Viewers Strike Back About Benny

Larry Wolters, I know your pain.

Wolters was, for a number of years, the radio, then television, critic of the Chicago Tribune. Critics, by nature, have opinions. And there’s a segment of the population that gets all butt-hurt if a critic has a differing opinion than theirs’. They treat the situation as seriously as if it were cancer surgery. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone and their sock-puppets went on social media to put angry frowns next to this post.

Jack Benny was in show business for decades. As he was in radio and television, his on-air offerings to the public came under the watch of Mr. Wolters.

One such programme was broadcast on CBS-TV (WBKB) in Chicago in 1952 and Mr. Wolters put in his two cents. Spewed annoyance followed by mail. First, here’s his column, published Dec. 3rd that year.

BENNY: Last year, the amusement critics of the nation named Jack Benny the outstanding American entertainment figure during the last 25 years. On the basis of his current television shows, he may hang up a 50 year record [since he admits to being only 39]. While Red Skelton, and even Martin & Lewis are beginning to pall on televiewers because of their repetitious routines, Benny continues to put on shows that are fresh and different.
For one thing, Jack has not settled on a specific, ironclad format for his shows. Sunday evening’s performance was in striking contrast to anything that he has done before. He avoided his familiar radio format.
The construction of the show was simple. Benny started out to give a monolog. He was interrupted by a pretty 6 year old girl who asked for his autograf. She turned out to be a Margaret Truman. This low level exchange between Benny and little Margaret was one of the funniest bits we’ve seen, but it was topped by a skit in which Benny went to bed after a trying day on television. He couldn’t get to sleep because of the drip of the water faucet; Rochester was summoned in numerable times, but it always stopped when he entered the room. Finally Rochester got the drip stopped thru a ruse, and Benny fell into a deep snooze.
. . .
TIGER, TOO: Then came burglars. And trouble. They pulled open a drawer. Seltzer water blew them down. They tried another drawer, and a gloved fist knocked one of them out. They found the safe and cracked it—only to have a live tiger snarl out at them. When they tried to flee thru the window, they found they had to put a quarter in the slot before it would open. Benny just slept on.
In writing these observations, we are making one subscriber to THE TRIBUNE extremely angry. He phoned in, stating that this Benny show was the worst yet and that, if we wrote anything favorable about it, he would quit reading this column. “After all,” he asked, “what did Benny do except lie in bed?”
Our answer to that question: Benny [with imaginative writers] can get more laughs pretending to be asleep in bed than half a dozen rip snorting comedians, including Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Martin & Lewis, Abbott and Costello, and the Ritz Brothers, can by charging all over the premises.
Benny, in our opinion, will outlast all of these in the public favor.

Readers struck back. One of them happened to be a gentleman born in 1894, 39 years before. This was the start of Wolters’ column of Dec. 21st.

GRAB BAG: Reaching into the pile of letters from readers that have been accumulating we come up with these reactions to TV and radio:
            CHICAGO: I liked what you said about Jack Benny in your column. Even liked your indifference to the fact that you might lose one Tribune subscriber. I did not like one thing, tho I’m glad that you added that it was your opinion. You said Jack Benny will outlast Milton Berle, Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, the Ritz brothers, and Jimmy Durante. The last named, sir, in my opinion, will outlast even Jack Benny.
           PHILLIP BOSVIC
We are not indifferent to the lot of a subscriber, but we don’t believe in letting a reader dictate an unfavorable review. You may be right about Durante, but we doubt it.
. . .
            CHICAGO: Your comparing Jack Benny to hard working comedians such as Jimmy Durante [right], Milton Berle, and others is absolutely asinine. These comedians work hard every minute and do not go to sleep on the job [like Benny] for laughs.
            BELLE KLEIN
Whether he pretends to be asleep or not, Jack Benny is fully awake and alert to what is going on on his show at all times. No one gives more careful thought or prepares more carefully for a performance than Jack Benny.
. . .
            BEVERLY HILLS, Cal.: Thanks for your wonderful review. As I have often told you, all I can do is keep trying, like everyone else. Some shows will be good, some very good, and some not so good. However, I will always try to keep from being lousy.
            JACK BENNY

I’m a large fan of Durante, and wished more of his radio shows with Garry Moore were in circulation. But if you compare the public reaction to his death to when Benny died (let alone Jerry Lewis or even Dean Martin), the sheer volume of reaction isn’t close.

Benny’s passing was front page news, and resulted in hundreds of comments and remembrances on the editorial pages, as well as TV specials and tributes for days afterward. This was in an era before cable channels and syndicated shows devoted to nothing but show biz news and gossip. You really had to be somebody to get that kind of rare reaction. Jack Benny really was somebody.