One more thing we love at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog: the comedy of Benny Kubelsky, a.k.a. Jack Benny. It's always a pleasure to celebrate Jack's 39th birthday!
By the time Benny's popular radio show completed its first season in 1932-1933, his go-to characterization for five decades - vain, self-obsessed and above all, cheap - was well established. Among the many carryovers from the radio shows to television are his wonderfully appalled reactions to the stock company of supporting comics. Paramount among them: Frank Nelson, who one expects to find in pretty much ANY episode of The Jack Benny Program!
And then there's Mel Blanc. . .
Jack's television show, appropriately titled The Jack Benny Program, ran for 244 episodes, from 1950 through the 1964-65 season.
Jack Benny also loved to do guest shots on his friends' shows - George Burns especially!
Jack often made fun of the fact that he didn't make a huge splash as a star of feature films. Still, many of his movies are quite entertaining and fun.
Jack particularly enjoyed making fun of his much-maligned starring vehicle The Horn Blows At Midnight.
Seen today, Jack's bête noire, The Horn Blows At Midnight, comes across as charming and funny. Seems the bar line for comedy was a lot higher then than it is now.
Jack did have one prominent feather in his cap in his movie career: his witty performance in Ernst Lubitsch's classic To Be Or Not To Be, co-starring the incredible Carole Lombard.
Again, it's a thanks for the memories and thanks for the laughs to Jack. Enjoy these mp3s of vintage Jack Benny radio shows from archive.org.
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