foreign
[Music]
Hello friends and welcome to this day in
Jack Benny I'm John Henderson we're
continuing our audiobook of Jack Benny
and the Golden Age of American radio
comedy and with me is the author
Catherine H Fuller Seeley Kathy you
mentioned in the intro that there's a
bunch of missing scripts that you've
taken the time to find and I happen to
know that you've actually started
turning those missing scripts into their
own book with
it'll be a series of maybe 10
of the family for allowing me to do this
and indeed um Jack and Harry Conn get
the credit for this but there are about
250 scripts for which we don't have
recordings and so we tend to uh dismiss
Jack Benny's first you know two and a
half years on the air
there are moments that are absolutely as
hilarious as anything he ever did
excellent and so today we're continuing
our audiobook we're on chapter two
that's the chapter about Mary Livingston
doing research especially in those early
years uh before
1937-38 she was so essential to the show
and it was so interesting to see
publicity about her and audience
reactions to her and the way her
character was used and the uh and how
hard uh Mary Benny worked at the park
great enjoy the show
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
what are you laughing at Mary Mary
Livingston's comic voice
Mary Livingston's boisterous laughter
and forthright puncturing of Jack
Benny's vanity were the cornerstones of
one of the most unusual characters in
American radio comedy Chief stooge or
comic foil for the main character of the
Benny radio program taking her Amusement
to Jack's expense she occupied the rare
position of an attractive unmarried
female who had full equality with the
fellows in Benny's Kang Jack's
long-suffering Neighbors on the show
actress Bonita Coleman and her movie
star husband Ronald called Mary the only
normal one among Benny's troop of zanies
Mary was the first character on the
Benny radio program that did not have a
defined Duty on the show neither band
leader singer nor announcer serving
vaguely as Jack's secretary she
haphazardly performed a few tasks
importantly disobeyed his requests
prattled like a mild version of Gracie
Allen and read letters from her hapless
family that in Plainfield New Jersey
Mary mainly functioned as Jax sometimes
cynical sometimes silly heckling friend
after five years on the air when the
jello programs writers had the Kenny
Baker character voiced the adulated
aspects of the show's humor Mary's
character became smarter and more
sophisticated and she began to critique
Jack's foibles with increasing tartness
key to Mary Livingston's character on
Benny's radio program was her
independence with only hints of paid
employment she lived alone and in
comfort and could say whatever she
pleased whenever she wanted rare among
female characters in Prime Time Radio
Mary was never dependent on men she did
not need a husband father or even a
steady boyfriend she was never desperate
for romance or lacking because she was
not in a relationship unlike other radio
characters such as the tart-tongued
Connie Brooks of our Miss Brooks or man
hungry Vera veg on Bob Hope's pepsident
program
Mary was never criticized by other
actors for her laughter her critical
barbs or her looks unlike married women
such as Sapphire on Amos and Andy or
Jane bickerson on the bickersons Jack's
only punishment of Mary was to tease her
about her Salad Days selling Hosiery at
the May Company department store and to
threaten not very convincingly to send
her back there the Mary Livingston
character was as independent as any of
the feisty Hollywood film heroines of
the 1930s and 1940s Barbara Stanwick
Claudette Colbert Carol wombard or
Rosalind Russell perhaps not
coincidentally these actresses were
Mary's friends in private life as unruly
women using media historian Kathleen
Rose term they were unafraid to make
spectacles of themselves these
transgressive confident female
characters became the center of
attention and unsettled social
hierarchies by disrupting redirecting
and transforming the humor usually made
at Women's expense using the power of
female after to challenge the social and
symbolic systems that would keep women
in their place
in some ways surpassing the freedom of
the unruly women of Hollywood film
Mary's character had even more avenues
for disruption since the Benny weekly
half hour radio program was not a
romantic comedy whose plot must be
resolved within 90 minutes Mary's
character never needed to seek a
resolution to her status never had to
fall in love wed or get her comeuppance
from a leading man no Cary Grant or
William Powell ever tamed or
domesticated her this chapter explores
the centrality of Mary Livingston to the
narrative world of the Benny radio
program and the development of her Comic
character during the early years of the
show Mary's voice was an important
ingredient of her performance and this
chapter examines how the radio program's
comedy utilized her laughter her
heckling of Benny and her parodies of
transgressive female characters to
insert a feminist inflected accent into
the male-dominated world of radio comedy
Mary and the other unruly outspoken
minor female characters on Benny's show
played formative roles in shaping the
gender dynamics of the program's
narrative world the similarities and
differences between Mary's character and
that of May West on the one hand and
Gracie Allen on the other allowed Mary
to add even more Dimensions to her part
Mary mastered a May West impersonation
in early 1933 and for two decades used
it in Benny's radio show skits to give
voice to tough Independent Women who
cuckolded their husbands and shot their
lovers and always got away with it
despite her importance to the Benny
radio program Mary Livingston's gradual
retirement in the early 1950s and Jack's
subsequent years of Television
broadcasts without her have caused her
place in the history of radio comedy to
have largely been forgotten to compound
this neglect away from the microphone
Mary Benny was a sharp-tongued aloof
person not remembered fondly by Benny's
friends and colleagues she was insecure
and jealous of anyone close to her
husband especially other women the
crippling stage in Mike fright from
which Mary suffered began to cause her
to faint after the broadcasts the
condition increasingly worsened over the
years eventually it drove her to avoid
the public Spotlight in the 1930s
however Mary Livingston the radio
performer was popular with critics and
the radio listening public she was known
as a feisty wisecracking Dame with a
lilting laugh and she was regularly
singled out for accolades her witty
bantering with Jack was key to the
show's popularity as every story about
Benny's program pointed out a 9 1936
delineator essay maintained that Mary
and Gracie Allen were the two most
popular radio comedians Mary's radio
Persona was judged to be cute a bid
dashing with a deadpan voice and a
pleasant girl you'd meet anywhere except
in the theatrical profession a 1938 New
York Times survey of women in radio
ranked Mary among the highest rated and
best paid of all the on-air comedians
Mary Livingston's Persona and Benny's
show contained complexities and
contradictions even after she evolved
from a dizzy girl into a smart alecky
tough Dame when reading her poems or her
letters from home Mary reverted to the
role of the unsophisticated kid from
Plainfield New Jersey
she could act like a lovesick teenage
movie fan mooning over Robert Taylor or
a Wrangle dinner invitations from men
she met on the train like a Brash single
woman but the audience knew that in
reality she was Jack Benny's wife
perhaps that made her flirtations with
other men and put Downs of Jack even
more amusing to radio listeners by
having Mary's character not wed to Jack
on the show she could slip in and out of
the role of the spouse who could
completely deflate the pretensions of
her husband and always have the last
laugh at his expense
Benny's comedy took pleasure in turning
accepted male female relationships
upside down the women were dominant in
marriages independent and strong while
the men in their lives were lazy drunken
louts while Benny shows did not
criticize or denigrate Mary Livingston
or the Glamorous film actresses who made
guest appearances the other female
characters at the margins of the show
were burlesque of traditional femininity
Dennis's mother was a pipefitter husband
hungry babe Mary's sister drove a
steamroller Gertrude and Mabel the
switchboard operators and Gladys zabisco
Jack sometimes date were bedraggled
drudges and Mary's mother and Dennis's
mother regularly pummeled their weakling
husbands the war between the Sexes
played out constantly on the program as
it did on so many other radio shows but
here the women nearly always triumphed
over the men and over Benny most of all
Sadie marks becomes Mary Livingston
although she had peripheral connections
to show business while Growing Up Young
Sadie Markowitz the family changed its
name to Marx several years after Sadie
was born apparently never harbored
Ambitions of becoming an Entertainer
even though she was naturally talented
as a singer although for publicity's
sake she usually shaved a few years off
her age records show that she was born
in Seattle Washington on June 25th 1905.
