Jack Benny Interview Part 1

[observer9670]

Jack was in very good health up until he was diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer in late Summer of 1974. This form of cancer has no symptoms until the end stage. Jack died in late December 1974.

[Desoto875]

@observer9670 I just saw that this weekend October 21-23, 2011 will be the very last meeting of the annual Old Time Radio Convention in Newark, New Jersey. Jack Benny was my favorite radio show. I used to listen to recordings they would air on Sunday afternoons in the 1970s. At least we still can find some great material here as well.

[americanidol510]

Hard to believe that he died the following year................ 

[fromthesidelines]

Jack wrote his autobiography during this period (he was going to call it "I Always Had Shoes'), but Mary {his wife} wouldn't allow it to be published because of his admission that he had relationships with other women [especially Mary Kelly] before he met her. Years later, Joan Benny discovered the manuscript, decided to combine it with recollections of her own life, and had it published as "Sunday Nights At Seven"....

[chumshot1]

@fromthesidelines I LUV THAT BOOK...I read it last yr in tenth grade, so awesome.

[philsinatra]

A very funny man but a lovely man too, completely unlike the skinflint he played.

[melbea03]

he died rather suddenly,he was going to do the"the sunshine boys"

[Jellogel]

wow, you can go from Jack Benny to Geroge Foreman in one degree of separation

[LEIMALOCCA]

like 50???? Jack Benny was like 80!! wow... lol

[ragemanchoo82]

Logo needs to air episodes of his show, along with I Love Lucy. The family TOTALLY would dig Jack's humor if they saw it. :D

[chumshot1]

@ragemanchoo82 on Logo?? Hm. I like that channel, but isnt it a Lesbian-Gay channel?? Not that I care, cos when I had cble I'd watch it for the shows n e way xD

[Beregond2]

Nowadays they'd give him five minutes, then bring on last night's reject from "The Batchelor."

One of the best things I ever did was seeing Benny live a few months before he died. It was like seeing nearly a century of American show business distilled into one man alone on a stage, working the audience like the maestro he was. He got more out of a glance than most so-called comics now can do in an hour of screaming obscenites.

[ppaulmorris]

I always liked him - even when I was very young.

[TheFrontrowkid]

Dick Cavitt, Johnny Carson and other late night talk show hosts have copied Benny's timing and pauses in their monologue. He was the first radio comedian to realize that his main audience was sitting at home, listening to him so he had to create situations through his characters that could be visualized by the sound of his voice.

[gmgauger]

Think of what the man could have accomplished had he lived past 39!

[defundthewar]

There's only one person I can think of who can get less out of an interviewee than Cavett, and that's Barbara Walters. But I love Mr. Benny.

[zapkvr]

@defundthewar I think you make a fatl mistake, he has way too much respect for his ubject to try and dominate the interview. Watch the time wehn Cavett interviews Groucho, it is highly respectful and Groucho clearly appeciates it. I agree with about Walters though, she is a prat.

[jvarela965]

Benny was in my view the greatest entertainer of all time.

[jimmbo13]

Why is Cavett so awkward, unsure and jumpy....He was no Carson thats for sure.

[xxcharmed1xx]

makes me sad watching jack benny, he reminds me sooo much of my uncle jack :)

[jennifersman]

@xxcharmed1xx He reminds everyone of their favorite Uncle! That's why he was such a gem

[dannyrose55]

all the good ones  have passed

[ffilchtaeh]

Just hearing that voice, your body prepares to laugh.

[JiffySpook]

Jesus, he was almost 80...that's incredible.

[vonhumboldtfleischer]

You mean 39!

[substitute91]

when i go, they go!

[jhelix70]

"When I go, they go" = classic!

[youvebeenthunderstru]

Phil Collins did something very similar. "Finally, the first farewell tour"

[jreamer1]

Class.

[dabble778]

Fantastic comedian :-)

[parksy68]

Jack was the best. He liked to play the part of being really cheap but he was a very generous man.

[willyboi708]

Jack was the best!!!! We need him today! Just love this man!!!

[nelsonioni]

"...when I go, they go."

isn't that just wonderful?

[proverbs31mom]

Jack Benny and the gang were so wonderful! I listen to the radio show regularly (download them from the net). After one listens over the years you feel like you get to know them. I know it is a show but it feels like their real life. Enjoy it so much!

[rockgor]

I listened to the Jack Benny Show on radio when I was a kid more than half a century ago. Now I listen to it on tape or CDs.

Just read a book of interviews w/ writers of the old radio and tv shows. General agreement that Jack was the best to work for. He paid the best. He gave the writers credit for his success.

Jack was on the Fred Allen Show (with whom he pretended to have a feud). Fred insulted him. Jack said, You wouldn't talk to me that way if my writers were here."

[BTLemming]

I just read "The Jack Benny Show" by Milt Josefsberg. Have you read "Sunday Nights at Seven" by Joan Benny? Or the bio by Irving Fein? Great stuff. Hilarious.

[defundthewar]

Notice how the audience loves him, encourages him?

[yardleyaloe]

I've been thinking: Somehow, Radio Personality Bob Grant reminds me of Jack Benny. LOL.

[MissHarpoMarx]

OMG!!!

This was a year before he died!!

[JackBenny1924]

JACK BENNY was and is still simply awesome and when he died it shook Hollywood.

[Bopalena]

Oh, Rochester! Oh, Don! Oh, Dennis! Oh, Mary! He was the greatest and on top of his game until the end. We miss you, Jack.

[catholicpriest1]

Johnny Carson was heavily influenced by Jack Benny.

[catholicpriest1]

This is about a year before he died (at age 80).

[jrkelm]

An American Classic. He had the best written and funniest radio show ever - a comic genius and and, in reality, an accomplished violinist.

[saxophoney]

Thanks for posting. I always browse for Benny and it's great to see something new. JB was the greatest.

[jfs78]

I could not agree more. How I miss Jack Benny. He was funny, witty, smart, and had the timing of the nuclear clock. Today we do not get humor like this, or even understand it.

[jvarela965]

The greatest entertainer. Period Paragraph. I wonder why we never saw Rochester in later years. In real life they were good friends and he was really broken up at Jack'd funeral.

[5v4al]

Thanks for posting, can't get enough Benny!

[MrTwinCities]

I miss Jack Benny he was a very funny person