For six and half decades Jack Benny,
real name Benjamin Kubelsky, was one of the biggest stars in
Vaudeville, radio, movies, and television. He always portrayed
himself as a miserly person that was a terrible violist. He would
often bring his friends on his shows where they would make jokes
about his stinginess and how they wouldn't invite him to parties
because he would always bring his violin. He made the persona so well
that most people really believed that he was actually that inept
skinflint. The truth though was that he was an excellent player and
very generous.
The small city of
Waukegan, Illinois honored their favorite by naming a middle after
him. The school is has been recognized for it high academic standards
by winning a silver level PBIS (positive behavioral intervention &
support) award. The school also incorporates one of Mr. Benny's long
running jokes of never aging past the age of 39 by naming their
sports team the 39ers.
Jack Benny spent
two years in the Navy during WWI. He spent his time entertaining the
troops by playing his violin for them. It was during this time that
he developed the comic routine of pretending to be one of the world's
worst violin players. He came up with the routine one night when his
violin playing, which is actually excellent, was booed. Instead of
leaving the stage in humiliation he ad-libbed jokes started his
playing off key style.
In keeping with
the miser image that Jack Benny created he would always refer to Mary
Livingstone, actual name Sadie Marks, to his girlfriend on his shows.
The gags was always that they never married because Jack was too
cheap to buy a ring. In reality the two had been happily married
since 1927 until Jack's death. His devotion to her didn't end when he
died though. He had arrange to have a rose delivered to her everyday.
Jack Benny once
appeared on the quiz show the “$64,000 question” where he
answered the first question, in the category violins. Sticky to his
stingy persona he took the $64 from that first right answer and left.
A few weeks after the show Mr. Benny had the host of the quiz show
make a guest appearance on his show. They did a comic version of the
“$64,000 question” where Mr. Benny turned the tables on him. The
results where hilarious.
Jack Benny hosted
the Academy Awards twice in the mid 1940”s. The first was in 1944
and then again 3 years later in 1947.
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