Before the war, he travelled the world writing the same kinds of they’re-just-regular-folks stories for the Scripps-Howard newspaper syndicate. Interestingly, one of his subjects was Jack Benny. He doesn’t seem all that sympathetic to the rich and famous. The article came out in 1937, meaning the Fred Allen feud was an almost obligatory subject. He also elaborates on something that Benny fans would find curious today.
When Phil Harris replaced Johnny Green as the music man of the Benny show, he wasn’t the self-absorbed ladies man and booze hound we remember. He and Jack spent their time arguing, and not always to the laughter of the studio audience. Their feud just didn’t work. Coincidentally, the one between Benny and Allen started about the time the other one ended, and Pyle found out why it ended. This was published April 2, 1937.
ERNIE PYLE
Being Number 1 Radio Man Is Pretty Tough On Poor Jack Benny, Who Keeps Worrying
NEW YORK, April 2 — Stop The Presses! Of whatever the equivalent of that would be in radio. Stop the presses or twist the dials or something. I've got Jack Benny in the bag.
Benny and I had a brief but very interesting chat. We shook hands and I said “I’m writing a column about you, but I’ve got a lot of dope already and so won’t have to take too much of your time." Whereupon Jack said, “That's swell." I shall always wear that pair of $2.50 words next to my heart.
Benny is the No. 1 man of radio. But he would rather not be No. 1. He would rather be No. 6, or something like that. The constant responsibility of maintaining the No. 1 position is just too tough.
I feel so sorry I could cry for these great public figures toiling under their load. Gable wishes he hadn’t done it. Lindbergh doesn't like the attention that made him rich. Benny wishes he weren’t No. 1 man. Boo boo! Boo hoo! Boo phooey!
ALSO HAS DRAWBACKS
It was about three weeks ago that I saw Benny and his radio troupe. (Incidentally, I took a day and a half off from my vacation just to round up this shining light. My No. 1 position has its drawbacks too, you see. Boo hoo!) The boys are all back in Hollywood now. They came East purely for a little vacation trip. Seems that every so often the whole troupe gets the itch for New York, so they just bundle everybody onto a train and East they come.
Benny travels with quite a retinue. He has an agent, a business manager, a secretary and three script writers. I don’t see how he can ever think of anything funny with all that platoon around. And then there are always a few helpful souls from the advertising agency and the radio company.
The manager of Benny’s show took me to lunch at the Murray Hill and told me all about his prize number. (The manager paid for the lunch, so that makes $6 I owe them now).
A SWELL FELLOW
The manager says Jack is a swell fellow. I imagine he is at that. He looks like he would be. He is good-looking; very straight and well set up. He wears horn-rimmed glasses most of the time. He’s getting pretty gray along the sides. He smokes one cigar right after another.
His real name isn't Jack Benny. It's Ben Kubelsky. He used to go by the stage name of Ben Benny. But that was too much like Ben Bernie, so they tossed to see who had to change his name, and Mr. Kubelsky lost so, now he's Jack Benny.
He really did start his stage career as a violinist. But then he got to filling in with patter, and the patter was better than the fiddling, so he finally did nothing but get out on the stage and talk. But for years he always had the fiddle hidden in the footlight trough, in case he should get stuck with his patter.
Incidentally, when it was finally decided that Benny should actually play “The Bee” in his broadcast he practiced on it two hours every night for three weeks.
ARE GOOD FRIENDS
Benny and Fred Allen are, of course, actually good friends, and have been for years. Everybody knows, I guess, that the feud was all in fun. But radio listeners are queer. You can't tell how they're going to take things.
For instance, Benny had a similar trumped-up feud with Band Leader Phil Harris a couple of years ago. But the listeners took it seriously, and the Harris fans wrote nasty letters to Benny, and the Benny fans penned dirty tomes to Harris, and it got into such a mess they had to abandon the whole thing.
Benny in person isn’t as funny as Fred Allen. He isn't so good at ad libbing, and quick extemporaneous repartee. But he isn't so bad, either.
Mary Livingstone (who's on the Benny show too, you know) is Benny’s wife. She is medium tall and very thin, and says she's scared to death before every broadcast.
Benny's father is still living and spends his winters in Florida. He never misses a broadcast, and never fails to telegraph his son right after the show. And he doesn't always think it was good, either.
Ernie Pyle and Jack Benny both had something common, though not at the time this article was written. Pyle’s war stories were about the G.I., the young American man who was away from home, overseas, and how he was coping with life and war. Jack, too, made the average American his interest, too, taking time to talk to the people in uniform, and then writing letters to their parents or other loved ones back home to let them know how they were doing.
Both men demonstrated an interest in the welfare of others, and that’s probably one reason they were both loved and respected by so many people.
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