Ben Blue

Ben Blue (September 12, 1901 – March 7, 1975), born Benjamin Bernstein, was a Canadian-American actor and comedian.

In the 1920s Bernstein joined a popular orchestra, Jack White and His Montrealers. The entire band emphasized comedy, and would continually interact with the joke-cracking maestro. Blue, the drummer, would sometimes deliver corny jokes while wearing a ridiculously false beard. The band emigrated to the United States, and appeared in two early sound musicals: the Vitaphone short subject Jack White and His Montrealers and Universal's feature-length Technicolor revue King of Jazz.

Blue left the band to establish himself as a solo comedian, portraying a bald-headed dumb-bell with a goofy expression. Producer Hal Roach featured him in his "Taxi Boys" comedy shorts, but Blue's dopey character was an acquired taste and he was soon replaced by other comedians. Later in the 1930s he worked at Paramount Pictures, notably in The Big Broadcast of 1938, and later at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in films such as Easy to Wed. In 1950, he had his own short-lived TV series, The Ben Blue Show, and was also a regular on The Frank Sinatra Show.

In 1951, Blue began concentrating on managing and appearing in nightclubs in Hollywood and San Francisco. Blue and Maxie Rosenbloom owned and performed in Hollywood's top nightclub in the 1940s called "Slapsie Maxie's." Again, in the 1960s he opened a nightclub in Santa Monica, California, called "Ben Blue's". It quickly became the "in" place and night-after-night was packed with top celebrities. Ben closed the club three years later because of health problems. Blue made the cover of TV Guide's June 11, 1954 Special Issue along with Alan Young, headlining an edition featuring that season's summer replacement shows. He also made appearances in TV shows such as The Jack Benny Program.

In 1958, he hosted a TV show called Ben Blue's Brothers. The show didn't get picked upon a network, but the pilot was seen in 1965. In It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, his role was the pilot of the Curtiss Jenny biplane that flew Sid Caesar & Edie Adams. Blue also made an appearance in the 1943 film Ziegfeld Follies. Ben Blue started making cameos in comedy movies around the 1960s. One of his most-recognized roles in films was as Luther Grilk in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. He especially had a part in Jerry Van Dyke's TV series Accidental Family in 1967. He worked his way until his final film appearance, Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, in 1968. He made one of his last TV appearances in Land of the Giants in 1969. He was also seen the following year in the Dora Hall vanity syndicated TV special, "Once Upon a Tour".

Ben Blue died in Hollywood on March 7, 1975 and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. After his death, his career papers covering 1935 to 1955 were deposited in the Special Collections at the UCLA Library.