Jack Benny

Two holidays figured prominently in his life: Born on St. Valentine's Day, 1894, he died on the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, 80 years later.

Star of "The Canada Dry Program" on NBC Radio (1932) and CBS Radio (1932-1933).

1934: He and his wife adopted a daughter, Joan Benny (aka Joan Naomi).

In 1935, Benny, like most of America, was so captivated by the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, accused of kidnapping Charles Lindbergh's baby boy, that he pulled strings to get himself a seat in the overcrowded New Jersey courtroom.

He turned down a role in The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938). The role was then given to Bob Hope--his feature-film debut--which began his long and successful film career.

1942-44: Star of NBC Radio's "The Grape Nuts Flakes Program".

Star of "The Lucky Strike Program" on NBC Radio (1944-1949) and CBS Radio (1949-1955).

In 1948, the radio quiz show "Truth or Consequences" ran a weekly contest to identify the Walking Man. The gag was to guess who the foot steps belonged to. Every week they played the steps. Eventually they revealed it was Jack Benny.

January 1949: A personal friend of Harry S. Truman, he served as Master of Ceremonies for Truman's Inaugural Ball. When he arrived at the White House for the event, a guard pointed to his violin case and asked, "Mr. Benny, what do you have in there?" As a joke, Jack whispered back, "It's a Thompson sub-machine gun." The guard replied, "Oh, that's a relief. I was afraid it was your violin".

One of Benny's best-known schticks as a radio star was his long-standing feud with fellow radio comedian Fred Allen. The two often appeared on each other's radio programs to trade barbs. Sadly, other than an appearance on The Jack Benny Program (1950), in which Allen tries to steal Jack's sponsor, this did not carry over into television, as Allen died shortly after beginning his own TV show. In real life, of course, Benny and Allen were great friends, and Benny even took time on his radio program to eulogize Allen after his death.

He once appeared on the TV quiz show The $64,000 Question (1955). After answering the first question correctly he quit and took home $1.00. His category was violins.

Towards the end of his TV series, he was waiting for his show to air and began watching Bonanza (1959), which started half an hour sooner. He wound up missing his show and said "If I won't even watch me, what chance do I have?".

According to Phyllis Diller's autobiography "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse", in the late 1960s Broadway producer David Merrick approached Benny with the idea of him playing Dolly Levi in drag in "Hello, Dolly!" opposite George Burns as Horace Vandergelder. The intention was to turn Broadway on its ear and revive flagging interest in the show, which had been running since 1964, originally with Carol Channing as Dolly Levi. This idea never came to fruition. (Diller did appear in the show for 3 months in 1970.).

When he appeared as a celebrity guest on the game show Password (1961), he got the word "miser" and gave his first clue as, "Me!" thus bringing down the house.

Interviewed in "The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy" by Larry Wilde. [1968]

When he died in 1974, he left an estate estimated at $4 million.

At the time of his death, he was scheduled to appear in The Sunshine Boys (1975). After he died, the role was taken over by George Burns.

He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.

Pictured on one of five 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating famous comedians, issued in booklet form 29 August 1991. The stamp designs were drawn by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The other comedians honored in the set are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy; Edgar Bergen (with alter ego Charlie McCarthy); Fanny Brice; and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 42-44. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387