The guy on the right in the photo above is a great old comedian named Irv Benson. I'm posting this because there doesn't seem to be anything on the Internet about Irv Benson, apart from a few things I put there…so to begin rectifying that omission, let me tell you everything I know about Irv Benson.
Irv Benson was the last of the Minsky's Burlesque comedians. He was born in 1914 and I have no idea if he's still alive. He was playing in Las Vegas and Reno until around 1990, usually paired with a charming gent named Dexter Maitland, who was the last straight man from the Minsky's circuit. Their last gig was at the Hacienda Hotel in Vegas where they filled time between strippers in the Minsky's Burlesque Revue there. (When it closed, the next occupant of the Hacienda showroom was Lance Burton in his first starring show.) In the late eighties, I spent an evening backstage there with Mr. Maitland, hearing great stories about his long, long career. Unfortunately, I only got to say a brief hello to Benson that night and never had the opportunity to actually converse with him. A few years earlier, I'd seen the two of them at the Sahara in Reno, starring with the singing team of Sandler & Young, along with a bevy of Penthouse models, in the Penthouse Pet Revue. Benson and Maitland were very funny performing very old material.
I only know of three places Irv Benson appeared on television. In the sixties, when he hosted Hollywood Palace and his own variety show, Milton Berle always used Benson. Irv would be in a box seat or in the audience, appearing in the guise of a character named Sidney Spritzer. Mr. Spritzer enjoying heckling Mr. Berle. One joke that they did every time was when Benson/Spritzer would tell Uncle Miltie, "You're too close to the microphone!" Berle would ask, "How far should I be?" And Irv would answer, "You got a car?"
Apart from a bit part in one episode of Happy Days, the only other times I ever saw Irv on TV were on The Tonight Show. Johnny Carson was reportedly a huge fan of Benson and also of a couple of other Minsky's veterans who worked Vegas in the fifties and sixties — Hank Henry and Tommy "Moe" Raft. I don't think Johnny ever had them on his show but he booked Benson about a dozen times and played "straight" for him. In the above frame grab, Johnny has just asked Irv if he and his wife have any children, and Irv just replied, "Are you kidding? I won't even drink her coffee!" Bada-boom!
And that's just about everything I know about Irv Benson…a very funny man and the last of a now-extinct breed. I'm posting this in the hope that someone out there knows and will tell me more. And also because I thought there oughta be something on the Internet about Irv Benson.