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Welcome to the Retro Radio Show Vault. Taking you back to the days when radio was young, and the first season of the podcast.
Installments in our Retro Original Channel have been sparse this month, but Keith tries to make up for lost time with this extra long, bonus episode. Though it adds time to the show, he reads the original show notes that were posted. It represents the first attempt at researching the history behind the showq, and Keith pauses to insert corrections where needed.
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Here’s the original show notes. Enjoy.
Today’s show is much larger than I usually like to do. Sorry, I’ll keep it in line in the future.
In 1932, Jack was the MC but far from the show feature or its star. You will hear a very young Jack Benny, age 38, sounding just a little nervous. Though the cast had Sadie Marx on the billing, she doesn’t appear in this show. only Jack, George Olson and George Olson’s wife*1. In only a short time, Mary would be added to the line up. Don Wilson will follow in 1934, after the sponsors change from Canada Dry to Chevrolet and then to General Tires. As the 1934 season kicked off in the Fall, the show was picked up by the Jello company. Kenny Baker, the prototype of Dennis Day made his first appearance in 1935 and left at the end of the 1939 season. There were a variety of band leaders, but when Phil Harris signed on for the 1936 season it wouldn’t be until 1952 before a new bandleader was needed.
In this first episode, Jack admits that he drives a bicycle built for two. Of course his Maxwell wasn’t purchased for another few years. He makes mention of his “girlfriend” from Newark New Jersey. She never has a speaking part. In fact, there is an eerie silence at Jack’s joking around. There doesn’t seem to be a live audience in the studio*2. Jack wise cracks with George Olson in a style similar to the way he would interact with Don Wilson and Phil Harris in future seasons. For this new, dry comedian for Canada Dry, the musical acts seem to be the main attraction. Little could anyone tell that his career would be so long lasting, touched so many people or come to the pinnacle that it would reach.
A few items of history up to this point. Jack was born on Valentines Day 1894 as Benjamin Kubelski. His father was a taylor, he was born at home*3. In 1912, at age 18 he began his vaudeville career where he made friends with other performers of the day. Fred Allen, George Burns, Eddie Canter, the Marx Brothers and many more who would later go on to greater fame. Jack was billed in those days, as a concert violinist. For a time he was known as Benny K*4. While enlisted in the Navy during World War 1, he was assigned to a unit that was detailed with performing for the troops. It was during his Navy career that he was advised to focus on comedy and being an MC, rather than playing the violin. He also changed his name to Jack Benny.
In 1922, Jack was 28 and was invited by his friend Zeppo Marx to celebrate Passover that year with his family. Jack was introduced to Sadie Marx, age 14 and the younger sister of the Marx Brothers*5. She returned the favor by attending his act with a group of her friends and spent the whole time heckling him. Jack then went to California to visit his old friend George Burns and some cute little blonde that he started doing an act with, Gracie. Jack met and had a relationship with a girl named Mary. No, not Mary Livingston. Don’t get ahead of me.
After a couple years Mary left Jack. At one of his shows, Sadie Marx had been reintroduced to him. They got together and in 1927 were married*6. So, there you have it. Despite his ever present mentions of girlfriends through out his entertainment career, and all those times trying to compete with Phil Harris in matching prowess in picking up girls, he really was married the whole time to Sadie Marx.
What did his wife Sadie think of it all? Well, she gave herself the stage name of Mary Livingston and had her own pretend search for a cute boyfriend. Yup, in case you didn’t already guess, Jack and Mary were married to each other. Also, knowing that Mary Livingston was really Sadie Marx, it should be no surprise at her sarcastic comments towards jack. She had some of the best comedians training her as she grew up. If you pay close attention to the dialog between Jack and Mary, you can sometimes pick the undertone that she loved and respected him despite the biting remarks she made.
The remaining part of the podcast today is one of the last shows that Jack did. In 1969, Jack turned 75. He was given a televised birthday celebration that year. I remember watching at my grand parents house. I was in first grade at the time. In the sixties, Jack had pretty much stopped performing except for the occasional holiday special. On January 21, 1970 the Kraft Music Hall would put on a variety of special shows. One was of the Friars Club. Hosted by Johnny Carson. This day is Jack Benny’s turn to sit in the hot seat. Though it was a televised program, this is just the audio track. To do the roasting, the guests are Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Milton Berle, Alan King, Ed Sullivan, and George Burns. Excellent comedy. For the day, a couple of the jokes lean toward sexual and homosexual topics. Unlike some of the recent bombs on Comedy Network where the guests go non-stop telling homosexual jokes about each other and roasting everybody except the person the roast is for. Sad.
The speeches given by Phil Harris and Dennis Day are close to the truth, in that Jack helped to bring out the personality traits of his coworkers to be as funny as possible. He used their comedic strengths to make the whole team funny, and by doing so made himself all the more funnier. Phil Harris already had been a well known band leader, he already was known as a person who drank and had the looks that the ladies fell for. Jack simply built on those attributes. Dennis Day, just like Kenny Baker before him, was a singer with a young and naive nature. Dennis was supposed to have been a teenager when starting with Jack. In reality he was about 24. You get the idea, I’m sure.
Jack passed away almost five years later, on December 26, 1974. He never was as stingy as he let on. He never wore a hair piece. He was friends with everybody, even his feud with Fred Allen was just to get laughs. His style of humor was good family entertainment. There probably will never be comedians or performers like Jack Benny ever again. He is definitely a hard act to follow.
Corrections:
*1. George Olson’s wife was Ethyl Kutey.
*2. Keith offers one possibility for the lack of a studio audience
*3. Jack was actually born in Chicago. His mother thought a big city would bring luck. The family moved back to Waukegan after Jack was born.
*4. Jack actually used several stage names, but Benny K was a notable one.
*5. Sadye Marax was not a sister, but likely a more distant relative to the Marx Brothers. Also her name is spelled as it is in this note, not as it may appear in the article above.
*6. Keith adds some clarification on how Jack and Sadye got together after a third meeting.