the second child of David Markowitz a
fruit importer who had immigrated from
Romania and his second generation
immigrant wife Esther Wagner Markowitz
Sadie was raised in the middle class
West Coast Jewish household in Vancouver
British Columbia with her older sister
babe knee Ethel and younger brother
Hilliard
Sadie had regular contact with
Vaudeville performers throughout her
youth when the Marx family lived in
Vancouver her parents liked to entertain
visiting Jewish actors she recalled that
they derived particular pleasure out of
opening their home to show business
performers appearing in town at the
Orpheum our local Vaudeville house
Friday night suppers were frequently gay
and interesting Affairs as the country's
top Stars had an opportunity to relax in
1921 zeppo marks the Marx brothers were
no relation invited Jack Benny to join
him at a Passover meal at the Mark's
home in Vancouver while the performers
were appearing in town the 27 year old
Benny gave the teenager little notice
completing high school after the family
moved to Los Angeles Sadie worked in the
Hosiery Department of the May Company
Store in downtown Los Angeles close to
the city's theaters and movie houses
describing herself and her autobiography
is shy she never spoke of career
ambition other than marriage in the
mid-1920s Sadie's older sister babe
married a vaudevillian violinist Al
brunovici this gave Sadie further
exposure to the world of entertainment
Sadie met Jack Benny again in 1926 when
babe reintroduced them Benny was then
touring the West Coast Orpheum
Vaudeville circuit on the same bill with
bernavichi jacket had plenty of romantic
experience by this point in his life
having pursued a romance with older
Vaudeville star Nora Bayes and having
been engaged on and off several years to
singer Mary Kelly introduced to Jack by
her roommate Gracie Allen Jack quickly
became romantically interested in Sadie
but she was engaged to someone else
Benny persevered visiting her several
times when she was at work at the May
Company Store six months later he
persuaded Sadie to marry him she
hurriedly took the train to Chicago and
they were wet on January 14
1927. variety announced the nuptials and
noted that then his new wife was a
non-professional
Sadie found herself the young wife of an
itinerant theatrical Entertainer and
watched his performances from backstage
while she liked the traveling she was
jealous of the scantily clad chorus
girls with whom Jack Associated several
months before they were married Jack's
role in the elaborate Schubert Brothers
stage review the great Temptations had
ended and he had returned to Vaudeville
bookings his routine varied between
acting as an MC performing a solo
routine and doing his skit paired with a
young female assistant performing a dumb
Dora role as a dim-witted but pretty
young woman who exchanged light banter
with him Benny had used other assistance
in the past but now supposedly to save
money he asked Sadie if she might try
Sadie joined Jack as his onstage stooge
or comic foil and although she was a
reluctant and nervous performer managers
reported that audiences were pleased
with the results Benny family lore
maintains that Jack rehired the original
actress when they played Los Angeles but
after several performances the theater
manager stated that the reviews weren't
as good as when Sadie was on stage so
the girl was sacked and Sadie got the
job permanently even though she probably
had no professional vocal training Sadie
soon was also singing two numbers in
Jack's act her voice was pleasantly
medium ranged without so much of the
warbling popularized by other female
singers of the era
adopting the stage name Marie Marsh
Sadie performed together with Jack an
occasional Vaudeville bookings between
1927 and 1931. they also appeared
together in a brief 1928 Warner Brothers
talky short bright moments in which she
billed herself as Marie Marlow even
though Sadie's stage appearances were
successful she did not request equal
billing in the ACT unlike their friends
Burns and Allen or block and Sully when
Benny took roles in films or on Broadway
in Earl Carroll's vanities in 1931.
Sadie apparently was content to remain
behind the scenes when Denny decided to
appear on radio his original contract
with Canada Dry was for a solo act this
intriguing reluctance to promote herself
publicly is Jack's partner foreshadowed
the way Sadie downplayed the early
moments of her radio career throughout
her life Sadie adamantly maintained that
her entrance onto the Canada Dry program
was unintentional and that it was just
as unplanned and happenstance that she
might become a radio actress as it had
been when she had become a Vaudeville
performer
Sadie's determination to cast herself as
a reluctant star and self-effacing
spouse is unusual in an American Show
Business star culture that fostered and
promoted stories of unique talents
Cinderella stories large Egos and
preordained Destinies over the years
Sadie's story of her entrance into the
Benny Program toggled back and forth
between her Laden Corporation into the
show in order to pad out a short script
or as a last-minute substitute due to
Benny's inability to find a suitable
actress to play a small part either way
the Mary Livingston role is set out as a
one-time occurrence as a 1935 newspaper
profile of the Benny's radio Origins
recounted one night Jack's script ran
short he had to fill in for a couple of
minutes and an idea flashed through his
mind he waved to George Olson to start a
number walked over to where Mary was
sitting and brought her over to the
microphone with him he signaled to the
engineer to fade the music out and
started an impromptu-bit of dialogue
with her they succeeded in ending the
broadcast without any dead air with
within two weeks Jack had received so
many requests that Mary be made a
regular part of the show that there was
nothing to do but get Harry Conn his
writer to bring her into scripts
regularly in spite of herself Mary
Livingston became a Radio Star
in a 1965 interview Sadie Mary claimed
one day they had had a bid on the show
for a girl from Plainfield New Jersey
who was supposed to come on and read a
silly poem they auditioned a lot of
girls and by the afternoon they still
hadn't found one to satisfy them the
director asked me if I would try so that
night I read the poem on the show and
the next thing I knew so many letters
came in they wanted me to do another one
which I did before I knew it I was on
steady as Mary Livingston the girl from
Plainfield
such self-generated stories explained
that it was Sadie's delightful laughter
induced by her nervousness Sadie
suggested that provoked the welcome if
unexpected audience response this
unanticipated success purportedly kept
Sadie on the show in a one-time role
that transformed into a major character
on the show
evidence uncovered by examining the
original Canada Dry program scripts
provides an alternative story to this
myth of Sadie The Accidental Radio Star
Harry Conn and Jack Benny developed
several narrative threads into the
show's Loosely sketched plot that can be
seen as laying the groundwork for the
introduction of a continuing character
to serve as Jack's assistant as the
first chapter related very soon after
Benny began broadcasting his twice a
week comedy and music program in May
1932 he and Khan realized that the
program needed additional characters to
involve Benny in witty repartee given
Benny's pressing into service of the
band leader vocalists musicians Khan and
Jack's personal assistant Harry Baldwin
it's easy to imagine that other people
in the studio such as Sadie might be
called upon to perform on the second
show May 6 Jack announced the beginning
of contests that would result in
listener entries that would need to be
processed on the May 23 program Jack
asked Ethel to take a letter as he
dictated a response to a listener query
on June 15th Jack announced that he had
placed an advertisement in The Help
Wanted set section of the newspaper for
a secretary a young woman named Garbo
answered the ad played by Blanche
Stewart with a Swedish accent when Jack
tried to dictate a letter to her she was
quickly found to be incompetent and Jack
fired her on the June 27 Canada Dry
program Jack announced that he had hired
a male secretary this character too
disappeared after one episode they
dropped the topic but four weeks later
Benny and Khan picked up that narrative
threat again and on Wednesday July 27
1932 the Mary Livingston character
appeared on the show Blanche Stewart had
already taken several small
non-recurring roles on the Canada Dry
program and Jack could have chosen her
to fill the role Stewart remained with
the Benny Program for many years
performing bit parts and serving as Mary
Livingston's understudy nevertheless it
was Sadie who took the role and not
Blanche although copies of their
contracts with Canada Dry no longer
exist then he might have negotiated a
paid acting position for his wife that
started with this episode the first
after his 30th week show renewal for
many years the July 27 script was
