Jack Benny Trivia

1. Name the singing group that often sang the radio show's commercials and usually left Jack Benny screaming "Wait - a - minute!!"

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: The Sportsmen Quartet

It's the Sportsmen Quartet. Old-time comedy or variety radio shows usually had a band and singers. They would usually do a number in the middle of the broadcast or performance about the show's sponsor, such as Benny sponsors Jell-O, Grape-Nuts and Lucky Strike cigarettes. One fantastic running gag was Benny's inability to get his pitchmen, The Sportsmen Quartet, to cooperate. The Sportsmen would sing the show's Lucky Strikes commercial then go on an out-of-control tangent that eventually left Benny screaming, "Wait - a - minute!" A few times Benny tried to fire them, especially on one occasion in 1954 where the skit got out of hand that Benny broke the fourth wall to talk directly to the studio audience. The Ink Spots was an all-black quartet that sometimes appeared on Benny's show. The Andrew Sisters were famous during World War II. I made up The Dapper Dans.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: Chicago, Illinois

Jack was born in Chicago on Feb 14, 1894. His birth name was Benjamin Kubelsky. His father was a haberdasher.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: 1932

The show first hit the airwaves on May 2, 1932, sponsored by Canada Dry Ginger Ale. It was on the air on Mondays and Wednesdays. It wasn't until 1934 that it assumed its famous "Sunday nights at seven" time slot.

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: Professor LeBlanc

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny (and about 1,000 other voices), played various roles on Benny's show, including Professor LeBlanc, who tried - and failed - to teach Benny how to play violin. In one episode, as Benny went through his exercises, the professor kept time by saying, "Play it softly Play it smoothly One-se, two-se I hates you-se."

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: 39

In the 1950s I bet 75 percent of Americans were aware of this, maybe more. Everyone knew Jack Benny in those days.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: 39

The gag really started on Jack's real-life fifty-fourth birthday in 1948. While he often claimed to be younger than he was, it was at this point that he "became" and "stayed" 39.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: He was a poor student and was kicked out of high school.

Jack could not focus on his studies and was kicked out of High School. He tried business school and did poorly at that, too. His father was a haberdasher. He tried his father's trade but also failed at that.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: JELL-O & JELLO

During these shows, Jack would open the program by saying, "JELL-O again, this is Jack Benny talking." In subsequent programs for future sponsors, he replaced the first part of this greeting with "Hello again."

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: Mary Livingston, who ordered a "chiss sweeze" sandwich

During a scenario set in a diner on the Oct. 27, 1946, show, Mary (Benny's real-life wife Mary Livingstone) was supposed to order a Swiss cheese sandwich. The line was supposed to be the last one spoken before a big payoff. But Mary accidentally mangled the line (YOU try saying Swiss cheese perfectly every time!) and what was originally supposed to be a simple line that moved the story along turned into one of the show's greatest screamers. Benny tossed away the carefully orchestrated script and stuck with the flub for the rest of the show. Phil Harris did call Benny "Jackson" but never "Action Jackson." Dennis Day didn't mangle "Danny Boy." And for more than a decade, the show was sponsored by Lucky Strikes, but Don Wilson did not flub the sponsor as indicated above.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: Navy

Jack enlisted in the Navy in 1917.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: He was fat.

Jack had endless fun at the expense of Don's weight. In one episode, Don had had enough of it and wrote a letter to JAck to complain. His wife read the letter and said, "That's telling him, Fatso!"

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga

Mel Blanc first begged passengers on Jan. 7, 1945, to get aboard the "train leaving on Track 9 for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga." Blanc became increasingly desperate to get passengers for the train, even sobbing that he would lose his job. In subsequent versions of the gag, the word "Cucamonga" was stretched out; on one occasion, Blanc said "Cu" and then 10 minutes later chimed in with "camonga."

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: He was booed for his violin play. He handled the situation with humor and began his career in stand up comedy.

Quite by accident, he deflected the boos with self-deprecating humor that later became his trademark. The humor made a big hit with the audience, more so than the music.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: CBS

In the late forties, CBS did some major wheeling and dealing, successfully luring away many of NBC's most popular radio comedians. Jack and the gang made the move in January of 1949 and stayed with CBS until the show ended.

