What Word Do We Use Here?

One of Jack Benny’s many quips on the air involved his utter dependence on his writers. Like the ownership of a polar bear, it was fake. It’s pretty clear, even in interviews with his writers in later years, that Jack was involved in the writing process of his radio show and had the final authority of everything written for broadcast (okay, outside of network censors and meddling ad agencies and sponsors).

This is confirmed in a column by Zuma Palmer of the Hollywood Citizen-News of June 4, 1935. She returned from a first-hand look to report of her readers. Her readers would have known Don Wilson from his radio career in Los Angeles before going to New York and eventually auditioning for the Benny show when General Tire took over sponsorship.

The timing, the smoothness and precision with which one act follows another, the sound effect contraptions, the movements and facial expressions of the entertainers make a broadcast most interesting to watch. But, it does not compare with a rehearsal for there one sees a program in the building. Saturday night I was invited to the NBC studios on the RKO lot to hear the cast of the Jack Benny broadcasts work on their dialog for the next day's radio appearances.
Sitting informally in group were Mr. Benny, Don Wilson, Mary Livingstone, Frank Parker, Cecil Underwood and others. Hovering near every now and then was Harry Conn, gag writer. As the lines were read, Mr. Benny teetered back and forth on two legs of his chair, chewed a cigar, with which he gesticulated occasionally, and waved a pencil when emphasis was needed. He knew the word effect, the voice inflection he wanted. He seemed to sense whether or not gag would go over A word, phrase would be added or deleted, the length or necessity for a sound effect discussed. It was rather amazing at times what result would be obtained with small change. When the scripts were corrected, actors took their places before the microphones and went through the routine. After almost two hours, another rehearsal was called for 1:15 Sunday. Apparently not satisfied with the script, Jack Benny, Harry Conn and one or two others went into huddle to go over it again. The atmosphere of the rehearsal had been friendly, calm and quiet. There was nothing superior or temperamental about Mr. Benny's direction. He realizes that he must keep alert, do the very best he can to stay at the top of his profession. Comedy is no easy field and the competition is keen.
Don Wilson did not need to say that he enjoyed being in this series of programs. His eyes, his smile, his interest and enthusiasm tell you that. His success in New York has not changed him one iota. Mary Livingstone, who rightly very proud of her husband, Jack Benny, likes it out here and is enjoying working in Hollywood as much as she did in the East. That is well since the broadcasts may continue to originate out here when they are resumed in the fall. The programs will leave the air in July.
It may be interesting to know that the script used on Sunday was considerably different from that rehearsed on Saturday night, probably the result of the huddle aforementioned.

Palmer was right in that Jack abandoned New York as his permanent base of operations, thanks to his movie career and technological improvements that made broadcasting from the West Coast to the full NBC network practical.

In case you’re wondering about Cecil Underwood, he was with NBC. In 1925, he was hired by KHQ in Spokane, then brought to NBC San Francisco as an announcer in June 1929. He was made assistant programme director for the Western Division in April 1934 then put in charge of production at the new NBC studios in Hollywood that August. He later went on to direct Fibber McGee and Molly and produce The Great Gildersleeve.

Here’s another story from 1935 about putting together the script, from the Los Angeles Times of June 4. It’s mainly an interview with Harry Conn, who has calls Jack Benny a “reader” before more self-promotion. He’s pretty dismissive of Mary Livingstone, too. That was a dangerous thing to do because Mary could play hardball if she wanted to. (Conn’s wife famously told Mary her husband’s brains paid for Mary’s fur coat. Conn must have been a marked man after that, if he wasn’t before). Conn spent time in 1935 and 1936, more or less, taking credit for Benny’s success and complaining to whatever columnist who would listen that he deserved more accolades and more money.