considered lost as there was no copy of
it in Benny's personal papers Jack and
Mary were sentimental about their
performing past perhaps they stored it
separately from the other documents in
Benny's script collection eventually
they misplaced it with no other evidence
critics and historians have tended to
accept the Benny's version of Mary's
origin story a copy of the script was
finally located however on microfilm in
the NBC Master file script collection at
the Library of Congress
from it we can examine how the
particular narrative elements introduced
into the show on this one episode would
have had long lasting consequences the
July 27 Canada Dry Program episode
opened with Jack announcer du jour Jimmy
Wallingford George Olson and Ethel
shooter congratulating each other on
completion of the first 13 weeks of
twice a week broadcasting and the
sponsor's renewal of the show Jack made
a joke about being a hay and feed man he
said Hey to a girl and then had to feed
her at this point the Mary Livingston
character simply joined the dialogue
with no introduction commenting on
Jack's hey joke after Wallington groaned
at it the script indicated
Sadie laughing oh I think that's awfully
funny
Wallingford immediately shushed her
saying pardon me Miss but the guests are
not allowed to make comments during our
program
Sadie responded that she thought Jack
was the cutest thing Jack tried to
continue the show and Wallingford said
to him jack don't mind that little girl
interrupting but she's been coming up
here to see you two or three times and
seems to be kinda anxious to meet you
jack tried forcefully as the script
directed to return to the business of
running his show but also kept
whispering to Wallingford who is she do
you know her is that her is standing
over there ooh Jimmy she's a cutie isn't
she after a musical number from the
orchestra Jack and Wallingford read out
congratulatory telegrams from listeners
that incorporated spoofing mentions of
ginger ale one wire from a listener in
Scotland read up here in Scotland we're
all drinking Canada Dry by the Glasgow
and Sadie jumped in to say oh I think
that's swell Wallingford attempted to
quiet her but she continued making
little asides and laughingly remarked
when you drink Canada Dry where does the
glass go that's the funniest joke I must
tell it to my mother Jack interrupted
her with that isn't what I said Miss I
said they're all drinking it by the
Glasgow Jack asked her to sit down until
the program was concluded and she
continued to pester him asking if she
must call him Mr Benny or could she call
him jack he responded Jack and she
retorted thanks Mr Benny Jack then
inquired as to her name
Sadie my name's Mary kurtzinger
Livingston but just married to you
Jack I'm awfully glad of that these are
only half hour programs you know say by
the way where do you live
Sadie quickly oh I live in Plainfield
you get on a bus then you get off at the
one stop light walk three blocks to your
left then you cut through the cemetery
and over the hill then up the road until
you see a little red house and you go
right through the field and there you
are Jack there you are not me well it
was sweet of you to come up here Mary
now why don't you sit down quietly and
listen to the rest of our program Sadie
all right jack
in the episode's final skit set at a
testimonial dinner for Canada Dry Ginger
Ale Jack pompously intoned a speech
about the product's virtues that drove
away all the guests except Mary she
announced that she was going home and
Jack asked her to come up to the program
again sometime she suggested Monday
night and he said oh oh all right Sadie
departed saying I thought you were swell
goodbye Jack Benny ended the program
with a hint that Mary intrigued him that
was the last Mary I mean the last number
of the 26th program on the 27th of July
as opposed to the version of the story
The Benny's crafted to explain Sadie's
unintentional radio debut the original
script shows that the merry character
was involved throughout the program not
just in a few lines tagged on at the end
Khan seemed to have created a fleshed
out Mary Livingston character in one
episode as Mary exhibited aspects of her
character's personality and biographical
details that would remain remarkably
stable over the years such as her
hometown the importance of her mother
her jumping into conversations her
scatter brain dialogue and her
flirtatious contentious relationship
with Jack above all in the first show
Sadie brought Mary Livingston that
attention getting laugh
the Mary Livingston character was
Central to The Following episode
Broadcast August 1st Mary was not there
in person however Ethel read out a
letter Mary had sent to Jack who had
been fidgeting that the young fan had
not reappeared dear Jack you probably
don't remember me but I'm the girl who
came up to the studio Wednesday night
remember me Mary I'm sorry I can't be
with you tonight but you see I have been
very busy helping mother with the dishes
as she has a sore thumb I am still
laughing at that joke you told Wednesday
about when you drink Canada Dry by the
glass where does the glass go I told it
to my mother but she didn't laugh and
father doesn't seem to like you either
but I think you're swell well must close
now as I have a lot of work to do I am
studying shorthand and stenography we'll
be up to see you on Wednesday night
goodbye it's signed Mary Livingston from
Plainfield oh P.S I think you're swell
Mary returned in person on August 3rd
laughing and pronouncing that everything
she encountered was swell Sadie was then
absent for two weeks One Source suggests
she was Ill but she returned on the
August 17th program when Jack hired Mary
to be his personal secretary
subsequently Mary appeared in every
episode
in September Benny and Khan introduced a
romantic subplot into the shows Jack
ceased joking about his girlfriend in
Newark and began to flirt with Mary and
the growing romance became a major
element of the narrative there were
complications and misunderstandings as
Mary asked Ethel for romantic advice
members of the band flirted with Mary
and she overheard Jack flirting with
Ethel in the October 17th episode Mary
and Jack impetuously professed their
love for one another as the previous
chapters discussed this experiment by
Benny and Khan was one of the narrative
avenues that they quickly abandoned the
imposition of too much romantic
storyline would seriously hamper the
informal joking atmosphere they had been
building so they abruptly ended its
storyline Mary Livingston remained
Jack's boisterous incompetent secretary
she forgot to put paper in the
typewriter asked Jack for definitions of
words she did not understand and
hampered his efforts to get
correspondence completed Mary also began
flirting with the other members of
George Olson banned and allowed them to
escort her home while Jack stood by and
quietly fumed in frustration there was
much more humor to be mined from
unresolved affection than in true love
Milt josephsburg one of Benny's later
writers noted that Mary's ill-defined
role on the radio program was a complete
contradiction of the most basic rule in
creating comedy programs for a running
character to sustain as a regular member
of a successful series she or he must
have a clearly defined function in
relationship to the star breaking the
narrative rules with his unruly
unattached woman was another of the
Benny Show's many Innovations
at this point Sadie marks adopted Mary
Livingston as her professional stage
name Sadie might have continued to use
Marie Marsh but several actresses in New
York and Hollywood had similar sounding
names by mid-october Benny's radio
scripts which had previously cued her as
Sadie began calling her Mary as well
during the first seven months of the
Canada Dry Radio Show in 1932 Mary
Livingston's character played the naive
second banana to Ethel shooter the
sophisticated singer who had appeared in
Eddie cantor's whoopee and in the
Ziegfeld Follies Ethel's character on
the show was an independent-minded
married woman in her 30s who brooked
no-nonsense from men Ethel and Jack
bantered and flirted with each other in
dialogue and she played the original
unruly woman roles in the program's film
parodies Ethel imitated Greta Garbo as
the ballerina gruskin skya in the Canada
Dry program stand-up of the hit film
Grand hotel with Jack playing the Suave
Baron on October 24th the Benny gang
performed a sketch titled the murder of
Mr X in which ethyl imitated new movie
sensation May West with a cue in the
script calling for a very breezily
rendered line of you said it big boy and
sexy humming of Harlem moon in another
episode Ethel played a socialite pushing
her hapless husband played by Olson out
the door of their apartment so that she
could invite in her lover played by Jack
cool-headed Ethel then commanded Benny
and a succession of other suitors to
hide behind the curtains when the
cuckolded husband inevitably returned
for his missing hat Mary played no role
in these skits
on October 26 1932 the cast performed
