Cancelling Jack Benny's Birthday

Jack Benny’s career in Canada was an odd one.

Starting in fall 1944, Canadians had to listen to, or later watch, his show from American border stations. Lucky Strike cigarettes were not sold north of the 49th.

However, Jack was seen on Canadian TV semi-regularly on Shower of Stars, sponsored by Chrysler.

Except once. And it had nothing to do with American Tobacco.

The famous broadcast where Jack celebrated his 40th birthday did not appear in Canada. It was scheduled to air on the CBC at the same time as on CBS—February 13. It didn’t. Then it was supposed to be broadcast two weeks later. It wasn’t. It was replaced it with an episode of Climax, also sponsored by the Chrysler Corporation.

Here’s Bob Blackburn of the Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 20, 1958.

Give Us The Shower They Promised Us
The sponsors snap the whip in this league.
The Chrysler Corp. has decided that we are not to see the Jack Benny Shower of Stars production which, last Thursday night, was aired to mark Mr. Benny's "40th" birthday.
You may remember, this program was scheduled and advertised on CBOT for last Thursday, but was replaced by the Bell Telephone Company's latest episode in their science series.
There was indignation over the fact that this program was put in the place of a special edition of a regular show, which was to be the Benny anniversary show, and it was felt that the science program might have been aired any week, while the Benny show could only have been seen live on that date.
The last word we had from CBOT was that the Benny show would be presented to us via kinescope tonight. At the last minute it was called off, and the reason, we were told, was that the sponsors in Canada had seen a screening of the show, and didn't think it was all that funny. Anyway, they made the decision that the Benny birthday show is not to be seen by Canadian viewers, who will see, in its place, the regular edition of Climax, just as though there had been no interruption.
Now, this is the privilege of the sponsor, who, after all, is paying the shot. Were it not for him, we wouldn't get any of this stuff. Yet I venture to suggest that while the sponsors have designed wonderful cars, they are not noted for their sense of humor. In a matter like this, I would rather see the whole thing thrown up to the viewing public.
We did not see this show originally as we should have, but, on the basis of past experience. I think that any show with Jack Benny in it would be as much worth the sponsor's time and trouble as any play Climax is likely to offer this week or next. It seems to me damnably presumptuous of the sponsor to assume that, whatever he may have thought about the Benny show, he should take it upon himself to decide that Canadians would not be amused sufficiently to warrant telecasting the show as scheduled.
It was a gross error at the time to cancel this show, especially in view of the fact that the kinescope would be a muddy substitute, at best, and the sponsor must have realized this. But, so promise faithfully that viewers would see it a week late and then to renege on that promise without giving the viewers themselves a chance to decide whether they had suffered any loss must surely be considered poor policy.
I'm dwelling on this at such length simply because the issue has aroused such interest originally. Sponsors, it strikes me, have dubious senses of humor and I think that a very bad show built around Jack Benny would be a much more worthwhile experience they any play Climax has aired this season. Good or bad, let's see that Shower Of Stars.

Chrysler may not have liked “bad” shows but it disliked bad publicity even more. The car company came up with an exercise in semanatics which Blackburn brought to his readers on March 20.

I have an apology to make here. The Chrysler Corporation has taken exception to the remarks I made over the matter of the Jack Benny Shower Of Stars show which was displaced last month by the Bell Telephone science program on meteorology.
The remarks made in this column were inspired by information supplied by the CBC I reported, and commented on, that information in good faith. If it was erroneous the Chrysler Corporation is entitled to make a statement in correction.
The Chrysler Corporation wishes to point out that it made no commitment to carry a kinescope of the missing show, and consequently cannot be accused of cancelling the telecast of the kinescope. The Corporation also wishes to point out that the original cancellation of the live telecast of the Shower Of Stars was arranged by the CBC in order to accommodate the special program in question and that the action was beyond any control of the Chrysler Corporation.
This column has not infrequently sung the praises of productions footed by the same sponsor, and it certainly was no intention of mine to blame that sponsor idly. I must say in the light of the sponsor’s letter that no blame attaches to him for the omission of the program in question (Show[er] Of Stars. Feb. 13. 1958, for the record), and I must repeat that the comments made were based on information given by proper CBC authority in the usual manner.

The unanswered question is “Why did Chrysler decide not to air the kinescope?” Certainly it couldn’t have been an un-decision, as the car maker suggested. It had bought the air-time.

Regardless, the idea of Jack-as-40 was a gimmick. It was not met with universal favour. Don Freeman of the Copley News Service equated it to dismantling Jack’s “skillfully wrought character” and wondered what would be left if more elements were stripped away. Freeman wasn’t the only newspaper writer leery about the idea. As it was, 40 was temporary. Writer Sam Perrin admitted to the Atlanta Constitution it was a mistake.

Jack guest-wrote a syndicated column in 1963, saying, “I suppose I should mention the time some of my associates talked me into turning 40. I felt just terrible all the time I was 40—about six weeks. Finally, I decided the heck with it and went back to being 39.”

Despite his chequered career on Canadian radio and TV for a while, when Benny died at age 80 in 1974, he was front-page news in Canada. The Montreal Gazette opened its obit with “Jack Benny, 39, died of cancer early yesterday at the age of 80.”