Gisele MacKenzie & Jack Benny Out West - 1960

Jack Benny's good friend and one of his favorite guest artists, Gisele MacKenzie, returned to Jack's show during his 1960 season to play saloon singer Tess MacKenzie in a skit that has Jack getting lost and ending up in a ghost town after leaving a performance in Phoenix. Plenty of funny lines and a couple songs by Gisele MacKenzie (Buttons & Bows and I'm an Old Cowhand) during a flashback to the ghost town's saloon make this show a gem! Gisele is joined by Jack's regular Sportsmen Quartette. The show is edited to less than 6 minutes, but all the fun, laughs and songs are present.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Gisele
• MacKenzie
• Jack
• Benny
• Sportsmen
• Quartte
• Buttons
• Bow
• Old
• Cowhand
• Phoenix

[rockgor]

Gisele was wonderful. Might have had an even bigger career if she had a name people could spell w/ confidence. Saw her the 1960s. She was touring as the star of The King and I. She was one of the 4 singers on Your Hit Parade and appeared on Jack's shows a couple of times. Jack, of course, was radio's most popular funny man. Used to listen to him live every Sunday night. Tnx 4 the post.

[VideosTimes2]

@rockgor Gisele often worked with Jack, making many appearnces on Jack's TV show through the final season's switch to NBC, and in major night clubs; he guest hosted "Club 15" where Gisele was a regular in 1952....she appeared twice on Benny's radio show. Benny guested on Gisele's Canadian radio show in the late 1940's...Jack also co-produced NBC-TV's "The Gisele MacKenzie Show" in 1957 and helped surprise her on the show "This Is Your Life." They were good friends.

[fromthesidelines]

This episode, "Ghost Town Western", may have originally aired on February 11, 1962, but this title, "SUNDAY WITH JACK BENNY", reveals this version was indeed from the 1964-'65 series of Sunday afternoon repeats [CBS, 5-5:30pm(et)] of selected filmed episodes from 1958 through '62. Will Wright and Irene Tedrow (who worked with Jack on TV over the years) are the propreitors of the cafe; James Flavin (also a regular "guest" player) is the bartender introducing "Tess".

[VideosTimes2]

I had an actual kinescope of this show by Jack and Gisele, and one of these nostalgia video companies offered me a 'finders fee' if I sent them the kinescope to reproduce on VHS and sell. I sent the film to them...they returned it saying they couldn't use it...and I had to insist that they return my kinescope. You guessed it, the scabs reproduced the film and started selling it...there's a space in the film that clearly identifies the film as the one I sent to the company. I call them scum!

[gymnastix]

And that looks to be Will Wright & Irene Tedrow behind the counter, both great character actors of that time period. Wright was adept at playing grouchy, old codgers, and Tedrow snooty, spinster types. She was most well-known as playing "Miss Elkins," the nemesis of "Mr. Wilson" on "Dennis The Menace," and "Miss Ring" on the high school drama, "Mr. Novak."

[VideosTimes2]

Thanks! I knew I had seen these wonderful character actors some place before!

[newstart2009]

@fromthesidelines This practice was also used to scam Milton Berle out of many of his original films he owned. I don't think he ever got his films back (That were supposed to be transfered to tape).

[fromthesidelines]

For this series of 1964-'65 Sunday repeats, Mahlon Merrick wrote a new theme {"The Waukegan Walk"} that was different from his new prime-time theme for the final season of NBC telecasts. I don't know if the same theme was used for the concurrent daily "JACK BENNY DAYTIME SHOW", 'gymnastix'. It was on from 4:30-5pm(et).

[fromthesidelines]

I know what you mean, 'Videos'. I'm aware of a major "Entertainment" outfit reproducing several kinescopes of kids' shows from the '50s on their latest DVD that were actually owned by another film collector (whose name I won't mention here), but he and the company recently reached a settlement on their "borrowing" the material in question...sometimes, when you think you're dealing in good faith with a reputable company, it often turns out the word "reputable" doesn't mean a thing to them...

[gymnastix]

Oh gosh, this is from an off-prime time, network run of Jack's show. I remember, as a young boy, watching "The Jack Benny Daytime Show," which ran weekday afternoons in the early-to-mid 1960's. I distinctly remember one episode with Jack & Rochester talking about Jack's car, the "Maxwell." This episode, as one may see from the title card, was from the Sunday afternoon run of his series, and at the time these daytime episodes aired Jack's show was still on in prime time until 1965.