the sketch why girls leave home A
Burlesque of the old 10 23rd theatrical
melodrama is about a poor girl's virtue
being threatened by the lasciviousness
of an evil landlord in this skit it was
Mary and not Ethel who took the lead
role Mary played the part of a 14 year
old girl who was sole support of her
family industriously scrubbing floors
and operating a sewing machine Jack was
her elderly father George Olson played
the malevolent landlord who arrived to
demand an enormous rent payment Mary
pled permission to go to the big city to
find work just as the landlord returned
to kick the old father out into the
street Mary melodramatically returned
home Jack inquired how she got the rent
money and Mary loudly proclaimed she
worked very hard and saved and was a
good girl emphasis in the script Jack
announced that her morality did not
matter what's the difference Nelly the
home is ours the skits humor lay for
listeners in the cynical knowledge that
innocent virtue of Victorian times was
in short supply for The Working Girl in
depression times
one other contribution Mary's character
made to the program in Fall 1932 was her
first Labor Day poem ridiculous stanzas
recited in a sing-songy voice would
become a long-standing Mary Livingston
trademark while the early poems helped
reinforce Mary's dumb Dora Persona their
continuation through her transition to a
harder character served to soften the
bitter edges of her sharp-tongued
criticisms of Jack by reminding
listeners that she still had a playful
side the initial Labor Day poem Khan
wrote for Mary was notable for a morbid
tone that subsequent dog girl avoided
directions in the script instructed Mary
to sniffle while reading it as through
life we wander often even as we go
troubles worry care endures yet
something listens in our ear as oft it
was and still isn't it the truth is what
you get
when the night begins each morning or
afternoon we feel that those times are
not just what they used to be Labor Day
oh Labor Day it just seems to reveal
that a rolling stone is not your friend
at all old pal of mine
isn't that sad
Khan soon reconceptualized the manner in
which these bits of dog roll contributed
to Mary's developing character
subsequent poems would be much lighter
in tone Mary recited these Odes to
holidays like a schoolgirl such as this
example from February 1934. Dear Old
Winter Dear Old Winter with your ice and
snow drafty Echoes In The Valley Heidi
Heidi ho Dear Old Winter Dear Old Winter
Burr
Mary's poems added a bit of human
Frailty to her sometimes acid wit the
verses were filled with bad puns and
sophomoric wordplay they provoked lots
of audience laughter and Jack began to
intersperse commentary between her lines
that questioned her odd rhyming her
poetry was one of the few ways that Jack
could find fault in Mary but even then
his criticisms carried an air of
affectionate tolerance
Mary becomes Chief stooge
as a consequence of the upheavals to the
cast broadcast time and network that
sponsored Canada Dry heaped on Benny
Khan and their program in late October
1932. the Mary Livingston character took
on added significance Ethel shooter
George Olson his band members and the
NBC announcers that Danny and Khan had
incorporated into the comic dialogue
abruptly left the show because she was
now the most experienced member of The
Supporting Cast Mary's part expanded as
she stepped up to inherit the comic
stooge in straight man roles that Olson
and Shute had filled
as the previous chapter discussed in
addition to the cast changes the sponsor
in mid-november introduced an additional
writer Sid Silvers to be added to the
program Silvers devised a new narrative
focused on Jack as a theatrical
impresario with Sid as his assistant a
large part for himself that came at a
diminishment of Mary Livingston's lines
and importance to the plot the episodes
do not exist in recorded form but the
scripted dialogue reveals Sid's
character to be unappealingly Brash and
lazy and he speaks to marry in a
condescending and belittling manner Jack
all of a sudden starts chasing chorus
girls while Mary mopes on the sidelines
in the Ruckus of Benny Khan and
Livingston demanding that sponsor Canada
Dry removes Silvers from the program
variety claimed that it was Mary
Livingston who remnestrated the most in
order to regain her leading role the
protest was successful and Canada Dry
relented
Mary's increased involvement in Benny's
radio show was noticed by critics and
audiences and the couple was often
mentioned in articles about the sudden
prominence of husband and wife teams in
radio in November 1932 the Washington
post's radio critic noted that Mary was
much more than just a straight man or
appendage unlike other female assistants
Mary fully took over the roles and
parody skits portraying sophisticated
sexually aware women on the December 29
1932 program the Benny cast performed
the sketch she lived she loved and she
learned in which Mary as a board and
Wealthy wife pushed her lackluster
husband played by one of the band
members out the door on a business trip
soon afterwards the Milkman knocked and
Mary rejected him as it was the Canada
Dry program thus he was representing a
competing product
Jack entered as the lover who soon had
to hide in the closet on January 15 1933
they performed a skit based on the
scandalous Broadway drama of sexual
promiscuity in the South Seas rain
calling it snow Mary in the Sadie
Thompson role sang a few bars of Saint
Louis woman to help paint the
appropriate picture for the listening
audience
after Benny's group was fired by Canada
Dry in early 1933 and hired by Chevrolet
meaning a return to NBC new decision
makers chose male vocalists for the
program Benny's success in negotiating a
favorable salary in prominent
co-comedian role for Mary Livingston was
noted admiringly in the trade press Mary
Livingston was now the only woman in the
cast now build is a comic program with
musical interludes Mary approved popular
with radio audiences and critics who
complimented her assertive character a
review of the Chevrolet program in June
1933 remarked
seemingly every comedian must now own or
operate a stooge to be on any major
payroll Mr Benny's wife Mary Livingston
Stooges as an impudent secretary but
refuses to be submerged in the classic
dumb Dame Department she gives as well
as takes and the two of them together
account for a total of 12 to 15 minutes
of unwatered frivolity during the half
hour program which you do well not to
miss
on March 31st 1933 the cast performed a
sketch parodying May West's new hit film
she done him wrong in lady Lou's
dressing room Mary as May West hommed
one of her signature Tunes Frankie and
Johnny and purred lines like hello dark
and handsome and listen hun why don't
you come up sometime Harry Khan had a
long-standing maywest connection as one
of her scriptwriters since the 1920s now
that West was a national sensation Benny
and Khan wondered if Mary could carry
off May West's distinctive voice as well
as Ethel Chute had the previous fall
Mary Livingston enthusiastically took up
the challenge of transmitting May's
vocal personality and she was an
unexpected success Washington Post radio
reviewer Robert heimel in April 1933
praised her Mary Livingston
distinguished herself as an imitator of
May West during a program over the
networks recently Miss Livingston
mastered Miss West's dulcet speech of
she done him wrong during a single
sitting at the performance of the
popular talkie but I was never so
nervous in my life said Miss Livingston
Mrs Jack Benny out of office hours I
worried a lot about the imitation for
after all there's no one talks just like
Mae West
the reporter noted a month later Mary
Livingston's imitation of May West
invariably gets a rise out of the studio
audience Mary's inflections bring
Applause and laughter from the studio
visitors
Mary's expanding vocal comedic abilities
added layers of Verve and Life to this
well-known transgressive character
Khan and Benny wrote the Mae West
character into at least 10 of the
subsequent skits on the Chevrolet Radio
Show in 1933 and 1934. as Mary was
called upon to play sophisticated or
sexually aware characters that broadened
her regular identity as adultated
secretary companion
in December 1933 the cast performed a
parody of Uncle Tom's Cabin in which
Mary played Liza with a May West accent
in subsequent years as May Mania abated
Benny and his writers Incorporated
Mary's popular vocal characterization
into her portrayals of a succession of
tough girls over the next 15 Seasons
Mary continued to play a series of
sultry voiced gun-wielding wives lovers
and cigarette girls named Gertie Le
strip or Mitzi LaRue in the captain of
Benny murder mystery skits Mary's Brazen
confident character shot their milk
toast husbands and weren't sorry in the
least the characters anticipated the
Femme fatales who would lurk in the
shadows of film Noir detective films of
the post-war years
Mary performed these provocative roles
in at least 19 episodes of the Benny
radio show between 1935 and 1942 and at
least a dozen more between 1942 and
1950.
