Jack Benny's Comedy and Violin

Perhaps it was the vaudevillian in him, but Jack Benny always liked being on stage.

Yes, there was an audience in front of him in the radio days, but he went city-to-city with a company in the 1930s, did the same thing during the war, performed at the Palladium in London, appeared in Vegas in the ‘50s and then began to perform concerts all over North America until his death in 1974.

One of his stops in 1965 was at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. The usual chat with the media took place. By this time, it must have been tough finding original questions to ask. Jack was moody and could get dismissive with reporters who asked him trite things like “Are you really cheap?” An entertainment writer for the Reno Evening Gazette put together this story for the Aug. 7 edition.

Benny Describes the 'Benny' Character
Aphorisms are usually hokum or are contradicted by other aphorisms. But sometimes one finds the mark, as "You're only as old as you feel" does in the case of Jack Benny.
"You know I'm past 70," Benny mused, "but I'm darned if I feel like a man that age. As a matter of fact, I feel better now than I did when I really was 39."
Benny was relaxing in his Harrah's Tahoe South Shore Room dressing room, his hands poking out of a shantung robe to busily work on a between-shows snack of pancakes and milk.
"Things were hectic in the old days," Benny said between bites, his famed blue eyes gaining in sparkle. "Every show seemed so important. Now, I take things in my stride." Then he smiled and added, "After all, at my age, where am I gonna go?"
The famed comedian is starring in Harrah's through Aug. 22 with singer, Wayne Newton, and dancers, Brascia and Tybee.

Resting in his dressing room, Benny fails on all counts as a Benny has helped form many temperamental star.
He's a gracious man, slightly more serious in demeanor off-stage than on, totally lacking in the mock pomposity he has indulged in for years in the entertainment world. Speaking with him is like speaking with someone you've known for decades. And you do speak with him. He isn't out to "prove" anything to anyone. Benny has the ease and humility of a man who knows himself well.
Of course, the unmistakable voice, the innocent blue eyes, the casual gestures are the same backstage or on.
"I stay young I suppose because I just can't stop working,” he said. "This is a youthful business, and I have young people on my tv shows and on-stage here, like Wayne (Newton), a fine young man and great talent," Benny said.
"Retire? I honestly don't think I ever will, though I would like to devote a whole season to giving concerts. I dearly love giving concerts.”
Benny has helped for many symphony orchestras and kept others financially afloat by taking part in fund-raising appearances in all parts of the country.
"The whole thing is satire on the concert musician," Benny, a serious musician and violinist in his own right, said. "I come out in white tie and tails and everything deteriorates from there.
"Of course, I don't charge a fee for the appearances, only my traveling expenses. It's my hobby and the thing I get the biggest kick out of."
The comedian practices playing violin to the tune of two hours a day. "Sometimes here at Harrah's, I get together with some of the boys in Leighton Noble's band and we have impromptu musicales down in the band room." Finishing his pancakes, Benny leaned back in a soft, overstuffed chair and spoke of comedy.
"Most of the jokes flow out of the characters themselves," he said. "Like on a radio show a long time ago, we did a few gags about my being stingy. It seemed to go over, so we did more the next week. And that's the way a character evolves."
Other jokes come from "real life," Benny said.
"There's a story I tell about my great friend, George Burns. In the story, I'm waiting for George in my hotel room, standing on one foot, stark naked, with a book balanced on my head, a glass of water in one hand and a rose in the other," he recounted. "As I tell it in show, George suspected something and sent the maid in ahead of him!
"Actually, the joke really happened, except that George wasn't expecting anything and it was a bellhop who came into the room first. You have to embellish a little, he said.
And what of the radio-tv-stage character, "Jack Benny?" Has the creator ever grown weary of his creation?
Benny thought for a moment, then shook his head, "No," he said, "I don't think so. The 'Jack Benny' character has lot of facets. It includes stinginess, vanity, all the human frailties. No, I think I like ‘Jack Benny.’

What was the show like? Here’s a review from the San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 10.

The Incomparable Jack Benny
By STANLEY EICHELBAUM
No comedian is quite like Jack Benny. There is certainly no one around with his sense of dignified, subtle clowning, or with his ability to play the straight man, by unleashing an outrageous barrage of dry, dead-pan wisecracks, which break up an audience even before it realizes that he intends to be funny.
In his current show Harrah's Club on Lake Tahoe, Benny saunters on stage at a leisurely, rolling gait, looking rather like a nattily-groomed stockbroker. His poise and posture are impeccable. And his timing is no less perfect than Big Ben's.
To an obviously rapt mob of admirers, he comments on his phenomenal youthfulness and then confides that he is finished pretending to be only 39. "I've now reached he declares, with a murderous, baby blue glare. Then, he confides that he, too, has a clan--like Sinatra--but that at his coterie is called Ovaltine a-Go-Go. It consists of Edward Everett Horton, Ed Wynn, Walter Brennan and Spring Byington, who meet regularly for a game of whist. "And whatever money we win pays for our visits to the Mayo Clinic," he explains.
SIXTH SUMMER

Since this is Benny's sixth summer pilgrimage to Harrah's-Tahoe, he has every right to indulge in family matters—to talk about his wife Mary and their recent 38th anniversary. "It can happen," he remarks, with a certain nonchalance, "even in show business. And I wouldn't trade Mary for Elizabeth Taylor, or Richard Burton.”
The quips are relentless, ticked off with supreme aloofness and tempered with that Jack Benny look of righteous indignation, specially when he invokes his celebrated trademark—being the most confirmed cheapskate in public life.
As always, he surrounds himself with proteges—formers who are led to believe that they would be washing dishes, were it not for Benny's helping hand. But they are permitted (even encouraged) to insult their immortal employer, to have the last word in a stabbing exchange of wits.
DANCE TEAM
So when a lithe and attractive dance team, Brascia and Tybee, complete their impressive acrobatic whirls, Benny is ready to make a pass at Miss Tybee, but is outsmarted by Brascia, who happens to be her husband.
Benny then cedes the spotlight to Wayne Newton, a tall, boyish and enterprising pop singer with an exuberant and folksy style that goes directly to the heart of an audience, particularly those who are won over by clean-cut youth and boundless vitality. With the energy of a windmill, he swoops down on such sure-fire old favorites as "Swanee" and "Rockabye My Baby," until the crowd whimpers for more.
'RED ROSES'
And after a bouncing rendition of "Red Roses for a Blue Lady," he throws himself at the first rank of tables, shaking hands at random (with exultations of "God bless you!”). He simply bubbles over with inexhaustible humility. And frankly, his light-up-the-sky charm wore me out.
But if you happen to drive up to Tahoe, you should drop in on Jack Benny and his companions, who also include the Moro-Landis Dancers and Leighton Noble's orchestra. His show is remarkably pleasant and ingratiatingly funny. And he'll be there through August 22nd.

After Tahoe, Jack returned to television. NBC had cancelled his series but signed him to a number of specials every year. And there were always his concerts. The “Jack Benny character” wasn’t far out of view.