Duffy's Tavern with Peter Lorre & Raffles the Talking Mynah Bird - Ep 100 - Aired 10-19-43
1Characters and story
In the early 1940s, Gardner worked as a director, writer, and producer for radio programs. In 1941, he created a character for This Is New York, a program that he was producing. The character, which Gardner played, became Archie of Duffy's Tavern.
In the familiar opening, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," performed either solo on an old-sounding piano or by a larger orchestra, is interrupted by the ring of a telephone and Gardner's New Yorkese accent as he answers, "Hello, Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin'. Duffy ain't here—oh, hello, Duffy."
Owner Duffy was never heard nor seen, either on the radio program or in the 1945 film adaptation or the short-lived 1954 TV series. Archie constantly bantered with Duffy's man-crazy daughter, Miss Duffy, played by several actresses, beginning with Gardner's real-life first wife, Shirley Booth, followed by Florence Halop and, later, by actress Hazel Shermet, and especially with Clifton Finnegan (Charlie Cantor, later Sid Raymond), a likeable soul with several screws loose and a knack for falling for every other salesman's scam. Eddie the Waiter was played by Eddie Green. The pianist Fats Pichon took over the role after Green's death in 1950.
Hoping to take advantage of the income-tax-free status of Puerto Rico, Gardner moved Duffy's Tavern there in 1949. Unfortunately, many guest personalities declined to make the journey to appear on the show and it eventually went off the air in 1951.
Guest stars
The series featured many high-profile guest stars, including Fred Allen, Mel Allen, Lucille Ball, Joan Bennett, Nigel Bruce, Billie Burke, Bing Crosby, Gracie Fields, Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Bob Hope, Lena Horne, Boris Karloff, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, Marie McDonald, Vincent Price, Gene Tierney, Arthur Treacher, and Shelley Winters. As the series progressed, Archie slipped in and out of a variety of quixotic, self-imploding plotlines—from writing an opera to faking a fortune to marry an heiress. Such situations mattered less than did the clever depiction of earthbound-but-dreaming New York life and its individualistic, often bizarre characters.
Duffy's Tavern was Gardner's creation, and he oversaw its writing intently enough, drawing also on his earlier experience as a successful radio director. His directing credits included stints for George Burns and Gracie Allen, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and The Rudy Vallee Hour. Gardner also brought aboard several keen writing talents, including theatric humorist Abe Burrows (the show's co-creator and head writer for its first five years), future M*A*S*H writer Larry Gelbart, and Dick Martin, who later was the co-host of television's groundbreaking Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.