Mary's mid-1930s radio stardom
the expansion of Mary Livingston's role
as Jack Benny's Chief stooge brought her
a great deal of publicity although she
always remained in Jack's Shadow a
Boston Globe reporter in 1935 seemed
non-plussed at Mary's popularity today
Jack Benny and Mary Livingston
constitute an Inseparable combination
Jack without Mary is like Amos without
Andy listeners wait for her poems and
Wise Cracks as eagerly as they do for
Jack's hello again and his gags at the
expense of Don bester spats Mary's okay
toots has become a national catchphrase
they even wrote a popular song about it
Mary's scatterbrain character and
recurring specialty bits did start to
grate on a few critics nerves Larry
Walters of the Chicago Tribune
complained about the repetitive quality
of Mary's poems on the other hand Mary's
poems were one of the most heralded
features of the Benny group's personal
appearance tours
in 1934 a newspaper promotion challenged
Pittsburgh fans to complete the final
two verses to oh Pittsburgh to win
prizes in Detroit in 1936 the city's
newspapers made Mary the center of
publicity around the Benny troop
appearance they held a cash prize
contest for fans to send in their own
bits of dog Earl imitating Mary's style
which she would purportedly judge they
christened Mary the punk poetess of the
air who appears with Jack Benny as his
interrupting stooge on all this programs
some of the public commentary on Mary's
achievements referenced the paucity of
other successful female entertainers on
the radio a variety headline on November
21 1933 declared few fam radio faves
bemoaning the dearth the women's names
as lead performer among the 12 most
popular radio programs the article noted
that Gracie Allen was the top woman as
part of Burns and Allen and that several
women such as Mary Livingston and
Portland Hoffa supported their spouses
in comedy Hoffa who portrayed a
dim-witted young female companion to
husband Fred Allen on his radio program
once described herself as a wooge or a
female stooge it's a delightful term but
I have not yet found other references to
it
the dreary situation for women in radio
in the 1930s differed from the dominance
of female stars in Hollywood film where
women were the top paid actresses if
behind the scenes there were a few
directors or major screenwriters still
at work after their 1920s heyday
in the 1930s Mary's comic Persona was
most frequently compared to that of
radio's most prominent female star
Gracie Allen famous for what her partner
George Burns called her illogical logic
adult painted verbal games in linguistic
somersaults Gracie seemed brainless on
the surface however Gracie was not so
much a dumb Dora as a nearly
uncontainable female Force who twisted
around the heads of everyone she
encountered until they were befuddled
radio historian Susan Douglas remarks
that Gracie's unruliness was legendary
her absolute refusal to obey orders her
Defiance of instructions her willful
misunderstanding of the language
scatterbrained but lovable Gracie always
escaped whatever predicaments she caused
while George stood at her side
critiquing her and her stories in a
resigned sort of exasperation in the
imaginative space of radio George
couldn't quite contain her as thoroughly
as he would be able to later on
television within the confines of their
Suburban home setting radio historian
Leah Lowe credits Gracie with overcoming
the worst social prejudices about gender
in which 1930s culture could frame her
as a dumb Dora through her portrayal of
an exuberant femininity oblivious to
many of the limitations imposed on women
by patriarchal Authority a highlight of
Gracie's comedy for radio audiences Lilo
suggests was having to piece together
the crazy reasoning Gracie presented for
the bizarre things she did for in
Gracie's mind the ending outcome was
always logical
as George Byrne said of Grace is the
logic if you listen to Gracie's prattle
on the radio you may notice that her
logic is faultless though usually
completely mistaken Gracie gets her
laughs we hope because we often think
the way Gracie talks but we pride
ourselves that we never talk the way
Gracie thinks Gracie did many things
that no other female partner
accomplished on Prime Time network radio
programs she was the focus of the show
The plots always revolved around her
Antics and George was the sidekick
stooge who fed her straight lines sighed
in exasperation and puffed on his cigar
GE called Gracie out for her craziness
but she was never really punished for
the chaos she caused unlike the
Troublesome baby Snooks who got
spankings from her exasperated father or
our Miss Brooks who was thunderously
called on the carpet by her principal in
every episode Gracie like Mary was also
always presented as an attractive
Tastefully dressed upper middle class
woman while male characters on the Burns
and Allen Show may have criticized
Gracie's seeming lack of intelligence
none ever disparaged her looks in
contrast Bob Hope regularly insulted the
man chasing debutants Brenda and cobina
Archie cracked on Miss Duffy on Duffy's
Tavern and the kingfish called his
nagging wife Sapphire the old battle ax
behind her back as with Mary Livingston
Gracie's comic timing and delivering her
lines was impeccable and her laughter
was a crucial element of her vocal
performance as Lilo notes George Burns
used his cigar to help the couple's
comic timing as he could always take a
puff if the audience laughed or
continued Lowe states that much of what
is funny on the radio arises from the
vocal delivery of scripted dialogue
rather than scripted dialogue in and of
itself like Mary Gracie frequently
laughed at seemingly nothing and when
George asked her why she followed with a
non-sequiturer said I don't get it
rather than making a joking critical
comment
Gracie's laughter fell over George's
dialogue lines and disrupted the flow of
the conversation whereas everyone on the
Benny show paused when Mary laughed to
relish the sound and to find out what
she thought was amusing like Gracie's
ridiculous stories about her brothers
Mary's reading of letters from her
mother back in Plainfield allowed her to
ground some of her comedy in domestic
and family situations the letters from
Mary's Mama which began tentatively in
June 1934 and became a regular feature
in April 1935 contain humorous stories
about misbehaving uncles Brothers father
and life on the farm mama was a
strong-headed and forceful woman who
often worked masculine type jobs like
driving a milk delivery truck and
pummeling her misbehaving lazy drunken
husband Papa Mary's brothers uncles and
cousins suffered ludicrous accidents
took strange jobs and did crazy things
that were fodder for the ride jokes bad
puns and working class focused humor
that enlivened these letters all read in
a live tone than Mary might otherwise
take when criticizing Jack Mary's sister
babe the man-hungry pipefitter or
Steamroller operator entered into the
Benny Show's narrative in the 1940s even
as the merry characters tone sharpened
in the 1940s the letters from her mother
seemed to soften her character by
association the put down jokes about
babe were the closest the Benny show
comes to putting down Mary herself
although Mary always appeared Superior
to her hapless sister
letters from home were the limit of Mary
Livingston's Domesticity however unlike
Kate Smith who was portrayed as a
homemaking expert when her program was
sponsored by a food company or Fiber
McGee's Molly even Gracie who kept house
for George after a fashion the Mary
Livingston character was never shown to
be cooking or cleaning it is ironically
amusing that during the eight years that
the Benny show was sponsored by Jello
Mary never entered a kitchen to whip up
a batch announcer Don Wilson who emoted
so enthusiastically about the product
spoke as if he was well versed in
preparing it Angela magazine a newspaper
advertising a cook or even Jack himself
prepared the jello or Jello ice cream
powder in a 1936 full page Color comic
Pages newspaper advertisement Jack Benny
pulls a fast one on Mary Livingston Jack
and an apron and chef's hat beckoned to
Marion said Mary if you'll promise not
to write any more poems I'll make
dessert tonight although Mary shared
equal billing with Jack on the cover of
the jello recipe booklet it given away
by the radio shows sponsors in 1937 the
closest she ever came to the actual
product was a spoon to eat it with
there was always some trumped-up
confusion about whether Jack and Mary
were actually married because their
stage names were different and they did
not play a married couple on the radio
undoubtedly most of the public knew they
were a couple but fan magazines could
exploit the mystery the Detroit Free
Press played up this angle in a 1933
interview Jack Benny the Mary fellow who
entertains you via the air and Mary
Livingston his pesky girlfriend are
doing their scrapping in Detroit this
week only they're registered at the Book
Cadillac hotel as Mr and Mrs Benny and
they point with pride to the fact that
they are going to celebrate their
seventh wedding anniversary soon an
advertisement for the August 1935 issue
of radio Stars raised the question why
did they marry read the love story of
Mary and Jack Benny is it true that Mary
Livingston the cute girl on Jack Benny's
program is his wife in real life how did
they meet what is their love story but
marriage also had its realistic downside
to which female fans could also connect
a 1941 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article
wives and husbands make the best radio
teams Darkly hinted who for example
knows better the foibles in all two
human weaknesses of that at perennial
radio heel Jack Benny then Mary
Livingston
in interviews Mary Livingston spoke of
the stage fright Mike fright and
nervousness in front of audiences that
