This article from "Characters" on down is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (January 2010) Jack Benny Jack Benny in 1958 Birth name Benjamin Kubelsky1 Born February 14 1894(1894-02-14) Chicago Illinois United States Died December 26 1974(1974-12-26) (aged 80) Beverly Hills California United States Show The Jack Benny Program Network NBC CBS Style Comedian Country United States

Jack Benny (February 14 1894 December 26 1974) was an American comedian vaudevillian and actor for radio television and film. 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 and often playing the violin badly.

Benny was known for his comic timing and his ability to get laughs with either a pregnant pause or a single expression such as his signature exasperated "Well!" His radio and television programs tremendously popular from the 1930s to the 1960s were a foundational influence on the situation comedy genre. Dean Martin on the celebrity roast for Johnny Carson in November 1973 introduced Benny as "the Satchel Paige of the world of comedy." Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Radio 1.2.1 History 1.2.2 Characters 1.2.3 Situations 1.2.4 Sponsors 1.2.5 Writers 1.2.6 Theme music 1.2.7 "Your money or your life" 1.2.8 The Benny-Allen "feud" 1.2.9 The CBS talent raid 1.3 Television 1.4 Movies 2 Running gags 2.1 The Maxwell 3 Final years 3.1 Death 4 Honors 5 Posthumous tributes 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 Further reading 10 External links Biography Early life

Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky1 on February 14 1894 in Chicago Illinois2 and grew up in neighboring Waukegan Illinois. He was the son of Meyer Kubelsky and Emma Sachs Kubelsky. Meyer was a Jewish saloon owner later to become a haberdasher who had emigrated to America from Poland.34567 Emma had emigrated from Lithuania. Benny began studying the violin an instrument that would become his trademark when he was just six with his parents' hopes that he would be a great classical violinist. He loved the violin but hated practice. By age 14 he was playing in local dance bands as well as in his high school orchestra. Benny was a dreamer and a poor student and he was expelled from high school. He did equally badly in business school and at his father's trade. At age 17 he began playing the instrument in local vaudeville theaters for $7.50 a week.8 He was joined by Ned Miller a young composer and singer on the vaudeville circuit.9 They became life-long friends and Miller eventually joined the cast of The Jack Benny Program in the 1960s.

In 1911 Benny was playing in the same theater as the young Marx Brothers whose mother Minnie was so enchanted with Benny's musicianship that she invited him to be their permanent accompanist. The plan was foiled by Benny's parents who refused to let their son then 17 go on the road but it was the beginning of his long friendship with Zeppo Marx. Benny's future wife Mary Livingstone was a distant cousin of the Marx Brothers.

The following year Benny formed a vaudeville musical duo with pianist Cora Salisbury a buxom 45-year-old widow who needed a partner for her act. This provoked famous violinist Jan Kubelik who thought that the young vaudeville entertainer with a similar name (Kubelsky) would damage his reputation. Under pressure from Kubelik's lawyer Benjamin Kubelsky agreed to change his name to Ben K. Benny (sometimes spelled Bennie). When Salisbury left the act Benny found a new pianist Lyman Woods and re-named the act "From Grand Opera to Ragtime". They worked together for five years and slowly added comedy elements to the show. They even reached the Palace Theater the "Mecca of Vaudeville" but bombed. Benny left show business briefly in 1917 to join the U.S. Navy during World War I and he often entertained the troops with his violin playing. One evening his violin performance was booed by the troops so with prompting from fellow sailor and actor Pat O'Brien he ad-libbed his way out of the jam and left them laughing. He got more comedy spots in the revues and was a big hit and earned himself a reputation as a comedian as well as a musician.

Shortly after the war Benny started a one-man act "Ben K. Benny: Fiddle Funology".8 But then he heard from another lawyer this time that of Ben Bernie another patter-and-fiddle performer who also threatened to sue. So Benny adopted the common sailor's nickname Jack. By 1921 the fiddle became more of a prop and the low-key comedy took over.

Benny had several romantic encounters including one with a dancer Mary Kelly whose devoutly Catholic family forced her to turn down Benny's proposal because he was Jewish. Benny was introduced to Mary Kelly by Gracie Allen. Some years after their split Kelly resurfaced as a dowdy fat girl and Jack gave her a part in an act of three girls: one homely one fat and one who couldn't sing. This lasted until at Mary Livingstone's request Mary Kelly was let go.

In 1922 Jack accompanied Zeppo Marx to a Passover seder where he met Sadye (Sadie) Marks whom he married in 1927 after meeting again on a double-date. She was working in the hosiery section of the Hollywood Boulevard branch of the May Company and Benny would court her there.8 Called on to fill in for the "dumb girl" part in one of Benny's routines Sadie proved a natural comedienne and a big hit. Adopting Mary Livingstone as her stage name Sadie became Benny's collaborator throughout most of his career. They later adopted a daughter Joan.

