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| ANOTHER GORGEOUS GEORGE STORY
April 1, 2003 – Dick Steinborn There have been some discrepancies of how Gorgeous George became who he was. His real name was George Wagner. George personally told me how this all came about early in his career. Jack Benny had a radio program. It came on during the dinner hour at 6:00. There was a newspaper columnist by the name of Fred Allen. He was Benny’s friend, and worked up a deal where they kind of knocked each other now and then, one from the radio microphone, and the other from the pen and the newspaper. Finally, Fred was offered a radio show at 6:30 PM. Now the broadcast station had a radio rivalry going on. Ratings were the big thing in those days. TV was in its infancy stage. To get more laughs on his radio program, Jack planted shills in the audience to disrupt his audience while Jack was halfway through a joke. He would fold one arm over his left wrist and place it under his chin, and watch what was going on in the audience, while the radio listeners heard half of a joke, then laughter, and maybe then the end of the joke. I can remember at my early age, timing that laughter and no commentary sometimes for a good minute. Benny’s radio program called Jules Strongbow, the California wrestling promoter, looking for a longhaired wrestler to be a shill for Benny on his radio program. George had black hair, and was introduced to Jeffries, who now carried a bug spray atomizer, the pump kind, but filled with perfume. Benny’s radio program was produced in a theater with a stage. Two end seats were left vacant. Picture this now. Benny goes into his telling a joke, and down the aisle comes Jeffries. While he stands in front of the two empty seats, spraying them with this lavishly scented perfume (it was usually a perfume called Taboo). Benny stops his routine and witnesses what is going on. Down the aisle comes George Wagner. He told me he wasn’t making much money in those days and really could not afford a haircut, and the radio station was looking for someone with long hair. G.G. went on to tell me that he stood with Jeffries, being assured that the seats were well sprayed. George sat in the second seat, and immediately jumped up, realizing he was sitting next to a mortal who accidentally brushed up against his left shoulder. Jeffries had to reapply the Taboo all over George’s body. More laughter, more intrigue, and more dead pan looks from Benny, as he looked back to each side of the stage in bewilderment. Finally, George sits on the end seat, dismisses Jeffries, who returns to the rear of the theater. Now G.G. looks at Jack, and with his right hand palm up, motions for Benny to continue. Benny hits the punch line of the joke, and a delayed rolling laughter can be heard for thirty seconds on all the radio stations that carried his show. George told Strongbow how it got over, and the both of them decided to pursue something that would culminate a Hollywood-style gimmick, that usually is always originated on the West Coast. |