plagued her she continued to downplay
her performing talents and walked away
from opportunities that other actresses
would have left at a 1939 fan magazine
article noted Mary Livingston attracted
considerable attention as a vocalist
when she sang the title role in the
Benny air version of Snow White last
season and two or three times a year
she's coaxed to vocalize Mary's opinion
of her own voice however isn't as high
as her critics so it's only at the
insistence of Jack that she sings
Mary appeared in one Motion Picture
Paramount's 1937 this way please a light
romantic comedy about movie theater
ushers featuring radio personalities Jim
and Mary and Jordan band leader Buddy
Rogers and Rising film Starlet Betty
Grable the Los Angeles Times film gossip
columns noted enter Mrs Jack Benny is a
motion picture star and just why has
that debut been delayed so long
considering how much he contributes to
the entertainment on the famous many
radio program
while Jack Incorporated mentions of
Mary's upcoming film appearance into the
radio show and in October 1937 Jack read
out on the air a review published in The
Hollywood Reporter that complemented
Mary's performance Mary didn't like to
talk about the film or her experience
Mary went to the trouble of having
plastic surgery done on her nose in 1940
to make her appearance less ethnic and
more glamorous for Possible movie roles
but she did not expand her film career
the procedure also seemed to make her
radio voice sound less nasal even though
Paramount kept offering film contracts
Mary never appeared in the movies again
lending only her voice to one scene in
1940s Buck Benny Rides Again and the
1959 Warner Brothers cartoon the mouse
that Jack built
Mary's laughter becomes more incisive
Mary's greatest asset her show-stopping
laugh was bright and lengthy and Benny
and his writers utilized it to Great
Advantage Jack would be chattering away
with other characters ridiculous boasts
flying and then Mary would launch her
hilarious reaction after a beat of
Silence Jack would respond what are you
laughing at Mary and Mary would sharply
quip her retort which at its best was a
clever pun that punctured Jack's hubris
during the Benny Program broadcast of
February 14 1937 for example Jack and
Phil were exchanging remarks with the
guest star bandleader Ben Bernie each
had greeted each other in elaborate
fashion as Maestro as their discussion
continued Jack say Ben come here a
minute let me ask you man to man now
he's supposed to be funny but I can't
see that fellow Fred Allen can you Ben
Bernie no I can't Phil Harris I can't
see him either Mary
Jack Mary what are you laughing at
Mary Three Blind maestros
in the 1930s radio advertisers actually
gauged the success of the comedy
programs they sponsored by counting the
number of laughs emanating from the
studio audience during a performance and
measuring the duration of audience
reactions Benny's writers and producers
informally kept score during the
broadcasts and audience response to
Mary's jokes and laughter was
consistently the highest for any Benny
show cast member other than her witty
retorts however much of Mary's humor
during the first five years on the air
hinged on her misunderstanding of
situations or lack of intelligence when
Kenny Baker was hired as the new tenor
in November 1935 following in the
footsteps of the somewhat sophisticated
wisecracking singer Frank Parker then
Ian Khan decided to make Baker's
character be a young and foolish brat in
her autobiography Mary recalled the
characters early immaturity and that
when Kenny came on the writers made him
dumb too it didn't take Jack long to
discover that two dopes weren't as funny
as one that's when I became Jack's smart
alec girlfriend
when Bill Morrow and Ed beloyne joined
the program as writers in Spring 1936
Mary's character especially began to
become more intelligent her laughter
more of a comic weapon and her critical
barbs launched a jack Moore biting this
sharpening of Mary's character coincided
with developments of Jack's own radio
Persona to become less of the polished
Master of Ceremonies and more the
bumbling egotistical Fall Guy
in his 1939 guide Handbook of radio
writing Eric barno discussed the problem
of how to avoid Vanishing characters in
crafting multi-character narratives for
broadcasting he argued that Mary's radio
lines made an unexpected positive use of
the tendency of characters to disappear
into the background of radio dialogue
barno stated that if the radio listener
didn't hear a character speak for a
while that character became invisible he
counseled prospective writers that when
they needed a radio character to give a
long speech to occasionally insert
references to the person he is speaking
to into the text to acknowledge them and
in barno's words keep them alive
otherwise long speeches should be
regularly interrupted by others comments
or those silent characters seem to die
barno reasons that the problem of
invisibility was why the dialogue on
most programs came in spurts of repartee
however barno found that Benny comedy
program turned this liability into an
asset in the world of Jack Benny's
comedy the writer doesn't care a hoot
about the prosaic worry of keeping
characters alive sometimes in fact he
derives a definite value from letting
them die Mary Livingston isn't in the
picture continuously sometimes she has
silent intervals during which she drops
completely from our Consciousness this
as a matter of fact is what makes her
sudden reincarnation so delightfully
abrupt and shattering this same
abruptness couldn't quite be conveyed on
the stage it owes its punch to the very
fact that a moment before she didn't
even exist
barno provided an example from the jello
program in which Jack and Don Wilson had
been conversing alone for several
minutes
Wilson Mr Benny there's one more
question the ladies in particular would
be very much interested in do you mind
telling us your age Jack what's that
Wilson do you mind telling us your age
Jack I'm just 31. Mary he Minds a quick
stab like this is the more effective
barno concluded because like the door or
the telephone that Rings Mary comes into
existence just at that moment
women's assault on the men in the Benny
narrative universe
Jack Benny's radio program like those of
many other comedies dramas and soap
operas of the 1930s 1940s and 1950s was
framed around tensions in the
relationships between women and men
however unlike most other comedies and
dramas broadcast in Prime Time Benny's
show showed marked Sympathy for the
women's point of view in the battle of
the sexes Mary Livingston and the other
female characters on the Benny radio
program wielded considerable social
psychological and economic authority
over the men and they most often wore
the pants and their families
strong-willed smart and confident female
characters such as Dennis's mother the
battle ax waving milk Truck Driving Mrs
Lucretia day Mary Livingston's feisty
mother who ran the household held down
jobs and browbeat her lazy husband and
male relatives on the farm and playing
field the frosty female movie stars who
disdained Jack the diner waitresses who
dished out sarcasm with the food and
Gertrude enable the telephone
switchboard operators all gave trouble
by telling the truth to Benny and the
other man on the radio program the
female characters were nearly always
working women all held jobs and
supported themselves and often their
entire families in the Benny radio world
there were no frail ingenues no
cloyingly sweet innocent girls and no
happy Housewives no nurturing aunts or
grandmothers no subservient dependent or
sentimental women whose goal in life was
to serve and please men Benny's radio
world was a place where a traditional
gender relationships were turned upside
down while conservative listeners might
laugh derisively at the women on this
show for denigrating the sanctity of
marriage and the family other listeners
appreciated how the Benny Program could
audaciously turn the tables on women's
usually subordinated position
Benny and the other men fell short of
the stereotypical definitions of
heterosexual masculinity weak timid
immature old lazy unemployed and often
drunk the only exceptions being film
actor guests stars and Stern sponsors as
the next chapter will further explore
men on the Benny Program desperately
hung on to the last shreds of patriarchy
by a thread Mary Livingston's character
led the show's Vanguard of females
unafraid to make a spectacle of
themselves women who had to work with
and live with these men and laughed at
them with abandon knowing that they were
going to have to carry their own weight
Benny's program complicated the gender
Norms espoused on other radio comedies
Gerard Jones notes in his history of the
genre that unhappy wives had always been
a staple of sitcoms of course but their
image had always been counterbalanced by
that of the happy wife either the
protagonist or a loving spouse on the
Benny Program there were no compliant
females to Counterpoint Mary's
Independence and caustic criticisms and
there was no sentimentalized portrayal
of family life meanwhile the narratives
of other popular radio comedy programs
hewed to stereotypes about women and
their behavior Bob hopes women were
either objectified as sex objects of
Hope's wolfish desire or scorned as
man-hungry heritans like Vera veg or
Brendan cobina doppelgangers of High
Society debutants of the day hope Eddie
Cantor and Red Skelton created comic
worlds in which the gender divisions
between men and women were so calcified
that the boundaries could rarely be
crossed ridiculing women made men feel
part of a group United against their
opposites jokes about women allowed men
to deal with their anxiety about the
power of matriarchy and their own
insecurities about their heterosexual