In 1929 Benny's agent Sam Lyons convinced MGM's Irving Thalberg to catch Benny's act at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Benny was signed to a five-year contract and his first film role was in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. His next movie Chasing Rainbows was a flop and after several months Benny was released from his contract and returned to Broadway in Earl Carroll's Vanities. At first dubious about the viability of radio Benny was eager to break into the new medium. In 1932 after a four-week nightclub run he was invited onto Ed Sullivan's radio program uttering his first radio spiel "This is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say 'Who cares'..."8 Radio History Jack Benny Mary Livingstone and Eddie Anderson (Rochester) in a group portrait. Benny had been only a minor vaudeville performer but he became a national figure with The Jack Benny Program a weekly radio show which ran from 1932 to 1948 on NBC and from 1949 to 1955 on CBS. It was consistently among the most highly rated programs during most of that run.1011 On April 6 1932 the NBC Commercial Program Department arranged for an audition of Jack Benny for Ayer and its client Canada Dry after which its head Bertha Brainard made an assessment of this new comic: We think Mr. Benny is excellent for radio and while the audition was unassisted as far as orchestra was concerned we believe he would make a great bet for an air program. With Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor Benny came to radio on The Canada Dry Program beginning May 2 1932 on the NBC Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26 moving the show to CBS on October 30. With Ted Weems leading the band Benny stayed on CBS until January 26 1933. The commercial ran twice a week from 9:30 to 10:00 it ran for almost a year.12 Arriving at NBC on March 17 Benny did The Chevrolet Program until April 1 1934. He continued with sponsor General Tire through the end of the season. In October 1934 General Foods the makers of Jell-O and Grape-Nuts became the sponsor most identified with Jack for the next ten years. American Tobacco's Lucky Strike was his longest-lasting radio sponsor from October 1944 through the end of his original radio series. The show switched networks to CBS on January 2 1949 as part of CBS president William S. Paley's notorious "raid" of NBC talent in 194849. There it stayed for the remainder of its radio run which ended on May 22 1955. CBS aired repeats of old radio episodes from 1956 to 1958 as The Best of Benny. Characters This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (December 2010) Benny's stage character was just about everything the actual Jack Benny was not: cheap petty vain and self-congratulatory. His comic rendering of these traits became the linchpin to the Benny show's success. Benny set himself up as the comedic foil allowing his supporting characters to draw laughs at the expense of his character's flaws. By allowing such a character to be seen as human and vulnerable in an era where few male characters were allowed such obvious vulnerability Benny made what might have been a despicable character into a lovable Everyman character. Benny himself said on several occasions: "I don't care who gets the laughs on my show as long as the show is funny." In her book Benny's daughter Joan said her father always said it doesn't matter who gets laughs because come the next day they will say "Remember the Jack Benny Show last night it was good or it was bad." Jack felt he got the credit or blame either way not the actor saying the lines so it had better be funny. The supporting characters who amplified that vulnerability only too gladly included wife Mary Livingstone as his wisecracking and not especially deferential female friend (not quite his girlfriend since Benny would often try to date movie stars like Barbara Stanwyck and occasionally had stage girlfriends such as "Gladys Zybisco"); rotund announcer Don Wilson (who also served as announcer for Fanny Brice's hit Baby Snooks); bandleader Phil Harris as a jive-talking wine-and-women type whose repartee was rather risqu for its time; boy tenor Dennis Day who was cast as a sheltered nave youth who still got the better of his boss as often as not (this character was originated by Kenny Baker but perfected by Day); and especially Eddie Anderson as valet-chauffeur Rochester van Jones who was as popular as Benny himself. And that was itself a radical proposition for the era: unlike the protagonists of Amos 'n' Andy Rochester was a black man allowed to one-up his vain skinflint boss. In more ways than one with his mock-befuddled one-liners and his sharp retorts he broke a comedic racial barrier. Unlike many black supporting characters of the time Rochester was depicted and treated as a regular member of Benny's fictional household. Benny in character tended if anything to treat Rochester more like an equal partner than as a hired domestic even though gags about Rochester's flimsy salary were a regular part of the show. (Frederick W. Slater newsman of St. Joseph Missouri recalled when Benny and his staff stayed at the restricted Robidioux Hotel during their visit to that town. When the desk staff told Benny that "Rochester" could not stay at the hotel Benny replied "If he doesn't stay here neither do I." The hotel's staff eventually relented.) Rochester seemed to see right through his boss's vanities and knew how to prick them without overdoing it often with his famous line "Oh Boss come now!" Benny deserves credit for allowing this character and the actor who played him (it is difficult if not impossible to picture any other performer giving Rochester what Anderson gave him) to transcend the era's racial stereotype and for not discouraging his near-equal popularity. A New Year's Eve episode in particular shows the love each performer had for the other quietly toasting each other with champagne. That this attention to Rochester's race was no accident became clearer during World War II when Benny would frequently pay tribute to the diversity of Americans who had been drafted into service. After the war once the depths of Nazi race hatred had been revealed Benny made a conscious effort to remove the most stereotypical aspects of Rochester's character. In 1948 it became apparent to Benny how much the times had changed when a 1941 script for "The Jack Benny Program" was re-used for one week's show. The script included mention of several African-American stereotypes (i.e. a reference to Rochester carrying a razor) and prompted a number of listeners who didn't know the script was an old one to send in angry letters protesting the stereotypes. Thereafter Benny insisted that his writers should make sure that no racial jokes or references should be heard on his show. Benny also often gave key guest-star appearances to African-American performers such as Louis Armstrong and the Ink Spots. Group photograph of Eddie Anderson Dennis Day Phil Harris Mary Livingstone Jack Benny Don Wilson and Mel Blanc. The rest of Benny's cast included character actors and comedians: Sheldon Leonard (later a hugely successful television producer and creator) as a tight-lipped racetrack tout Joseph Kearns (best remembered as cantankerous Mr. Wilson on the television version of Dennis the Menace) as Ed the superannuated guard to Jack's money vault Verna Felton as Dennis Day's mother Frank Nelson usually as an oily desk clerk or floorwalker always greeting Benny with an eager Yeeeeeeesss; singer/bandleader Bob Crosby (who succeeded Phil Harris in the early 1950s); Artie Auerbach as the Yiddish-accented Mr. Kitzel ("hoo hoo hoo!"); Bea Benaderet