He appeared on the Jack Benny radio show 186 times—and that was after Jack changed sponsors to Grape Nuts Flakes in 1942. That doesn’t include the Jell-O years that started in fall 1934.
On occasion, you could hear Jack trying to stifle laughing during dialogue with him, which generally started with one word: “Yehhhhhhhs?”
Frank Nelson was known on radio and TV for his comedy, but in the 1930s he had been a dramatic actor, as well as the announcer, on the Lux Radio Theatre. He announced and performed sketches on The Shell Chateau. The Los Angeles Daily News of Jan. 15, 1938 reported columnist Dr. Ralph L. Power had selected Frank as the top local dramatic actor of 1937 (the top local dramatic actress was “Bee Benadaret.”)
Bruce Nicholl’s radio column of the Lincoln Star of May 1st that year mentioned this accomplishment:
There was considerable activity at the CBS Hollywood studios Saturday [April 30] as the network dedicated its new radio center there. Beneath the buzz of excitement, however, we discovered one fellow who was pretty calm about the whole thing.
He was the one who said, "On the air from Columbia Square!" Considering the conditions under which he worked, we considered it pretty remarkable that he didn't crack up some time during the day. He banged out the first salute at 6 a. m., and the last one at 12:45 a. m.
CBS told us that this announcer is Frank Nelson. Around the Columbia studios in Hollywood he is known as the official breaker-in because he presided when CBS opened its new studios there two years ago.
Mr. Nelson was assigned to bark out this salute fifteen times. After looking the situation over carefully he planned several little tricks to vary the routine. First of all he got permission from CBS to say this once in a while: "Columbia Square is on the air!"
He later noticed that twelve different inflections were possible for the two phrases. After considerable debate CBS decided to let Mr. Nelson do what his reckless spirit pleased with the other three.
There were several newspaper columns over the years profiling Nelson and his Benny connection. Here’s one from the North American Newspaper Alliance, Feb. 17, 1963.
Jack Benny’s Nemesis Hollywood’s Only ‘Yessss’ Man
By HAROLD HEFFERNAN
HOLLYWOOD (NANA) — By their voices ye shall know them — and that goes double for a select little group of entertainment celebrities famed for their distinctive sound effects.
Edward G. Robinson was asked recently what one factor he felt contributed mostly to his success, "The voice," he replied without hesitation.
This is true in equal measure where Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Cagney, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Andy Devine, Katharine Hepburn and several others are concerned. Professional mimics have made careers out of impersonating them.
And if you had hidden any of them behind a curtain with orders to spout off, who could have missed out on the vocal intonations of such screen immortals as Ronald Colman, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe or Charles Laughton?
On the other hand, there is one outstanding voice coming from the television screen today which while immediately recognizable is owned by a virtual nonentity — by name at least. The voice belongs to Frank Nelson, but the introduction means little or nothing. * * *
WHEN, however, he is identified as the habitual nemesis of Jack Benny on his weekly television show, Frank Nelson can be enthusiastically acclaimed by millions of set-watchers who break into laughter the moment his drawn out, up-pitched "Yessss?" launches Benny on a harrowing round of harrassments. Among other hecklings, Nelson turns up in Jack's life when he goes Christmas shopping for shoelaces and as the station master he fouls up Jack's travel arrangements when he starts on a trip.
The fact that few fans know his face, fewer his name, bothers the mild-mannered, mustachioed Nelson not a bit. His anonymity was pointedly illustrated on the stage where he was rehearsing a Benny show. The interviewer turned to a veteran CBS studio still man with the request that he shoot a picture of Frank Nelson. "Frank Nelson," the lensman repeated. "Who's he?"
Denver-born Nelson (he got his voice-pitching start there in the 20's via radio station KOA) explains his variegated TV character as "the fellow who raises hell with Jack. He's wild and way out and, unfortunately, he's typed me to a stage where I can't play movie heavies any more."
* * *
IT SEEMS that Nelson enjoyed a well-paying career in motion pictures until Benny dropped off radio and launched his TV show. Jack took all his good friends with him, Nelson among them.
"I'm not exactly a newcomer to Jack's show," Nelson points out. "In fact, I'm in my 28th year with him right now. We've never had a contract, and I turned down a request from him to do a show only once—and that was because I had a long-standing date with friends to go on a fishing trip."
While Nelson always seemed to be playing incompetent doctors, or floorwalkers or clerks who detested Benny, one of my favourite radio roles was when he was a baseball announcer, calling play-by-play with a hot dog stuffed in his mouth, making his call unintelligible. He also purred commercials for Yhtapmys Soothing Syrup over the course of more than a year. And he was the doorman who barked “Who do you think I am, Drear Pooson?” with Jack laughing at the unexpected line that had been set up 15 minutes earlier when Don Wilson butchered some dialogue.
While some radio shows, Phil Harris’ for example, used to say something like “Appearing on tonight’s programme were...” Jack's rarely did. However, Nelson got more attention in the television years. His last appearance with Benny was in 1963.
By the 1970s, most of his on-the-air work was in cartoons. Nelson had experience there, too; he had been the narrator of the Jerky Journeys released by Republic in the late ‘40s and can be heard on animated shorts for John Sutherland Productions around the same time. He was also active on the executive of AFTRA.
Nelson died in September 1986. What was the first thing his obituary from the Associated Press mentioned? That he “performed regularly with Jack Benny.” And it remarked about the one word for which he is known the best.