Didn't you see me leading the band?
• 1:50
  Oh, is that what you were doing?
• 1:58
  Certainly.
• 2:00
  Gee, I wish I could do that.
• 2:01
  Why?
• 2:02
  With a wind-up like that, there'd be no one that could hold me.
• 2:06
  You're not kidding. And say, Bob, I meant to tell you, I like that nice stadium you have here in Cleveland.
• 2:11
  Have you seen it, Phil?
• 2:12
  Yeah, it's a wonderful ballpark. Right on the edge of Lake Erie.
• 2:14
  I saw a game the other day, and...
• 2:16
  Hey, wait a minute. I just thought of something.
• 2:18
  The other day when you were playing Boston, you only had eight men.
• 2:21
  Oh, no, no. We had nine.
• 2:22
  No, no. I counted everyone on the diamond, and there were only eight.
• 2:26
  Oh, you could only see eight. When Ted Williams is up, we put the left fielder in a canoe.
• 2:36
  Well, that'll teach you to ask questions.
• 2:40
  Jack, Jack!
• 2:41
  I'm here, Don.
• 2:42
  Jack, I've got the quartet with me, and don't you think I'm going to get...
• 2:44
  Wait a minute, Don. First, I want you to meet Bob Feller.
• 2:46
  Hello, Don.
• 2:47
  Well, I'm certainly glad to know you, Bob, and I'm particularly glad you're here because the quartet's going to do a number dedicated to the Cleveland Indians.
• 2:54
  Say, that'll be swell. And Don...
• 2:56
  Hey, wait a minute, Don, why is your coat so wrinkled?
• 2:59
  Well, I was at the ballgame Friday night. It rained, and they used my coat to cover the infield.
• 3:11
  Oh, yes, I read about that. One of the ground crew got lost in your pocket.
• 3:16
  Well, Don, where's the quartet for the commercial?
• 3:19
  In my other pocket.
• 3:20
  Oh. Well, bring them out.
• 3:22
  Oh, hello, fellas.
• 3:23
  Mmm.
• 3:24
  Don't mind that, Bob. I have to pay them extra if they talk, you know?
• 3:28
  All right, sportsman, we haven't got much time, so let's hear the number.
• 3:31
  Okay, hit it, boys.
• 3:33
  Take me out to the ballgame. Take me out with the crowd. Buy me a package of lucky strikes. That's the cigarette everyone likes.
• 3:45
  So let's pop, pop, pop on a lucky. Just remember the name. One, two, three lucky strikes at the old ballgame. Take me out to the ballgame.
• 4:00
  Take me out with the crowd. Young Bobby Feller, he pitched today. They made two home runs, but he won anyway.
• 4:08
  So let's run, run, run for a lucky. When they're put out, it's a shame. For it's one, two, three lucky strikes at the old ballgame.
• 4:20
  Wait a minute, boys. Wait a minute. Boys, don't dance.
• 4:25
  Boys, stop dancing. Wait a minute, Feller. Wait a minute, boys. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
• 4:49
  I'm so embarrassed in front of Bob Feller. Why is it every time we...
• 4:55
  Oh, Jack, Marilyn and I would like to know...
• 4:57
  Oh, come in, girls. I want you to meet Bob Feller. Bob, I want you to meet Bob. Bob, why are you staring at the girls like that?
• 5:04
  Well, if I had half the curves they've got, I could have beaten Boston.
• 5:09
  Very good, Bob. Very good. Bob, this is Mary Livingston, and this is Marilyn Maxwell.
• 5:15
  Hello, Bob.
• 5:16
  Hello, St. Mary.
• 5:17
  Yes, Bob.
• 5:18
  I feel as though I know you because I met your mother about two years ago.
• 5:21
  My mother, really?
• 5:23
  Yeah, she pitched against me in Plainfield.
• 5:29
  That's funny. I thought she was in the National League.
• 5:35
  You're both wrong. Her arm went bad. She's wrestling now.
• 5:40
  All right. Well, Bob will be going on stage in a few minutes. Why don't you wait and laugh till the next show and we'll all go out to dinner?
• 5:45
  I'd love to, Jack. Do you mind if I call my wife?
• 5:48
  Not at all.
• 5:49
  Which reminds me, Jack, you'll know my wife. She comes from Warkegan.
• 5:52
  She does? I didn't know you married a girl from Warkegan.
• 5:56
  Oh, sure. Her name was Miss Winther.
• 5:58
  Winther. Winther. Oh, I not only know her, I used to take her out, Marcella Winther.
