The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show (1948-54) aired “New Year’s Eve Party at the Harrises” on December 28, 1952 as the 230th of its 297 episodes. Phil Harris (1904-1995) was a popular bandleader in the 1930s and ’40s, becoming well known working in radio for The Jack Benny Program. Alice Faye (1915-1998) became famous as a movie star in the 1930s and ’40s, appearing in some 3 dozen films from the 1930s to the late ’70s, and with starring roles in a number of pictures, one of which was 1938’s Irving Berlin co-written script for Alexander’s Ragtime Band, in which she co-starred with Don Ameche and Tyrone Power. She would also star or co-star in films with the likes of George Raft, Adolphe Menjou, Shirley Temple, John Payne, Cesar Romero, and many other A-list actors. The late 1930s and early 1940s found Faye as one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. Harris and Faye would marry in 1941 and remain husband and wife for 54 years until Phil’s death in 1995. They first teamed up professionally in 1946, near the end of Alice’s glory years in movies following a dispute with Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck. The breakup suited Faye well enough as she had turned her attention to family life and her blossoming radio career, which began with a popular radio variety program titled The Fitch Bandwagon (1938-1948). The show headlined mostly musical entertainment, jazz and other popular bands of the period. But Harris and Faye’s comedy sketches became so popular in 1946 that the show had more or less turned into a situation comedy featuring the real life couple. This so distressed the sponsor, the Fitch shampoo company, that they left the show and Rexall Drugs became the sponsor. The show, now a full-fledged sitcom, was then retitled in 1948 to The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Though officially the duo’s own show began with this title in 1948, many insiders and historians also include the years from 1946-48 under The Fitch Bandwagon monicker as the true beginnings of their show.

The premise of the Harris-Faye sitcom was that of a happily married couple with two young children, where many of the scripts were adaptations of their real life experiences. Inside jokes made the show funnier for those aware of the couple’s real life jobs as orchestra leader Harris who worked for years with Jack Benny, and Faye’s insider Hollywood stories, a few even taking jabs at Darryl F. Zanuck’s expense, for the way he all but ended her career over a breach of contract. Nevertheless, audiences loved this situation comedy and followed it religiously from its Fitch Bandwagon days through its Harris-Faye incarnation, which eventually collided with the new medium of television and, like other fine radio programs beginning in the 1940s or earlier, eventually succumbed to the juggernaut of the new visual medium.

For this year’s New Year’s Eve old time radio episode we once again offer another delightful episode of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. This time around Phil wants to celebrate quietly at home, while Alice is up for going out and partying at a dinner club and then with friends at parties she and Phil have been invited to. However, Phil prevails, but unbeknownst to him and as a compromise, Alice decides to host a small (50 friends!) party at home, but wants to surprise Phil so keeps her plans a secret. As you can guess, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and they certainly do with Alice’s plans. One unexpected thing after another gets in the way of her secret New Year’s Eve party, calamity piles on calamity until the effort hardly seems worth the trouble, but thanks to softening awkward encounters with neighbors and friends through humorous dialogue, the skit works, making a situation common to many dealing with their New Year’s Eve party planning decision something many American families can easily relate to. Humor is a great stress reducer as this well drawn skit exemplifies.

(The linked CD at top includes this episode and 19 others, all remastered and restored.)

Happy New Year!

Play Time: 29:43

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