[Music]
Hello friends welcome to this day in
Jack Benny I'm John Henderson today
we're continuing with the audiobook of
Jack Benny and the Golden Age of
American radio comedy with me again is
the author Catherine H Fuller Seeley
Kathy that's quite the title of the book
where did the title come from I wanted
to just call the book Jack Benny's radio
comedy but my publisher said oh no
that's not specific enough and so she
wanted to call the book the king of
comedy and I said oh no that's a movie
you know while we might consider Jack
that I can't title the book back so
that's how we compromise Jack Benny
colon and the Golden Age of American
radio comedy so we're on chapter three
chapter three was one of the toughest to
write but I really wanted to because I
think Jack had a beautiful sense of
himself his masculine and feminine
characteristics and he was so
comfortable with it and it was really
interesting to do the research to find
that while he remained the same over
time public reaction and critical
reaction to um of those jokes about how
cute his legs are or how often he'll
wear is Charlie's Aunt dress or how
pinarious he is or or what a more of a
mother than a father figure
um reaction to those uh of jokes changed
over time and that was the interesting
thing to research in this chapter all
right well here it is enjoy the show
oh
[Music]
chapter three
masculine gender identity in Jack
Benny's humor
Jack Benny's radio comedy played with
gender identity continually blurring the
boundaries of what were at the time very
narrow definitions of masculinity and
femininity and strictly divided models
for appropriate gendered behavior in
society
Benny's humor complicated and questioned
what scholar Carol Vance terms the
implicit cultural ideology of fixed
sexual categories his character explored
varieties of masculinity that ranged
from demanding patriarchal employer to
insufficiently viral heterosexual male
to assimilated Jew and from a straight
man with a predilection for
cross-dressing to a person of
indeterminate sexual identity who
ambishly performed with a feminate and
homosexual mannerisms as Jack Benny's
radio character transformed from a
self-deprecating but Suave Master of
Ceremonies into the Fall Guy the
unfortunate soul to whom ridiculous and
frustrating incidents happened he became
the target of an increasing number of
humorous insults lobbed at him by his
cast members the show's narrative World
expanded to incorporate Benny's
frustrated attempts to rule over his
home and workplace his painfully awkward
dealings with Hollywood celebrities and
his exasperating experiences with shop
clerks waitresses Railroad Station
ticket Sellers and cab drivers in the
process of devising ever more ways in
which Benny's character could be vexed
and scoffed at his writers seized on
nearly every possible way to belittle
his masculine identity as an employer a
celebrity and a heterosexual male at
times this escalated in the post-war
years while the move to television
during an era of hardening ideals of
appropriate gender roles brought new
scrutiny of visual displays of identity
Jack appeared on TV as a natally dressed
handsome upper middle class man who
looked years younger than his age
despite losing the imaginative radio
word play with which his cast could
describe his lack of heterosexual
physique and mannerisms Benny and his
writers in the visual Arena of TV still
occasionally engaged boundary
questioning humor particularly in 1952
and 1954 episodes featuring Jack's
uncannily accurate impersonation of
comedienne Gracie Allen Benny's
representations of masculinity have been
the focus of academic inquiries by
McFadden Dodie bolserzak and others who
have explored an archeology of
possibilities for queer representation
embedded in historical mainstream media
they have made insightful analysis of
how Benny's character can be read across
a variety of audience interpretations
their Studies have detailed Jack's comic
involvement in homosocial relationships
and is fail failures of heterosexual
prowess his effeminate characteristics
and humorous suggestions of homosexual
activities could have been enjoyed by
some listeners in the 1930s 1940s and
1950s while they could have been
abhorred by others and understood by
many as just another way to demonstrate
Jack's failure as a heterosexual
patriarch at the same time Jack slyly
Incorporated utre sexual references
possibly sailed right by many listeners
heads while they were acknowledged and
enjoyed by some and shocked and angered
others the masculine gender identity of
Jack's character contained complexities
and contradictions sometimes he made
jokes that played with expressing gay
preferences other times he stood up for
heterosexual patriarchal authority to
which his wealth and fame gave him
access and sometimes he titillated the
audience with mentions of his enjoyment
of feminine ways of Behaving Jack could
more often be characterized as lacking
in sexual desire or energy rather than
filled with sexual drive more often
asexual then overtly homosexual or
heterosexual instead of focusing only on
one moment an examination of the
complications inherent in gender
identity that encompasses the breadth of
Benny's radio career over 30 years can
help further explain Benny's popularity
with audiences across the sexual
political Spectrum it will also gain
Benny even greater credit for his
fearlessness self-confidence and wit
representations of female identity in
radio and television have garnered The
Lion's Share of feminist analysis as
media scholar Rebecca feezy notes
because these mediums were consumer
oriented and geared to female viewers or
otherwise feminized however masculinity
and male heterosexuality continue to be
understood as fixed stable unalterable
and therefore Beyond inquiry as Judith
Butler and other Scholars have argued
gender is not biologically innate but is
performative and culturally created and
there have always been many types
varieties Alternatives and levels of
masculinity that men and women can
perform when Jack Benny created his
comedy in mid-20th Century U.S culture
the dominant stereotypes of masculine
identity were narrow and the differences
between men and women were considered to
be extremely wide
fizzy suggests that popular culture
provided models of gendered identity
that formed a hierarchy of acceptable
unacceptable and marginalized models for
the male with a hegemonic masculinity as
the desired ideal the hegemonic male was
said to be a strong successful capable
and authoritative man who derives his
reputation from the workplace and his
self-esteem from the public sphere
writes fezi even though very few people
might reach it it was a standard
measuring stick to which men are
supposed to Aspire some lived in tension
with it such as minorities and
effeminate men and thus commanded less
power but most were as Michael Kimmel
says still complicit in sustaining this
hierarchic model
the Benny show narrative explored how
the immutable fixed categories of proper
masculinity could crack to reveal
possibilities of multiple forms of
masculinity while in other areas of
popular culture boundaries of gender
representation were hardening on Benny's
program they were continually blurred
how did Benny's gender-themed humor over
the airwaves make up for limitations of
listeners not being able to see the
visual cues that constructed gender
identities on radio as scholar Lori
Kendall similarly suggests of
computer-mediated online discussions the
bodies of Others May remain hidden and
inaccessible but this if anything gives
references to such bodies even more
social importance gender characteristics
of disembodied radio voices could be
fluid and uncertain hints were given by
the tone and pitch of the performer's
voices from Mary's throaty laugh to Mrs
day's intimidating growl to Frank
Nelson's sniveness performers voices on
the Benny show played with stereotypes
Benny and His Radio writers also
lavished attention in scripted Dialogue
on visible gender differences to fill in
the spaces of listeners imaginations
Benny's show dialogue often described
what the characters were wearing
especially if it was different from
heterosexual white middle-class Norms
after his appearance in the film
Charlie's Aunt 20th Century Fox 1941.