masculinity even the Benny Program
insulted women who behaved
unconventionally or didn't meet societal
standards of beauty like Mary's sister
babe or Jack's meager girlfriend Gladys
zabisco and Mary Livingston gleefully
made catty comments about them
nevertheless male misbehavior was
reprimanded on the Benny Program more
regularly than it was on the other
programs
the humor of Benny's narrative world
seems feminist inflected even as it was
produced for 20 years on Radio by male
scriptwriters the show's humor reflected
a down-to-earth cynicism about duties
and pleasures of everyday domestic life
as it acknowledged that husbands did not
often resemble Prince Charming and that
families bickered yet with humor somehow
we will get through this and everything
will be okay a cynical view of a world
with endless amounts of work especially
around the house binds the women in the
Benny narrative world to the women who
make the jello and gives them tremendous
sympathy for Rochester
with the introduction and expansion of
the Rochester role we start to see Benny
at home living in the domestic world
away from work as the show's narrative
played more with issues of Benny taking
in laundry bottling chili sauce selling
Christmas cards we do flash out his
character as a male person much more
fully than a sitcom dad who goes off to
mysterious work or just comes home and
reads the paper
even though the Benny narrative world
was a workplace sitcom it's male and
female characters over the years seem to
build the close bonds of family despite
all the insult humor and Mary's endless
jabbing at Jack there is always a family
familiarity to the show like squabbling
siblings who do indeed care for each
other the insults in Benny's world are
the family fights of familiar characters
that are bound together radio historian
Susan Douglas suggests that joking
insults assumed a familiarity between
characters like battling siblings or
spouses so insult humor on the air made
characters feel familiar with each other
and more familiar to the audience
Douglas says of the Canter program men's
conceits about their attractiveness and
sexual prowess about their intelligence
and general Mastery over life were
pierced into flaccid deflated balloons
but at the same time masculinity was
recuperated its resilience toughness and
instant ability to respond to a
challenge celebrated week in and week
out conversely Benny and His Radio
characters recuperated very little of
their masculinity in their exchanges
with women
an example of the sympathy toward women
that the Benny Program portrayed is a
comic grape nuts flakes mid program
commercial November 8 1942 about house
husband Mr twink Benny who dishes up the
grape nuts flakes while his wife works a
war job at the shipyard and all the
other service people who deliver milk
coal mail whatever are Saucy women who
flirt with Benny
Don the scene is the little cottage of
Oglethorpe J twink in Glendale
California it is breakfast time and Mr
twink played by Jack Benny the eminent
politician hooray for Benny interjects
writer Ed bulloin as a drunken voter is
awaiting the arrival of Mrs twink his
wife who is a welder on the night shift
in one of our huge aircraft factories
curtain music
Jack oh dear 7 A.M and Clarabelle isn't
home yet it's payday 2. I hope she
didn't get into a crap game with some of
the girls audience laughs oh well she
works hard she's entitled to a little
fun I guess
knock on door now I wonder who that is
come in why it's the ice girl audience
laughs hello Gloria
Sarah burner flirty voice any eyes today
Twinkie Jack darn you Gloria for the
third time today no I am a married man
Sarah oh come on don't you want a cake
of ice sweetie Jack no and take your
foot out of the door audience laughs for
four seconds if my wife finds you here
Heavens knows what will happen now scram
Sarah okay cutie I'll see you tomorrow
door slam Jack That Glory is fresher
than the Fuller brush girl audience
laughs well I might as well start
getting breakfast ready for the twins
they love those toasty Brown sweet as a
nut grape nuts flakes sings I'm dreaming
of a white Christmas audience laughs
just like the ones I used to know where
the Treetops glisten door opens Jack
Clarabelle where have you been it's
almost eight o'clock
Mary in her tough girl voice now honey
stop nagging and give me a kiss
Jack get away from me with those greasy
hands I've got a clean apron on audience
laughs now you tidy up Mary okay hand me
the Dutch cleanser I want to wash my
face audience laughs
Jack here you are singing I'm Dreaming
just like the ones I used to know you
want some breakfast dear Mary yes but
first give me my kiss Jack now
Clarabelle Mary come on kiss me small
sounds of a tussle Jack not so early in
the morning don't be so rough Clarabelle
the children will hear now you broke my
clasp on my slave bracelet Mary well
I'll take it to the plant tonight and
weld it for you by the way why aren't
the kids up
Joe and Josephine now appear played by
Phil and Dennis in childlike voices they
express excitement about eating their
grape nuts Flakes and Dennis complains
that he wants to play the part of Joe
Jack aren't you gonna have breakfast
dear Mary not until you give me that
kiss Jack not in front of the children
now you let me go
Phil and Dennis sing songy voices mom is
kissing Daddy Mom is kissing Daddy
Jack children behave yourselves singing
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas knock
oh it's Gloria Sarah hey twinky honey
did I leave my ice tongs here Mary oh so
she calls you Twinkie hey so you've been
playing around with that ice girl jack
no no I haven't Mary you're gonna have a
white Christmas bandages
Jack Clarabelle put me down ouch ouch
Dawn chin up but with blackened eyes a
soap opera reference Mr twink will serve
breakfast
balancing Mary's biting laughter with
softer aspects of her character
writer Milt josephsburg recalled that
Mary was one of the show's most valuable
components because she could most
frequently and fearlessly puncture his
pomposity perhaps because she didn't
technically work for Jack and the
program and because she was also an
attractive gal whom Jack occasionally
dated she could get away with more
frequent and sharper insults than anyone
else on the show they were many and they
were funny
Mary's humorous attacks on Jack's
foibles became more pointed as his own
vanities grew Mary's occasional Shut Up
jokes became potent laugh Getters these
were so shocking in their day such sharp
words to a man coming from a woman that
they could be used only infrequently but
when sprinkled into the scripts every so
often Mary's reposts were the most
powerful put Downs Jack's character
experienced when later asked about which
were his very favorite jokes across his
program's long history Benny would of
course nearly always mention that your
money or your life skit but his second
favorite audience laugh getter has
always involved Mary many times he
marveled that Mary got a huge audience
response and long laughter with just
three words
for example when opera singer Dorothy
Kirsten guests starred on the April 25th
1948 episode she and Don Wilson
exchanged erudite opinions
Dawn oh miss Kristen I wanted to tell
you that I saw you in Madame Butterfly
Wednesday afternoon and I thought your
performance was simply magnificent
Dorothy well that's awfully kind of you
Mr Wilson but who could help singing
Puccini it's so expressive particularly
the last act starting with the Allegro
vivocismo
Dawn well that's being very modest Miss
Kristen but not every singer has the
necessary Bell Canto and flexibility or
the range to cope with the high
tessitura of that First Act Dorothy well
Mr Wilson didn't you think in the Arya
unbel de vedremo that the strings played
the con Malto exceptionally fine with
great sustanendo
Jack well I thought Mary oh shut up
Jack recalled in a 1969 interview Mary's
simple three words oh shut up
practically stopped the show if I had to
choose only one bit as being the
funniest that's the one I would have to
pick
as other elements of the program's comic
World increased in intensity over time
Jack became more and more preposterously
cheaper each year so that the newer
jokes would top the previous ones
Benny's writers used Mary's sharpest
rebukes and most acrid tones More Often
by her final appearances in the Benny
program's final episodes Mary did come
off as a pretty sour companion
what may have saved Mary's puncturings
of Jack's ego from being too ugly was
the underlying context that the radio
listening public understood in the 1930s
to 1950s no matter how sharp and mean
Mary's retorts to Jack might have been
she was nevertheless a loyal companion
she never left his side she was always
right there to go on crazy adventures in
the Maxwell to have dinner at his house
to go out for sandwiches after the show
whenever the Jack character was sick or
injured or sad she was the first one
there to visit even if all she
contributed as nursemaid was a mustard
plaster fashioned from an omelet made
with Vicks Vapor Rub It was Mary who
always accompanied Jack to public places
another element ameliorating her harsh
words was the obvious affection Jack
exhibited toward Mary warmth was always
in his voice when he spoke of her such
as when she was ill and had missed a
program at the end of a program he would
call her by his nickname for her doll no
matter how much she flayed go the radio
listening public knew very well that
Jack and Mary were the long wed Mr and
Mrs Benny in real life and the public
seemed to play along well with this
double knowledge
another facet of Mary Livingston's
character that may have tipped audience
sympathy towards her was her continued
recitation of silly poems one of the
best was this one included in the
January 1st 1939 broadcast goodbye 1938
hello 1939.
