Hawaii Welcomes Jack Benny

Television and movie studios weren’t exactly friendly in the early ‘50s, so it was a real coup when Marilyn Monroe guest starred on Jack Benny’s TV show opening the 1953-54 season.

Benny was ideal for any skittish studio. He deliberately made his guest stars look good, and there would be no shortage of plugs during the course of his show.

The show’s basis came from a trip that Benny and his wife Mary Livingstone took to Hawaii with George Burns and Gracie Allen (Marilyn didn’t make the trip). Benny’s and Burns’ clout was so big that the Associated Press reported on June 26th that they were going to Hawaii on vacation.

TV Guide did a photo article on it. Below are some of the pictures that made the publication.



The TV Guide copy: Two of the Nation’s greatest comedy teams, George Burns and Gracie Allen and Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone, spent vacations together at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. When George and Jack hit the beach, all Hawaii braced itself for a new high in comedy antics. But it turned out that, when clowning for their own amusement, the million-dollar comedians do just about the same stunts as the rest of us. The cameraman caught a fair sampling. As George said to Jack: “We’re here just for fun. What do they want us to do, bring our writers along?”



The island’s newspapers covered the trip; they loved stories about big stars coming. During their stay, Benny got off the best line to a reporter, talking about hula lessons aboard the Lurline, the ship he and Burns took to Honolulu. Neither Jack nor George indulged but Benny related how Eddie Cantor did at one time and “looked like a Mack truck backing into a Jaguar’s parking place.”

The nicest story comes from the front page of the Honolulu Advertiser, July 22, 1953. Read it below. Some of the husband/wife dialogue sounds like it came from a Benny radio show, but it didn’t.

Jack Benny Has Reunion With Former Violin Teacher Here After 45 Years
By BOB KRAUSS
A gag caught up with Jack Benny yesterday and turned out to be a sweet old man with long white hair and a violin under his arm.
For years, Benny has been telling his public that he studied fiddle under the great Prof. Hugo Kortschak. A lot of people who didn’t know anything about music would listen to Benny play and get a big laugh.
Well, there really is a violin teacher named Hugo Kortschak. He's got soft musician's hands and dreamy eyes and a gentle smile. He really did give Jack Benny lessons—45 years ago in Chicago. Now. at 69, he’s retired and lives in Honolulu.
YESTERDAY, HE put on his best cloth cap, locked the front door and took his tiny wife down to the Royal Hawaiian hotel to meet one of his former pupils.
On the way to the hotel, Mrs. Kortschak politely asked a few questions so she wouldn't embarrass Mr. Benny by knowing so little of his work.
"What does he do?" she asked.
"Have you listened to him on the radio?" I said.
"Yes, I believe I heard him once but I didn't know it was he because he was talking. Doesn't he play the violin anymore?"

"WELL, HIS program is mostly talking now," I said.
"What sort of a program is it?"
"It's a comedy program."
"For children?"
"No, it's supposed to be for adults."
Truth of the matter is, Mr. Kortschak had lost track of his pupil until just the other day. Matter of fact, for years he had no idea a radio, movie and TV comedian named Jack Benny had once studied under him.
Other professors—at Yale University where he was professor of violin for 29 years—would tell him this comedian had mentioned his name over the radio. Finally, Mr. Kortschak learned that a youngster named Benny Kubelsky, a former pupil, had taken the name of Jack Benny.
"HE PROBABLY would have gone far," Mr. Kortschak said of Benny Kubelsky. "He showed a lot of promise, no question."
When we got to the hotel, the first thing Mr. Kortschak said to 59-year-old Jack Benny was, "My, you've grown!"
"Well, Prof. Kortschak," Benny said, "I expected a much older person. It was 45 years ago, wasn't it?"
"Yes, a long time."
"You must have been much younger than I thought you were. I was just 15 at that time. "Weren't you teaching at the Chicago Musical College?"
"Yes, yes."
"You know, I still play. Bought a good violin not long ago so now I practice a little every day. I can remember when I was crazy to be a concert violinist. But I'm like most golfers. I like to play but I never practice. You're the last teacher I had. I got into show business somehow and never studied violin since."
BENNY AND Mr. Kortschak chatted for a while about music and Benny's new violin, a French Vuillaume. A little later, everybody shook hands and the Kortschaks went home.
Mrs. Kortschak said she was very favorably impressed with her husband's former pupil, even though their conversation was considerably interrupted by Benny fans who wanted to take pictures.

Gracie had a surprise birthday party thrown for her during the trip. She and Mary flew in to Hawaii while their husbands came by ship and stayed after they left, no doubt to do some shopping. It would appear Jack was soon busy with his writers with some inspirations his vacation left behind.