# Old Time Radio Old -- A Guy Marrying a very young girl (from the 30s) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039 "2007-01-15T06:51:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eric79](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f08c70/32.png) [@Eric79](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric79)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/1 "2007-01-15T06:51:23Z")
I was driving home last night and heard a radio show comedy with George Burn and another comedy with Jack Benny. Both comedians were making fun of a guy who apparently was well known and a contemporary of them both. But he was old and he married a very young girl. I can’t remember who that was and it’s driving me nuts. Benny was like “She can’t attend her reception for the wedding it after curfew.” Benny said “24 years isn’t such a BIG age difference.” Gracie said something like (she was on the phone) “No, no you have to pat them on the back and burp them, well you have to expect things like that with children.” Burn said “Who was that?” Then Gracie said his name. Since the jokes were on Jack Benny’s Show and George Burn’s show (each different shows) he must’ve been well known and a contemporary of both of them. Any clues who this might be. I know it’s not much to go on but I can’t think of his name. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/2 "2007-01-15T08:17:17Z")
23-year-old Frieda Mierse, onetime Follies showgirl, onetime “Miss New York” (1927) married 51-year-old Comedian Ed Wynn in 1937. I’m guessing George Burns and Jack Benny knew him? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/3 "2007-01-15T08:57:37Z")
Update: 1920 U.S. Census says Frieda was born in 1911. ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/4 "2007-01-15T10:48:43Z")
[QUOTE=Eric79] A Guy Marrying a very young girl (from the 30s) [/QUOTE] It was definitely from the 1930s? The first guy that I thought of was [Victor Moore](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0602005/bio), 1942. His marriage announcement inspired the contemporary comment (probably from several of his colleagues simultaneously) “What’s the big deal? When he’s only 145, she’ll be 100.” **Eve** , do you know of someone else from the 1930s? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/5 "2007-01-15T14:44:10Z")
I’m guessing it was well-known comic and Burns/Benny pal [George Jessel](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0422181/), who was known for dating younger women, though his first two wives were not notably younger than he. Could the show have been from the early '40s, when he was married to a woman well young enough to be his daughter? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/6 "2007-01-15T15:03:28Z")
Could it be [54 year old Charlie Chaplin](http://www.ednapurviance.org/chaplininfo/chaplinwives.html) marrying 18 year old Oona O’Neil? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/7 "2007-01-15T16:37:23Z")
I’m still guessing George Jessel, as it was a long-running gag about him dating young girls. I don’t think they would have touched the Chaplin subject, as he tended to knock up pre-teens and only marry them when Daddy had a shotgun. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/8 "2007-01-15T19:18:37Z")
[QUOTE=Eve] I don’t think they would have touched the Chaplin subject, as he tended to knock up pre-teens and only marry them when Daddy had a shotgun. [/QUOTE] He got 12-year-olds pregnant??? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/9 "2007-01-15T19:33:17Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] He got 12-year-olds pregnant??? :eek: [/QUOTE] Probably did, the horny little SOB. “Pre-teen” brides may have been an overstatement, but not by _much_. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/10 "2007-01-15T22:09:51Z")
If you want to know for sure, ask in the forums at JackBenny.org. The people there know virtually every episode – give enough detail, they’ll be able to point you to the right show. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/11 "2007-01-15T23:17:37Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] If you want to know for sure, ask in the forums at JackBenny.org. The people there know virtually every episode – give enough detail, they’ll be able to point you to the right show. [/QUOTE] Ah, the information super-highway! I knew someday the world would progress to a point of infinite technology where you could find out every Jack Benny-related fact you needed! [pause . . .] It truly is a grand time to be alive. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-time-radio-old-a-guy-marrying-a-very-young-girl-from-the-30s/388039/12 "2007-01-16T01:18:49Z")
[QUOTE=Eve] Ah, the information super-highway! I knew someday the world would progress to a point of infinite technology where you could find out every Jack Benny-related fact you needed! [pause . . .] It truly is a grand time to be alive. [/QUOTE] Even better is the fact that for a trifling few dollars you can buy a collection of MP3 CDs with every extant Jack Benny radio show – hundreds of hours of world class entertainment at cut-rate prices. Yes, it truly is a great time to be alive.