Jack's adventures in cross-dressing
costumes were added to the radio show
and the Benny gang joked about what Jack
looked like in female clothing or how he
did not fill out the shoulders of his
suits
Jack ribbed Phil Harris in Rochester
about the loudly colored jackets they
wore that aligned them with Zoot Suit
culture Mary and Jack made merciless fun
of the overalls babe War to work on her
construction jobs explorations of gender
identity and humor based on upending
listeners expectations of how male and
female characters would look and behave
was Central to Jack Benny's comedy
frustrated workplace patriarch
's character was at its most
hegemonically masculine in his role as
the star and producer of his radio show
and employer of his cast members at work
and of Rochester at his home Jack became
depicted over the years as a demanding
and churlish boss traditionally
patriarchal paying his workers little
and trying to squeeze much work from
them he criticized Don's weight Phil's
drunkenness the band's lack of musical
ability and slovenly habits and Dennis's
craziness and stupidity earlier it was
Kenny Baker's craziness and stupidity he
attempted to fire the Sportsman quartet
numerous times his one retort to Mary's
insults was to threaten to send her back
to work at the May Company department
store the mean old man a parody radio
soap opera referenced on the show took
Benny as its model of a heartless
landlord
the insult swapped back and forth
between Benny and his employees fit the
traditions of workplace comedy
especially of the humor made in
male-dominated factories and workshops
as Susan Douglas argues radio comedies
insult humor established a pecking order
and reminded the workers that Benny was
the paternalistic boss but the employees
nearly always gave back worse than they
got then he once explained the sources
of comedy on the program from the point
of view of an employer the humor of Phil
Harris is how can a man that is supposed
to be working for me go on getting drunk
chasing women insulting me and still I
don't fire him the humor of Rochester is
how can he get away with it if Rochester
and I share a bedroom on a Pullman he
rushes in first and grabs the lower and
I have to sleep in the upper birth
for all his Petty power in the radio
studio and at home Jack nevertheless was
terrified of his own bosses Jack quaked
in his boots every year when it came
time for the sponsor to pick up the
show's option from the earliest episodes
in which Jack made outrageous ads for
Canada Dry and wondered if his sponsor
would fire him Jack's fear of his
sponsor continued throughout his years
on the radio the sponsor was rarely an
executive visiting the studio but more
often an unheard voice on the other end
of a telephone whom Jack begged for
another chance helplessly remonstrating
against the sponsor's unheard
accusations but
but
while the stereotypical male authority
figure was expected to remain in control
of rationality and reason keeping his
emotions in check Jack frequently lost
his temper and yelled at annoying
underlings especially the Sportsman
quartet who often spun out of control
while singing the program's middle
commercials Benny and his writers
orchestrated Jack's Slow Burn buildups
of infuriated responses
wait a minute wait a minute wait a
minute and now cut that out into
crescendos of yelling voices
demonstrating that his leadership was
always on the verge of collapsing into
chaos
race as well as gender entered the
picture of employer employee relations
in Jack's management of Rochester Jack
is the employer of a household servant
was a despot he not only paid Rochester
next to nothing but constantly ordered
his servant to perform mountains of
Labor Rochester could complain but could
not say no in the earliest years
Rochester was supposedly lazy and even
stole from his employer as Benny and the
writers removed those stereotypes to
make the character less offensive to
African-American critics Rochester
became a bit more feminized a very
diligent and selfless employee despite
his minuscule income Jack could order
Rochester to do anything such as to
spend all nights searching for a lost
golf ball despite how much Jack abused
him Rochester never considered quitting
the frustration of Rochester's
impossible work situation would inspire
a violently imagined conclusion in Amiri
baraka's Short play Jello 1970. to the
credit of address send Benny and the
show writers although Rochester the
housekeeper was stuck obeying Jackson
perius demands Rochester's ability to
talk back to Jack and to criticize him
through humorous put Downs of the boss's
cheapness vanity and lack of virility
created the sharpest humor on the radio
program
to add another deflating comic Twist on
Jack's patriarchal Authority Benny's
writers began to make Jack parsimonius
unwilling to play his proper role in
consumer culture accusing someone else
of being cheap had a very long history
it was a staple of Italian Comedia Dell
art conflicts between the employer and
his servants and Vaudeville routines
poking endless fun at Thrifty Scotsman
Jack eventually became rich as a
prominent Radio Star and he had money in
every Bank in town plus a massively
fortified vault in his basement but he
was increasingly loathed to spend a dime
as Mary commented in a 1950
pre-Christmas episode whenever Jack went
out to purchase something there was
trouble he was the nation's worst
consumer the clerks always gave him
grief and Jack bulked at the price of
everything Frank Nelson confronted him
everywhere as a belittling department
store floor Walker or obstreperous
Railroad Station ticket seller Mel Blanc
is a department store clerk was annually
driven to insanity by Jack's impossible
demands made while purchasing the
cheapest possible Christmas present for
Don Wilson the blurring of real-life
Persona and fictional character in Jack
Benny's quest for patriarchal Authority
on his radio program occurred most
fascinatingly in those fleeting moments
live on the air in which Benny the
performer let it slip that he indeed was
the exacting director of his own show
although Benny had a very limited
ability to ad-lib in response to other
people's jokes in real life while in the
middle of a radio broadcast he was
lightning fast to complain about a
flawed line of dialogue or a Mist ring
of a telephone sound effect he made
sharp cutting fabulous ad-libs that took
the miscreants to task cast members
hooted with delight the few times they
caught the boss himself botching a line
her microphone fright increasing after
the war Mary began making more mistakes
in reading her dialogue lines as wide a
birth as Jack otherwise took in
criticizing her in their dialogue when
Mary flubbed a line Jack immediately
leapt on these mistakes and barked at
her to terrific comic effect these
moments were the one time he could
really punish her and put her in her
place to make up for all the insults she
tossed at him
The Jack Benny Fred Allen radio Feud of
1937 Drew its Spirit from the traditions
of insult talk that are a central part
of male interaction in workplaces and
social situations from gangs of boys who
learned to fight as play to
Shakespearean insults hurled by gifted
actors at one another exchanges of
ritualized insults in many cultures have
enabled the players to duel establish
pecking order show off their skills and
form Mutual bonds with the audience that
cheered them on
scholar Elijah Wald quotes jazz musician
mesmezro linking the African-American
tradition of the dozens to an improvised
Jazz performance
the idea of right smack in the middle of
every cat's mind all the time was this
he had to sharpen his wits every way he
could make himself smarter and Keener
better able to handle himself more hip
on the corner the idea of a kind of
mutual needling held sway each guy
spurring the other guy on to think
faster and be more nimble-witted
communal events like a contest of the
dozens could hold a variety of meanings
suggests walled one person's bitter
insult was another Comics Masterpiece
and what one Observer interpreted as
predatory bullying another might
interpret as the fascinating survival of
old traditions women could toss the
insults but traditionally this has been
a masculine Endeavor which undoubtedly
added to the sting of Mary's insults of
Jack as a woman was not supposed to be
as Adept at this game as men
the insults themselves needed to be
wildly exaggerated their absurdity
providing the insurance that it would
not be personally hurtful but also
making them humorous well philosopher
Jerome new suggests that two truthful
personal insults could result in the
opponent's swinging punches if the
insultee launched a reciprocal insult
back in return the incident became a
game new argues that insult games are
ways of claiming superiority they are
all about asserting masculinity and
cultural identity claiming honor and
defining the self and shows a verbal and
intellectual skill and dexterity
after the 10-week Benny Allen feud
climaxed in a hugely promoted meeting in
a Manhattan Ballroom on March 14 1937
instead of ending the conflict continued
and took on a life of its own fan
magazine Radio Mirror published an
adapted script of the mighty Benny Allen
