Jack Benny

[+ Avalon]

I've been watching some of the old Jack Benny tv shows on YouTube. I know he is straight but his mannerisms are just so fey. He can do so much with just one word or with a pause or a look.

 

I remember once reading he and the cast were traveling and the hotel they were booked for refused to allow Rochester to stay there so Jack refused to stay there and they went elsewhere.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Avalon

[+ WilliamM]

Jack and Mary Livington lived next door to Lucille Ball in Beverly Hill for a long time. Not sure how I know the following: Lucy visited Jack when he and Mary moved to a condo.

 

He hated the condo; it was apparently Mary's idea. I was sad when JB passed away.

[JayCeeKy]

[+ Avalon]

Jack and Mary Livington lived next door to Lucille Ball in Beverly Hill for a long time. Not sure how I know the following: Lucy visited Jack when he and Mary moved to a condo.

 

He hated the condo; it was apparently Mary's idea. I was sad when JB passed away.

 

I have read that Jack's friends like George Burns & Gracie Allen, Lucille Ball and others did not like Mary Livingston.

[+ Funguy]

He was my neighbor when I was growing up. Contrary to his popular persona of Mr. Cheapskate, on Holloween he passed out silver dollars!

[+ sync]

He was my neighbor when I was growing up. Contrary to his popular persona of Mr. Cheapskate, on Holloween he passed out silver dollars!

 

I remember reading that the spread he provided for his daughter's wedding was mega, mega bucks.

[+ WilliamM]

Jack Benny continued working until the end of his life. He did classical music concerts with local orchestras. I saw him at Wolf Trap in Virginia a few months before Mr.. Benny passed.

away. There were not many hotels then near Wolf Trap. He stayed at the local hotel. I remember seeing Jack talk to his manager in the hotel lobby. I was there to see Ella Fitzgerald; Jack Benny was a nice bonus.

[Gvtire]

I have read that Jack's friends like George Burns & Gracie Allen, Lucille Ball and others did not like Mary Livingston.

That is true. My grandparents went to the same synagogue as Jack and Mary. They love Jack but really wanted nothing to do with Mary

[OCClient]

So we were flying back from Vegas and the turbulence was so bad we thought the plane was going to crash. The lady next to me told me to pray and I said I don't know how. So she said then just do something religious. So I took up a collection.

[+ Avalon]

So we were flying back from Vegas and the turbulence was so bad we thought the plane was going to crash. The lady next to me told me to pray and I said I don't know how. So she said then just do something religious. So I took up a collection.

 

Was that a joke Jack Benny told?

[OCClient]

I think so.

[+ Avalon]

I think so.

 

Thanks!

[OCClient]

I'm sure a lot of comics have borrowed that same material! I love watching these B&W routines on YouTube from the early days of TV!

[+ WilliamM]

Jack knew when all the movie star bus tours were scheduled daily, so he would visit Lucille Ball and her family in between bus tours. They lived on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills.

 

The last time I visited Beverly Hills (about 15 years ago) the houses on Roxbury Drive still were completely open to the public. Anyone could have rung Jack Benny's door bell, and he would have likely answered himself --- same for Lucy.

[+ WilliamM]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lKl5d4uUKXA/UL5hX5RMk9I/AAAAAAAAI5I/MzKvspX8uzg/s320/tumblr_m72ui7suV41qg1naao1_500.jpg

 

George Burns revealed in his memoir Gracie: A Love Story (1988) that he and his wife and performing partner Gracie Allen loved Jack Benny, but merely tolerated Mary, whom they disliked. Lucille Ball felt the same way, referring to Mary as a "hard-hearted Hannah". Livingstone's relationship with their adopted daughter, Joan, was strained. In Sunday Nights at Seven (1990), her father's unfinished memoir that she completed with her own recollections, Joan Benny revealed she rarely felt close to her mother, and the two often argued.

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1999/04/roxbury199904

 

Concerning Roxbury Drive, Beverly, Hills

Edited March 10, 2018 by WilliamM

[+ WilliamM]

A fan did break into Lucille Ball's guest house, slept over night and took her address book, which included phone numbers. She was pisses. He did call Lucy. After Lucy calmed down, the thief said 'Well Ethel Mertz and you did things like this." Lucy: "Ok, but return my address book." From a video of a Q&A w/ Lucy at the Paley Center.

 

This is all because I took a political science class with a young actor from South America who lived on Roxbury Drive and was watching a lot of Jimmy Stewart films.

[Boink]

I remember reading a bio or two of Lucy. Sadly, it seems no one who worked with her had anything good to say, especially after her divorce from Desi. There are story after story of her abusing virtually every guest star who was on her show from the 1960s onward, no matter how big a star they were. Even Jack Benny commented on what a ball-buster she was to him. (Pun intended). That took me by surprise because he always struck me as such a mild mannered, amiable type; no one seems to have had anything negative to say about him.

[+ Avalon]

I remember reading a bio or two of Lucy. Sadly, it seems no one who worked with her had anything good to say, especially after her divorce from Desi. There are story after story of her abusing virtually every guest star who was on her show from the 1960s onward, no matter how big a star they were. Even Jack Benny commented on what a ball-buster she was to him. (Pun intended). That took me by surprise because he always struck me as such a mild mannered, amiable type; no one seems to have had anything negative to say about him.

 

Maybe Jack said that because he knew how Lucy felt about his wife?

[+ WilliamM]

Maybe Jack said that because he knew how Lucy felt about his wife?

 

No. @Boink's comments are somewhat accurate. At the Q&A at Paley Center in New York, she had little patience with several questions from the audience. Lucy treated her husband, Gary Morton, as a low ranking assistant.

[actor61]

Watch him and Lombard in "To Be Or Not To Be". That's all you need to see to understand his brilliance.

[+ Avalon]

Watch him and Lombard in "To Be Or Not To Be". That's all you need to see to understand his brilliance.

 

YES!!! Excellent movie!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Be_or_Not_to_Be_(1942_film)

[+ Avalon]

This is a movie I greatly enjoy. Good to watch on New Year's Eve

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horn_Blows_at_Midnight

[Reluctant Daddy]

I had SiriusXM for a while, and one of the channels ran all of his radio shows. Hilarious and held up quite well over the years.

[+ Avalon]

I had SiriusXM for a while, and one of the channels ran all of his radio shows. Hilarious and held up quite well over the years.

 

That must have been nice. Jack really is among the best!

[+ WilliamM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiUPVQAmWLI

 

I found Jack Benny on "What's My Line" too but chose Lucy because she is so funny (and no script).