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College Holiday

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College Holiday
Theatrical poster
Directed byFrank Tuttle
Written byJ.P. McEvoy
Harlan Ware
Jay Gorney
Henry Myers
Produced byWilliam LeBaron
Harlan Thompson
StarringJack Benny
George Burns
Gracie Allen
Martha Raye
CinematographyTheodor Sparkuhl
Edited byLeRoy Stone
Music byScore:
Boris Morros
Songs:
Burton Lane (music)[1]
Ralph Freed (lyrics)
Ralph Rainger (music)
Leo Robin (lyrics)[2]
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • December 19, 1936 (1936-12-19)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

College Holiday is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Martha Raye.[3] It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Plot

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A woman hotelier with an interest in eugenics invites some young men to spend the summer.[4]

Genetic theories are satirized.[5] The final song and dance number features some of the cast performing a blackface minstrel show.[6]

Cast

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Reception

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New York Times reviewer Frank Nugent wrote that the film benefited from a "good-humored informality which protects the piece against too biting a review"...(the film)..."demands nothing of the beholder but unlimited patience or an appetite for the ageless rudiments of vaudeville."[7][6][8][9]

In their March, 1937 edition, Modern Screen gave the film a two-star review and wrote, "Vaudeville de luxe is here offered for the price of a seat at the movies … To give you an idea, there are the following headliners: Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, Mary Boland, Ben Blue and Eleanore Whitney. They're all up to their familiar and inimitable tricks which, combined, almost disguise the fact that what's missing is a story." Despite this, the review concluded with the assessment : "It’s good entertainment."[10]

Robert Osborne appeared in an Introduction & Outro for Turner Classic Movies.

References

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  1. ↑ "Burton Lane Papers (finding aid)". Music Division, Library of Congress (.gov). Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  2. ↑ Bloom, Ken (1995). Hollywood Song: The Complete Film Musical Companion. New York, NY: Facts on File. p. 173. ISBN 0-8160-2002-7.
  3. ↑ Fuller-Seeley p.238
  4. ↑ White, Thomas. White Purity, Eugenics, and Mass Murder. Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  5. ↑ Currell, Susan; Cogdell, Christina (2006). Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in the 1930s. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1691-4.
  6. 1 2 Kalat, David (April 1, 2014). "College Holiday". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  7. ↑ Nugent, Frank S. (December 24, 1936). "A Bit of Yuletide Tinsel, 'College Holiday,' Reaches the Paramount -- Rialto Offers 'Jungle Princess.'". The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  8. ↑ Crisler, B. R. (May 1, 1938). "RAH! RAH! COLLEGE CUT-UPS; Reviews in Brief". The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  9. ↑ Tuttle, Frank (2005). Franceschina, John (ed.). They Started Talking. Orlando, Florida: BearManor Media (Ben Ohmart). ISBN 9781593930271.
  10. ↑ "College Holiday". Modern Screen. Vol. 14, no. 4. March 1937. p. 139.

Sources

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  • Fuller-Seeley, Kathryn. Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy. University of California Press, 2017.
  • Michael Leannah, ed., Well! Reflections of the Life and Career of Jack Benny
  • Irving Fein, Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography
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Metadata
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