“All that makes life seem worthwhile…dwells in your eyes and the spell of your smile…”

October 3, 1946 saw the debut of Jack Benny’s resident tenor-comic Dennis Day in his very own sitcom spin-off: A Day in the Life of Dennis Day (also known as The Dennis Day Show), which enjoyed a five-year run over NBC Radio for Colgate. Day essentially played himself—though not the character who earned $35 a week from Benny (and mowed his lawn to boot). This Day had the same name, but struggled on a much lower salary of $8 a week as a drugstore soda jerk in a little burg called Weaverville. (He could, though, sing just as well as his Benny Program counterpart—some said even better.)

Dennis resided at the Anderson Boarding House, run by a harridan named Mrs. Anderson whose first name I never did learn but whom her husband Herbert affectionately referred to as “Poopsie.” Herbert was played by Francis “Dink” Trout, a radio vet who specialized in creampuff roles like that of Chester A. Riley’s pal Waldo Binney on The Life of Riley. The formidable Mrs. A was portrayed by the wonderful Bea Benaderet for most of the show’s run, though the character was essayed by Paula Winslowe early on. (An audition for A Day in the Life of Dennis Day features Verna Felton as Mother Anderson; Felton, as has been previously noted, played Dennis’ battleaxe of a mom on the Benny show.) Suffice it to say, Mrs. Anderson was not one of Dennis’ fans: Dennis was dating her daughter Mildred (Sharon Douglas, also Barbara Eiler and Betty Miles) and she believed that her progeny could do much, much better, often encouraging Mildred to cast her net for Dennis’ rival, Victor Miller. Actor John Brown completed the supporting cast, playing Mr. Willoughby, the owner of the drugstore where Day plied his soda-jerking trade.

A Day in the Life of Dennis Day is pretty much your typical, run-of-the-mill situation comedy, but it’s buoyed immeasurably by Day’s wonderful singing voice (he often did two or more musical numbers per show, like McNamara’s Band and September Song) and great comedic talent. He had a real gift for dialect humor: a November 14, 1946 episode finds him convincing his boss to sponsor a dramatic show on radio, and he ends up having to play practically all the parts himself. (This broadcast also has an amusing in-joke gag: when the radio station’s salesman asks if he’s ever listened to The Jack Benny Program, Dennis replies: “No sir…for some reason, I’m never home.”) A broadcast from January 22, 1947 provides an excellent example of Day’s show; Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have mistaken Dennis for missing heir (and wealthy playboy) Schuyler Van Renseleer:

MRS. ANDERSON: Dennis! I, uh, I want to talk to you…
DENNIS: To me, Mrs. Anderson?
MRS. ANDERSON: Yes…do you know who you are, my boy?
DENNIS: Why—yes, ma’am…I think so…
MRS. ANDERSON: Who?
DENNIS: Well…offhand, I’d say I was me…
MRS. ANDERSON: No.
DENNIS: I’m not?
MRS. ANDERSON: Definitely not…we have proof…
DENNIS: Gee—I was so certain, too…
MRS. ANDERSON: Now, Dennis…try to think…do you remember your father?
DENNIS: Oh, sure…he was a relative of mine…
MRS. ANDERSON: Did he ever discuss with you what you’d be doing in your later life?
DENNIS: Well, let’s see…I do remember my father saying he'd hope I grow up…
MRS. ANDERSON (interrupting): Yes?
DENNIS: …that’s all…
MRS. ANDERSON: We’ll try a new tack…what do you know about your birth?
DENNIS: Well…I’m pretty sure it happened…
MRS. ANDERSON: I don’t mean that…do you remember where you were born?
DENNIS: Well, Mother told me it was in a small town out West…
MRS. ANDERSON: Wrong! You were born in a big Eastern city…
DENNIS: Oh…well, anyway, it was in 1925…
MRS. ANDERSON: Wrong again! It was 1926…
DENNIS: In June?
MRS. ANDERSON: November…
DENNIS: Gee…Mother didn’t know much about me, did she?

Since the person that finds “Schuyler” will collect a $10,000 reward, Mr. Willoughby suggests to Mrs. Anderson that they send Dennis to a psychiatrist (Elliott Lewis), who soon begins to sympathize with what Jack Benny had to put up with week after week after spending time with the addlebrained Day. The doc resorts to hypnotizing Dennis into thinking he’s Van Renseleer, and of course—the wacky complications ensue:

(SFX: door opening)
MR. ANDERSON: Dennis!
DENNIS: The name is Schuyler, shorty! Who are you?
MR. ANDERSON: Why…why, don’t you know me? I’m Herbert Anderson…
DENNIS: Glad to meet ya, Herbie! Is that all there is of you or are you standing in a manhole?
MR. ANDERSON: My goodness gracious…
MRS. ANDERSON: Oh, there you are, Dennis…you’re back…
DENNIS: Who’s this character, Shorty? Your mother?
MRS. ANDERSON: Oh! Why, how dare you…!!!
DENNIS: Skip it, babe…
MRS. ANDERSON: Babe? Why, you’ve never called me anything but Mrs. Anderson in your life!
DENNIS: Well, don’t crowd your luck!
MRS. ANDERSON: Oh! My goodness…
DENNIS: Well, how about a little snort, huh? Just a single Scotch with a gin chaser for me—I’m on the wagon…

In the second broadcast (2/12/47) that I listened to last night at work, Mr. Willoughby finds himself in trouble when he gets a tad too friendly with a chorus girl at a lodge function. Dixie, the girl in question, comes around to the drugstore with a compromising photo of Mr. W (she’s sitting on his lap, folks—after all, this is 1947) and threatens to tell the wife. So Willoughby cons her into thinking that Dennis is the president of the drugstore chain, and she latches onto our hero like Velcro. To further complicate matters, Mrs. Willoughby needs Dennis to pretend to be her husband in order to pick up a refrigerator she’s won (Mr. W has hightailed it on a fishing trip in the meantime), and naturally, Mildred is upset that her beau has suddenly become a regular chick magnet.

Old-time radio historian John Dunning observes in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio that A Day in the Life of Dennis Day underwent a format change around 1950, becoming a variety show with Dennis as master of ceremonies. Since most of the sixty-some extant episodes of the series are from 1946-49, I guess we’ll have to take John’s word on this (of course, he may be referring to Day’s program The Dennis Show, which ran over NBC from September 19, 1954 to March 20, 1955). But a pair of AFRS broadcasts (dated June 3rd and 10th of 1950) that I obtained through Ed Carr sometime back does provide evidence that there was at least one change on the program: these two shows have Dennis shaking the Weaverville dust off his boots and in Hollywood, where he’s become a struggling actor. (The Andersons have disappeared, but Bea Benaderet was still on the program, playing Dennis’s Irish landlady.)