Jack Benny

[+ Avalon]

Jack was on "What's My Line" several times; Here's one. 5:33

 

[+ Avalon]

Last night I watched an old episode of "The Jack Benny Show". Jack goes to the grocery store. There's an annoying clerk that Jack asks several times for help. One time the clerk tells Jack what he is looking for is between aisles G and I. Jack asks why he didn't just tell him to go to H. And the clerk tells him because he (Jack) just did. ;-)))

 

It's rather tame but still I was surprised it got past the censors back then.

[OCClient]

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.

I ran across the old radio show station on SiriusXM. They play a lot of Jack Benny. They also run a lot of other old shows, comedies and dramas. It's great! Yesterday I listened to Fort Laramie, with Raymond Burr as Captain Lee Quince

 

https://www.siriusxm.com/radioclassics

Edited April 17, 2018 by OCClient

[Ajac]

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.

You have to remember a woman running an empire at that time was nearly unheard of. In the early days Desi handled all the business matters. When she took over Desilu she probably needed to be twice the ball buster any man would be just to keep things rolling. Yes even as a kid I remember the stories of Jack Benny's generosity. Though I was a kid I am so glad I was aware of Benny, Burns, Marx etc.

[+ WilliamM]

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.

 

Yes. Apparently, Lucy was nothing like her television persona. Lucy and Richard did not get along when Burton and Taylor were guest on her show. Lucy disliked Katharine Hepburn. Lucy was not a super star until television at age 40.

[Boink]

Yes. Apparently, Lucy was nothing like her television persona. Lucy and Richard did not get along when Burton and Taylor were guest on her show. Lucy disliked Katharine Hepburn. Lucy was not a super star until television at age 40.

 

I never heard about Lucy not liking Katharine Hepburn. One of the bios said that Lucie Arnaz named her daughter after Hepburn out of admiration for her career. It was said that Richard Burton hated working with Lucy so much that he made a point of trashing her in his autobiography and the people in Lucy's orbit tried to prevent her from seeing or hearing about that book. It's funny when you think how, for all the many big name guest stars Lucy had in all of her series over the years, her character always fawned in tongue-tied adoration of any and all movie stars. The real life Lucy bowed to no one. In a way I admire that.

[+ WilliamM]

One of Lucy's assistants wrote about unwelcome phone calls from Hepburn to Lucille. At first, Lucy believed it was someone pretending to be Ms.

Hepburn. They had not been friends in Hollywood. After the second calls, Lucy said "why is she calling me.?"

[+ Avalon]