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3 unusual facts about Jack Benny


33d Troop Carrier Squadron

For about four days out of the month of July 1944 the 33d flew Jack Benny, Carole Landis, and company to different bases in New Guinea.

Azusa Civic Center

A popular running gag on the long-running radio comedy The Jack Benny Program involved a train caller, voiced by Mel Blanc, calling out, "Train leaving on Track Five for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga." The gag, which also continued on Jack Benny's television program, brought national attention to the three cities.

Maxwell automobile

A 1916 Model 25 Maxwell Touring Car was famous as the car Jack Benny drove decades after it had stopped being manufactured.


Abbe Lane

Her costume for an appearance on the Jackie Gleason Show was considered too revealing and she was instructed to wear something else; however she appeared on the shows of Red Skelton, Dean Martin and Jack Benny without attracting controversy.

Bruce Stark

It combined actual voices with his animated caricatures of Jack Benny, George Burns, Phyllis Diller, George Jessel, Jack E. Leonard, Groucho Marx, the Smothers Brothers, Flip Wilson and Henny Youngman.

Clancy Lowered the Boom

"Clancy Lowered the Boom" is a song written by Hy Heath and Johnny Lange in 1947, made famous by Dennis Day on Jack Benny's radio program (The Jack Benny Program).

Family Theater

In its ten-year run, well-known actors and actresses, including James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Irene Dunne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Shirley Temple, Barbara Whiting Smith, Raymond Burr, Jane Wyatt, Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Gene Kelly, Kate Smith, William Shatner and Chuck Connors, appeared as announcers, narrators or stars.

Ivan Ackery

Live shows at the Orpheum during the Ackery years featured performing greats like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Dorsey, George Burns, Jack Benny and Chief Dan George.

Portland Hoffa

Hoffa and Allen had also appeared in such films as Is Everybody Listening? (1947) and the Jack Benny vehicle Buck Benny Rides Again (1940).

Sue Mengers

Mengers entered the talent agency business in 1955 as a receptionist at MCA, at the time the dominant company of the trade, with a roster of clients that included Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.

The Actors' Temple

Many vaudeville, musical theater, television, and nightclub performers attended services there, including Sophie Tucker, Shelley Winters, Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Joe E. Lewis, Edward G. Robinson, as well as several of the Three Stooges.

The Century Towers

Those include Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Burt Lancaster, David Janssen, Jack Benny, Sebastian Siegel, Diana Ross, Karen Carpenter who purchased two condos & converted them into her own duplex in 1976, Josh Flagg, Ruth Handler (founder of Mattel), Edith Flagg and Berry Gordy.

The Leghorn Blows at Midnight

The title is a play upon the 1945 Jack Benny film The Horn Blows at Midnight, a notable flop which Benny often poked rueful fun at on his radio show.

The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians

In recent years, Behr Entertainment was in talks to produce a similar show that would feature cartoon renditions of Jack Benny, George Burns, Abbott & Costello, and Bob Hope.

The Norconian Resort Supreme

Actress Kay Francis was in charge of hospital morale, and she saw to it that many of the stars who frequented the resort now entertained the patients; including The Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Harry James, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Kay Kyser, James Cagney, Clark Gable and dozens of others.


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