Duffy's Tavern

About this film

"Hullo, Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat, Archie the manager speaking, Duffy ain't here---oh, hullo, Duffy . . . " It may have been the most familiar stock opening line in the history of old-time radio comedy. The famous radio dive was one of those old-time radio birds that was at once a popular hit and a show onto which some of the biggest, or at least the most prestigious entertainers (including but not limited to Fred Allen and a few of his "Allen's Alley" demimonde, Clifton Fadiman, Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore, Rudy Vallee, Monty Woolley, Oscar Levant, Robert Benchley, Peter Lorre, Ida Lupino, Artie Shaw, Arthur Treacher, Hedda Hopper, Boris Karloff, Jinx Falkenburg, James Garfield, and Adolph Menjou) clamoured to appear. "Duffy's Tavern" enjoyed the rare position of being a major hit with listeners and critics alike. Introduced as a "CBS Forecast" entry in the spring of 1941 ("Forecast" itself was a series designed to audition potential new CBS programs---it yielded two radio immortals, "Duffy's Tavern" and "Suspense"), then done once again in the same series that summer, "Duffy's Tavern" was the brainchild of Ed Gardner, a seasoned radio director and writer who got t…

Directors & creators

Ed Gardner, Abe Burrows

Subjects

Duffy's Tavern; old-time radio; Ed Gardner

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