This Day in Jack Benny

April 11, 1954 - A short history of the Jack Benny radio show before the episode starts. Jack hasn't received a new contract from the sponsor to renew the show for another year. In the episode they mention Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Abbot & Costello and the jingle for Papermate pens. Plus Amy Vanderbilt appears in the commercial, Lucky Strike cigarette in hand, to promote her new book on etiquette. ...

April 4, 1954 - Rochester is Spring cleaning, Dennis wants to join the Navy and Jack sits down to read a book. In the book Jack plays a psychiatrist and Mel Blanc thinks he is a refrigerator. 

March 27, 1949 - Jack Benny and the gang are spring cleaning when they get a phone call from Ozzie Nelson and Harriet.

March 17, 1940 - Orson Welles is guest star in the prime of his career! He teaches Jack Benny how to act in dramatic roles in hopes of winning an Oscar. The first dramatic role Jack will perform is grunting as Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".

March 10, 1940 - The skit in this episode is their version of Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" with Jack Benny in the role Jimmy Stewart played on the screen.

March 4, 1940 - Back from his ski trip, Jack Benny tries to do his show but keep getting interrupted. They talk about the Oscars, Andy Devine stops by, and Gracie Allen comes to campaign for her joke presidential run.

February 25, 1940 - The last part in the Yosemite series of the Jack Benny Show. Jack is laid up in bed after a skiing accident last week. Plus they reference the Pulp Magazine stories and the youth fiction book series "The Rover Boys".  

February 18, 1940 - In the only serial of it's kind on the JELL-O Program, Jack Benny and the gang finally arrive in Yosemite to ski. Jack has been boasting about his skiing abilities, but now faced with the danger he tries to avoid the slopes.

February 11, 1940 - Jack and the gang are driving to Yosemite. Jack is compared to racer driver Barney Oldfield.

February 4, 1940 - This is part of a rare mini-series in the Jack benny Show. Jack and the gang have just finished a live show in Oakland, CA. Then they are on their way to Yosemite. They mention millionaire playboy Tommy Manville.

January 28, 1940 - Jack Benny and the gang are on location in Oakland, California in support of The March of Dimes  raising money to fight Infantile Paralysis (Polio).

January 21, 1940 - Jack is trying to get his girlfriend, Gladys Zybysko on the phone. Z-Y-B-Y-S-K-O

January 14, 1940 - Jack Benny plays the violin so it's only natural that he would spoof the violin movie Intermezzo with Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman. 

January 9, 1949 - It snowed in LA. Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone are having lunch at the restaurant for famous people "The Brown Derby". They run into Jimmy Stewart. 

January 2, 1944 - Fun banter at the beginning of the episode as always. After Dennis Day's song they look back on 1943 with the allegory of The World Series: The Axis vs The Allies. 

December 25, 1949 - This episode was broadcast live on Christmas day. They flash back to Christmas Eve where Jack Benny is putting lights on his Christmas tree. Stay tunes after the show for a portion if the Phil Harris show where Jack dresses up as Santa.

December 15, 1946 - Jack Benny tries to exchange the gift of shoelaces that he got Don Wilson for Christmas. Mary Livingstone is replaced last minute and Phil Harris and Dennis Day have their own shows. Plus the Silex Coffee Maker and the new 1947 Studebaker Starlight Coupe.

December 8, 1946 - The first of the classic Jack Benny Christmas shopping episode with Mel Blanc. They later took this basic concept and made it into a timeless Jack Benny television episode.

December 4, 1938 - Live from New York! They mention Mayor La Guardia, Grover Whelan, and Fred Allen. Jack Benny investigates a murder at the movie theater for the skit in this episode. Plus, ladies hats are in fashion.

November 25, 1951 - Dennis Day's movie "Golden Girl" is in theatres. It was a scary time for the movies. With the popularization of TV it seemed that movies were doomed. Why go out when you can watch a show at home? Jack Benny was on television, but not every week. Plus, references to stage comedians, popular magazines and hospital insurance.

November 17, 1946 - Guest Ronald and Benita Coleman live next door to Jack Benny in the show. This episode has another guest, Leo Durocher, loud-mouth manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

November 7, 1943 - Jack Benny and the gang dodge aircraft tests on location at the Marine Corps Air Station in Mojave, California.   

November 1, 1953 - Jack benny gets a call from an all-night DJ. They mention 86 year old bodybuilder Barnarr MacFadden, Brew 102 Beer and Mary Livingstone does an impression of Marilyn Monroe. This episode was later done for TV.  

October 30, 1938 - Jack Benny is broadcasting from a new NBC studio. Big Crosby's "Pocket Full of Dreams" is a hit song. Sally Rand dances with a bubble in the movie "The Sunset Strip Case".  Meanwhile in Russia, Stalin rule of terror is at it's height.

October 20, 1940 - FDR has announced the first ever peace time draft.  Jack Benny goes to trade in his old Maxwell for a new Packard Convertible.