For those of you who love Bea Benaderet, I thought that this would interest you. Ruth Henning gave me a book entitled "The Son That Rose In The West" by Jim "Red Ryder" Bannon, Bea's first husband. It is a collection of letters written by him to his parents, Lala & Willie, from 1937 to 1955. He had gone to Hollywood to make a name for himself - eventually he came to star in the western series "Red Ryder" in 1948. There are a lot of references to Bea in these letters - from their first date thru their divorce. Here are excerpts from those letters: |
September 1937
Dear Lala and Willie,
I ate hamburgers for about a week and saved my dough so that I could splurge and go the Brown Derby. There are two of them. The original one is over on Wilshire Boulevard and is built in the shape of a Derby but the one where most of the people from show business go is on Vine Street. Somebody had told me that the chances of seeing a lot of stars are better at lunch so that's when I went. There was enough in my little nest egg for me to take a date so I asked a girl who works on a daily dramatic show a KHJ if she'd go with me. Her name is Bea Benaderet. She just came down here a few months ago from San Francisco and seems to do a lot of work on the shows that are being produced here. I knew her name because of hearing her when I was at KMOX. She was on a show that was on the network every week, a thing called the Blue Monday Jamboree. She told me that was where Amos and Andy got started as well as the guy who is now on the Bing Crosby show, Bob Burns. She knows a lot of people here and has been very helpful in telling me who to go and see about getting on as the announcer of some of the network shows.
The day we went to the Derby there were a lot of celebrities eating there. I don't guess I ever thought I'd be having lunch while Clark Gable was sitting just across the aisle and Ronald Coleman was in a booth next to us. Don Wilson, the guy who is the announcer on the Jack Benny Show, came in and he laughs just as loud in person as he does on the show. Either that laugh is phony or he was with some very funny people because you could hear him guffawing all over the place. Bea maintains that the day he stops laughing it up so much he'll be off the show. Benny likes to have him around - due mostly to the fact that he even gets a big case of the loud giggles at the straight lines as well as the jokes. I met George Burns and Gracie Allen when they stopped at our table to say hello to Bea - she works on their show. Gracie sounds just like she does on the radio show, with that silly laugh and the high little voice. I sat there gawking around the whole time and even though I tried not to look like a middle western hick it probably wasn't very hard to tell that I was a new kid in town.
December 1937
A lot has happened since I last wrote you a few months ago. Bea Benaderet asked me to have Thanksgiving dinner at her place - she shares a little house with another gal from up north that lives down here now and works at MGM. When she found out that Jack [Editor's note - Jack, a priest, is Jim's brother] was in San Francisco going to school she insisted that I call him and invite him down. He accepted and came down on the same train with her father, thought they didn't meet until we picked them up at the station in Glendale. By now he has probably written you about being here. I'd be interested to know what he had to say about her because I am getting pretty serious about this girl. Her father is a delightful little man and from what I could tell seems to approve of me. My guess is that even if he didn't he wouldn't interfere since he appears to be the kind of guy who figures she's entitled to lead her own life.
I'm going to leave KHJ just before Christmas and will go to work for KFI the first of the year. That will mean a week with no check coming in so I can't really afford to come back to Kansas City for the holidays. Please don't let this hurt your feelings but at this point I'd really rather stay here and spend the day with Bea. I've saved up and have a ring which I plan to give her for Christmas. If she accepts it, and I am praying that she does, we'll very likely arrange to go to San Francisco in the summer and have Jack marry us at the College Church.
July 1938
Sorry I haven't had time to send more than post cards for a while. I know from your letters that you've been regular listeners to both on the shows I've had this year. The Chase and Sanborn Hour, with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and the Joe Penner Show.
I almost couldn't believe it when they told me I had won the Bergen/McCarthy Show. That's the number one program in the ratings and has been for the last two years. If someone had predicted, when I got here a year ago, that this June I'd be the announcer for the top rated show on the air I'd have thought they were just being nice and trying to build up my hopes. The Penner audition was two days later and when I got that one right on top of the first I called Bea, took her out to dinner, and insisted we set the date for our wedding. It will be later in the summer up in San Francisco. I've already called Jack and he will tie the knot. For a while after she said she'd marry me, when I gave her the ring at Christmas time, I wasn't sure if I'd ever do well enough to support a wife. Until you finally get lucky, and that first break comes, you wonder if it's ever going to happen.