feud in July 1938 and fans wrote to say
that they had reenacted the skit as a
party game
GIS on the battlefronts of World War II
greeted Benny's Uso appearances with
signs that said welcome Fred Allen When
Alan appeared as a guest on the erudite
radio quiz show information please host
Clifton fatiman focused mostly on jokes
about how much Alan must hate Benny
after the war Benny continued the fun in
several radio episodes with Benny's
Boulevard sketches in which he parodied
Alan's alley with a clothed spin affixed
to his nose in others Benny and Alan
swapped Tall Tales of their earliest
encounters Backstage on the Hinterlands
Vaudeville circuit these sketches were
opportunities to mix playful boasting
insults and accusations of plagiarizing
each other's acts with delightful
reminiscences about acts like Fink's
mules and Japanese flash acrobats
jugglers who tossed wooden barrels with
their feet which gave Fred and Jack the
chance to work the word bunghole into
the script
usually a cerbic radio critic Harriet
Van Horn commended Benny and Allen on
the extended feud in 1947. by professing
to hate each other they have instigated
more humorous situations and basked in
more free publicity than any other
would-be haters in Show Business by this
time you might think that the situation
was arid of humor that neither could
find in the other a single attribute to
insult but no Mr Benny finds new terms
of derision for Allen's program and the
bags under his eyes Fred on his part had
endless variations on the theme of
Jack's stinginess stupidity conceit and
clumsiness with the violin
a classic Feud exchange occurred that
year in live performance on stage at a
New York City movie theater as varieties
review noted
Jack Benny according to Fred Allen
during the historic terrate during
Benny's opening show at the Roxy killed
Vaudeville 15 years ago and now has
returned to the scene of his crime the
Allen intrusion was one of the historic
moments in Vaudeville wherein two top
radio personalities on a friendly
feuding basis had a chance to exchange
insults Allen started the business by
demanding a refund on his admission
after all he argued it was guaranteed
that he'd die laughing and in as much as
he was still alive he felt that he had
his doe coming back
Benny argued that the Sportsman should
be worth 15 cents Marjorie Reynolds was
worth a quarter and Rochester should be
worth 20 cents there was some
disagreement on Phil Harris's value and
after an initial demand of 10 cents
price was paired Down 2 cents lower they
tossed for the balance with Benny
winning and Benny shielded a dime for
personal expenses
critic John Crosby recalled another
Escapade as the Feud's best example of
Allen's triumphant insulting wit once
Benny was appearing on the Paramount
stage and Alan sat in the front row and
fueled one witty insult after another at
his old friend after one quip Benny
non-plussed waved a 20 bill at the
audience and offered it to anyone who
could top Allen's last gag instantly
Allen was on his feet topped his own gag
with a better one and walked up and
claimed the twenty dollars
Benny and Jewish male identity
to what extent was Jack Benny identified
by audiences and critics as a Jewish
male comic then he did not want to be
pinned down to one stringently defined
identity the humor of my program is this
Benny explained in a 1948 interview I'm
a big shot C I'm fast talking I'm a
smart guy I'm boasting about how
marvelous I am I'm a marvelous lover I'm
a marvelous fiddle player then five
minutes after I start shooting off my
mouth my cast makes a Schmo out of me
Shmoe noted Leo rosten in the joys of
Yiddish was a Yiddish term coined in
America that meant idiot or cuckold a
lighter form of the more pejorative term
schmuck a Schmo was a dull stupid
obnoxious or boring person a snook a
schlemel a hapless clumsy unlucky jerk
who was the butt of other people's jokes
then he internally defined his character
in terms of Jewish humor but put him in
an outwardly assimilationist package
Benny's complex relationship with Jewish
identity as explored by numerous
Scholars seemed dependent on his
listeners point of view and how they
wish to define the man and his comedy to
mainstream Christian radio listeners
Benny presented himself as a highly
assimilated Jew unlike some other
performers from immigrant backgrounds he
did not speak with an ethnic accent or
dress in ethnic costumes and he used
almost no Yiddish phrases in his work
throughout his radio career his show
celebrated Christmas and Easter as well
as Mother's Day and Halloween but never
touched on Jewish religious holidays
radio listeners occasionally wrote into
fan magazines to ask if Benny was indeed
Jewish to some commentators however
Benny seemed to hide his ethnic identity
to the point where it had disappeared
early in his career Benjamin kabelski
LED hundreds of other first dance second
generation ethnic performers changed his
birth name to a stage moniker that
sounded Slicker and more assimilated
first Ben K Benny then when band leader
Ben Bernie objected to the similarity to
Jack Benny Holly Pierce suggests that
Benny's early years spent in his
hometown of Waukegan Illinois a small
manufacturing city of ten thousand to
twenty thousand people an hour north of
Chicago assisted him in the adoption of
an assimilated personality instead of
being raised in the densely populated
Lower East Side of New York City with
its extensive Jewish immigrant
communities and Rich culture the
backgrounds of Eddie Cantor George
jessile and George Burns there were
relatively few Jews in Waukegan Benjamin
kabelski learned the flat Midwestern
accent shared by his schoolmates as an
adult Benny was apparently not an
actively religious person rarely
attending Services his faith was
important to him he married a Jewish
woman he can contributed generously to
Jewish Charities and he socialized in
large part with other Jewish Heritage
performers but it remained a private
aspect of his life
within the American Jewish Community
Jack Benny was acclaimed as a beloved
and prominent member of the faith
although certainly not as Jewish
identified to the extent of Eddie Cantor
who made his religious and ethnic
identity a central part of his
performing identity Benny garnered only
a modicum of coverage in the Jewish
press over the years but he cropped up
occasionally such as when an
atlanta-based publication celebrated him
in 1948 with a full-page photograph
captioned America's greatest Jewish
comedian Benny figures prominently in
most studies of Jewish performers in
American entertainment history as a
prime Exemplar of a second generation
immigrant who became prominent in
mainstream American popular culture his
comic themes and performance style drew
on many themes that Scholars have typed
as Jewish the self-deprecating humor the
miserliness the slight stature the
personality of the hapless Shmoe the
violin playing the effeminate mannerisms
Stephen Whitfield characterizes 19th
century American humor as cocksher
patrimony Frontier humor exalted those
who exhibited Mastery those who
triumphed over rivals or enemies those
who demonstrated can do Supremacy on the
other hand Whitfield notes the Jewish
humor centered on self-deprecation and
victimization Jews continue to exhibit a
proclivity for humor that underscored
failure rather than success marginality
rather than influence and puniness
rather than power he writes Whitfield
finds Jewish humor in 20th century
American culture and the character of
the anti-hero who is self-mocking and
exposed his own weakness and thus he
judged Jack Benny to be the comedian to
be the most associated with Jewish
cultural themes
other Scholars have argued however that
self-deprecating humor is common among
many ethnic marginalized groups and that
it's not exclusively a Jewish trait
Benny was very sensitive about
anti-semitic slurs made against him in
public that might damage his career as
exemplified by the horrid examples
collected by the FBI at the time of his
smuggling prosecution in 1939. racial
hatred was also his biggest concern
about the undertaking of the icat Stan
Jack Benny contest in late 1945 when he
was careful to employ readers to remove
any entries that spouted prejudiced
attitudes the identity blurring that
Jack Benny was able to accomplish was to
appear outwardly to look and sound very
assimilated into American culture but to
draw on his Jewish cultural framework
for his humor
despite Benny's assimilationist
Tendencies for his own comic Persona his
radio program did include occasional
appearances of Jewish identified
characters in the early 1930s Harry Khan
created a Jewish Comic character who
became a semi-frequent visitor to the
Benny radio program schleperman played
by Sam Hearn schlapperman was an urban
trickster popping up when he was least
expected announcing himself with hello
stranger schleperman had a thick Yiddish
accent he was sharp with retorts but
otherwise a pleasant fellow Khan
utilized the schleperman character as
part of his collection of ethnic voices
inserted into the end of a skit's
dialogue to surprise listeners after the
Benny show permanently relocated to the
West Coast schlapperman appeared much
less frequently
Hearn himself milked his schluberman
