RadioActivity: Phil Has To Fire Frank Remley (Feb 6, 1949)

When the sponsor insists that Phil fire Remley, Phil tries to find a way out of it.


The character of Remley was created on the Jack Benny show as a member of Phil Harris' band, always good for a joke about his drunkenness or other character flaws.


When Phis Harris and his wife, actress Alice Faye, got their own show, the Remley character was brought along, played by radio great Elliott Lewis. There was a bump in the road when Benny left NBC for CBS, while the Harris/Faye show remained on NBC. The Remley character eventually had to be returned to the Benny show as a mostly unheard butt of jokes, while Elliott Lewis remained on the Harris/Faye show as basically the same character, simply called Elliott.