Manager Mary

By all accounts, Mary Livingstone didn’t want to be on the air and never considered herself a performer.

But she was a performer. And Mary Livingstone was a darn good performer. She got more than a good share of laughs on the Jack Benny radio show. She was a key part of the programme.

But Mary, far more times than anyone else I can think of on radio, didn’t show up because of “the flu” or “laryngitis” or some similar excuse. And when television rolled around, she pretty much refused to go on the tube, and then was coerced to continue on radio only because she recorded her lines at home.

Finally, she officially retired in 1958, though she did show up on television on rare occasion. It was a shame because she was so enjoyable for many years.

Here’s a feature story in the Binghamton Press of August 12, 1958 where she talks about her career. This story appeared earlier in other papers.

Mary Livingstone's Career Helped 'Role' of Mrs. Benny
By MARCY ELIAS
Women's News Service
HOLLYWOOD — Most successful show business marriages function on a one-career system. Poppa entertains and momma stays out of the limelight, giving up her career to keep house and hubby.
One of the entertainment world's happiest marriages, however, owes its longevity to the little woman's getting into the act.
When Jack Benny married Mary Livingstone he put her to work as a comedienne. It was all his idea—Mary confesses she never really enjoyed performing. Yet by taking to the boards, at a time and in a situation when most wives think of retiring, Mary saved her marriage.
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"THERE WERE TIMES in the beginning when our marriage could have gone wrong if it weren't for Jack's marvelous insight," she recalled in a recent interview. "The smartest thing he ever did was to insist that I go into show business with him."

"I felt left out of his world in those days, and I was a little bit jealous of all the beautiful girls who surrounded him. But Jack worked it out by making me a part of his world so that I could understand what his life was like."
Sitting comfortably tucked into a deep armchair in the living-room of her 15-room mansion in Beverly Hills, the petite and pretty distaff side of the Jack Benny household talked about her second, and least publicized, occupation for the first time.
"I always hated the acting part of the business," Mary confessed, her normal speaking voice a far cry from the glass-on-tin-grate sound familiar to radio and TV audiences for over 20 years.
"I'm really the business head in this family," she announced proudly. "Jack has never been interested in business and he shouldn't be, because he's an actor."
"I'm different," she explained. "I like the world behind the scenes in show business. I like sitting in on contract negotiations, working on ideas for new shows and figuring, out production problems."
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DRESSED in black velvet toreador pants and filmy white blouse, the lithe and graceful Mrs. Benny chuckled at the mental picture of herself slaving over hot business problems in the Benny office in Beverly Hills.
Actually she doesn't report to the office, but very little goes on at the Benny organization, J and M Productions, that she doesn't know about. The company produces the regular Jack Benny TV shows and packages programs for other stars.
"I wield a kind of quiet influence," Mary explains. "I suggest script revisions when problems arise and Jack consults me on casting and getting guest stars for the show."
Mary modestly omitted mentioning one department that is her special bailiwick. According to the company president, Irving Fein, everyone defers to Mary's judgment in matters concerning wardrobe.
"Jack has always said that if Mary hadn't become a comedienne, her impeccable taste in clothes would have made her one of the leading business executives in women's fashions," Fein said. "She's a brilliant businesswoman."
Despite the fact that Mary insists she would be happy if she never saw the working end of a TV camera again, and now appears only in the filmed Benny shows—live TV makes her too nervous—she still insists that show business saved her marriage to the great comedian.
In a sense, Mary has defied the oracles on the subject of successful show business marriages. She's had her career, she's had her share of the limelight, and most important, she's loved every minute of her very happy life as Mrs. Jack Benny.