role for years on the East Coast putting
on performances in theaters and clubs
where he would portray the Wily
character conversing with a recording of
Benny or telling Benny related anecdotes
when the new group of writers joined the
Benny Program in 1943 they experimented
with adding new characters such as
Hermann Peabody the timid insurance
salesman bombastic Belly Laugh Barton
the writer and Brash Steve Bradley the
public relations agent Mr kitsel first
appeared on January 6 1946 when Jack and
the Gang attended the Rose Bowl football
game and they encountered a funny little
man with a Yiddish inflected voice
selling hot dogs up in the stands kitsel
was played by Artie Auerbach a radio
actor and photographer both kitzels
jingle pickle in the middle in the
mustard on top and his character were
popular with radio listeners the writers
began bringing him back regularly onto
the radio show if schlepperman had
darted in and out of Benny's program
with an urbanized Vibe Mr kitsel instead
was a gentle green horn kitsel's humor
Rose from his cultural incompetence in
Michelle helms's term his confusion and
lack of knowledge of American society
kitsel substituted Jewish names for
Anglo-Saxon named celebrities events and
objects his tentative voice and reaction
to Jack's comments a surprised
him as an unassimilated immigrant
Fred Allen's character pansy Nussbaum
made similar types of remarks when she
appeared in Allen's alley skits Cantor
had the Greek Parky carcass the Mad
Russian characters on his radio program
and Mrs Nussbaum was joined in Allen's
alley by a Yankee farmer Southern
Senator and a drunken Irish lout Benny
like the other Comics distanced himself
from these ethnic personalities by his
smooth Superior use of language there
was debate within the Jewish
entertainment community in the late
1940s and 1950s as to whether
continuation of these broadly
stereotyped Jewish ethnic characters
like kitsel stimulated prejudice against
the jewish-american community performers
like Sam Levinson argued for ending them
Benny incorporated kitsel into nearly
120 of his radio program episodes in the
late 1940s and 1950s kidsel also made an
appearance on Benny's first TV episode
and thereafter the character was still
used occasionally until our box death in
numerous radio appearances added to many
of the continuing themes of Jack's humor
meant that reminders of Jewish ethnic
identity remained embedded around the
edges of Benny's radio program
Denny's female impersonations
in Benny's mid to late 1930s radio
episodes Jack occasionally requested
that his male cast members take female
roles in their movie parodies their
skits Drew on the long tradition of male
cross-dressing in comic stage
performances which had been popular with
mainstream entertainment audiences for
hundreds of years when the Benny group
did a takeoff of the film girls
dormitory 20th Century Fox 1936 the male
cast members made titillating jokes
while complaining about having to dress
as characters of the opposite sex
words like girdles and stockings were
worked into the dialogue to add visual
humor to the audience's imagining of the
scene on other occasions they performed
skits about a football team or the
all-male crew of a submarine and Mary
got to Grumble about having to wear
shoulder pads and threaten to add lace
to her uniforms
the most prominent occasion of group
cross-dressing on the Benny Radio Show
in the 1930s occurred when Jack and the
cast performed a parody of the film The
Women MGM 1939
the film's publicity had highlighted how
unusual it was to have an entirely
female cast Benny and his players
performed a wickedly funny sketch with
Jack preening at the opportunity to play
Norma Shearer and Eddie Anderson
grouching about having to wear mascara
as the maid Jack Dawn Phil and Dennis
had a high time playing gossipy Society
women complaining about the faithless
men in their lives while Mary introduced
the play's acts with meowing side
comments this skit was so popular that
the cast was asked to reprise it several
times at entertainment industry
functions in Hollywood
historical case studies of the sexual
naivete and resistance of the 1930s
American movie going public especially
in smaller towns who when encountering
older men in relationships with Shirley
Temple and Shirley's films either could
not conceptualize or angrily rejected
the possibility of pedophilic inferences
are small but telling examples
demonstrating the power of dominant
heterosexual ideology
heterosexual ideology was so strong at
mid-century that many people were
incredulous about alternative sexual
identities or desires and many were
unable to speak of Imagine or
acknowledge them others actively refused
to Media scholar Karen Quimby has
suggested that straight audiences could
use the concept of disavowl to downplay
any homosexual content in popular media
and understand the program's humor as
being with an informative heterosexual
content
other audience members might understand
the scene to represent both straight and
gay connotations disavowell Quimby
writes allows some audience members to
both acknowledge gay male difference and
to disavow this difference through the
heterosexual fantasy that sees the
characters like themselves as straight
Quimby argues that this openness of
interpretations in media audiences
reception Dynamic allows such programs
to attract and keep audiences who may be
somewhat uncomfortable Quimby argues
that the dynamic of contradiction or
disavow can be built into the program's
narrative through story lines the visual
look or sound of performers and their
understated acting to make them seem as
acceptable or non-controversial to
straight audiences as possible
Benny's programs like those of other
radio Comics played with utre unusual or
forbidden sexual humor in this way in
radio performances dialogue and
descriptive language created imaginative
worlds that listeners could configure to
their own Pleasures suggestive
euphemisms were easier to slyly bypass
unsophisticated audiences although
Infamous encounters such as May West
with Charlie McCarthy on the Bergen and
McCarthy radio program in 1937 could
draw wide criticism and reaction
male to female transvestitism is a
complex phenomenon that is often
confused with other manifestations of
male to female cross-dressing for
example drag performance are used
feminist scholar Samantha Allen she
notes that although Studies have shown
that as much as 87 percent of people who
wear clothes of another gender identify
as heterosexual it has been widely
assumed in American and Western culture
that this is a sign of homosexuality a
sharp historical gender divide of
clothing and behavior has mandated that
the closed one wears must match one's
felt sex which must be opposite to the
sex one desires men have had a variety
of reasons over the years for wishing to
wear female clothing both erotic and
performative they have taken pleasure in
confusing or shocking the gender
identity distinctions of those who view
men in dresses or a pleasure in
performing or inhabiting female identity
sexual themed humor was prominent in
radio comedy as it had been in
Vaudeville in the stage Matthew Murray
in his study on radio censorship argues
that Radio Networks were fully cognizant
of its popularity and potency as a
ratings getter and selling tool like the
interplay between movie producers and
the film industry's censorship
organization radio network
administrators attempted to negotiate
the tensions between material that
titillated some audiences and offended
others and material that reflected
modern values as well as the maintenance
of conservative values of propriety in
1934 NBC established a continuity
acceptance Department headed by Janet
mcrory to scrutinize the scripts of
material that sponsors intended to
broadcast over the airwaves comedians
with their penchant to joke about the
Forbidden gave these radio sensors
headaches Fred Allen earned their
frequent ire over the years for his
allusions to Barnyard bathroom humor
chickens straining to lay eggs cow I was
with unruly udders
Eddie Cantor Bob Hope Charlie McCarthy
Edgar Bergen Edwin Red Skelton Jack
Pearl all the comics gave the sensors
trouble at one point or another with
questionable humor radio authorities did
not seek to completely remove instances
and themes of transgressive sexuality
but to contain and tame it they sought
to reincorporate Taboo topics as much as
possible into Norms of white
middle-class culture and standards of
appropriate male and female
representation and behavior
not only did Benny's radio program play
with male cross-dressing but the show
likewise occasionally Incorporated
situations and jokes that could to some
listeners be perceived as having gay
queer or effeminate connotations some
listeners chuckled at the utre comedy
while conservative straight audiences
could explain away the dangerous ideas
in this humor as being non-offensive a
foolish parody of normative heterosexual
ideologies during the May 29 1938
episode which took place at Paramount
Studios Jack ordered Rochester to read
Joan Bennett's lines as Jack practiced a
love scene for his upcoming film
appearance in artists and models abroad
Paramount 1938.
