BEBE, VIC, AND BEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 164, 14 August 1942, Page 5

BEBE, VIC, AND BEN

Three American Stars Well-Known To Listeners

By

Bettine Peachey

Brenard

(Special to "The New Zealand Listener" from the BBC)

EBE DANIELS, Vic. Oliver and Ben Lyon, joint stars of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s comedy production Hi Gang and firm favourites with listeners to the BBC’s short wave Overseas service, travelled widely

different and by no means easy roads before coming together in this popular broadcast feature. The Correct "Send-off" Bebe (pronounced Bee-Bee), is the only one who had the "correct" send-off for stardom. Her mother was an actress, her father a Texas theatre manager,

and under their direction she made her first stage appearance at the age of 10 weeks! She was filmed in Hollywood at seven, was leading lady to Harold Lloyd at 13, and reached stardom in the early screen musical, Rio Rita. Ben, her husband, comes from an American southern family, and was educated in New York. He finally ful-

filled his schoolboy ambition to be a film star, but only after an arduous climb from a lowly "extra." Hollywood remembers him in a battered old motor-car continually looking for jobs. His first starring part was in Hell’s Angels, with the late Jean Harlow, but it was not until his partnership with Bebe that he became a favourite.

Vic, born in Vienna of a banking family, with a silver spoon in his mouth, played the piano and violin for amusement, but he hated practising. His father said "Practise! One day you may need it." And he did need it. In 1923, Vic found himself in America-where he was soon to become naturalisedwithout a job and penniless, his family’s fortune having gone in the aftermath of war. He became pianist in a beer garden, and graduated to orchestra leader in a New York night club. It was here that he discovered his genius for patter, and from here as a solo act, via the music halls, he reached the New York Palace in 1929. In 1931, George Black, now Britain’s foremost producer of revue, brought him to London, but Vic missed fire and returned to America. Black persevered, brought Vic to England again on contract. This time he caught on: C. B. Cochran engaged him for Follow the Sun. He met Sarah Churchill, who was in the chorus of the same show, fell in love and married her. Bebe and Ben by now were also "in town" — incidentally in one of George Black’s shows-but it was not Black who brought Bebe, Ben and Vic together. It was Radio Luxembourg. Bebe and Ben first broadcast with Vic on Radio Luxembourg during the years immediately preceding the war, where, working for separate sponsors, both acts built up tremendous reputations. Then Vic invited Bebe and Ben as guest stars on his programme, and the perfect coordination of the trio led listeners to demand their team-up, but Hitler kept listeners waiting nearly ‘vo years. Then Bebe and Ben had the idea of a slick, fast-moving radio show to appeal to the Canadian forces stationed in Britain, and they remembered Radio Luxembourg and approached Vic. And so, with the support of Harry Pepper, of the BBC’s Variety Department, "Hi, Gang!" rade its debut. Cheerfully, noisily, these three Americans bring listeners the. quick-fire jokes and breezy atmosphere of their country’s humour.