A Bit About Some Minor Players

When you think of Jack Benny’s supporting cast on radio, there’s the ‘A’ list that was credited every week—Mary, Don, Phil, Dennis. And there were ‘B’ players who played characters that showed up with some regularity. By the mid to late 1940s they were mainly Frank Nelson, Mel Blanc, Bea Benedaret, Sara Berner, Sheldon Leonard, Artie Auerbach and Joe Kearns.

But Benny had been on the air since 1932 and he had other minor players who came and went.

It would appear NBC sent out a news release because I’ve found a few newspaper clippings from 1937 that mentions them. Here is a version from the November 21, 1937 edition of the Indianapolis Star, along with a funny squib about Phil Harris.

JACK BENNY HAS MANY assistants on his Sunday night NBC shows. Joe Franz is Cactus Face Elmer and sundry other villainous characters. Blanche Stewart handles off-stage screams. Jack's secretary, Harry Baldwin, is, and has been for several years, the inevitable Western Union boy. The biggest star of Benny's "Who's Zoo" collection is Don Wilson, who does the horse's whinny every time "Buck Benny Rides Again."
PHIL HARRIS, formerly of Linton, Ind., returned to NBC Hollywood the other day after chasing the rainbow's end trying to find gold on his Mexican property. But Harris returned without gold, it seems that Harris got as far as the border, where officials turned him back. A revolution was in progress, they said. So Jack Benny's maestro, who had been informed that gold had been struck on some Mexican property he had bought for hunting purposes, still doesn't definitely know whether he owns a gold mine or just a lot of cactus.

Joe Franz may be the most obscure of the lot. He first appeared on the Benny show in the General Tire days on June 22, 1934. The show had moved from New York to Los Angeles while Jack made a film. His minor players didn’t come west, so he had to employ new ones. A 1935 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentions his work with Benny and reveals his hobby was botany. Franz’ last appearance with Benny was December 18, 1938. James Joseph Franz, Sr. and his wife Florine Garland were on the stage as early as 1909, then went into silent pictures. They were with the St. Louis Motion Picture Company when it moved to Santa Clara, California in September 1913. Franz was acting and directing in California into the early ‘20s, but returned to New York by the end of the decade. He may have been playing the ukelele on a 15-minute show on WSGH Brooklyn (it could have been a different Joe Franz). Franz was back in Los Angeles by October 1931. He apparently left Los Angeles in 1940 to appear in a play in the Chicago area but returned to California. He lived until age 85 and died in 1970.

Harry Baldwin and Blanche Stewart were mentioned in this post. Baldwin’s first show was in the Canada Dry era on July 20, 1932. His last routine with his boss was May 3, 1942 before he ended up in the military. Why he didn’t return to work for Jack after the war ended, I don’t know. The “bald” in Baldwin’s name was very appropriate, and Benny joked on the air about Baldwin’s lack of hair.

Stewart was incredibly talented. She even pre-dated Baldwin; her debut was June 15, 1932. She was part of Benny’s stage act during the 1930s and was also Mary Livingstone’s stand-in. Stewart’s biggest claim to fame was after being signed by Bob Hope to play Brenda, based on celebrity Brenda Frazier (who was famous for being wealthy). Stewart was unfortunately plagued by poor health and injuries during the 1940s. She was 49 when she died on July 24, 1952. Her last Benny show was on the previous March 23rd. Read more about her in this post.

There were so many others who played minor roles again and again on Jack’s show; listing even a portion of them would be like printing a phone book. Almost all of them were anonymous on the air, so it’s good to see they got a bit of publicity somewhere.