No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Jack Benny and America's Mission after World War II: Openness, Pluralism, Internationalism, and Supreme Confidence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 June 2010
Abstract
This article argues that the Jack Benny radio program reflected and illuminated America's sense of mission coming out of World War II by providing listeners with a conceptualization of a world in which the promotion of universal values was to usher in an era of lasting peace. A study of the Jack Benny Program from 1945 to 1950 illustrates how World War II changed the purpose of the show; how Jack Benny, his writers, and his cast understood notions of openness, pluralism, and internationalism; how the correlation they drew between social equality at home and international priorities abroad sometimes preempted official US policies; and how they provided, in the form of the show's central character, a model of supremely confident leadership in an era fraught with anxieties.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010
References
1 For recent work that synthesizes culture, language, and America's mission after World War II see John Fousek, To Lead the Free World: American Nationalism and the Cultural Roots of the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).
2 See Nachman, Gerald, Raised on Radio (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998Google Scholar); J. Fred MacDonald, Don't Touch That Dial! Radio Programming in American Life, 1920–60 (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979); Gerd Horten, Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda during World War II (Los Angeles: UCLA Press, 2002).
3 For a terrific compendium of letters that illustrate the impact of FDR's fireside chats see Lawrence and Cornelia Levine, The People and the President: America's Extraordinary Conversation with FDR (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002).
4 See Reynolds, David, From Munich to Pearl Harbor (New York: Ivan Dee, 2002Google Scholar).
5 Fein, Irving A., Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography (New York: Putnam and Sons, 1976), 138Google Scholar.
6 Benny, Jack and Benny, Joan, Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story (New York, 1990), 41Google Scholar.
7 Fein, 90–94.
8 Jack Benny and Joan Benny, 151.
9 Josefsberg, Milt, The Jack Benny Show (New Rochelle: Arlington House Publishers, 1977), 127Google Scholar.
10 Ibid., 59.
11 “Sunday Night Scramble,” Time Magazine, 6 Dec. 1948, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853576,00.html (accessed 2 Oct. 2007).
12 “End of the Contest,” 30 Dec. 1945, in The Jack Benny Program (in this article, I cite my own transcriptions of audio versions of the original radio broadcasts I have compiled from disparate sources. The most extensive collections of broadcasts, scripts, and other materials related to the show reside at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Paley Center for Media, and the Library of Congress. Hereafter I refer to the Jack Benny Program by the title and date of its first broadcast).
13 Josefsberg, 133.
14 “Lost Weekend,” 10 March 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
15 “Aboard the Saratoga,” 21 April 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
16 The subversive way Jack treated radio sponsorship had long infuriated his sponsors. In the 1930s, when he was starting out on radio, Jack's greeting, “Jello again, this is Jack Benny,” almost got him fired until his sponsor realized that Jello was fast becoming synonymous with gelatin-based product. The higher-ups at Jello realized, too – as their counterparts at American Tobacco Company did later – that that they had little leverage over their star. Jack Benny was among the top draws on radio, whether he was starring in the Canada Dry Show, the Jello Show, or the Lucky Strike Show. His contract stipulated that he promote the sponsor, but he would do so on the terms he chose and those to which his audience responded.
17 Fein, Jack Benny, 101. According to Fein, the writers were concerned that Jack Benny's Jewish heritage might encourage anti-Semitic responses. Of the 270,000 entries, however, only three made any reference to it.
18 “Contest Winners,” 27 Jan. 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
19 “In Denver,” 18 Jan. 1948, in The Jack Benny Program. This special minting was in honor of Jack Benny's lifetime commitment to the March of Dimes.
20 “Contest Winners 2,” 3 Feb. 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
21 “Rochester Lost,” 17 Feb. 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
22 “From Chicago,” 11 May 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
23 “Dennis Returns,” 17 March 1946, in The Jack Benny Program. See also Josefsberg, The Jack Benny Show, 107.
24 “The Seventh Hole,” 26 Oct. 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
25 “In Denver,” 18 Jan. 1948, in The Jack Benny Program.