BENNY RATES "TOPS" AS DIALOGUE READER
Harry Conn, Jack’s Comedy Writer, Reveals That Radio Gags Are Funnier Because Actor “Leans on His Lines”
BY CARROLL NYE
Tonight at 7:30 o'clock, If you dial KFI, you’ll hear some dialogue which will go something like this:
Don Wilson: “Now, on Mother's Day, we bring you Jack Benny."
Jack Benny: "I don't like the way you say that, Don. After all, I'm not a mother. Don't let my photographs fool you."
What! You're not convulsed? Harry W. Conn, Benny's comedy writer, didn’t anticipate you would get much of a bang out of it when it appeared in cold type—and more than he expected to panic me with the gag when pulled the first sheet of this script out of the typewriter and shoved it under my nose.
GOOD DIALOGUE MAN
"Only Jack Benny could read that certain line and get anything out of it," Conn remarked. "There isn't a comedian in the business who can touch him as a reader of comedy dialogue.
"Jack hasn't told four jokes in as many months on the air, yet he is rated top radio comic. He's the center pole of the circus. Instead of playing 'straight' for his stooges, as it may appear to some listeners, his stooges are merely ‘guy ropes.’ It takes little more than a grunt from Benny to build the other actor's gag into something that will give the audience a laugh. In the parlance of the theater, Benny is a master at ‘leaning on a line.’
Conn's understanding of Benny's forte is the keynote of his own success. The comedy writer has turned out Benny's scripts ever since the suave comedian has been on the air, and their teamwork has resulted in a steady climb to the top. The forthcoming Crosley report rates Benny 10 points above his nearest competitor.
MANY SCRIPTS WRITTEN
Conn has written 245 radio shows, dating from the time he started turning out scripts for Burns and Allen. Previously, he admitted, he was a "street-corner wag."
"Peddling gags along Broadway was profitless," he declared. "Nobody took me seriously. They thought I was at my funniest when I asked for a job. Now that I have one, I save the humor for the scripts.
"I don't need a gag library for my material because I have a 'hoke' mind that makes it easy for me to get comedy out of almost any sort of situation.
“Since I have the mind of the average ‘mug,’ I can write stuff that appeals to the average listener. You can't cater to any particular class in writing comedy for radio. The 'stuffed shirts’ laugh as loud as anyone at a bit of hokum. It takes the starch out of them.
SATIRE ON SHAKESPEARE
"I turned out a satire on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for Jack's broadcasts, but I don't know a thing about Shakespeare. The idea probably would have been a flop if I had been a student of his plays.
“On the whole, however, we rely on topical material to keep alive the interest in the broadcasts. Today it's Mother's Day that gives us the backbone of the broadcast. Perhaps it'll be the soldiers' bonus later.
"In the way we never got stale. If we use catch lines we drop them before they die.
Although Conn follows a formula that is planned several weeks in advance, the actual preparation of the shows is inspirational and spontaneous. He bats out a script on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday he and Benny go over It together. Jack makes changes here and there at the reading; often ad libs during the broadcasts, but to date he hasn’t rejected any of Conn’s scripts as a whole.
SPONSOR CHECKS IT
Conn injects comedy into the commercial blurbs and turns the script over to the sponsor on Friday to give him a chance to turn thumbs down on the commercials or the comedy. The advertising is handled so adeptly that it is never obtrusive.
(Incidentally, I was surprised to find that the sponsor's product was mentioned thirty times during last Sunday's broadcast. I would have guessed that the "shimmy sauce" had been plugged four of five times.)
"Jack Benny inspires the writing of good material," said Conn. "In addition to his showmanship, he's a swell audience. If anyone springs a gag on him that strikes him right, he'll roll on the floor convulsed with laughter."
Conn calls Mary Livingstone (Mrs. Benny) an "indifferent comedienne." He has written a Mother's Day poem for her to intone today. "I don't care how I write them,” he said, "and she doesn't care how she reads them so, between us, we get a laugh."

Conn and Benny very unpleasantly split after Conn abandoned the show in Baltimore before a March 22, 1936 broadcast. Conn went on to obscurity. Benny went on to increasing fame with new writers who created most of the situations people associate with Benny today (in Conn’s time, there was no Rochester, no Phil Harris, no Dennis Day, no Mel Blanc, no Frank Nelson, no Sheldon Leonard, no “39”, no Maxwell, no vault, the list goes on and on).

Conn deserves credit for helping to lay the foundation of the show. But as Zuma Palmer found out, and George Balzer and Milt Josefsberg confirmed in later years, the show's writing was ultimately controlled by Jack Benny.