Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist and actor. From his beginnings at The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from his peers at the Algonquin Round Table in New York City to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry.
Benchley is remembered best for his contributions to the magazine The New Yorker; his essays for that publication, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. He also made a name for himself in Hollywood, when his short movie How to Sleep was a popular success and won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards. He also made many memorable appearances acting in movies such as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Nice Girl? (1941). Also, Benchley appeared as himself in Walt Disney's behind-the-scenes movie, The Reluctant Dragon (1941). His legacy includes written work and numerous short movie appearances.
Robert Benchley was born on September 15, 1889, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the second son of Charles Henry Benchley and Maria Jane (Moran). They were of Welsh and Northern Irish (Protestant) ancestry, respectively, both from colonial stock. His brother Edmund was thirteen years older. Benchley was later known for writing elaborately fanciful autobiographical statements about himself (at one time asserting that he wrote A Tale of Two Cities before being buried at Westminster Abbey).
His father served with the Union army for two years during the Civil War and had a four-year hitch in the Navy before settling again in Worcester, marrying and working as a town clerk. Benchley's grandfather, Henry Wetherby Benchley, a member of the Massachusetts Senate and Lieutenant Governor during the mid-1850s, went to Houston, Texas and became an activist for the Underground Railroad for which he was arrested and jailed.
Robert's older brother Edmund (born March 3, 1876) was a fourth-year cadet at West Point in 1898 when his class was graduated early to support preparations for the Spanish–American War; he was killed July 1, 1898, at the Battle of San Juan Hill.
When news reached the family, Maria's stunned reaction was to cry out, "Why couldn't it have been Robert?!"; accounts conflict as to whether Robert (who was nine years old at the time) heard this.
Edmund's fiancée Lillian Duryea, a wealthy heiress, doted on Robert for many years, and Edmund's death may have encouraged the pacifist sympathies present in Robert's writing. Additionally, because the news about Edmund had arrived during a July 4th celebration, Robert for the rest of his life associated fireworks with Edmund's death.
Robert Benchley met Gertrude Darling in high school in Worcester. They became engaged during his senior year at Harvard University, and they married in June 1914. Their first child, Nathaniel Benchley, was born a year later. A second son, Robert Benchley Jr., was born in 1919.
Robert grew up and attended South High School in Worcester and was involved in academic and traveling theatrical productions during high school. Thanks to financial aid from his late brother's fiancée, Lillian Duryea, he could attend Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire for his final year of high school. Benchley reveled in the atmosphere at the academy, and he remained active in creative extracurricular activities, thereby damaging his academic credentials toward the end of his term.
Benchley enrolled at Harvard University in 1908, again with Duryea's financial help. He joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity in his first year, and continued to partake in the camaraderie that he had enjoyed at Phillips Exeter while still doing well in school. He did especially well in his English and government classes. His humor and style began to reveal themselves during this time: Benchley was often called upon to entertain his fraternity brothers, and his impressions of classmates and professors became very popular. His performances gave him some local fame, and most entertainment programs on campus and many off-campus meetings recruited Benchley's talents.
During his first two years at Harvard, Benchley worked with the publications Harvard Advocate and the Harvard Lampoon. He was elected to the Lampoon's board of directors in his third year. The election of Benchley was unusual, as he was the publication's art editor and the board positions typically fell to the foremost writers on the staff. The Lampoon position opened a number of other doors for Benchley, and he was quickly nominated to the Signet Society meeting club as well as becoming the only undergraduate member of the Boston Papyrus Club at the time.
Along with his duties at the Lampoon, Benchley acted in a number of theatrical productions, including Hasty Pudding productions of The Crystal Gazer and Below Zero. He also had the position of κροκόδιλος (Crocodilos) for the Pudding in 1912. Benchley kept these achievements in mind as he began to contemplate a career for himself after college. Charles Townsend Copeland, an English professor, recommended that Benchley become a writer, and Benchley and future Benchley illustrator Gluyas Williams from the Lampoon considered doing freelance work writing and illustrating theatrical reviews. Another English professor recommended that Benchley speak with the Curtis Publishing Company; but Benchley was initially against the idea, and ultimately accepted a job at a civil service office in Philadelphia. Owing to an academic failure during his senior year due to an illness, Benchley would not receive his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard until the completion of his credits in 1913. His shortcoming was the submission of a "scholarly paper"—which Benchley eventually rectified by a treatise on the U.S.–Canadian Fisheries Dispute, written from the point of view of a cod. He took a position with Curtis soon after he received his diploma.
Benchley did copy work for the Curtis Company during the summer following graduation, while doing other odd service jobs, such as translating French catalogs for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In September, he was hired by Curtis as a full-time staff member, preparing copy for its new house publication, Obiter Dicta. The first issue was criticized by management, who felt it was "too technical, too scattering, and wholly lacking in punch." Things did not improve for Benchley and Obiter Dicta, and a failed practical joke at a company banquet further strained the relationship between Benchley and his superiors. He continued his attempts to develop his own voice within the publication, but Benchley and Curtis were not a good match, and he eventually quit, as Curtis was considering eliminating Benchley's role and he had been offered a job in Boston with a better salary
Benchley had a number of similar jobs during the following years. His re-entry into public speaking followed the annual Harvard–Yale football game in 1914, where he presented a practical joke involving "Professor Soong" giving a question-and-answer session on football in Chinese. In what the local press dubbed "the Chinese professor caper," Soong was played by a Chinese-American who had lived in the United States for more than thirty years, and pretended to answer questions in Chinese while Benchley "translated". While his fame increased, Benchley continued with freelance work, which included his first paid piece for Vanity Fair in 1914, titled "Hints on Writing a Book," a parody of the non-fiction pieces then popular. While Benchley's pieces were bought by Vanity Fair from time to time, his work was sporadic, and he accepted a job with the New York Tribune.
Benchley started at the Tribune as a reporter. He was a very poor one, unable to get statements from people quoted in other papers, and eventually had greater success covering lectures around the city. He was promised a job with the Tribune's Sunday magazine when it launched, and he was transferred to the magazine's staff soon after he was hired, eventually becoming chief writer. He wrote two articles a week: the first a review of non-literary books, the other a feature-style article about whatever he wanted. The liberty gave his work new life, and the success of his pieces in the magazine convinced his editors to give him a signed byline column in the Tribune proper.