as Gertrude the switchboard operator; Mel Blanc who provided several characters' voices including the railroad station announcer who said "Train leaving on track five for Anaheim Azusa and Cucamonga!". This running gag became so well known that it eventually led to a statue of Benny in Cucamonga. Blanc also was featured with Benny in the classic Si-Sy routine and on radio as the sound of Benny's Maxwell automobile. Blanc is perhaps best remembered as Benny's perpetually frustrated violin teacher Professor LeBlanc who was as likely to throw his own and Benny's instrument into the fireplace as he was to have a nervous breakdown before he was out the door. Other musical contributions came starting in 1946 from the singing quartet the Sportsmen (members: Bill Days Max Smith Marty Sperzel and Gurney Bell) singing the middle Lucky Strike commercial. In the early days of the program the supporting characters were often vaudevillian ethnic stereotypes whose humor was grounded in dialects. As the years went by the humor of these figures became more character-based. Benny's method of bringing a character into a skit by announcing his name also became a well-known Benny shtick: "Oh Dennis..." or "Oh Rochester..." typically answered by "Yes Mr. Benny (Boss)" Situations This statue of Jack Benny in Rancho Cucamonga located inside the Epicenter Stadium at Jack Benny Way and Rochester Avenue commemorates the program's famed running gag: "Train leaving on track five for Anaheim Azusa and Cu-ca-monga!" The Jack Benny Program evolved from a variety show blending sketch comedy and musical interludes into the situation comedy form we know even now crafting particular situations and scenarios from the fictionalization of Benny the radio star. Any situation from hosting a party to income tax time to a night on the town was good for a Benny show and somehow the writers and star would find the right ways and places to insert musical interludes from Phil Harris and Dennis Day. With Day invariably it would be a brief sketch that ended with Benny ordering Day to sing the song he planned to do on that week's show. One extremely popular scenario that became an annual tradition on The Jack Benny Program was the "Christmas Shopping" episode in which Benny would head to a local department store. Each year Benny would buy a ridiculously cheap Christmas gift for Don Wilson from a store clerk played by Mel Blanc. Benny would then have second (then third and even fourth) thoughts about his gift choice driving Blanc (or in two other cases his wife and his psychiatrist as well) to hilarious insanity by exchanging the gift pestering about the Christmas card or wrapping paper countless times throughout the episode: in many cases the clerk would commit suicide or attempt and fail to commit suicide ("Look what you done! You made me so nervous I missed!") as a result. In the 1946 Christmas episode for example Benny buys shoelaces for Don and then is unable to make up his mind whether to give Wilson shoelaces with plastic tips or shoelaces with metal tips. After Benny exchanges the shoelaces repeatedly Mel Blanc is heard screaming insanely "Plastic tips! Metal tips! I can't stand it anymore!" A variation in 1948 concerned Benny buying an expensive wallet for Don but repeatedly changing the greeting card insertedprompting Blanc to shout: "I haven't run into anyone like you in 20 years! Oh why did the governor have to give me that pardon!" until Benny realizes that he should have gotten Don a wallet for $1.98 whereupon the put-upon clerk immediately responds by committing suicide. Over the years in these Christmas episodes Benny bought and repeatedly exchanged cuff links golf tees a box of dates a paint set and even a gopher trap. In 1936 after a few years broadcasting from New York Benny moved the show to Los Angeles allowing him to bring in guests from among his show business friends such as Frank Sinatra James Stewart Judy Garland Barbara Stanwyck Bing Crosby Burns and Allen (George Burns was Benny's closest friend) and many others. Burns and Allen and Orson Welles guest hosted several episodes in March and April 1943 when Benny was seriously ill with pneumonia while Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hume appeared frequently in the 1940s as Benny's long-suffering neighbors. Sponsors In the early days of radio (and in the early television era often as not) the airtime was owned by the sponsor and Benny made a point of incorporating the commercials into the body of the show. Sometimes the sponsors were the butt of jokes though Benny did not deploy this device as frequently as his friend and "rival" Fred Allen did at the time or as his cast member Phil Harris later did on his own successful radio sitcom. Nevertheless for many years Benny insisted in contract negotiations that his writers pen the sponsor's commercial in the middle of the program (leaving the sponsor to provide the opening and closing spots) and the resulting ads were cleverly and wittily worked into the storyline of the show. For example on one program Don Wilson accidentally misread Lucky Strike's slogan ("Be happy go Lucky") as "Be Lucky go happy" prompting a story arc over several weeks that had Wilson unable to attend the show due to being severely traumatized by the error. In fact the radio show was generally not announced as The Jack Benny Program. Instead the primary name of the show tied to the sponsor. Benny's first sponsor was Canada Dry Ginger Ale from 1932 to 1933. Benny's sponsors included Chevrolet from 1933 to 1934 General Tire in 1934 and Jell-O from 1934 to 1942. The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny was so successful in selling Jell-O in fact that General Foods could not manufacture it fast enough when sugar shortages arose in the early years of World War II and the company had to stop advertising the popular dessert mix. General Foods switched the Benny program from Jell-O to Grape-Nuts from 1942 to 1944 and it became naturally The Grape Nuts Program Starring Jack Benny. Benny's longest-running sponsor however was the American Tobacco Company's Lucky Strike cigarettes from 1944 to 1955 when the show was usually announced as The Lucky Strike Program starring Jack Benny. Writers Benny was notable for employing a small group of writers most of whom stayed with him for many years. This was very much in contrast to other successful radio or television comedians such as Bob Hope who would change writers frequently. Historical accounts (like those by longtime Benny writer Milt Josefsberg) indicate that Benny's role was essentially that of both head writer and director of his radio programs though he was not credited in either capacity. In contrast to Fred Allen who initially personally wrote all of his own radio scripts (and continued to extensively rewrite scripts produced in later years by a writing staff) Jack Benny was often described by his writers as a consummate comedy editor rather than a writer per se. He would often debate the precise wording of jokes and always sought to ensure the preservation of the integrity of the show's characters above easy gags. Theme music During his early radio shows there was no recurring theme the program instead opening each week with a different then-current popular song. Throughout the Jello and Grapenuts years announcer Don Wilson would announce the name of the show some of the cast and then state "The orchestra opens the program with name of song". The orchestra number would continue softly as background for Don Wilson's opening commercial. Starting in the Lucky Strike era Benny adopted a medley of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Love in Bloom" as