The Jack Benny Program

The Man

Born Benjamin Kublesky on February 14, 1894 in Chigcago. In his early life, Jack Benny was a violinst and a vaudeville actor - often combining the two skills. Jack enlisted in the Navy in World War I, and was stationed the Great Lakes Naval Station in Waukegan. While there, he often entertained his fellow servicemen with his violin/vaudeville training. After the war he returned to vaudeville, but was eventually asked to be the Master of Cerimonies for The Canada Dry Ginger Ale Program. He quickly advanced through a number of sposors to come out with his own show... and the rest is history.

For more information about Jack Benny, visit the International Jack Benny Fan Club website.

Jack Benny

The Jack Benny Program

The Jack Benny Program began on May 2, 1932 and ran, more or less without interruption, until 1955. Jack played himself. The main characters included:

Jack Benny - Himself
Mary Livingston - In the show, Jack's friend, but actually played by Sadye Marks, Jack's wife.
Rochester - Jack's valet, played by Rochester Van Jones
Phil Harris - The band leader, played by... Phil Harris
Dennis Day - A young tenor with a mother always nagging about the salary Jack payed Dennis, played by Eugene Patrick McNulty
Don Wilson - The chubby announcer, played by Don Wilson

The show usually began one of two ways, depending on whether it was set in the studio, or in Jack Benny's home in Beverly Hills. In the show, Jack lived next door to Ronald and Benita Colman, although in life they were several houses apart. Jack was always borrowing things from the Colmans and never returned them. If it was set in the studio, there would be some chatter between the members of the cast before the main event - the sketch. If set at Jack's home, the show would go right into the sketch.

Although the Benny cast was one of the best paid in radio, Jack was always portrayed as a spendthrift - never spending a penny he didn't absolutely have to. He would take his girl to little run down restaurants, and buy gifts off the discount rack. Every Christmas, Jack would drive the department store clerk crazy as he bought gifts for the other members of the cast. He would buy a gift and have it wrapped, only to change his mind and return the gift, buy a less expensive gift and have it wrapped, change his mind, etc. He drove an old Maxwell car - archaic even by the standards then - the last one having seen production in 1925. Jack also played the violin horribly, although he was convinced that he was a great violinist.

Eventually, the ratings on the show dropped and it left the radio - not because the quality suffered, but because television was becoming much more prevalent. The last show aired May 22, 1955.

Jack Benny and His Violin

When a hold-up man asked "Your money, or your life!" Jack replied:

"I'm thinking it over!"

The Shows

Below are several shows. Three of them are from the "Your Money or Your Life" sequence, and the others are from miscellaneous dates.

Listen to the second show listed above with the flash player below.

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