''Stop Me If You've Heard This One'' was a comedy radio series, created by the actor-humorist Cal Tinney (February 2, 1908 – December 2, 1993) and sponsored by

Quaker Oats The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and launched a national ad ...

. Hosted by

Milton Berle Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and ...

, it aired Saturday evenings at 8:30pm on NBC beginning October 7, 1939.

Production history

The premise was that listeners received prizes for jokes they submitted to the program. The panelists, Harry Hershfield and

Jay C. Flippen John Constantine Flippen Jr. (J.C. or Jay C.) (March 6, 1899 – February 3, 1971) was an American character actor who often played crusty sergeants, police officers or weary criminals in many 1940s and 1950s pictures, particularly in film noir ...

, were known as "the gagbusters," and their job was to recognize the joke, interrupt Berle and finish telling the joke. If they failed, the listener received more prizes. The show's list of guest panelists included Tinney, cartoonist

Peter Arno Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. (January 8, 1904 – February 22, 1968), known professionally as Peter Arno, was an American cartoonist. He contributed cartoons and 101 covers to ''The New Yorker'' from 1925, the magazine's first year, until 1968, the ...

, Harry McNaughton (later a panelist on ''

It Pays to Be Ignorant ''It Pays to Be Ignorant'' is a 1942–51 radio comedy show which maintained its popularity during a nine-year run on three networks for such sponsors as Altria Group, Philip Morris, Chrysler, and DeSoto (automobile), DeSoto. The series was a sp ...

''), character actor Lionel Stander and Ward Wilson.

Dan Seymour Dan Seymour (born Daniel Seymour Katz; February 22, 1915 – May 25, 1993) was an American character actor who frequently played villains in Warner Bros. films. He appeared in several Humphrey Bogart films, including ''Casablanca'' (1942), ...

was the announcer. The program's director was Joe Rines, and music was supplied by Del Courtney, Ben Cutler and Vincent Travers. Hershfield was replaced by "Senator" Ed Ford shortly before the series ended on February 24, 1940. Nine months later, Ford, Hershfield and Wilson became regulars on the more popular panel show of joke-tellers, '' Can You Top This?'', which had a long run of 14 years.

Post-war revival

''Stop Me If You've Heard This One'' was revived on the Mutual Radio Network on September 13, 1947, hosted by Roger Bower (1903–1979). Jokes that were used could win $5 plus an additional $10 if the joke could not be completed by panelists Tinney, Lew Lehr, George Givot and

Morey Amsterdam Moritz Amsterdam (December 14, 1908 – October 28, 1996) was an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. Between 1948 and 1950, he hosted his own TV sitcom ''The Morey Amsterdam Show''. He played Buddy Sorrell on CBS's ''The Dick V ...

. Ted Brown was the announcer, and Harold Hoffman was an occasional guest panelist. Comedian Lehr (1895–1950), once well known for his humorous contributions to

Fox Movietone News Movietone News was a newsreel that ran from December 1927 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Spain in the early 1930s a ...

and other film shorts, is mainly remembered today for his popular catch phrase, "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples." The 1947 revival, which first aired on Saturdays at 9pm and then moved to 8:30pm, continued into the next year, ending on October 9, 1948. Around this time, Tinney lost the election in his bid to become the mayor of

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

Television

Cal Tinney Productions brought the series to television on March 4, 1948, for a primetime run on the NBC Television Network on Fridays at 8:30 pm ET until April 22, 1949, with hosts Bower and Leon Janney. Radcliff Hall was the announcer, and the panelists were Amsterdam, Lehr, Tinney, and Benny Rubin. Initially a sustaining program, it was dropped by NBC in December 1948 but returned in January 1949 at 9 pm ET on Fridays, sponsored by Bonafied Mills. Larry Schwab was the director.

Book

Jokes by Lehr, Tinney, Bower and Rubin were collected in ''Stop Me If You've Heard This One'', a 1949 Permabook published by Garden City Publishing. Permabooks were designed with an unusual format of a paperback bound with stiff cardboard covers (with a "special wear-resistant finish") to simulate the look and feel of a hardcover book and the company had previously published ''Best Jokes for All Occasions'', edited by Powers Moulton. The ''Stop Me If You've Heard This One'' Permabook featured a two-page foreword by Tinney, a one-page introduction by Bower, 66 pages of jokes by Bower, 85 pages of jokes by Tinney and 82 pages of jokes by Lehr. Under the heading, "P.S.", Rubin only had space for four jokes on two pages, as explained: "Benny Rubin was added to our show just before press time." Tinney's foreword offered some background on the radio program: :The idea for the program ''Stop Me If You've Heard This One'' did not come to me in an automat as has been rumored, but in bed. I scribbled a note about it on a nearby pad. The next morning I told the idea to my wife. She said it was no good. So I knew then I had a good idea. The William Morris Agency sold it to the Quaker Oats Company for 19 weeks (1939–1940) on NBC...The show went on ice while I was in the Army. I am happy Norman Livingston of WOR and Phil Carlin of the Mutual Broadcasting System saw fit to revive it. I am happy C.R. Smith of American Airlines provided a commuter service of DC-6's so I could fly back and forth between Oklahoma and New York and perform on it.Lehr, Lew; Cal Tinney, Roger Bower. ''Stop Me If You've Heard This One'', Permabook, 1949.

References

{{reflist NBC game shows American comedy radio programs 1930s American radio programs 1930s in comedy 1940s American radio programs 1939 radio programme debuts 1940 radio programme endings 1947 radio programme debuts 1948 radio programme endings 1948 American television series debuts 1949 American television series endings 1930s American comedy game shows 1940s American comedy game shows Black-and-white American television shows NBC radio programs

Production history

Post-war revival

Television

Book

See also

References