The Jack Benny Show – November 4, 1951
An evening pause: This was the first episode in Benny’s second season on television, following nineteen years doing a regular radio show. The first singer is Bob Crosby, brother of Bing. The taxi driver is Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny and almost all of the characters in Warner Brothers best cartoons.
Almost everything in this episode works, but make sure especially you stay with it to see the Benny’s performance as lead fiddler of a hillbilly band.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Brilliant.
I’ve been listening to recordings of Benny’s old time radio show from the 30’s and 40’s and in my opinion they’ve never been equaled.
Well!
Your money or your life!
“I’m thinking it over…”
mivenho-
Make sure you check out->
https://archive.org
for Jack Benny stuff.
A cursory look: their Moving Image archive has 700+ entries (tv, movies, shorts, guest appearances, etc.) and their Audio archive has 1,600+ entries (radio and records, including 78’s)
[everything is free to download, in various qualities, and no registration is required]
here we go, 2 examples from the Archive on Jack Benny…
(an extremely good print!)
“Buck Benny Rides Again” (1940)
Jack Benny, Ellen Drew, Rochester
https://archive.org/details/buck-benny-rides-again-1940
(1:23:58)
and
(a very poor specimen….)
“Jack Benny & Entertainers at PT Base 10/11/1944”
(Extracted from Navy film # NPC 5748)
https://archive.org/details/NPC-5748
(2:44)