his theme music opening every show. "Love in Bloom" later became the theme of his television show as well. His radio shows often ended with the orchestra playing "Hooray for Hollywood". The TV show ended with one of two bouncy instrumentals written for the show by his musical arranger and conductor Mahlon Merrick. Benny would sometimes joke about the propriety of "Love in Bloom" as his theme song. On a segment often played in Tonight Show retrospectives Benny talks with Johnny Carson about this. Benny says he has no objections to the song in and of itself only as his theme. Proving his point he begins reciting the lyrics slowly and deliberately: "Can it be the trees. That fill the breeze. With rare and magic perfume. Now what the hell has that got to do with me" "Your money or your life" Harry Truman and Jack Benny 3 September 1959 A master of the carefully timed pregnant pause Benny and his writers used it to set up what is popularly (but incorrectly) believed to be the longest laugh in radio history. It climaxed an episode (broadcast March 28 1948) in which Benny borrowed neighbor Ronald Colman's Oscar and was returning home when accosted by a mugger (voiced by comedian Eddie Marr). After asking for a match to light a cigarette the mugger demanded "Don't make a move this is a stickup. Now come on. Your money or your life." Benny paused and the studio audienceknowing his skinflint characterlaughed. The robber then repeated his demand: "Look bud! I said your money or your life!" And that's when Benny snapped back without a break "I'm thinking it over!" This time the audience laughed louder and longer than they had during the pause. The punchline came to Benny staff writers John Tackaberry and Milt Josefsberg almost by accident. Writer George Balzer described the scene to author Jordan R. Young for The Laugh Crafters a 1999 book of interviews with veteran radio and television comedy writers: ... they had come to a point where they had the line "Your money or your life." And that stopped them... Milt is pacing up and down trying to get a follow... And he gets a little peeved at Tack and he says "For God's sakes Tack say something." Tack maybe he was half asleepin defense of himself says "I'm thinking it over." And Milt says "Wait a minute. That's it." And that's the line that went in the script... By the way that was not the biggest laugh that Jack ever got. It has the reputation of getting the biggest laugh. But that's not true. The actual length of the laugh the joke got was five seconds when originally delivered and seven seconds when the gag was reprised on a follow-up show. In fact the joke is probably not so memorable for the length of the laugh it provoked but because it became the definitive "Jack Benny joke"the joke that best illustrated Benny's "stingy man" persona. The punchline"I'm thinking it over!"simply would not have worked with any other comedian but Benny. The actual longest laugh known to collectors of The Jack Benny Program lasted in excess of 32 seconds. The International Jack Benny Fan Club13 reports that at the close of the program broadcast on December 13 1936 sponsored by Jell-O guest Andy Devine says that it is the "last number of the eleventh program in the new Jelly series." The audience who loved any sort of accidental flub in the live program is still laughing after 32 seconds at which point the network cut off the program to prevent it from running overtime. According to Jack himself Mary Livingstone got the biggest laugh he ever heard on the show on the April 25 1948 broadcast. The punchline was the result of the following exchange between Don Wilson and noted opera singer Dorothy Kirsten: Don Wilson: Oh Miss Kirsten I wanted to tell you that I saw you in "Madame Butterfly" Wednesday afternoon and I thought your performance was simply magnificent. Dorothy Kirsten: Well thanks awfully. It's awfully nice and kind of you Mr. Wilson. But uh who could help singing Puccini It's so expressive. And particularly in the last act starting with the allegro vivacissimo. Don Wilson: Well now that's being very modest Miss Kirsten. But not every singer has the necessary bel canto and flexibility or range to cope with the high tessitura of the first act. Dorothy Kirsten: Thank you Mr. Wilson. And don't you think that in the aria "Un bel d vedremo" that the strings played the con molto passione exceptionally fine and with great sostenuto Jack Benny: Well I thought-- Mary Livingstone (to Jack): Oh shut up! According to Jack the huge laugh resulted from the long buildup and the audience's knowledge that Jack with his pompous persona would have to break into the conversation at some point. A nearly identical exchange occurred over a year earlier among renowned violinist Isaac Stern actor Ronald Colman Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone. The quartet's back-and-forth which centered on Stern's recent public performance of a Mendelssohn piece was heard on an episode first broadcast on February 16 1947. The resulting laughter lasted some 18 seconds after which Jack retorted "Mary that's no way to talk to Mr. Stern." Later in life when performing as a stand-up comedian in Las Vegas Jack had just begun to tell an old joke about the salesman the farmer and the farmer's daughter: "So the salesman and the farmer's daughter come to the front door and the farmer opens the door." At this point Sammy Davis Jr. walks onstage behind Jack the audience screams and Sammy proceeds to speak and sing and dance about 25 minutes or so while Jack continues to stand at center stage quietly watching the spectacle. When Davis finally walks offstage and the audience's applause dies down Jack continues to watch Davis offstage for a few moments then as the audience is finally quiet continues: "... So the farmer said--" And that's about as far as that joke got because the audience laughed for minutes afterward. The Benny-Allen "feud" In 1937 Benny began his famous radio "feud" with rival Fred Allen. Allen kicked the "feud" off on his own show after child violinist Stewart Canin gave a performance credible enough that Allen wisecracked about "a certain alleged violinist" who should by comparison be ashamed of himself. Benny who either listened to the Allen show or was told about the crack answered in kind on his own show. And the two comedians were off and running. For a decade the two went at it back and forth so convincingly that fans of either show could have been forgiven for believing they had become blood enemies. In fact the two men were good friends and each other's greatest admirers. Benny and Allen often appeared on each other's show during the thick of the "feud"; numerous surviving episodes of both comedians' radio shows feature each other in both acknowledged guest spots and occasional cameos. Benny in his eventual memoir (Sunday Nights at Seven) and Allen in his Treadmill to Oblivion later revealed that each comedian's writing staff often met together to plot future takes on the mock feud. If Allen zapped Benny with a satirisation of Benny's show ("The Pinch Penny Program") Benny shot back with a parody of Allen's early favourite Town Hall Tonight. Benny's parody "Clown Hall Tonight." And their playful sniping ("Benny was born ignorant and he's been losing ground ever since") was also advanced in the films Love Thy Neighbor and It's in the Bag!. Perhaps the climax of the "feud" came during Fred Allen's parody of popular quiz-and-prize show Queen for a Day which was barely a year old when Allen decided to have a crack at it on The Fred Allen Show---an episode that has survived for today's listeners to appreciate. Calling the sketch "King for a Day" Allen played the