Dawn Marion Phil listened in from
outside the dressing room while the two
rehearsed Jack complained that Rochester
was not acting with sufficient emotion
Jack Rochester you're not giving me
anything how can I be romantic when you
won't put any feeling into your lines I
wish you'd get in the mood of it
Rochester mood I did everything but kiss
you I started out driving your car and
now I'm your Leading Lady are we on our
honeymoon yet
the lines were greeted with ready
laughter from the studio audience radio
listeners might have complained to the
network or sponsor or their local
stations but there is no evidence in the
trade papers or archives that this
occurred because these sexually utree
moments were created by Benny and his
writers and performed by his cast with
Sly humor mainstream audiences could
understand them as just absurdities
grotesque burlesque of behavior
appropriate in other situations like
movie love scenes while historians such
as George Chauncey have found evidence
that gay male radio listeners in the
1930s understood the Benny Show's humor
to incorporate homosexual related humor
that they found pleasurable Benny's
program at the same time could be
perceived by mainstream heterosexual
listeners to be inoffensive to their
ideological beliefs
public reaction to Benny's comic
cross-dressing in radio and film it is
flirtations with gay humor changed over
time from the 1930s to the mid-1950s as
Benny's enjoyment of the roles and the
humor he created remained the same the
media form he appeared in made a
difference in critical reactions and the
culture kept changing around him while
some critics have interpreted these
cross-dressing performances to strongly
link Jack the character and Benny the
person to homosexual identity I believe
that Benny found pleasure in not
choosing any particular identity in
keeping listeners viewers and critics
titillated confused and guessing
wondering about how Jack was blurring
the sharp distinctions between male and
female behavior and heterosexual and
homosexual identities through a variety
of comically erotic ways of behaving
from his start on air in 1932 Jack Benny
had been considered one of the Network's
least problematic performers by the NBC
continuity acceptance department and the
network Executives who worried about
complaints from offended listeners and
special interest groups Benny made one
mild allusion to utre sexuality in an
early program in his first three months
on the radio when he read out
testimonials from animals at the zoo
proclaiming their fondness for Canada
Dry Ginger Ale it was an excuse for
terrible puns Mr and Mrs leopard claimed
that Canada Dry hit the right spot and
the mountain lion was glad that the soda
was sold at all mountains then Jack
reported from The Monkey House Dear Mr
Benny your Canada Dry Ginger Ale is very
good I love it with a dash of orchid ice
cream signed Jim pansy Benny slyly
commented ah they even have them in the
zoo this Association of the Forbidden
with the product along with Benny's
other outrageous humorous in-program
commercials for Canada Dry LED his
sponsored to demand that he choose much
less controversial paths in which to
advertise their ginger ale archival
records of NBC's continuity acceptance
Department are only partial and can't
provide definitive answers about which
radio programs or performers caused them
the most concerns several documents
mentioned Benny's program but Network
Executives usually were quick to note
the complaints about his show were rare
listeners who wish to voice complaints
about Benny's show might also have
directed their comments to the sponsor
or to the advertising agency that
produced it here too unfortunately
archival evidence is very scarce leaving
historians with just a few tantalizing
clues about censorship problems that the
Benny Program encountered
in January 1937 NBC vice president
Bertha Brainerd complained to West Coast
NBC executive John swallow about her
frustration over the Network's lack of
control over radio performers when their
programs originated from Hollywood far
from the new york-based continuity
acceptance Department's oversight
I listened to the Jack Benny Program
last night and think there are perhaps
certain things which you in your
diplomatic fashion can suggest to Jack
the line I think you are nuts I have
never felt belonged in Mr Benny's copy
he has always been above reproach and
this phrase we have found to be
disapproved by a large percentage of our
audience I felt that there was a
definite tendency toward a feminate
characterizations particularly by Frank
Parker I feel strongly about this
especially when a tenor with a high
voice has the line I'd like to see
anything in the lavender nature all out
Jack doesn't need this sort of material
to get his humor
it was the popular tenor Parker not
Benny who was giving hints of sexual
transgression in his performance and
Parker did it through his delivery as
his written dialogue had been approved
by NBC authorities the only other
significant objection about possible
homosexual inferences in the Benny
Program in the archived continuity
acceptance Department files was a
complaint about effeminate men lodged
about the Benny show in 1939. in March
1942 NBC Executives had lengthy
discussions about their problems with
risque jokes being told on nearly all
the comedians programs Alan Benny Cantor
Gracie Allen Skelton the worst offender
they claimed was Bob Hope Network
Executives were receiving Little Help
from sponsors or ad agencies in toning
down the raucous humor which in Hope's
case was becoming such an issue that
several Midwestern stations threatened
to band together and refused to carry
his program these relatively few
complaints about offensive humor and
Benny's show were all that appeared to
exist in the records in the archival NBC
radio collections
Benny plays Charlie's Aunt
following a successful 1940 Broadway
Revival of Thomas Brandon's 1892
frequently performed slapstick the
cross-dressing farce Charlie's Aunt
which had featured a young Jose Ferrer
in his first starring role in August
1941 the 20th Century Fox film studio
released a film adaptation starring
Benny set at Oxford University in the
1890s the play's slight narrative
concerned two male undergraduates who
convinced a third fan Court babberly
played by Benny to pose as a wealthy old
lady Charlie's Brazilian Aunt Donna
Lucia to chaperone visits of the boy's
girlfriends to their rooms complications
ensued when baberly dressed as the ant
in Long Victorian crinolines and a gray
wig attracted the interest of all the
old men on campus from daughtering
professors and the girls crusty Uncle to
his classmate's father the men were
mostly attracted by the ants wealth but
the old professors also appeared to
romantically desire the old woman Pratt
Falls and rumpkicking abounded and then
pretty K Francis the real ant arrived
eventually the truth of the identity of
Charlie's and is revealed the young
couples are united and babberly falls in
love with the real ant
Fox's publicity campaign for the film
focused on Benny's gender boundary
Crossing featuring taglines such as she
is the funniest thing in skirts and most
important of all she is a he broad
physical slapstick and cigar chomping
were emphasized in the photographic and
cartooned advertising illustrations to
reassure conservatives that nothing
about Benny or his performance was
actually effeminate nearly all newspaper
reviews of the film concurred in finding
that the film was hilarious simply
because Benny wore female clothing many
delighted in detailing Benny's costume
under clothes and wigs the Chicago Times
noted
Benny makes a very pretty picture indeed
as he peeks coily out from behind a
black lace fan as he toys with the white
silk fish you around his neck flutters
his eyelashes and tosses his curls a
poor copy of whistler's mother his
awkwardness in skirts his koi simpring
in Mad efforts to escape from a pair of
romantic gentlemen who both yearned to
make him a bride provide a picture with
considerable hilarity
a small number of conservative reviewers
claimed to be offended by the film
Family Circle Magazine's reviewer wrote
everybody at the theater laughed fit to
bust made me feel like an outsider but
I'm the killjoy at the party who doesn't
go into Gales when Joe puts on Mabel's
hat
the Albany New York Knickerbocker noted
now this critic well no prude confesses
that he has never been able to detect