oh happy New Year happy New Year please
don't be a Sad and Blue year these last
12 months have been Sublime so goodbye
38 hello 39. Jack well so far nobody is
screaming Mary you just wait
I wonder who this coming Yar will be our
favorite movie star will it be garble or
Sonya Heine
so goodbye 38 hello 390
Jack 90
what has this year in store for us for
thee and thou and thy and thus will Dawn
get fat will Phil be gay will Kenny get
knowledge with a capital K Jack I doubt
it I'd like to ask you if I dare will
Jack continue to lose his hair Jack Mary
and when it's gone will it stay away
goodbye 38 hello toupee
Jack
Mary get to the last verse will you Mary
it's coming up now
oh happy New Year Happy New Year
please don't be a Sad and Blue Year we
will give you one more chance so goodbye
Broadway Hello friends Jack well
Mary's poems which ended in the early
1940s and her playful reading of letters
from Her Mama in Plainfield revealed
Mary's softer side no matter how
sophisticated tart or icy Mary might
have seemed the letters from mama still
made her seem like a naive girl
an additional softening factor for
Mary's personality in the later 1940s
and 1950s was the unexpected
opportunities that arose when she
flubbed her scripted lines Mary's on-air
dialogue reading gaffes which occurred
more frequently after the war probably
as she became even more anxious with
Mike fright took her down off her High
perch her hilarious mistakes gave Jack
the only reason he ever really found to
criticize her and triggered a lot of
laughter among both studio and home
audiences who were attuned to listen
closely to the dialogue and thus catch
the gaffes although Benny was not known
for his ability to ad-lib when it came
to correct timing and reading of lines
on the program Jack was quick as
Lightning to respond and to reprimand
any scofflaws when Mary flubbed lines
like saying grass reek instead of Grease
Rack or chis squeeze instead of Swiss
cheese pandemonium broke loose with
caste and audience
Benny's writers did a great job of
making the most of Mary's inadvertent
Mistakes by working them into follow-up
jokes for weeks afterward
meanwhile Mary's determination to avoid
the publicity Spotlight meant there was
significantly less discussion of her
than in the 1930s in the entertainment
trade press and fan magazines other than
an occasional interview where her views
about Jack were solicited in the wartime
military Camp shows there were jokes
about Mary being pursued by pilots and
Junior officers the character of a maid
was added First butterfly and then
Pauline to give her an added person with
whom to exchange bits of dialogue but
Mary the star was becoming Mary the
supporting character behind the scenes
she played an important production role
Mary Livingston is the spark of the
Benny show noted as Saint Joseph
Missouri reporter covering the Benny
troops broadcast from there in 1945. the
least obvious person seated at the long
table was Mary Livingston and yet her
presence was a tangible thing like the
Unseen string that holds the String of
Pearls together her actual speaking part
on the broadcast is only a minor factor
for Mary is called upon by the writers
by the rest of the cast by Jack and even
the sound boys when they want a
constructive opinion on a gag a line or
a noise
Benny too regularly attested to Mary's
skill and judging the laugh-getting
potential of script lines and comic
scenarios in a 1952 interview Jack noted
that Mary would make an excellent
producer for radio or television
programs and CBS had offered her a
position if she ever wished to take it
then he claimed that Mary possessed an
innate sense of production values that
she can usually tell us in advance
whether or not a certain new team will
play her Clairvoyant judgment has been a
big factor in our radio success
instead of continuing on as a major
character in front of the microphone on
Jack Benny's radio program or behind the
scenes as a producer however Mary
Livingston chose a gradual retirement
from performances and public life in the
1950s as CBS began to allow them to
pre-record episodes Benny and His Radio
producers were able to take advantage of
the technology and Mary began to record
her radio dialogue lines from home and
have them spliced into the master tape
with substitutes like daughter Joan
Benny or assistant Jeanette eyman
reading Mary's lines with the cast at
the studio in front of an audience
Danny and his writers made her speaking
Parts shorter and shorter the decline of
her role as Jack's Chief Heckler meant
that the Rochester character took up a
steadier position and show narratives as
Jack's companion both on Radio and on TV
Mary joined Jack only on his third
television broadcast in May 1951. then
largely bagged off the television shows
until he coaxed her back on to take a
smaller role in the score of filmed
episodes at mid-decade for which she
would not have to appear before a live
audience
she claimed that it was nervous Mike
fright that drove her from public
performances
in the beginning my appearances on the
radio shows were fun I actually enjoyed
working once a week but ironically the
more shows I did the more nervous I
became I still can't figure it out but
it ended up with every Sunday being the
most torturous day of the week I
explained it to Jack how much this was
taking out of me and I told him I
couldn't go on any longer I was quitting
and he would have to hire somebody else
but Jack persuaded me to go on finally I
went to Jack and broke down and told him
Eve Arden whose tartung cynicism in film
roles and in the arm is Brooks radio and
TV programs came the closest of any
Hollywood performer to matching Mary's
once related the story that Benny
approached her at a party and suggested
that she would be a fine candidate to
take Mary's place on his television show
but nothing ever came of it
in 1970 president Richard Nixon took
credit for getting Mary out of
retirement for one more brief appearance
on one of Benny's semi-annual tv
specials variety's Jack Hellman reported
that at their last meeting Nixon said to
Benny when are you gonna bring Mary back
I liked her laugh
conclusion
Mary Livingston's unruly attention
getting laughter her important ingenial
nonsense and her razor-sharp deflations
of Jack's egotism were cornerstones of
the Jack Benny radio program's humor
Sadie marks Benny The Reluctant
performer and Mary her semi-fictional
mouthpiece accomplished what few other
women in radio or film were able to
carry off in the 1930s and 1940s
she enacted the Persona of an
independent feisty young woman who could
speak truth to male vanity and yet not
be punished for raising her voice Mary
was joined in the narrative world of the
Benny Program by other disruptive women
frying pan wielding mothers disdainful
Hollywood actresses sassy and murderous
cigarette girls put upon waitresses all
of whom had to make their way in the
world surrounded by Jack and the other
imperfect men in their lives
in Benny's world of gender
representations there were no sweet
ingenues no self-effacing maternal
figures women may have been feared but
never despised by the men on the program
unlike on some of the other radio comedy
shows broadcast into American Homes
during this era given that the basis of
much humor was insult Laden and putting
people in their place the Benny Program
stood out on this show there was a great
deal of respect and affection for women
and feminist sympathies on a program
that was always produced by male writers
female characters on the Benny show
spoke up for themselves and gave their
radio audiences a space to laugh at
life's absurdities
the next chapter turns to examine the
representation of masculinity on Benny's
radio show and how the project of
turning Jack into the Fall Guy in every
way possible meant that attacks on
patriarchal Authority and stereotypical
heterosexual identity became major
sources of the program's humor
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thank you
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thank you
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