host and Benny a contestant who sneaked onto the show using the alias Myron Proudfoot. Benny answered the prize-winning question correctly and Allen crowned him "king" and showered him with a passel of almost meaningless prizes. Allen proudly announced "Tomorrow night in your ermine robe you will be whisked by bicycle to Orange New Jersey where you will be the judge in a chicken-cleaning contest." To which Benny joyously declared "I'm king for a day!" At this point a professional pressing-iron was wheeled on stage to press Benny's suit properly. It didn't matter that Benny was still in the suit. Allen instructed his aides to remove Benny's suit one item at a time ending with his trousers each garment's removal provoking louder laughter from the studio audience. As his trousers began to come off Benny howled "Allen you haven't seen the end of me!" At once Allen shot back "It won't be long now!" The laughter was so loud and chaotic at the chain of events that the Allen show announcer Kenny Delmar was cut off the air while trying to read a final commercial and the show's credits. (Allen was notorious for running overtime often enough largely thanks to his ad-libbing talent and he overran the clock again this time.) Benny was profoundly shaken by Allen's sudden death of a heart attack in 1956. In a statement released on the day after Allen's death Benny said "People have often asked me if Fred Allen and I were really friends in real life. My answer is always the same. You couldn't have such a long-running and successful feud as we did without having a deep and sincere friendship at the heart of it." The CBS talent raid On the advice of MCA's Lew Wasserman Jack Benny formed a holding company "Amusement Enterprises" (a tax break major entertainers usually enjoyed in those years) which allowed him to bundle his entire program and personnel into a single commodity. The company also gave Benny the opportunity to produce and package other radio programs (including his 1947 summer replacement series starring Jack Paar) and invest in other entertainment ventures including the production of a 1949 feature film The Lucky Stiff starring Dorothy Lamour and as a key financial backer of the 1948 Broadway version of Mister Roberts starring Henry Fonda. While Benny was top of the proverbial heap on NBC CBS czar William S. Paley cast a hungry eye upon the comedian. Paley apparently had good reason to believe Benny could be had. In the summer of 1948 he successfully negotiated a deal with Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll buying their holding company which owned the Amos 'n' Andy radio show (and the rights to those characters) moving the entire "package" from NBC to CBS that fall: he then learned that NBC balked at buying a "Jack Benny" package deal when "Jack Benny" was not the star's real name. Paley reached out to Benny and offered him a deal that would allow that package-buy. But Paley according to CBS historian Robert Metz also learned that Benny chafed under NBC's almost indifferent attitude toward the talent that attracted the listeners. NBC under the leadership of David Sarnoff seemed at the time to think that listeners were listening to NBC because of NBC itself. To Paley according to Metz that was foolish thinking at best: Paley believed listeners were listening because of the talent not because of which platform hosted them. When Paley said as much to Benny the comedian agreed. Because Paley took a personal interest in the Benny negotiations as opposed to Sarnoff who had never met his top-rated star Benny was convinced to make the jump. He convinced a number of his fellow NBC performers (notably Burns and Allen Edgar Bergen Red Skelton and Kate Smith) to join him. To sweeten the deal for a very nervous sponsor Paley also agreed to make up the difference to American Tobacco if Benny's Hooper rating (the radio version of today's Nielsen ratings) on CBS fell to a certain level below his best NBC Hooper rating. Benny's CBS debut on January 2 1949 bested his top NBC rating by several points while also pumping up the ratings of the show that followed Amos 'n' Andy. NBC with its smash Sunday night lineup now broken up offered lucrative new deals to two of those Sunday night hits The Fred Allen Show and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Benny's bandleader and his singing actress wife now starred in their own hit sitcom meaning Harris was featured on shows for two different networks. Benny and Sarnoff eventually met several years later and became good friends. Benny said that if he had had this kind of relationship with Sarnoff earlier when he was Sarnoff's number-one radio star he never would have left NBC. Television Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone The television version of The Jack Benny Program ran from October 28 1950 to 1965. Initially scheduled as a series of five "specials" during the 19501951 season the show appeared every six weeks for the 19511952 season every four weeks for the 19521953 season and every three weeks in 19531954. For the 19531954 season half the episodes were live and half were filmed during the summer to allow Benny to continue doing his radio show. From the fall of 1954 to 1960 it appeared every other week and from 1960 to 1965 it was seen weekly. In September 1954 CBS premiered Chrysler's Shower of Stars co-hosted by Jack Benny and William Lundigan. It enjoyed a successful run from 1954 until 1958. Both television shows often overlapped the radio show. In fact the radio show alluded frequently to its television counterparts. Often as not Benny would sign off the radio show in such circumstances with the line "Well good night folks. I'll see you on television." When Benny moved to television audiences learned that his verbal talent was matched by his controlled repertory of dead-pan facial expressions and gesture. The program was similar to the radio show (several of the radio scripts were recycled for television as was somewhat common with other radio shows that moved to television) but with the addition of visual gags. Lucky Strike was the sponsor. Benny did his opening and closing monologues before a live audience which he regarded as essential to timing of the material. As in other TV comedy shows canned laughter was sometimes added to "sweeten" the soundtrack as when the studio audience missed some close-up comedy because of cameras or microphones in their way. The television viewers learned to live without Mary Livingstone who was afflicted by a striking case of stage fright. Livingstone appeared rarely if at all on the television show (for the last few years of the radio show she pre-recorded her lines and Jack and Mary's daughter Joan stood in for the live broadcast as the pre-recordings were played) and finally retired from show business permanently in 1958 as her friend Gracie Allen had done. Benny's television program relied more on guest stars and less on his regulars than his radio program. In fact the only radio cast members who appeared regularly on the television program as well were Don Wilson and Eddie Anderson. Day appeared sporadically and Harris had left the radio program in 1952 although he did make a guest appearance on the television show (Bob Crosby Phil's "replacement" frequently appeared on television through 1956). A frequent guest was the Canadian born singer-violinist Gisele Mackenzie. Benny was able to attract guests who rarely if ever appeared on television. In 1953 both Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart made their television debuts on Benny's program.1415 Canadian singer Gisele MacKenzie who toured with Benny in the early 1950s guest starred seven times