Free Saturday Morning Walking/Shopping Tour

Classic

            My fellow connoisseurs of all things Benchley will undoubtedly treasure these classic comedy films on DVD.  And, after all, what’s more satisfying than reading Benchley? Viewing Benchley!

            By watching Benchley in these clever and hilarious shorts, you can savor his impeccable comic timing, the subtlety of his understated humor, and the endearing sweetness of his nature.

            The Warner Brothers Archive Collection - Robert Benchley Shorts (30 Shorts 1935 - 1944) includes my favorites How To Sleep, An Evening Alone, and The Courtship of the Newt.

            The Paramount Comedy Shorts 1928-1942: Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin (1928) includes The Treasurer’s Report and The Sex Life of the Polyp.

            “But… where can I find these precious DVDs? Are they available for me to purchase?” you ask. Why, yes they are to be had! Here’s the link:

http://amzn.to/17B3cDm

            Also, courtesy of (none other than) The Robert Benchley Society, here’s a comprehensive listing of Benchley books and DVDs:

http://www.robertbenchley.org/shop/index.htm

Enjoy!

Register Now for the Robert Benchley Society Annual Gathering

The Robert Benchley Society Humor Award Dinner will be held at the 11th Annual Gathering of the Robert Benchley Society, in Boston, November 22-24. CLICK HERE for details or to register.

Join Us in Boston for the Robert Benchley Society 2013 Annual Gathering

This year all events will be priced "ala carte" so you can pick and choose which to attend. Final prices and exact times are still being worked out, but here is an overview of the events.

Friday, November 22nd. Late afternoon/early evening (more-or-less end of the work day) cocktails and informal dinner at the Downtown Club House of the Harvard Club of Boston. Price = moderate.

Saturday, November 23rd. Daytime lost-cost fun activity. Evening, black-tie Awards Dinner at the Back Bay Club House of the Harvard Club of Boston. Price = expensive!

Sunday, November 24th. Late morning a moderately priced brunch. For those staying until Sunday evening the local "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Society will host a low-cost fun event -- a life drawing session -- beginners welcomed as it is directed toward non-artists.

WHERE TO STAY IN BOSTON. Contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org and he can book rooms at the Back Bay Harvard Club at less than the price of local hotels.

Robert Benchley Society Names Winners in Annual Humor Writing Competition

The Robert Benchley Society is pleased to announce the winners in the 2013 Robert Benchley Society Annual Humor Writing Competition. For the list of winners CLICK HERE. The awards will be given out by this year's judge Gina Barreca at the Annual Gathering of the Society, Friday through Saturday, November 22nd through 24th, in Boston, Massachusetts. Theme of this year's annual gathering is "You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man..."

Our bad.

In the list of top ten semifinalist that went out at four o'clock, there is a bad link one to one of the entries. It has been corrected. If you have trouble viewing all ten entries, go to our website http://www.robertbenchley.org/competition/index.htm

The Robert Benchley Society Announces the Top-Ten Semifinalists in 2013 RBS Humor Writing Competition

Today David Trumbull, Chairman, Robert Benchley Society, announced the top ten semi-finalists in this year's humor writing competition. "There were many fine entries and the preliminary judges are to be commended for their dedication in carefully reading and ranking the entries. "I know it was not easy, in some cases, for judges to place a rank order to entries that were so good that, in a less exclusive contest, any one of them might have been number one," said Mr. Trumbull, "however, the results, which were derived from a tabulation of all the score cards, in the end, produced a definitive list of the ten funniest and most Benchley-like," Trumbull continued.

This years preliminary judges were:

• Sharon Lyon, a founding member of the Robert Benchley Society

• Matt Hahn, Chairman of the Washington "Lost Locomotive" Chapter of the RBS

• Daniel Montville, winner of the 2007 RBS Award for Humor Writing

• Chris Morgan, Vice Chairman, East Coast, RBS

• Ed Tasca, winner of the 2009 RBS Award for Humor Writing

• Michele Wojciechowski, professional humor writer and stand-up comediene

The top ten entries (in alphabetical order) are:

• Lowell T. Christensen of White Rock, N.M. for The Excruciating History of Dentistry

• Chelsea Fisher of Arlington, Virginia for The Old Movie Shuffle

• Ramona Grigg of Drummond Island, Mich. for Budget-Cutting the Hard Way

• Dave Jaffe of Deerfield, Illinois for Quality is Job Three out of Seven!: How to Create a Press Release

• Barbara Samuels of Port St Lucie, Florida for Take a Gesund-hike

• E. Mitchell of Palatine, Illinois for How to Be Human

• Lisa Smith Molinari of Newport, R.I. for The Future of Archaeology

• Cindy Lane Poch of Stillwater, Minnesota for Iatrophobia

• C.J. Scuffins of Dublin Ireland for Quick! Sand!

• Jerry Zezima of Coram, N.Y. for As a man who is known far and wide...

The final determination of the final first, second, third, and fourth place entries will be made by this year's final judge Dr. Gina Barreca, author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (St. Martin’s), who has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, the BBC, NPR, Oprah, and Dr. Phil to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (reissued in a “classic” edition in 2013), Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League, and six other books she's written-- in addition to sixteen she's edited. They've been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. Gina, whose columns from The Hartford Courant are distributed worldwide by the McClatchy-Tribune Syndicate, is Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut. Her B.A. is from Dartmouth College, where she was the first woman to be named Alumni Scholar, her M.A. is from Cambridge University, where she was a Reynold's Fellow, and her Ph.D. is from the City University of New York, where she lived close to a good delicatessen. Gina writes regularly for Psychology Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Huffington Post; she has also written for The New York Times, The Independent, Cosmopolitan, and The Harvard Business Review. She grew up in Brooklyn, now lives with her husband in Connecticut, and has two step-sons who are at that adorable age where they’re attorneys. A new member of the Friars' Club, a "Voices and Visions" honoree of CT Women's Hall of Fame, winner of UConn's most distinguished teaching award, and a keynote at events from The Erma Bombeck Conference, the National Association of Independent Schools, Women In Federal Law Enforcement, The Smithsonian, and The Chicago Humanities Festival, Gina can be found in the Library of Congress or in the make-up aisle of Walgreens.

The awards will be given out that the Ten International Annual Gathering of the Robert Benchley Society, Friday through Sunday, November 22 through 24, 2013, in Boston. The theme of this year's Annual Gathering is "You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man."