September 1938
This is the first chance I've had to write since Bea and I were married last month. I suspected that we'd both be busier than bird dogs when we got back to LA so I made Jack promise to write and tell you about it. Boy! setting up housekeeping sure involves a lot of stuff I hadn't thought about. Having to go out and buy linens and dishes and silver and pots and pans and all the things I've just taken for granted all my life has kept us really on the go. Bea had a few things of her mother's but for the most part we were practically starting from scratch.
Our wedding, even though it was very small, was just beautiful. I was so nervous I almost don't remember too much about it. Getting the ring on Bea's finger without dropping it will have to go on record as the miracle of the year. A long-time friend and school mate of Bea's, Alicia McEvoy, was her maid of honor. The McEvoy family gave us a very lovely wedding breakfast at their home in Sea Cliff, one of the more elegant sections of San Francisco. Afterward we went back to the hotel to change clothes and pack before starting south. There was only time for a short, short honeymoon. We spent a couple of days at the Biltmore in Santa Barbara. It is right on the ocean and is as lovely as anyplace I've ever been. I suppose, as happy as I was at that point, a ten in the middle of nowhere would have been a palace.
January 1939
As Jack probably wrote you, his plans to go back to St. Louis U for the week failed to work out so he came down and spent two days with us. He and Sammy, Bea's father, came down together, which saved us having to make two trips to the Southern Pacific station in Glendale. I called and made arrangements for him to say Midnight Mass in the chapel at Immaculate Heart Convent in Hollywood. It's an academy which the Madames of the Sacred Heart operate. The nuns have an excellent choir and it was a most inspiring service.
With two house guests our little apartment on Olympic Boulevard was just about overflowing with people. We made it, though, with a borrowed folding bed and the studio couch. The bed was loaned to us by Lon Chaney, Jr. He and his wife have the apartment above us. Having a father as famous as Lon Chaney was makes it rather tough for him to establish a career of his own in the movie business but he seems to feel that things are finally beginning to look up for him. They are nice kids but they stay to themselves pretty much and we don't see a lot of them.
A few days ago we were driving to work, Bea had a call for the Lux Radio Theatre (Ronald Coleman in Tale of Two Cities) and I was due at a Chase and Sanborn rehearsal, when we drove past a little house with a For Rent sign on the front lawn. There was time to stop and look at it so we did. It's a real cute little place and Bea liked it so I guess we'll be moving within the next few weeks. For a kid who spent most of his life in one house I've really done a lot of jumping around in the last couple of years. I had three different addresses in St. Louis and this will make the fourth one here. At this rate you'll either have to get a bigger address book or start writing very small in the one you have. Maybe you should get a special one just for me.
November 1939
I sure hope you're sitting down when you begin to read this letter. Otherwise you may just faint dead away with the next sentence. Sometime in the early summer, as nearly as we can figure out it should be around the middle of June, you are going to be grand parents. Bea went to our doctor a week or so ago for some tests and the report came back that she is hatching a new little Bannon. I guess most just about to be father type guys want a boy and I'm no exception. We asked the obstetrician about the possibility of twins, since Willie was one of a matched set, but he told us it carries down through the family of the mother. I guess we won't have to buy two of everything since that's the case.
Do you remember what I said about getting a bigger address book? Well, it looks like the time is not far off when you can get a fresh page ready. Bea had an hour or so between rehearsals a while back and drove around looking at houses and duplexes. There's a place over on Los Feliz Boulevard she's sort of taken with and I must admit it does have more to offer than the little house on La Jolla Avenue we're in now. The additional bedrooms it will give us are going to be a necessity when the new member of the family arrives. Being closer to Hollywood and the studios seems to be important to her so I'll go along with the switch if it keeps her happy.
August 1940
Well, your number one grandchild is now seven weeks old and both mother and sprout are doing fine. Wow! there's an original line if ever I wrote one.
As I've already told you, we decided to have him christened John, which will naturally shorten to Jack. I'm not too sure it's the greatest choice we ever made since I've already caught myself making references to "Big Jack" and "Little Jack". At that I guess it's better than spending a lifetime being known as "Junior".
We've set Sunday as the day for the baptism at St. Charles, which is our parish church. Jack the Elder (sounds like somebody out of English history) feels that he'd be stepping on the toes of the pastor if he were to move in and take over so we'll settle for having Rev. Harry Mead make a christian out of our contribution to posterity.
Bea was very touched when the package arrived containing the dress in which I was baptized. She could hardly wait for him to wake up from his morning nap so she could try it on him. I suspect that she didn't rate me as the funniest kid in town when I said it was a good thing styles hadn't changed and then asked if she planned to make alterations to assure a perfect fit. If she has as much trouble getting him into the outfit on Sunday as she did with the try-on there's a strong chance she'll be too exhausted to make the trip to the church. I never knew that a little tiny kid like that could flail his arms and legs around so much, and keep it up for so long. It wasn't a total loss though - he got so worn out with all the calisthenics that as soon as he'd had a bottle and was back in his own three-cornered wardrobe he conked out for the rest of the day.