the slighted gleam of humor in such a
masquerade of the Sexes there is
something fundamentally vulgar about it
but the dear public eats it up
other reviewers reassured potential
moviegoers that the film was purely
heterosexual fun with no exhibition of
alternative sexual connotations the Los
Angeles Herald Express reported
Benny plays the part without a Swish and
in almost his natural voice
Howard Barnes of the New York Herald
Tribune wrote he has the wisdom to play
the famous part straight there is never
a question of a feminacy in his
portrayal that I think makes the
difference between an uproarious
redaction of the Thomas farce or a doll
museum piece
the Los Angeles Times calmed readers
qualms by claiming that the babbly
character loathes the Masquerade that he
has to put over but the young men his
associates have him on the Rope
on the other hand for the New York Post
reviewer Benny's own effeminate
Tendencies particularly suited him to
the part as for Jack Benny his
long-established screen and radio
character somewhat lacking in the more
viral traits fits snugly into the
demands of an ant roll
a few reviewers non-plussed by the sharp
loudness of audience laughter in
response to the film connected its
popularity to rapidly accelerating War
fears the New York Morning Telegraph
mused over the riotous reaction at the
film's premiere at the Roxy there's no
explaining it no more than there was any
explaining the astonishing success of
the Jose fairer stage version that took
Broadway by storm last winter maybe it
has something to do with the current
state of the public mind bordering close
on hysteria anyway maybe it has
something to do with the weather
another paper termed it a blitzkrieg of
furious fun wordy humor and deep belly
laughs at the academy awards ceremony
held in Hollywood in March 1942 Bob Hope
presented Jack Benny with a faux award
to honor Benny for portraying the best
sweater girl on the screen it was a
gold-toned oscar-like statuette dressed
in long skirt and Tiny gray wig with a
cigar in its mouth and was dubbed
oscarine
the publicity this joke garnered in
newspapers and fan magazines
demonstrated the growing cultural
anxiety over the instability of
traditional gender roles Benny himself
quipped I should have won the Academy
Award for my acting in Charlie's Aunt
but the voters were baffled in that
picture I played the part of a man and
the part of a woman I was exceptional in
both parts but the voters didn't know
whether to elect me best actor or best
actress I don't know whether to be
jealous of Gary Cooper or Joan Fontaine
once or twice a season during the
ensuing wartime years then he and his
writers Incorporated mentions of
cross-dressing and sexually utrey
Behavior into Benny's radio routines in
October 1942 Jack and Rochester were in
the kitchen putting up mother Benny's
apple butter to sell both wore aprons
and visiting cast member Dennis day
asked why are you wearing dresses on the
October 24 1943 show Jack joked about
sharing a trained sleeping berth with
Don Wilson and Dennis day train travel
during wartime was overcrowded so most
listeners found humor in that context of
shared inconvenience Jack's character
was thoroughly defined by his cheapness
by this point so others laughed at the
misery Jack caused by refusing to book
separate accommodations still others
might be amused to imagine the corpulent
Wilson crammed into the small space with
Jack and Dennis but the suggestion that
three men were sleeping together was
available to titillate sunless with a
sexual connotation on the October 8 1944
episode Jack told Mary a story about
wearing his Charlie's address to enter
the Palladium dance hall a place where
men had to pay double the admission
price of women panurius Jack claimed it
was accidental that he just left the
film set of Charlie's ant in costume and
he used it to get in at half price
Jack Mary I'm not dressing up like a
girl again I'll never forget what
happened last time hmm a guy buys you a
drink he thinks he owns you jack in a
girlish voice what I went through Mary
laughs Jack Jack it was bad enough being
dressed like a girl to get in but you
didn't have to let a fellow buy you a
drink Jack well for goodness sake Mary I
danced with him all evening I deserved
something what a rotten dancer he was
say Mary I wonder what he'd have thought
if he knew who I really was especially
when he tried to put his arm around me
Mary he tried to put his arm around you
well gosh Jack why didn't you tell him
jack I didn't have the heart to he was a
marine and he was going overseas in the
morning
Network radio programs in the 1940s and
1950s usually depicted the occasional
gay character in stereotypical ways as
weaklings with High voices and nervous
temperaments these characters were
generally greeted with horror laughter
pity or disgust from a mainstream
heterosexual audience as fizzy notes of
later 1960s TV episodes
straight characters were free to make
derogatory jokes about homosexuals it
was considered entertaining and
appropriate to marginalize them fizzy
notes that homosexuality was still
presented for comic value 50 years later
on the TV series friends NBC
1994-2004 when its main characters
became upset and felt humiliated at
being mistaken for gay or encountering
gayness
at Mid 20th century as well as for the
rest of the era most straight white men
expressed a great deal of uneasiness
around being associated in any way with
issues of homosexuality thus it's all
the more remarkable that on the Benny
radio program in the 1940s and early
1950s while the jokes about
cross-dressing effeminate behavior and
sleeping Arrangements were meant to
insult and humiliate the characters
mostly Jack there was no gay bashing or
malice shown toward characters who
hinted at utre sexual identities on the
program there was a tacit acceptance of
less than or different than heterosexual
ideals most radio audiences of the day
did not outright reject these characters
and situations there were no public
boycotts of programs mainstream
audiences probably assumed that these
were the harmless quirks of absurd
characters
on the Benny radio program although Mary
and Phil constantly insulted Jack about
his lack of masculinity they did not do
it with disgust his activities were
presented as just a facet of his
character of the schlemiel Jack's body
was regularly criticized and sometimes
instead of making pronouncements about
his weak thin or old appearance the cast
members joked about his womanly physique
especially his shapely legs and feminine
walk Jack joined in this humor
explaining the circumstances and not
embarrassed but accepting of his own
body and sartorial choices Jack was
presented most frequently as asexual or
neutered and very rarely as expressing
sexual desire it is likely that most
audience members of the day consider
Jack harmless Mary once claimed that
embracing Jack was like kissing a dead
fish
in the late 1940s the occasions of utre
sexual innuendo occasionally rose on
Benny's radio program even as public
attitudes toward appropriate expression
of gender identity were hardening on
occasion however Benny and his writers
took chances and pushed the edge of the
acceptability envelope one of the
program's most outlandish radio program
skits based around cross-dressing and
sexual desire involved someone other
than Jack doing the costumed play as
Jack took a familiar role as the Fall
Guy who was the victim of the practical
joke at the opening of the radio show on
November 2nd 1947 Dawn Jack and Mary
discussed their past weekend activities
Jack I had a lot of fun Friday night too
Don you know I went to a Halloween party
in Beverly Hills and I met the most
wonderful girl and she was so cute you
know she came dressed up as Little Bo
Peep kids I've got to tell you about
this girl she wore a little black mask
that seemed to oh I don't know she was
just wonderful I really went nuts about
her Mary well I've never heard you talk
like this before
Jack I can't help it when she came
through the door I looked at her and she
looked at me and I could just feel
something run up and down my spine
Dennis enters the conversation and after
his usual distractions he informs Jack
that Phil Harris had also attended the
party
Jack Phil was there gee that's funny I
didn't see him what was he dressed as
Dennis Little Bo Peep Jack Little Bo
Peep Phil
kiss me pumpkins Jack no no wonder he
