About Me
out of financial reasons, i'm the butler and valet for jack benny- star of stage, screen, television, and radio- so no matter if you go out, or stay at home, hes got you trapped.from a Jack Benny Show program, 1947:Born Eddie Anderson in Oakland, California, September 18th, 1905, he has become one of the biggest names on the air although he is only a supporting player.His talent came naturally for his father was minstrel performer and his mother one of the few Negro tight-wire artists in the circus. He was 13 when the first World War when he and his brother, Lloyd, sang and danced in San Francisco's Presido and in hotel lobbies wherever soldiers gathered. They were spotted by Art Acord and his wife, Western entertainers, and joined their company, trouping from San Francisco down to San Diego and back.But Eddie's father objected and Eddie was brought home to learn a trade. This didn't last long for Eddie's heart was some place else, and once again he was back in show business, this time with two brothers, Lloyd and Corny. They billed themselves as "The Three Black Aces" and did today what would be called a jive comedy.In 1924 Eddie got his first chance to read a comedy line in a show called "Stepping High" in the town of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. This influenced his life considerably for he decided comedy roles were much more to his liking than singing and hoofing. Between that day in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and the time he was auditoning for the part of Rochester Van Jones, there was much cross-country traveling in carnivals, vaudeville, big time and small time circuits and night clubs for Eddie. In 1935, the part of Noah in Warner Brother's version of "Green Pastures" came to him and he made an instantaneous hit.Just about this time Jack Benny decided he needed a special kind of comedy reading for the part of a pullman porter aboard the San Francisco Chief, which, according to the script, was carrying Jack Benny and the gang back to Los Angeles from New York. He wired his agent and suggested that he line up half a dozen Negro actors to try out for the part. Eddie Anderson was the second actor to read the lines and the other four weren't ever auditoned. He was hired for only one performance, Easter Sunday 1937, but was so sensational that he was signed permanently into the show.Anderson idolizes his boss, who owns the name of Rochester. Since he's become a beloved member of the Benny troupe, he married Mamie Wiggins, who had been secretary to the Probation Officer of Los Angeles County. They live in a large house in Los Angeles, complete with swimming pool and a special building in the rear for Rochester's workshop. Here he builds model airplanes, toy trains, and miniature racing automobiles. He's a skilled carpenter and mechanic and is the holder of several patents for mechanical contrivances that he has invented.Someone asked his wife in what field she thought Rochester excelled, other than comedy and acting. "It's hard to say", she answered, "there just isn't anything Eddie can't do."< >