September 1943
Bea's schedule is as busy as mine. Most of her calls are for comedy shows rather than dramatic, though she still works Lux Radio Theatre fairly regularly. Burns and Allen has turned into a steady thing for her, playing Blanche Morton, the next door neighbor. The Harriet and Ozzie program uses her every week in a very funny character of Gloria the maid. That production came into being as a result of Red Skelton being drafted into the army.
The rest of her jobs are things she gets called for whenever the part is written into the script - Gertrude Gearshift, of the the phone operators on the Benny Show, and a dopey chum of Marie Wilson of My Friend Irma are getting to be frequent calls.
June 1944
Bea and I have a lot of schedule conflicts now and it sometimes seems like we just see each other in passing. I don't like it especially but I don't know what to do about it. Going back to radio, even if I could get out of my contract, would be almost like admitting that I bit off more than I could chew in trying for pictures. Besides I'm not sure I could do as well again if I took another crack at it. About all I can do is go ahead with this new career and hope it doesn't destroy our relationship.
August 1946
You have quite a few months to prepare for the pleasure of becoming grand parents for the second time but it seems like I should mention that Bea is in the process of hatching another Bannon. I had favored having her go back to Dr. Judd, who delivered Jack, but his offices are clear down town so she has elected to go to a man who keeps shop in Hollywood, Dr. William Benbow Thompson. A lot of the gals in radio have used him, or his associate, and all rave about them both.
March 7, 1947
Now that it's past, with no tragic consequences, I can fill you in on the events of the last few days. Incidentally, we have decided to name the baby Margaret Benaderet Bannon, after Bea's mother. No doubt it will be shortened to Maggie.
We had worked outside for about a week when the weather turned to very heavy overcast every day and they moved the company in from location to do interiors on the lot. Right after lunch on one of the days we were working inside I had a call from Baba to say that Bea had been taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital with a fractured pelvis and I had better get myself down there in nothing flat. She took time to tell me that Bea had taken a very bad fall as she and a close friend of hers, Mary Jane Croft, were coming out of a restaurant. Croft got her home and when they called to tell Dr. Thompson what had happened he insisted that she be taken, by ambulance, to the hospital at once.
On the way to Hollywood Presbyterian I figured that they would no doubt do a Caesarian section on Bea, if they hadn't already. When I went in to see her it was obvious that she was in great pain. Dr. Thompson, however, had said that he planned for her to deliver the baby by normal birth. His answer to the question why he wouldn't do a Caesarian was that he didn't feel it was necessary. The superior attitude he took annoyed the hell out of me so I made a short speech to him which I suspect he'll remember a while. "Dr. Thompson," I informed him, "if you're doing this so that you can write an article about delivering a woman with a fractured pelvis by normal birth, don't. Tomorrow morning I will subscribe to the Journal of the American Medical Association for the next five years and if I ever see such an article, by you, the day the magazine comes out you had better go into hiding. I give you my word, I'll beat you within an inch of your life." He didn't say a word. I had hoped it might cause him to change his mind but he still stuck to his original decision, to deliver normal.
I'm sure you can understand much better than I, how painful it must have been for Bea. However, she did come through with no additional complications and the baby show no evidence of anything extraordinary having happened at all. It will be another couple of days before I bring them home and for a few weeks Mama Bannon will need as much looking after as Maggie Bannon.
June 1947
Bea is back at work now, walking a little carefully and not making any sudden or unusual moves. Each day she seems to gain a little more strength back and feel less tenderness and strain. Maggie is really a precious child and I'm sure I fall into the stereotype pattern of all proud fathers when I say she is really a beautiful little girl.
May 1948
I have an idea that your response to this letter may be a recommendation that I thumb through the yellow pages to find a head doctor, or maybe check in for a short stay at the "Funny Farm".
Bea is convinced that I'm off on a wild goose chase and since I don't agree with her it seems to me the only logical way to find out if I'm day dreaming is to follow through on a notion I have.
This idea has been rattling around in my think box for a month or more but I'd never actually put it into words until the other morning at breakfast, when I said,
"I've just decided what direction I'm going in this business now that I'm not at Columbia any more. I'm going to be a western star."