on The Jack Benny Program. Benny was so impressed with MacKenzie's talents that he served as co-executive producer and guest starred on her 19571958 NBC variety show The Gisele MacKenzie Show.16 In 1964 Walt Disney was a guest primarily to promote his production of Mary Poppins. Benny persuaded Disney to give him over 100 free admission tickets to Disneyland for his friends but later in the show Disney apparently sent his pet tiger after Benny as revenge at which point Benny opened his umbrella and soared above the stage like Mary Poppins.17 In due course the ratings game finally got to Benny too. CBS dropped the show in 1964 citing Benny's lack of appeal to the younger demographic the network began courting and he went to NBC his original network in the fall only to be out-rated by CBS's Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. The network dropped Benny at the end of the season. He continued to make occasional specials into the 1970s. His last television appearance was in 1974 on a Dean Martin Roast for Lucille Ball. The videotaped show was telecast just a few weeks after his death. In his unpublished autobiography I Always Had Shoes (portions of which were later incorporated by Jack's daughter Joan into her memoir of her parents Sunday Nights at Seven) Benny said that he not NBC made the decision to end his TV series in 1965. He said that while the ratings were still very good (he cited a figure of some 18 million viewers per week although he qualified that figure by saying he never believed the ratings services were doing anything more than guessing no matter what they promised) advertisers were complaining that commercial time on his show was costing nearly twice as much as what they paid for most other shows and he had grown tired of what was called the "rate race." Thus after some three decades on radio and television in a weekly program Jack Benny went out on top. In fairness Benny himself shared Fred Allen's ambivalence about television though not quite to Allen's extent. "By my second year in television I saw that the camera was a man-eating monster...It gave a performer close-up exposure that week after week threatened his existence as an interesting entertainer."8 In a joint appearance with Phil Silvers on Dick Cavett's show Benny recalled that he had advised Silvers not to appear on television. However Silvers ignored Benny's advice and proceeded to win several Emmy awards as Sergeant Bilko on the popular series The Phil Silvers Show while Benny claimed he never won any of the television honors. Movies Benny also acted in movies including the Academy Award-winning The Hollywood Revue of 1929 Broadway Melody of 1936 (as a benign nemesis for Eleanor Powell and Robert Taylor) George Washington Slept Here (1942) and notably Charley's Aunt and To Be or Not to Be. He and Livingstone also appeared in Ed Sullivan's Mr. Broadway (1933) as themselves. Benny often parodied contemporary movies and movie genres on the radio program and the 1940 film Buck Benny Rides Again features all the main radio characters in a funny Western parody adapted from program skits. The failure of one Benny vehicle The Horn Blows at Midnight became a running gag on his radio program although contemporary viewers may not find the film as disappointing as the jokes suggest. Benny may have had an unbilled cameo role in Casablanca (claimed by a contemporary newspaper advertisement18 and reportedly in the Casablanca press book19). When asked in his column "Movie Answer Man" critic Roger Ebert first replied "It looks something like him. That's all I can say."19 In response to a follow-up question in his next column he stated "I think you're right."20 Benny also was caricatured in several Warner Brothers cartoons including Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939 as Casper the Caveman) I Love to Singa Slap Happy Pappy and Goofy Groceries (1936 1940 and 1941 respectively as Jack Bunny21) Malibu Beach Party (1940 as himself)22 and The Mouse that Jack Built (1959). The last of these is probably the most memorable: Robert McKimson engaged Benny and his actual cast (Mary Livingstone Eddie Anderson and Don Wilson) to do the voices for the mouse versions of their characters with Mel Blancthe usual Warner Brothers cartoon voicemeisterreprising his old vocal turn as the always-aging Maxwell always a phat-phat-bang! away from collapse. In the cartoon Benny and Livingstone agree to spend their anniversary at the Kit-Kat Club which they discover the hard way is inside the mouth of a live cat. Before the cat can devour the mice Benny himself awakens from his dream then shakes his head smiles wryly and mutters "Imagine me and Mary as little mice." Then he glances toward the cat lying on a throw rug in a corner and sees his and Livingstone's cartoon alter egos scampering out of the cat's mouth. The cartoon ends with a classic Benny look of befuddlement. It was rumored that Benny requested that in lieu of monetary compensation he receive a copy of the finished film. Running gags Jack Benny rehearses with members of the California Junior Symphony Orchestra 1959 Benny teamed with Fred Allen for the best-remembered running gag in classic radio history in terms of character dialogue. But Benny alone sustained a classic repertoire of running gags in his own right including his skinflint radio and television persona his perpetual stage age of 39 and his atonal violin playing. A skit heard numerous times on radio and seen many times on television had Mel Blanc as a Mexican in a sombrero and sarape sitting on a bench. Jack Benny sits down and begins a conversation. To each question asked by Benny Blanc replies Si Benny asks his name Blanc replies Sy and when Benny asks where Blanc is going Blanc replies "to see his sister" Sue. A running gag in Benny's private life concerned George Burns. To Benny's eternal frustration he could never get Burns to laugh. Burns on the other hand could crack Benny up with the least effort. An example of this occurred at a party when Benny pulled out a match to light a cigar. Burns announced to all "Jack Benny will now perform the famous match trick!" Benny had no idea what Burns was talking about so he proceeded to light up. Burns observed "Oh a new ending!" and Benny collapsed in helpless laughter. Benny even had a sound-based running gag of his own: his famous basement vault alarm allegedly installed by Spike Jones ringing off with a shattering cacophony of whistles sirens bells and blasts before ending invariably with the sound of a foghorn. The alarm rang off even when Benny opened his safe with the correct combination. The vault also featured a guard named Ed (voiced by Joseph Kearns) who had been on post down below before apparently the end of the Civil War the end of the Revolutionary War the founding of Los Angeles on Jack's 38th birthday and even the beginning of humanity. In one appearance Ed asked Benny "By the way Mr. Benny...what's it like on the outside" Benny responded "...winter is nearly here and the leaves are falling." Ed responded "Hey that must be exciting." To which Benny replied (in a stunningly risqu joke for the period) "Oh nopeople are wearing clothes now." In one episode of the Benny radio show Ed the Guard actually agreed when Jack invited him to take a break and come back to the surface world only to discover that modern conveniences and transportation which hadn't been around the last time he'd been to the surface terrorized and confused him. (Poor Ed thought a crosstown bus was "a red and yellow dragon.") Finally Ed decides to return to his post fathoms below and stay there. The basement vault gag was also used in the cartoon The Mouse