• 6:04
  No, no. That's her mother.
• 6:06
  My wife's name is Virginia.
• 6:15
  Let me see. Her mother. But it can't be. I remember carrying her books to school. She had long, blonde curls.
• 6:21
  Yes, with a little freckle on her right cheek.
• 6:23
  Yes.
• 6:24
  Well, that was her father.
• 6:26
  Now, cut that out.
• 6:29
  Bob, I'd like to ask you a question. Isn't there some guy from radio and movies, some fellow that's part owner of the Cleveland Indians?
• 6:37
  Yes, there is.
• 6:38
  Well, you know, I own the Warkegan Bloomer Girls and I was just wondering...
• 6:43
  Well, look who's there!
• 7:01
  Howdy, Stu. How do you do, ladies and gentlemen? This is Bob, back in his hometown of Cleveland, to watch the Indians play hope.
• 7:08
  Telling you all, if you use Pepsi like the baseball players do, you will be keeping Bob, fellow.
• 7:21
  He did it today.
• 7:22
  I didn't say hello to me or something.
• 7:24
  Please, please.
• 7:27
  Well, here I am. I saw both games today. What a team here. You know, they don't have big league baseball in Hollywood, and I'll tell you why.
• 7:33
  It's tough sliding in the second base with a bare midriff.
• 7:37
  Bob, this happens to be my program.
• 7:39
  Nothing for the tailor, please.
• 7:47
  Well, it's essential to be cut off the air today.
• 7:52
  Oh, but it's great being home again. All my relatives met me at the station yesterday, and I was really touched.
• 8:01
  I have a lot of relatives here in Ohio. I have one brother doing fine in Canton, another doing five at Columbus.
• 8:08
  Bob, will you wait a minute first?
• 8:10
  Please. Who is it? The house detective? Please.
• 8:13
  You know, you might as well quit. You're not getting paid for this.
• 8:17
  Don't ruin our finished gag. Will you please?
• 8:28
  But my relatives... wait a minute!
• 8:35
  But my relatives met me yesterday morning with a big brass band. That is, I thought it was a big brass band.
• 8:39
  It turned out to be a lot of spittoons going to the Republican convention.
• 8:46
  Add it was different when I lived here years ago. This time the cops drove me from the station.
• 8:51
  Of course, the city has changed quite a bit. I can remember a lot of little things about this town. I can't seem to get them on the phone, though.
• 9:01
  I might as well go home. Come on. What is that? Something left over from the Eagles convention? What is it?
• 9:10
  I went out to my old grammar school yesterday. Fairmont, junior high. There was the same old desk, the same old inkwell, same old shaving kit.
• 9:16
  I tell you, it was brilliant. What memories that brought back? I'll never forget second grade where I met my first girl.
• 9:22
  She was seven, I was 18. And I was so proud. On my desk they have a plaque that says, Bob Hope slept here.
• 9:35
  And then I went back and saw the house where I used to live. Boy, what a tough neighborhood. It was so tough the freight trains used to tiptoe past.
• 9:43
  But it was wonderful. I'll never forget when I left home to go on the road. Father said I would go a long way.
• 9:47
  In fact, he nailed the door of the box cop. He did. Yes, he did.
• 9:51
  I know we've heard it. We know the joke. We know the joke. That's where you could have come in, you know.
• 10:03
  Now, what are you doing? I want to know what are you doing here? I'm getting laughs. What are you doing here?
• 10:10
  I'm trying to. And hey, Bob, here's one of your boys, Bob Feller. One of our boys. That's an annuity, Jack, this boy. Hello, Bob. Hello, Bob.
• 10:28
  Two Bob's. That'll get you a warm beer in England. Thanks for letting me have that one joke.
• 10:43
  I have a line you gave me which is no good. It didn't get you anything here, which you got a lot of.
• 10:50
  Well, look, Hope, let me ask you something. What are you really doing here in Cleveland?
• 10:54
  Well, I came here to watch out for my interest. I found out you were playing here and this is my hometown, you know.
• 10:58
  Well, what about it?
• 10:59
  Well, how much money have you taken into the Palestine already?
• 11:01
  So far, about $34,000. Give me half or I'll sue you. I don't muscle in the Warkegon, you know.
• 11:10
  What do you tell? I'm playing this whole circuit. Last week in Detroit, I took a $93,267 and $43.
• 11:17
  And a Hoover button. How do you know?
• 11:22
  I ain't spending any Dewey buttons to see you.
• 11:32
  Bob, you're cheaper than Fred Allen and he's almost as cheap as I am. I'm telling you.