wouldn't take off his mask Mary Phil you
mean Jack danced with you all evening
Phil not only that Livy he asked if he
could drive me home Mary no Phil yeah
say Livy have you ever seen the lights
of the city from Mulholland Drive Jack I
can't understand it how could he shave
so close Mary Phil I think you carried
it too far why didn't you tell Jack who
you were Phil what and spoil an old
man's evening Jack all right Phil look
you've had your joke now let's forget it
Phil forget it I want those nylons you
promised me Alice could use them Jack
look you're not getting those nylons and
I'm not putting you in pictures either
now look we've got a show to do
Phil look Jackson come here a minute
takes Jack aside in low tones I want to
ask you something Jack what is it Phil
Whispers come here I want to ask you
something do my eyes still twinkle like
two stars in the Summer Sky
Jack loudly oh boy do you fall for
everything you hear I really put one
over on you bud lower but I still don't
understand how he could shave so close
in the recording of the live broadcast
of this episode there were an
extraordinary 13 seconds of studio
audience laughter and Applause caused by
Dennis's revealing of Phil as being Bo
Peep the loud laughter seems a little
more nervous and edgy than usual then he
and his writers and cast members were
perfectly aware of what they were doing
in playing with possibly sexually
suggestive queer humor writer Milt
josephsburg recalled the times the
scriptwriters would put really
outrageous jokes into the script just to
draw the Wrath of the network sensors to
distract them from the more slyly subtle
joke that got slipped in elsewhere
in the post-war era of increasingly
conservative public attitudes toward
appropriate heterosexual gender roles
and Rising unease fear and policing of
homosexuality some media critics
upholding Vera masculine standards
disdained the Benny shows hints of
titillating homosexual humor John Crosby
of the New York Herald Tribune commented
in February 1948
one of the stock characters in radio
comedy is what might charitably be
described as the male spinster he is the
man who says Mr burrow we are not amused
he is the Postal Inspector on the Dennis
Day show who said Mr day I love you he's
the man who sells Jack Benny the ticket
to Cucamonga he is waspish supercilious
sarcastic vaguely effeminate and he
lives in a state of Perpetual irritation
he usually occupies a position of minor
Authority and uses it taramically
invariably he appears when the comedian
wants comedy badly and is in a hurry he
gets a Surefire laugh from the studio
audience not for what he says but for
how he says it and in spite of their
affection I'm damn tired of him and I'm
sure a great many others are too
Crosby like the NBC continuity
acceptance Department administrators 13
years before claimed that most
inferences of homosexuality came from
minor characters on The Jack Benny
Program such as Frank Nelson in his
nasty man roles although Crosby's
description could have fit jack to a
significant degree there may possibly
have been repercussions in the industry
had Crosby gone so far as to label such
a big star as homosexual I have not yet
uncovered a significant number of other
public criticisms of many radio episodes
for their aberrant sexual humor this
perhaps implies that the majority of
radio listeners assumed that many shows
were unproblematic Family Fare either
radio listeners did not notice these
examples that hinted of alternative
sexual identities or they found these
characters simply absurd certainly other
groups were listening closely such as
the African-American listeners and
critics who paid very close attention to
Rochester's role on the program but this
sexual innuendo did not seem to draw
draw much comment given the paucity of
complaints in the archives The increased
amount of sexually titillating humor on
the Benny radio program in the early
1950s is fascinating to examine the
Scandal magazines of the late 1940s and
1950s like confidential would have a
field day exploiting photos of Benny and
his Gracie Allen costume as purported
evidence of his utre sexual behavior as
we will see in the chapter addressing
Benny's challenges of moving his radio
program to Television TV critics and TV
audiences would begin to complain about
the visuality and intrusion of sexual
images broadcast into the home wouldn't
those concerns and conservative cultural
values have created a greater amount of
criticism of Benny's occasional blue
humor on the radio Airwaves than we have
been able yet to find the imaginative
aspects of the Unseen radio media must
have allowed for greater latitude for
audiences not to complain about the
things that they heard that would have
upset them had they seen them
Benny impersonates Gracie Allen
the pleasure in cross-dressing that Jack
Benny took over the years found its
finest expression in his imitation of
Gracie Allen Jack created the Gracie
impersonation for a private members only
West Coast Friars Club charity
fundraising entertainment probably in
1949 perhaps earlier the Friars programs
as they had traditionally been done in
New York featured only male performers
while women were invited to be a part of
the audience in the 1948 Friars Frolic
program Danny K impersonated modern
dancer K Thompson with Benny George
Burns Jack Carson and Van Johnson
performing as her evening suited backup
dancers the Williams Boys in April 1949
the Los Angeles Times reported that the
girls numbers were a big success the
highlight of both 1949 versions of the
Friars Frolic show in Los Angeles was
Benny and burns then he did a full-on
imperson nation of Gracie Allen not a
broad burlesque performance but one
paying careful attention to get the
costume and behavior as close to the
original as possible
the Benny burn skit was reported fairly
widely in the American Press accompanied
by his many or more slyly titillating
comments and details as that greeted
Benny's performance as Charlie's Aunt
eight years previously
fan magazine radio and television best
ran a two-page photo spread meet Gracie
Benny detailing Jack's transformation
with makeup false eyelashes and lipstick
Silk Stockings corset curly wig and
feathered hat
Benny was of course only one of several
noted Comics doing female impersonations
on American television in the late 1940s
and early 1950s Milton Burl had donned
outlandish female costumes Cleopatra
Carmen Miranda as part of his slapstick
Vaudeville style performances on his
program Eddie Cantor and Ken Murray
whose comedy TV show was sponsored like
Denny's by the American Tobacco Company
appeared in Broad campy exaggerated kind
of drag performance Benny on the other
hand created something that delighted
some audience members by being so slyly
accurate as one TV reviewer claimed
unlike Burl in Canter Benny made a
handsome rather than a grotesque woman
showed a mighty neat ankle too
in 1950 in 1951 then Ian Burns repeated
their routine at private parties in
March 1952 Benny and his writers crafted
a TV show episode to highlight the
Gracie routine expanding the 10-minute
skit with a surrounding story about
Gracie's disappearance from the guest
starring role she and George Burns were
to play on the Benny TV program
in the first half of the TV episode Jack
was hidden behind a backstage dressing
room screen as he parried the insults
hurled by George Rochester Dawn and
Frank Nelson the makeup man Jack also
struggled with his makeup girdle and
other accoutrements necessary to
impersonate Gracie the middle portion of
the Benny TV episode displayed the
onstage Burns and racy Benny performance
it was drawn from old Burns and Allen
Vaudeville routines from the 1920s and
Benny's Sly impression of Gracie's
Expressions movements and the tone of
voice were spot on Benny's entrance on
stage was greeted with a great deal of
audience Applause and the intimacy of
the television production's close-up
shots emphasized the costume and makeup
he wore in the conclusion after the
stage show then he was shown sitting in
his dressing room Stan's wig but still
in costume and makeup the real Grace
Yellen burst into the room mistook Jack
for a hussy named Tallulah and slapped
him then vented her wrath about cheating
husbands by slapping every man she
subsequently encountered including
Jack's sponsor
Benny's Gracie Allen impersonation aimed
for cross-dressing very similitude his
costume was subdued and accurate not an