that Jack Built and an episode23 of The Lucy Show. A separate sound gag involved a song Benny had written "When You Say I Beg Your Pardon Then I'll Come Back to You." Its inane lyrics and insipid melody guaranteed that it would never be published or recorded but Benny continued to try to con extort or otherwise inveigle some of his musical guests (including The Smothers Brothers and Peter Paul and Mary) to perform it. None ever made it all the way through. In keeping with his "stingy" schtick on one of his television specials he remarked that to his way of looking at things a "special" is when the price of coffee is marked down. The explanation usually given for the "stuck on 39" running joke is that he had celebrated his birthday on-air when he turned 39 and decided to do the same the following year because "there's nothing funny about 40." Upon his death having celebrated his 39th birthday 41 times some newspapers continued the joke with headlines such as "Jack Benny Dies At 39" Another popular running gag concerned the social habits of Benny's on-air orchestra who were consistently portrayed as a bunch of drunken ne'er-do-wells. Led first by Phil Harris and later by Bob Crosby the orchestra and in particular band member Frank Remley were jokingly portrayed as often being too drunk to play properly using an overturned bass drum to play cards on just minutes before a show and so enamored by liquor that the sight of a glass of milk would make them sick. Remley was portrayed in various unflattering situations such as being thrown into a garbage can by a road sweeper who had found him passed out in the street at 4 am and on a wanted poster at the Beverly Hills police station. Crosby also got consistent laughs by frequently joking about his more famous brother Bing's vast wealth. The Maxwell Jack Benny shakes hands with Harry S. Truman from the seat of a c. 1908 Maxwell Roadster Starting on the radio show a running joke was that Benny drove a Maxwell automobile a brand that went out of business in 1925. Benny's old car was so worn out that it would barely run but the miserly Benny insisted he could get a few more miles out of it. When a sound effects man missed a cue for the automobile engine Mel Blanc quickly improvised a vocal imitation of a sputtering car engine that was so funny it became a regular feature of the show. By 1943 Jack Benny's Maxwell had become such a well known aspect of popular culture that it was referenced in the Spike Jones record "The Sound Effects Man". When the Jack Benny Program began appearing on television in 1950 a 1916 Maxwell Model 25 Tourer became one of the production's standard props. Benny's Maxwell later became a 1923 Tourer. In addition to on the program Benny would often make public appearances in Maxwells. He appeared behind the wheel of one in the film It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and drove a Maxwell onto the stage in one of his last television specials. Benny and his archaic auto were featured in a series of television and print ads for Texaco from the 1950s through the 1970s. A series of gags were built around the premise that Benny appreciated the value of "Sky Chief" brand gasoline in keeping his car running smoothly but was too cheap to buy more than one gallon at a time. Final years After his broadcasting career ended Benny performed live as a stand up comedian and returned to films in 1963 with a cameo appearance in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Benny was preparing to star in the film version of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys when his health failed. In fact he prevailed upon his longtime best friend George Burns to take his place on a nightclub tour while preparing for the film. (Burns ultimately had to replace Benny in the film as well and went on to win an Academy Award for his performance). Benny made one of his final television appearances in the fall of 1972 on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson when Carson celebrated his 10th anniversary. (An audio recording featuring highlights of Benny's appearance is featured on the album Here's Johnny: Magic Moments From The Tonight Show released in 1973.) During this appearance he stated that he loved the violin so much "if God came to me and said 'Jack starting tomorrow I will make you one of the world's great violinists but no more will you ever be able to tell a joke' I really believe that I would accept that." He also related something Isaac Stern once told him: "You know Jack when you walk out in front of a symphony orchestra in white tie and tails and your violin you actually look like one of the world's great violinists. It's a damned shame you have to play!" Jokes aside Benny was a serious dedicated violinist who could play aside Stern and not embarrass himself24 Death In October 1974 Benny canceled a performance in Dallas after suffering a dizzy spell coupled with numbness in his arms. Despite a battery of tests Benny's ailment could not be determined. When he complained of stomach pains in early December a first test showed nothing but a subsequent one showed he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Choosing to spend his final days at home he was visited by close friends including George Burns Bob Hope Frank Sinatra Johnny Carson and New Zealand crooner John Rowles. He died on December 26 1974. Bob Hope delivered the eulogy at his funeral. Two days after his death he was interred in a crypt at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City California. Benny's will arranged for flowers specifically a single long-stemmed red rose to be delivered to his widow Mary Livingstone every day for the rest of her life. Livingstone died nine years later on June 30 1983. In trying to explain his successful life Benny summed it up by stating "Everything good that happened to me happened by accident. I was not filled with ambition nor fired by a drive toward a clear-cut goal. I never knew exactly where I was going."8 Upon his death his family donated to UCLA his personal professional and business papers as well as a collection of his television shows. The university established the Jack Benny Award in his honor in 1977 to recognize outstanding people in the field of comedy. Johnny Carson was the first award recipient.25 Benny also donated a Stradivarius violin purchased in 1957 to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.2627 Benny had commented "If it isn't a $30000 Strad I'm out $120."28 Honors Jack Benny has one star each on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for TV film and radio. Posthumous tributes When the price of a standard first-class US postal stamp was increased to 39 cents in 2006 fans petitioned for a Jack Benny stamp to honor his stage personas perpetual age. The U.S. Postal Service had issued a stamp depicting Jack Benny in 1991 as part of a booklet of stamps honoring comedians; however the stamp was issued at the then-current rate of 29 cents. Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan Illinois is named after the famous comedian. Its motto matches his famous statement as "Home of the '39ers". See also United States Navy portal World War I portal List of most-listened-to radio programs References a b Mikkelson Barbara. "Posthumous Roses" Snopes.com; February 13 2010 Benny Joan; Benny Jack (1996) Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story Warner Books p. 6 "There are a few things you should know in advance. In the first place I was not born in Waukegan. I was born at the Mercy Hospital in Chicago..."  