Echo Fiction Classic™
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About
Jack Benny is one of the great American comedians. His work spans the 20th century, from vaudeville to radio and movies to TV. In vaudeville, he delivered the snappy comebacks and one liners with intelligence and wit, but it was only with the continuing development of his personal trait comedy that he really became the Jack Benny we all know so well. "Who else could play for four decades the part of a vain, miserly, argumentative skinflint, and emerge a national treasure?The secret of his success was deceptively simple: he was a man of great heart." That's John Dunning's assessment from "On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio," which gives a great history of the man and his show. "Where would I be today without my writers, without Rochester, Dennis Day, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson?" Benny asked in Newsweek in 1947.
Jack Benny circa 1920'sBorn on Valentine's Day, 1894, he toured regional vaudeville two years playing violin. He found he could tell jokes after enlisting in the Navy during WW I and getting onstage without the violin to entertain the troops. He changed his name several times, the original one being Benjamin Kubelsky. In 1927, he met and married a lovely clerk named Sadye Marks. She was to become Mary Livingstone, one of Jack Benny's regular characters for the rest of his life. His very first appearance on radio in 1932 was situational, as he talked directly to the audience about himself and how his Hollywood scenario writer job was failing, but that he was going to be in a picture in ten weeks with Garbo. "They sent me the story last week. When the picture opens, I'm found dead in the bathroom." Pure Benny, right from the start.
Jack Benny and Fred Allen's infamous on-air feud began with Fred's ad-libbed comment that a visiting child violinist should put Jack's violin playing to shame. Writers from both programs met to plot out the feud much to the amusement of radio audiences and fans of both programs.
His old time radio show was in its prime from the mid 1930's right through the mid-1950's, a remarkable achievement. It was comedy perfection, since Benny had a knack for picking great writers and great talent to showcase. Don Wilson became the Benny announcer in 1934, and continued in that post beyond radio. Wilson's good natured, but rotund stature proved the butt of many jokes, as humor was a little cruel in those days. Phil Harris arrived in '36, and was the hipster bandleader who embraced life the way Benny's character couldn't. Dennis Day replaced tenor Kenny Baker in 1939. Day was a fresh, very green Irish unknown. The audience loved it, and he played that role for years. Another regular of the Benny Show was Mel Blanc, the master of comic voices best known for Bugs Bunny. Mel got to do his own Mel Blanc Show, as much as a spin-off of his Benny fame than from his cartoon work. Phil Harris had a show with his movie star wife Alice Faye , and in the late 40's, Dennis Day did a comedy show. Such was the Benny aura. As for Eddie Rochester Anderson, he was probably the best-loved "colored" person on radio after Amos and Andy, and of course, Rochester delivered the Benny put-downs as well and as often as anyone else did on the show. He was the "servant," or "man," if you prefer the English term. But he was a sharp intelligent fellow, and in real life a very successful showbiz personality enjoying great financial rewards from his success.
But what about Jack Benny? Jack was really the opposite of all the things he enacted on his show except, perhaps, for his violin playing.
Please note that some of the recordings from the 1930s are of inferior quality. However, the quality is improved after the early 1930s recordings.
(Text and images used with permission from Old Time Radio Catalog.)
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