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: Ronald Colman

While all four appeared at various times on Benny's shows (Benny and Jimmy Stewart were close friends), real-life couple Ronald and Bonita Colman played themselves as Jack Benny's exasperated neighbors, who thought Jack was a buffoon.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: Zeppo

He and Zeppo were friends to the end of their lives. Zeppo's birth name had been Herbert.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: That's What I Like About the South

Phil would take every opportunity afforded him, and a few opportunities not afforded him, to sing verse after verse of this song. Jack couldn't stand the song, and did everything he could to shut Phil up during these times.

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: Ronald Colman's Oscar

The mugger took Ronald Colman's Oscar, which he had won in 1947 for "A Double Life." This March 28, 1948, gag was the most famous one that Benny ever did and eventually became Benny's signature joke concerning his famous stinginess. The set-up: Benny went to his next-door neighbor (on radio, anyway), actor Ronald Colman, to borrow his Oscar to show it to Don Wilson. On the way back home, a mugger held up Benny at gunpoint, threatening him by saying, "Your money or your life!" After stalling, Benny famously said, "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" The rest was radio history.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: To avoid lawsuits from entertainers with names similar to his.

He began as Benjamin Kubelsky. When he started performing he was using that name. There was a famous violinist name Jan Kubelik who felt that the young Kubelsky might damage his reputation. He threatened to sue unless he changed his name, so he chose "Ben K. Benny." Lo and behold, there was another entertainer at that time who was known as Ben Bernie. He also threatened to sue, so Benny took the name "Jack Benny." The rest, as they say, is history.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: Joan

In the late forties and through the remainder of the show's run, Joan made several appearances as bit-characters, as herself, and as Mary's stand-in when stage fright prevented Mary from being able do do the show.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: Sadye Marks

Sadye Marks is correct. She and Jack married. She was often on his show and used the name Mary Livingston. On the show, she was his neighbor, not quite a girlfriend. She was nice and very classy, but often delivered mildly cutting lines about how cheap Jack was, getting big laughs. Mary was a big favorite on the show. Jack never cared who got the laughs as long as the show was funny.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: Rochester

Ronald and Bonita Coleman consistently called him Manchester. An honest mistake, I suppose.

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: "If you say 'I beg your pardon,' then I'll come back to you"

One of Jack Benny's longest-running gags started in 1951 on radio and lasted to the end of his television show in 1965. Jack "wrote" a really awful song, with a terrible tune, lousy lyrics and the tongue-trippy title, "If you say 'I beg your pardon,' then I'll come back to you." Jack would use various tricks and cons to get his guest stars and other radio show hosts to sing the song, but it was so wretched that no one ever made it through. Even his close friend George Burns labored through the torturous tune every once in a while on the Burns & Allen Show, but apparently never reached the last note.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: Don Wilson

Don Wilson was a great announcer and often was in the skits that were part of the show. There were many funny lines about his being over-weight. Of course, he took at all good naturedly.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: violin

Jack's "signature tune" was "Love in Bloom". In actuality, Jack was a very good violinist, though to portray him as such on the program wouldn't have been nearly as funny.

From Quiz The Great Jack Benny

Answer: Ed Sullivan

The Ed Sullivan show got him noticed and then he got his own radio show.

From Quiz Jack Benny on the Radio

Answer: 1955

Though there were reruns of the program broadcast until 1957, Jack's last new program was aired on May 22nd, 1955.

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: Rochester socked Benny and knocked him down

During one radio program, Benny's valet, Rochester - beautifully played by the gravelly-voiced Eddie Anderson - punched Benny and knocked him down. Benny was trying to prove that he was tough enough to take a punch from fellow radioman Fred Allen; so, a reluctant Rochester socked him in the jaw. He didn't actually hit Benny; it was done with sound effects and was part of a funny gag, but racists were outraged that a black man knocked down a white man on one of the country's most popular radio shows. Benny didn't care, regardless of the mail he received from outraged people. After all, Rochester usually got the better of Benny, just as the other cast members did.

From Quiz Remembering The Jack Benny Program

Answer: The Horn Blows at Midnight

While Benny starred or played in all of these films, only "The Horn Blows at Midnight" was a pure bomb. Benny starred as a really bad trumpet player in a heavenly orchestra who was tasked with blowing the horn of judgment at midnight to signal the end of the world. On his radio and TV shows, Benny and his writers made the movie and Benny's lead role the butt of many jokes and gags. For example, in one 1950s radio show, Benny and company went to a drive-in theater. When "The Horn Blows at Midnight" was announced as a surprise second feature, everyone in the drive-in fled except for Benny. Sadly, "To Be or Not To Be" was Benny's co-star Carol Lombard's last film, as the much-loved actress died in a plane crash in January 1942.

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