"That's very interesting," was Bea's answer, "and you have a great background for it. You had a hell of a career as a radio announcer going but you walked away from that. At Columbia you've done dress clothes pictures for three years, with a couple of westerns thrown in. You've doubled a bunch of people. You ride a horse like a maniac who's not afraid of anything. But somehow that doesn't seem to me to be enough."
"Do you know who Tom Mix was?" I asked her.
"I only know he was a cowboy, that's all," she admitted.
"Mix wasn't just an ordinary cowboy." I told her, "He was the most flamboyant western star that ever came along. If you saw Tom Mix one time you never forgot it. He had a flare for making people remember him. As far as I'm concerned there's no reason I can't do the same thing."
Neither of us had anything scheduled for the day so we sat there till about lunch time while I told her what all I had in mind to promote myself into a top spot in some series.
To start with I'm going to take my Buick convertible in to Howard Buick in Hollywood and have it painted white. I know, nobody drives white automobiles but I'm going to. [Editor's note - he goes on to describe how he's going to "westernize" his car].
After I get the car back I'm going to switch to western clothes exclusively. I doubt if I'll go quite as fancy as Gene Autry or Roy Rogers. Bea just might kick up her heels and refuse to be seen with me but that's a chance I've got to take. She wasn't really too keen about the stares we used to get when I was shaggy and unshaven during "The Renegades" and this will mostly likely bring on more attention than that.
What I'm setting out to do it to create a situation where, after a couple of months, anytime I drive down the street people know who I am. If anyone asks, "Who's the idiot in the white car with the steer horns on it?" I want somebody to speak up and say, "That's Jim Bannon." If the next question is "Who the hell is he?" I don't care. I'm gambling that if enough people know my name it will get me where I want to be.
August 1948
Yippee!!!! My promotion paid off. As of yesterday at about four-thirty in the afternoon I am set to do the title role in the western series "Red Ryder".
The LA Times has featured "Red Ryder" as the front page of their Sunday comic section for a long time now. If the Kansas City Star carries it you may know that strip I'm referring to.
The first thing I did, of course, was to rush home so I could gloat over Benaderet. According to my contract I have to wear western clothes, regardless of the occasion. Actually, that's not much of a switch since for several months I've not worn much other than what they call frontier pants and western shirts. As a big concession to old Beezie I agreed to wear a suit when I took her out to dinner to celebrate.
December 1948
My wild, crazy car gets me publicity like you wouldn't believe. Of course, that's what I had in mind when I had it dolled up like a circus wagon. When I start to do the personal appearances which will result from doing this type of pictures it will really be an asset. Anytime I drive into a small town to do a stage show at the local movie house every kid in town will know that Red Ryder just arrived.
Jack love to ride around in the fancy car, with the top down, but Bea is not too keen about being stared at every time we have to stop for a traffic light. Even though she admits my idea has paid off I get the feeling she hasn't much enthusiasm for being part of the campaign.
November 1949
This TV, as they're starting to call it, just might be a big, fat thorn in the side of radio and the picture business. A couple of years ago, when they were working on the first shows that were done, the actors and announcers that were real busy didn't want to take time to play around with it. It was mostly the kids who weren't doing a whole lot that were willing to spend the time and work for almost no dough. They gave us long speeches about the "exposure" and all of us smug, busy kids kind of looked down our noses at them. At this point I'm not too sure but what they might be a little smarter than we gave them credit for.
Several of the big shows a NBC and CBS are calling it quits and there has been talk of George and Gracie going a Burns and Allen show on television. If that works out it will very likely include Bea since she has been playing the part of Blanche Morton, the next door neighbor for a long while now. All we can do is sit tight and see what develops. There doesn't seem to be too much question, though, that radio as we've known it for so long, is sort of on its last legs.
September 1950
Well, I guess I've finally run out of ways to put off giving you the next piece of news. If there's an easy way of breaking this to you I sure haven't been able to figure out what it is. There doesn't seem to be anything to do except just come out and say it, "Bea has filed for divorce, and I do not live in the house on Moorpark any more."
Sorry it had to be such a plain old blunt statement but finesse has never been my long suit. There's not a whole bunch to explain about it. What I've had to do to make a living for the last couple of years had been a little hard for Bea to take and she finally reached the point where she had to call it quits or crack up. I can't put on a big injured look and make a bunch of speeches about how misunderstood I've been. Finding somebody to blame for the whole break-up has been no trick at all - I shave him every morning.
That's about it for now. If anything new develops on the home front I'll let you know. Don't hold out a lot of hope, though, for any vast improvement in the situation. I'm afraid that by now Beezie is a little too battered to want to risk another round.
Love to you both,
Jim