The claim has been debunked that Jack Benny made his radio debut on Ed Sullivan’s radio show on March 29, 1932, though we’ll concede this was the broadcast which led to Canada Dry signing him for the show that began his radio career (George Olsen disputed that, but that’s another story).
Some time ago, we dug up newspaper evidence from October 9, 1929 that Jack hosted something on the Don Lee stations called “The M-G-M Movie Club.” Well, we’ve ploughed our shovel once again into the fertile ground of newspaper archives and found some even earlier shows, including one on which Jack seems to have been the host, at least part of the time.
RCA, which owned NBC, and the Keith vaudeville chain, which owned the Orpheum theatre circuit, combined in 1928 to form the R-K-O movie studio. Another result of this deal appears to have been the creation of “The R-K-O Hour,” a late-night, coast-to-coast programme featuring the Orpheum’s stars. It ran Tuesdays from 11 to midnight; whether it was delayed for the West Coast, I do not know.
Jack’s first appearance on the show, at least that we can find in print, was on February 19, 1929. The Daily News in New York proclaimed Jack “an unusual pleasing master of ceremonies.” He spent 10 minutes on stage, splitting his time in between Walter McNally, Fanny Ward, Belle Baker, the Honey Boys and Winnie Lightner, with Rudy Vallee’s orchestra playing numbers to open and close the programme as well as in the middle.
Benny wasn’t long for New York. He was sent to Los Angeles for an indefinite run as the Orpheum’s emcee starting February 24th.
One disadvantage in going through old newspaper clippings is a number of the papers in the ‘20s owned radio stations and generally gave their own station the bulk, if not all, the space in their daily radio column. Thus we next find Jack emceeing the show again, this time from Los Angeles, on March 5th, with the Pasadena Post advising “Ray Samuels, ‘The Blue Streak of Vaudeville,’ Grace Hayes of musical comedy reputation, Neville Sleeson, a composer of musical comedies, and Mann Brothers’ orchestra have the call in a late program that presents Jack Benny as master of ceremonies.” Broadcasts that originated in the West for the East were rare in 1929 because of the huge phone line charges.
Once again, Jack appears on March 19th programme, along with Nick Lucas, Olsen and Johnson and Sidney Marion. The following week, the Post tells readers “Jack Benny, lackadaisical master of ceremonies, promises to lend a bit of humor to this program on which other vaudeville headliners of unknown identity are scheduled to appear.”
There’s no mention of Jack on the April 2nd broadcast, but it would appear to have aired on KFI at 8 p.m. then again at 11 p.m., with part of the show originating in Los Angeles and part from New York. However, he shows up the next night on another station at 8:30 p.m. The Post isn’t impressed: “KPLA This station is having a terrible time getting organized. The solitary program announced for tonight is a movie preview which has Jack Benny for master-of-ceremonies. He is to introduce film folks. Nick Lucas, crooning songster, sings maybe; Irving Berlin, noted composer, is introduced perhaps. The qualifications are used because we haven't forgotten the night when Lily Damita was to sing and didn’t, and other film notables were to appear, and didn’t.” The station was bought by Earle Anthony before year’s end and turned in KECA, which is now KABC.
By April 6th, Jack had finished five weeks at the Orpheum in Los Angeles and moved to the Orpheum in San Francisco. While “The R-K-O Hour” did cut away to the City by the Bay (and others), there’s nothing to show he was part of the programme now. On the 10th, it was announced he had signed a long-term contact with M-G-M.
Jack was back before the radio mike on June 8th from 7-8 p.m. on KHJ in a special show featuring stars of filmdom. “Besides Benny’s songs and humor,” reported the Times, he will present a novelty singing trio, the Brox Sisters” who chirped out numbers from The Hollywood Revue of 1929. We find him on the air again on August 7 as part of a two-hour jubilee from the Hollywood Bowl on KFWB.
We mentioned “The M-G-M Movie Club” earlier, and while I haven’t found when it debuted on KHJ, Jack was the emcee on the programme on August 8th, which included Kay Johnson, Johnny Mack Brown, Julian La Faye, the Campus Three and the Roamers male quartet. His vaudeville career resumed September 7th when he was hired to headline the bill at the Orpheum in Los Angeles. The next radio show I can find him on is the October 9th one we’ve talked about.
“The R-K-O Hour” carried on into 1930 but Jack Benny wasn’t on it. Emceeing vaudeville shows and the occasional movie kept him busy until he was really ready for radio in 1932.
Read more about Jack's early radio career in this post.
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