26 “Jack and Mary,” 13 Oct. 1946, in The Jack Benny Program; “Jack Gets a New Quartet,” 10 Nov. 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
27 “From San Francisco,” 30 March 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
28 Epstein, Lawrence, The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 61Google Scholar.
29 “Leaving for Chicago 2,” 4 May 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
30 Epstein, 63. “In 1948,” Epstein writes, “Cantor would again call on Benny, this time to give to the State of Israel, then fighting its War of Independence. Golda Meyerson (later Meir) met with a group of people at Cantor's house, seeking the desperately needed funds. Benny sent over a signed check with the note: ‘Eddie, fill in this check for whatever you need.’ Cantor filled the check in for twenty-five thousand dollars, which he knew was the minimum Benny would have given.”
31 “From New York,” 11 May 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
32 “Last Moment,” 21 Dec. 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
33 “Academy Awards,” 21 March 1948, in The Jack Benny Program.
34 “Cleaning Jack's House,” 16 Nov. 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
35 “Dennis Returns,” 17 March 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
36 “Jack Takes a Violin Lesson,” 7 Dec. 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
37 “Fourth TV Show of the Season,” 9 March 1952, in The Jack Benny Program.
38 “Charlie's Aunt,” 25 April 1948, in The Jack Benny Program.
39 For what I consider a misguided interpretation of Mary Livingstone's role on the show see Margaret T. McFadden, “America's Boyfriend Who Can't Get a Date: Gender, Race, and the Cultural Work of The Jack Benny Program, 1932–1946,” Journal of American History, 80 (June 1993), 113–34. On page 126, McFadden's writes that “Mary exists in the show to mark the place of women within the family and to obscure the erasure of women generally.” McFadden goes on to say that Mary is “frequently erased within the program.” This characterization of Mary overlooks the important fact that Sadie Marks suffered from performance anxiety that grew worse as the show became increasingly popular, and that this kept her off the show for weeks at a time. Moreover, McFadden's statement about the “erasure of women generally” overlooks the frequent appearances of the wives of Don Wilson, Phil Harris, Ronald Colman, and the Sportsmen Quartet as well as Dennis's mother, the telephone operators, and the two older ladies who fawn on Jack from afar. It also ignores the fact that everyone who listened to the show knew that Mary Livingstone was the real-life wife of Jack Benny.
40 “Jack Fixes His Image,” 13 April 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
41 “Leaving for Chicago,” 27 April 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
42 “Corner Drug,” 9 Nov. 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
43 “Jack Listens,” 6 Oct. 1946, in The Jack Benny Program. Jack counters by saying that Gromyko did not understand English, but Rochester persists, claiming that Molotov and his interpreter were leading the way out of the theatre.
44 Jack Benny and Joan Benny, Sunday Nights at Seven, 108.
45 For what is perhaps the most trenchant critique of Rochester, see Imamu Amiri Baraka, J-E-L-L-O, Black Arts Repertory Theatre, New York City, 1965, published by Third World Press, 1970. For an account that places Rochester within the broader context of the era, see Joseph Boskin, Sambo: The Rise and Demise of an American Jester (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).
46 Josefsberg, The Jack Benny Show, 82–83.
47 Jack Benny and Joan Benny, Sunday Nights at Seven, 107.
48 “Leaving for Chicago,” 27 April 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
49 “The English Butler,” 23 Dec. 1945, in The Jack Benny Program.
50 Ibid.
51 “Quiz Kids Contest,” 12 May 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
52 “Jack and Mary,” 12 Feb. 1948, in The Jack Benny Program.
53 Josefsberg, 160.
54 “Violin Practice,” 14 April 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
55 “Jack Tries to Fire the Sportsmen,” 2 March 1947, in The Jack Benny Program.
56 “The New Tenant,” 28 Dec. 1947, in The Jack Benny Program. For a contextualization of the journey of the Freedom Train to which Jack refers see Michael Hogan, A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945–1954 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 419–63.
57 Horten, Radio Goes to War, 132.
58 “Jack is Upset,” 29 Sept. 1946, in The Jack Benny Program.
59 “Jack Returns,” 3 Oct. 1948, in The Jack Benny Program.
60 Ibid.
61 Quoted in Cannon, Lou, Ronald Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991), 125Google Scholar.
62 For a recent and concise interpretation of the origins of the Cold War that places Stalin's ambitions at the fore see John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (New York: Penguin Press, 2005). For treatments representative of the so-called revisionist school see William Appleman Williams, A William Appleman Williams Reader: Selections from His Major Historical Writings (Chicago: I. R. Dee, 1992); also, see Gabriel Kolko, The Roots of American Foreign Policy: An Analysis of Power and Purpose (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969). For an interpretation that places national security at the fore see Melvyn P. Leffler, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992).