What was the name of the 1930's comedy shorts?

There were many of these. I dont remember whether they had an official group name. I recall several well known comedy actors and writers who appeared in these. In High SChool in the late 60's one of my teachers was an avid Robert Benchley fan and he colletd some of these short films in which Benchley appeared.
I think the narrator was the same guy in all of them. He had a high pitched smarmy voice that was kind of annoying. His vocal affectations also came off so that he sort of sounded like a high pitched AL Gore.

Could be Robert Benchley, but he was more of a monologist. Sounds like Joe McDoakes, a series of Warner Bros. shorts from the 1940s and '50s (not the
'30s) starring George O'Hanlon, better known as the voice of George Jetson.

Thank you for the replies, but it's neither O'Hanlon or Benchley. Any other possibilities?

Well, one possibility is that the voice-over was added later for the purposes of showing the shorts on television. That was done occasionally in those days -- even to silent shorts -- to make them more "current" for television audiences. Was there any dialogue?

Also, was it the same actor who played the hapless husband? Was it a series of shorts, or just one or two? Any additional information you could provide would be of assistance.

Thanks for the reply.
I do remember some dialoge. Judging by the autos, etc. they were definitely not silent-era, my guess is around 1935-40. The narrator was always the same voice, sort of whiney-sounding, with sarcasim. The lead actor was a thin, "Dagwood" type guy. I can't say for certain he was the only lead but he was the most memorable. Hope this helps.

I forgot to say that it was a series. I remember a few, always the same theme.

I just found out the answer: Pete Smith narrated the comedy shorts, and an actor by the name of Dave O'Brien as the bumbling husband. Now my quest begins to find out where to buy copies of them. Thanks for your help.

The "Pete Smith Specialties" were shorts produced for MGM. As such, some of them are included on DVDs issued by Warner Home Entertainment as part of their "night at the movies" packages. Warner does a good job of pairing MGM features with MGM shorts on their DVDs, so look for them on discs with MGM films.

Here's one of the "specialties" with character actor Franklin Pangborn as the suffering husband:

Cool . . . we had another similar thread recently, so i felt certain Joe would know.