Starter of this subject: Dan Bacca
Last post in this subject: 4/29/2001
Messages in this subject: 4
| Dan Bacca | 4/29/2001 4 replies |
| On several of the otr shows I`ve listened to, I have heard occasional reference made to the "May Company", usually in the form of an aside made in a humorous context. Could anyone explain the reason for these reference`s and what they pertained to? Dan |
| Ted Hering | 5/1/2001 3 replies |
| There really was a May Company. In fact, in some locations, there still is. (Southern California has a few May Companies in operation to this day.) They were a large department store, specializing in clothing. Jack Benny refered a lot to the May Company, because Mary Livingston (supposedly) worked there. |
| Jim Hilliker | 5/4/2001 2 replies |
|
From what I've read, Mary (not her given name, wasn't it Sadie Marks??) was working at the headquarters of the May Company in downtown Los Angeles at the corner of 8th and Broadway, when Jack met her while on a vaudeville tour through L.A. in the 1920s.
But, of course, since the radio programs Benny did were done from studios in Hollywood, the audience was all too familiar with the May Company Dept. store chain. So, while they were laughing, people outside Southern California and other states who never heard of the May Co., probably wondered why that was so funny. |
| George Tirebiter | 5/4/2001 1 replies |
| I seem to remember reading somewhere that several years before the famous meeting in The May Company store Jack Benny had briefly dated Sadie's (Mary's) older sister. When he noticed Sadie behind the counter he asked her how her sister was doing and "one thing led to another". |
| Jim Hilliker | 5/6/2001 0 replies |
| That sounds right....But I think the May Company part is correct, and accounts for why L.A. studio audiences thought any mention of the locally famous department store chain wa |