Jack Benny
143 Episodes
par OTR Jack Benny
Jack Benny, born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudevillian, radio, television, and film actor. Widely recognized as one of the leading American entertainers of the 20th century, Benny played the role of the comic penny-pinching miser, insisting on remaining 39 years old on stage despite his actual age. His radio and television programs, tremendously popular from the 1930s to the 1960s, were a foundational influence on the situation comedy genre.
The Jack Benny Program evolved from a variety show blending sketch comedy and musical interludes into the situation comedy form we know today. Each episode featured humorous scenarios, often revolving around Benny's character and his interactions with a cast of memorable characters. One popular annual tradition was the "Christmas Shopping" episode, where Benny would hilariously struggle with gift choices for his friend Don Wilson.
With a career spanning over two decades, Benny's influence on comedy remains significant, and his legacy continues to entertain audiences through his timeless performances.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.
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The voices of "The Jack Benny Program"
SmokyValleyRomeo
We take them for granted, but stop & think for a moment how perfectly selected & balanced the voices heard on this show really are. Part of Jack's genius lies here as well as elsewhere, imho. With his own silly, sly, urban delivery perfectly offset by Mary's deadpan mockery & lilting laugh, he consistently chose a wide range of vivid, unique personalities to provide the rest of his vocal cast. Consider Don's cheery, adaptable baritone & off-mic chuckles; Phil's brassy, egotistic, pretentious jive; Kenny's/Dennis' piping, childlike antagonism; Rochester's whimsical, musical gravel; Frank Nelson's nasal nemesis' roller-coaster delivery of insults; Andy Devine's crackling, wheedling hokum; Schlepperman's & Kitzel's accented zingers; Joe Kearns' haunting vault guard; Verna Felton's brutish, implacable "Mrs. Day"; & of course, the star voice of all time perhaps, the incomparable & always-hilarious Mel Blanc, whose career was boosted greatly by the outstanding versatility he displayed for Jack. There were also several canny vocal choices for star foils: Fred Allen*, Ronald Colman, James Stewart. Benny & his staff had a definite knack for knowing who - as much as what - would sound best on his program. * (Fred Allen strove for - and found - his own regular cast of perfectly-balanced voices.)
re Merlin1961
Harry Wilson
Hello, Merlin; I believe I've found the episode that you're looking for. The name of the episode, from October 28, 1945, is 'JB 1945-10-28 Jack gets held up - the $85,000 bet'. Go to this page, and play #398 in the player (you may have to copy and paste this link into your address bar): https://archive.org/details/JackBenny_HQ_601 The hold-up was turned into a running gag, as were many of his bits that went over well, with Jack going as far as hiring Joe Louis as a bodyguard. The hold-up story was used in this episode and several that followed, up to and including the November 25th episode, with guest Cass Daley. All of these episodes are on the page at the link above. If you're a Jack Benny fan, you'll be in hog heaven when you see that page: 810 episodes, all very good quality mp3s. One warning, if you want to download and save all of the episodes on the HQ page, it's 17.9 Gigabytes! ----------------------------------- If I can recommend a couple more 'must-hear' episodes, they would be two from January 1947. Both are available on this page (#112 and #113 in the player) as well as at the page linked above (#443 and #445 in the player there). The first has guests Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, with Jack trying to portray a lady's man. (Bogart's "run your fingers through his hair" gag is a gem.) This one also features Bogie and Bacall engaging in what must be, judging from the audience's reaction, the hottest kiss in radio history. The second has Boris Karloff as guest, and is a special treat for fans of Inner Sanctum. Karloff was a Sanctum regular, and here he gets to do a light-hearted send-up of his radio persona. All of the earmarks of Inner Sanctum are there, carried to ridiculous extremes: the famous organ spikes, the protagonist being motivated by greed, and his ironic comeuppance at the conclusion, in that his greed causes him to end up penniless. Warning: this radio show contains full frontal nudity! P.S. Thanks for all your great uploads, DEF GP (if that really is your name).
Date in one of the episodes is incorrect
chasfh
The episode labeled: JB 1945-03-11 How Jack Found Rochester is incorrect. This episode originally aired on 12-3-1950. Several big clues: (1) Don Wilson mentions Jack's first appearance on TV, which took place in 1950; they also mention Milton Berle; (2) Phil Harris refers to the upcoming Christmas holiday; (3) Mary Livingston mentions that this is Benny's 19th year in radio; (4) Benny mentions that Rochester will have been with him 14 years in March; Eddie Anderson first appearance on The Jack Benny Program was on March 28, 1937 (5) The Sportsmen's Quartet appear. They were not on the show until 1950.
He knew what made you laugh - Update Ep 122
FannuvFilm
He was a talented comedian in his own right, but Benny's greatness rested on the fact that he was not afraid to surround himself with a top notch cast that got plenty of laughs at his expense. Episode 122(broadcast of 04/04/1948)erroneously identifies the borrowed Oscar as belonging to Bing Crosby. It was Ronald Colman's Oscar. In real life the Colmans apparently were Benny's neighbors who lived just a few blocks away, and they were guests on close to two dozen of Benny's shows, all of which were very funny.
"Raw Genius?"
Shadows_Girl
"Some kind of Einstein?" Nope. Just good talent and timing. He didn't write this stuff you know. He paid other people to do that. Pay a visit to Google.com to meet the Einsteins: https://sites.google.com/site/jackbennyinthe1940s/Home/the-writers-1940-1949 Like Bob Hope, Jack could SELL a joke (tell it with perfect timing) and make people laugh. (Bob used writers too. So did Fred Allen and the rest of the great radio comics. They all knew how to pick out the BEST jokes from among those the writers came up with for each show. As did Johnny Carson later on. I love them all but I do not confuse telling jokes with writing those jokes. And neither should you.
Still Funny Today!
feekie
I love Jack Benny's radio programs. I have been listening to them every day since 2005, either at work or before I go to bed to wind down. He has really funny gags that appeal to my sense of humor. One of them was something like "the restaurant was out of hot chocolate, so they gave me a Hershey bar and a match!" I love short somewhat silly jokes like that, and Jack has a lot of them. His writers were the best!
redundant (excellent) review
gl1200phil
Gotta be one of the best comedians of the 20th century. One reason was, he always let his co-stars get the best laughs at his expense. Simple Dennis Day, always got the better of him, even though his character appeared to be totally clueless. The running gag of Jack's cheapness is really funny. He'd do things like have friends over and offer food, then charge them for it. Then they'd complain he'd raised the price from the last time they were there.
A wonderful step into the past
Gems7
What a fun listen! A different cadence from our modern fast paced dialog, but it's a lovely step into a long past era of broadcasting. Some of the volume levels jump around (needs some serious compression), which is why I took away a star.