Jack Benny appearance on The Lawrence Welk Show episode 1025: "Academy Awards" (1971) Dunning Jack. Tune in yesterday: the ultimate encyclopedia of old-time radio 19251976. p. 315. Benny Mary Livingstone Hilliard Marks & Marcia Borie. Jack Benny New York: Doubleday 1978. pp. 810 United States 1900 Census The Jack Benny Times September December 2008 Volume XXIII Numbers 56 Page 9. The International Jack Benny Fan Club. a b c d e f Jack Benny and Joan Benny Sunday Nights At Seven: The Jack Benny Story Warner Books ISBN 0-446-51546-9 1990 p.11 Fein Irving Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography Putnam ISBN 978-0671809171 OCLC 3694842 1976 Vintage Library.com Garrett Eddie (2005). I Saw Stars in the 40's and 50's. ISBN 1412058384. http://books.google.com/booksidTDbGVZj5qzgC&pgPA26&dqjack+benny+%22most+popular+radio+show%22&lr&eiVNdNSYTGKoiUzAS5z6G0CA. "In a short time Benny became the most popular radio show in America in the 1930's and 1940's"  Hilmes M. (1997). Radio voices american broadcasting 1922-1952. Minnesota Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. "The Longest Laugh". Jackbenny.org. http://www.jackbenny.org/biography/other/longestlaugh.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-20.  McMahon Ed & David Fisher. When Television Was Young: Live Spontaneous and In Living Black and White. Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson 2007. p. 103. Becker Christine. It's the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars in 1950s Television. Middletown CT: Wesleyan UP 2008. p. 35. Stanley Alessandra. "Gisele MacKenzie Show". The New York Times. http://tv.nytimes.com/show/155939/Gisele-MacKenzie-Show/overview. Retrieved May 15 2009.  video on youtube.com Jack ends TV episode as Mary Poppins "Special Contest / Find Jack Benny in "Casablanca"". The Evening Independent. February 4 1943. http://news.google.com/newspapersnid950&dat19430204&idDRoOAAAAIBAJ&sjidf30DAAAAIBAJ&pg50784032886.  a b Roger Ebert (December 9 2009). "Movie Answer Man". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID/20091209/ANSWERMAN/912099991. Retrieved January 8 2010.  Roger Ebert (December 23 2009). "Movie Answer Man". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID/20091223/ANSWERMAN/912239981. Retrieved January 8 2010.  I Love to Singa. You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watchvakAEIW3rmvQ#t04m24s. Retrieved 2010-12-20.  Malibu Beach Party. 1940. http://www.youtube.com/watchvqH6AWh64lOc.  Lucy Gets Jack Benny's Account (1967) Carnegie Hall Salutes Jack Benny. Violinists: Jack Benny and Isaac Stern and Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy. 27th September 1961. Retrieved on 2010-11-18. Brent Lang Apatow to Receive Jack Benny Award TheWrap.com Map 19 2010 http://news.google.com/newspapersidqKwwAAAAIBAJ&sjidpPoDAAAAIBAJ&pg54987923419&dqbenny+stradivarius+philharmonic&hlen Watkins Nancy (February 13 2005). "Now cut that out!". Chicago Tribune.  http://news.google.com/newspapersid7chOAAAAIBAJ&sjidkEkDAAAAIBAJ&pg42772931739&dqbenny+stradivarius&hlen Template:Hilmes M. (1997). Radio voices american broadcasting 1922-1952. Minnesota Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Further reading New York Times April 16 1953 p43"Jack Benny plans more work on tv." New York Times March 16 1960 p75 "Canned laughter: Comedians are crying on the inside about CBS rule that public know of its use." Jack Benny Mary Livingstone Benny Hilliard Marks with Marcia Borie Doubleday & Company 1978 322 p. Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story Jack Benny and Joan Benny Warner Books 1990 302 p. CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye by Robert Metz New American Library 1978. The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age by Jordan R. Young; Past Times Publishing 1999. Well! Reflections on the Life and Career of Jack Benny edited by Michael Leannah BearManor Media 2007. Jack Benny v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue 25 T.C. 197 (1955). Hilmes M. (1997). Radio voices American broadcasting 1922-1952. Minnesota Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Further reading Benny Jack; Benny Joan. (1990) Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story. Warner Books. Josefsberg Milt. (1977) The Jack Benny Show. New Rochelle: Arlington House. ISBN 0-87000-347-X Leannah Michael editor. (2007) Well! Reflections on the Life and Career of Jack Benny. BearManor Media. Contributing authors: Frank Bresee Clair Schulz Kay Linaker Janine Marr Pam Munter Mark Higgins B. J. Borsody Charles A. Beckett Jordan R. Young Philip G. Harwood Noell Wolfgram Evans Jack Benny Michael Leannah Steve Newvine Ron Sayles Kathryn Fuller-Seeley Marc Reed Derek Tague Michael J. Hayde Steve Thompson Michael Mildredson. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jack Benny Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jack Benny Audio Jack Benny Show OTR Podcast Daily episodes of The Jack Benny Program in MP3 format with new introductions and Benny Trivia Over 350 episodes of The Jack Benny Program in MP3 format Two broadcasts (East/West) of The Jello Program: "Christmas Shopping for Perfume and a Necktie" (12/17/39) Video Jack Benny Hour (1965 NBC hour-long special) available for free download at the Internet Archive more Jack Benny at the Internet Movie Database The Jack Benny Program (TV pilot) at the Internet Movie Database The Jack Benny Program (TV series) at the Internet Movie Database Jack Benny at the Internet Broadway Database Jack Benny at TVGuide.com Jack Benny at Allmovie The Jack Benny Program at TV.com Jack Benny at the Radio Hall of Fame Jack Benny Fred Allen Feud Jack Benny Audio History Jack Benny at Find a Grave International Jack Benny Fan Club Online audio and video of Jack Benny Copies of Jack Benny's Radio and TV scripts with handwritten edits Free 2 minute download of Humphrey Bogart on the Jack Benny Show Jack Benny Middle School Jack Benny Center for the Cultural Arts "The Friars Club" Jack Benny papers at the University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center FBI file on Jack Benny v d ePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor Comedy Series (19501975) Alan Young (1950)  Sid Caesar (1951)  Jimmy Durante (1952)  Donald O'Connor (1953)  Danny Thomas (1954)  Phil Silvers (1955)  Sid Caesar (1956)  Jack Benny (1957)  Jack Benny (1959)  Dick Van Dyke (1964)  Dick Van Dyke (1965)  Dick Van Dyke (1966)  Don Adams (1967)  Don Adams (1968)  Don Adams (1969)  William Windom (1970)  Jack Klugman (1971)  Carroll O'Connor (1972)  Jack Klugman (1973)  Alan Alda (1974)  Tony Randall (1975) Complete List  (19501975)  (19762000)  (20012025) v d eHosts of the Academy Awards ceremonies (19411960) Bob Hope (1941)  None (1942)  Bob Hope (1943)  Jack Benny (1944)  Bob Hope / John Cromwell (1945)  Bob Hope / James Stewart (1946)  Jack Benny (1947)  Dick Powell / Agnes Moorehead (1948)  Robert Montgomery (1949)  Paul Douglas (1950)  Fred Astaire (1951)  Danny Kaye (1952)  Bob Hope / Conrad Nagel (1953)  Donald O'Connor / Fredric March (1954)  Bob Hope / Thelma Ritter (1955)  Jerry Lewis / Claudette Colbert / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1956)  Jerry Lewis / Celeste Holm (1957)  Bob Hope / David Niven / James Stewart / Jack Lemmon / Rosalind Russell (1958)  Bob Hope / David Niven / Tony Randall / Mort Sahl / Laurence Olivier / Jerry Lewis (1959)  Bob Hope (1960) Complete list  (19271940)  (19411960)  (19611980)  (19812000)  (20012020) Persondata Name Benny Jack Alternative names Kubelsky Benjamin Short description comedian vaudeville performer and radio television and film actor Date of birth February 14 1894 Place of birth Chicago Illinois Date of death December 26 1974 Place of death Beverly Hills California