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Jack Benny




Benjamin Kubelsky (February 14, 1894 - December 26, 1974), better known as
Jack Benny was a comedian, radio performer, and early television star. Benny
is best known for The Jack Benny Program, on radio from 1932-1955, and also
on television from 1950 to 1965. Actually, during his first two years on TV,
he appeared in-frequently then the next two years every fourth week. From
1955-1960 he appeared every other week and from 1960-1965 he was seen
weekly. CBS cruelly dumped him in 1964 and he went to NBC in the fall of '64
only to be be out-rated by "Gomer Pyle, USMC", ironically, on CBS, and NBC
dropped his show at the end of the '64- '65 season. Today Jack is correctly
thought of as the premier comedian of old-time radio.

His programs featured a fictionalized version of Benny's life with many
running gags, particularly jokes about Benny's cheapness. One of the most
famous silences in radio came when Benny was accosted by a robber who
demanded, "Your money or your life." After an extended pause, Benny replied,
"I'm thinking it over."

When Benny moved to television, he revealed that his verbal talent was
matched by his assortment of facial expressions.

Among other running gags was his famous feud with another radio comedian,
Fred Allen, actually one of Benny's closest friends. Jack and Fred's
funniest episode together was actually on Fred's radio show in a satire of
"Queen for a Day" but in this case it was re-titled "King for a Day". In it,
Allen plays host and eventually showers Benny with a ton of worthless prizes
in honor of him being named King for a Day. The grand prize is a pants
pressing from a local dry cleaing company. Well, the hilarity builds as
Jack's shirt is being taken off. Then, his pants are pulled off to the shock
of the audience! The laughter was so loud and chaotic at the chain of events
that Fred's announcer, Kenny Delmar, was cut off the air amidst the wild
laughter while trying to read the credits...Fred's show had ran over-time
yet again! Another of his close friends and frequent guest-stars was George
Burns of Burns and Allen. Benny's show also starred his wife Mary
Livingstone, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, announcer
Don Wilson, Frank Nelson, and Mel Blanc, with Ronald Colman appearing
frequently in the 1940s with his wife Benita as Benny's neighbors.

Jack's sponsors were many: Canada Dry Ginger Ale: 1932-1933; Chevrolet:
1933-1934; and General Tire: 1934; before settling down with Jell-O from
1934-1942; afterward he was sponsored by Grape Nuts from 1942-1944; and
finally Lucky Strike from 1944-1955. {this information is public knowledge,
all you have to do is research the internet and there you have it.}

The program's plots centered around putting on a radio program and were set
partly in the studio and partly in Benny's home. Rochester ran the house.
Jack was single on the show. His real-life wife, Mary Livingstone, was
presented as Jack's leading lady on the radio show. Mary had many running
jokes of her own, including her romantic interest in many of the guests, and
her former employment at the May Department Stores, where the real-life Jack
had met the real-life Mary, in the lingerie department.

The show within a show setting was an example of breaking the fourth wall by
bringing the audience in on the joke that it was "just a show".

Jack Benny was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver
City, California. He was a diabetic but he died of pancreatic cancer only
weeks after discovering he had the illness.

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