Review: Duffy's Tavern

If you have never heard Duffy's Tavern before, imagine The Life of Riley, Amos and Andy and Lum and Abner all rolled into one show.  What you have are a lot of uneducated-sounding people running a bar, presumably in Boston or New York (I lean to New York) where low-level radio stars pop in now and then.  Occasionally a huge star will drop by (Bing Crosby for instance) but that doesn't happen often.  More often than not, it's Clifton Fadiman or Colonel Stoopnagle.

Ed Garner is Archie the manager

Duffy is the bar's owner. You never hear him; Archie (Ed Gardner) talks to him on the phone a lot and you can imagine what he's saying but that's as far as that goes.  Archie manages the bar and usually does a pretty bad job of it; it's rare that he ever does anything without making a huge mess out of it.

Duffy's daughter (Miss Duffy, played by many an actress during the show's long run) is just as inept, always looking for a date with the show's male guest star.  Too bad she's as dumb as a rock.

And speaking of dumb as a rock, there is Finnegan, perfectly played by Charlie Cantor, who might be the dumbest character in all of radio (or TV as far as that goes.)  This being said, Cantor's portayal is usually very funny - as is the performance of all the others on the show.  Cantor was so convincing that in fact the Warner Brothers' cartoon guys drew him up in several cartoons, using a voice very much like the one he used in Duffy's Tavern.

Often overlooked, this is truly one of the 10-12 funniest radio shows around.  Even Eddie (played by Eddie Green - a rare African-American actor in the Glden Age of radio) is the show's smartest and most-level-headed character by far but is full of funny punchlines.

The show is a machine gun of one-liners and to me, it's very passable entertainment.  I listen now and again with interest.  I'd give it 2 and half stars.


©Jimbo 2010/2011