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It’s fifteen minutes before the show, and the audience is being seated. Jack’s worried because a rep from the sponsor is to attend. The usher who seats the crowd, voice actor John Brown from the Fred Allen show, hams it up.
Butterfly McQueen, well known actress and comedienne of the day is Rochester’s niece, and is helping him out in the show to make sure Jack gets laughs. Dennis tries to work out a joke with Jack. Phil drops some musical jargon on Jack to prove he really knows a thing or two about music. Mary complains about a joke that she’s supposed to say, and gets a phone call from her mom.
After getting a hard time from the usher, the sponsor goes to the side door, manned by Minirva Pious, also a voice character from Fred Allen, who refuses to let him in. Don finally announces the show, and Jack jokes with Phil about bobbbing for apples. The jokes that Mary and Dennis were supposed to tell bomb, of course. But they manage to recover for a laugh.
Jack is interviewed by a reporter about his recent Africa Trip. When reporter, played by Frank Nelson gets to mentioning Brazil, Jack goes into flashback mode. He relates how relaxed, and lazy the lifestyle is there. Dennis sings, Brazil. Inspired, Jack even plays, Brazil, sort of. It turns into a sponsor plug. In Don’s parting words, he plugs saving paper for the war effort.
Jack gets in the last word to plug his appearance on the Burns and Allen show. Watch for it this Tuesday.
Notes: This show is listed as “untitled” in archive listings, I retitled it, but in keeping with the recent theme of show titles, this one might also be titled, “Brazil. Due to the direction the show takes when Jack is interviewed by the reporter.
Listeners may recognize Butterfly McQueen from her frequent appearances in the Jubilee programs. She would come back in later years as Mary’s maid. Butterfly was also one of the actresses appearing in “Gone with the Wind.”
As mentioned in other show notes for the Jack Benny program, Fred Allen was temporarily off the air, and Jack was able to put his voice acting staff to good work in his show.