exaggerated clown or drag outfit the
careful attention to seemed stalkings
high heels gloves and hat and Benny's
reserved channeling of Gracie's
mannerisms and way of speaking were
uncannily close and unnerving to some
critics and conservatives in this time
of increasingly sharp divisions between
appropriate male and female Behavior
reaction to Benny's March 9th TV episode
was Swift and Loud varieties Jack
Hellman reported that in all his 42
years in the business says Jack Benny no
show of his occasioned as much comment
as his recent TV or in which he played
Gracie Allen what surprised most of the
Lookers was his studied trick of playing
it straight without any ludicrous
trimmings a network executive at CBS
gathered the next morning's most
important reviews and telegraphed them
to Benny's manager Irving fine in
Hollywood one was scathing Ben gross of
the New York daily news titled his
response not so funny
maybe there's something wrong with my
sense of humor but I'm one of those odd
guys who just can't see anything
screamingly funny in a man masquerading
as a Woman except in Charlie's Aunt of
course while the highlight of Jack
Benny's show on CBS TV at 7 30 last
night was Jack pretending to be Gracie
Allen teamed up with George Burns for
the first few moments the ACT produced a
few faint laughs on my part although it
wowed the studio audience after that I
thought it all to be a deadly bore
on the other hand Harriet Van Horn of
the New York World telegram announced
Benny panics them in sequins and Furs
judging that poor Jack had finally
created a visually oriented show that
overcame the limitations of his orally
based radio humor when Gracie went
missing Jack stepped into the breach
wearing a sequin trim dress Platinum Fox
Furs a plumed hat and high-heeled shoes
his foundation garment it was made
elaborately clear is borrowed from the
rotund announcer Don Wilson When Burns
and Benny made their entrance there was
a roar of laughter everything stopped
while the audience luxuriated in the
delicious lunacy of Jack Benny playing
Gracie Allen it was the most spectacular
entrance I've ever seen on television
these critics demonstrated the deeply
divided responses to Benny's episode
Jack Gould of the New York Times
enthusiastic praise exposed the nervous
tension that surrounded Benny's
cross-dressing Gamble
Jack's success came in form which nine
times out of ten spells disaster for the
clowns of Broadway and Hollywood he did
a feminine characterization but this was
an impersonation that avoided the
cliches to which Milton Burl in
particular is addicted the smeared
lipstick the padded figure and the
affected lisp and instead was
essentially a masterly tidbit of
hilarious pantomime what made the show
was Mr Benny's walk he took mincing
little steps that in themselves were
almost a satirical ballet on all the
grand Dames that ever lived without
saying a word he would shrug a shoulder
Pat the back of his quaffier or lift an
eyebrow each gesture was underplayed and
disciplined yet cumulatively they
provided the idea framework for Jack's
Mastery of deadpan comedy
quite a few TV reviewers responses were
negative one noted I can understand the
bit Benny's Gracie routine at a
gathering of show folk but on a coast to
coast telecast I thought it ill-advised
in questionable Taste and to no
particular advantage in other words a
broad burlesque impersonation is one
thing but a slick near perfect job of
the sort that Benny did last night is
quite another and much too close for
comfort
Andy Wilson in the Detroit times asked
without getting into a long-winded
discussion with psychiatrists and
amateur mind readers why do comedians
think putting on women's clothing is
funny anymore probably the main reason
is that someone is sure to Snicker at
the comedian's legs and feet and then
you get an epidemic of laughs
reviewers for the Washington star and
Kansas City Star claim that this kind of
humor was beneath Benny and that they
cringed when men dress up as women for
Laughs they declared that it was not
appropriate for family viewing the
reviews expressed a theme that proper
middle class family values were being
challenged in these TV shows visually
displaying too much sexual innuendo
working class burlesque and poor taste
invading their living rooms in the new
technology
emboldened by the attention it garnered
when broadcast live to a small National
audience in 1952 Jack Benny seized the
opportunity to repeat this sketch in a
filmed television episode Broadcast to a
far larger audience on April 11 1954.
varieties review acknowledged that it
still pulled a massive reaction from
Studio audiences with Benny's entrance
in costume generating one of the longest
laughs of the Season nevertheless among
the reviews there were still a
significant percentage of negative
responses noting the reviewer's
discomfort with the drag performance a
Boston reviewer calling it a lowly
device of female impersonation The
Hollywood Reporter acknowledged the
sketch's popularity but questioned its
appropriateness
Benny was an impressive female worthy of
wolf whistles anywhere the material was
good too and burns and Benny dancing
between jokes was high style stuff
they'll be talking about this show in
the trade for many a moon and what
they're saying is should Benny get his
laughs this way
Jack continued to reference
cross-dressing humor in 1954 claiming in
his next television episode May 2nd 1954
that he was picked up by a sailor while
wearing his Gracie Allen costume and in
another sketch in Fall 1954 set at
Jack's house after losing a bet at cards
to Rochester Jack Warren apron while
cleaning his kitchen and Dawn entered
the scene and mistook him for a woman
subsequently however Benny and his
writers chose to pull back from further
direct presentations or discussions of
female cross-dressing in his television
programs they adhered more often to a
situation comedy formula in realistic
domestic neighborhood and Studio
settings with Jack playing nothing more
utre than a fastidious fuss budget
Milton Burl and the other Vaudeville
influence comics on television were
toning down their burlesque flavored
comedy of crazy drag costumes and
over-the-top physical comedy cultural
taboos on appropriate representations of
gender and sexuality were hardening the
new celebrity scan handle magazines like
confidential and uncensored ran
photographs of Benny and Gracie Allen
makeup and spun rumors about his
sexuality as the nation's culture grew
more skittish in the mid-1950s about
portrayals of utregender identity and
Benny himself aged the space for Benny
to create playful oral and visual humor
about gender identity closed down that
doesn't mean it disappeared Jack was
comfortable to keep blurring the lines
when he could such as on talk show
appearances in the early 1970s on
occasion he would make self-deprecating
jokes about how other Comics criticized
him for his womanly walk and then gladly
demonstrated
humorous comment on American
constructions of masculinity gender and
sexual identity were Central to Jack
Benny's humor throughout his career
these examples stretching across Benny's
radio film and early TV performances
from 1932 to 1954 have shown the
slippery nature of the way that he
played with masculine gender identity
and his humor's continuities and changes
over two decades
his jokes and comic characterization
blurred the boundaries of sharply
defined categories that became more
strictly enforced in American popular
culture over time the humor of his roles
was available to be read in many ways by
a variety of audiences in his era and
today reception of Benny's comedy had a
wide range of meanings it could confirm
conservative assumptions about
heterosexuality and male dominance and
it could create spaces for alternative
conceptions of masculinity and religious
and ethnic identity it could open a
place for the recognition and acceptance
of queerness by being so Adept at
blurring the distinct categories of
gendered behavior Benny's comedy created
a liminal space in which men and women
Jews and Gentiles Straits and gays could
safely laugh at their differences and
similarities
the next two chapters examine the career
of African-American actor Eddie Anderson
and the construction of racial identity
that Anderson portraying Jack Benny's
radio ballot Rochester brought to
Benny's radio narrative although the
Rochester character only joined the
Benny Program in 1938 he rapidly became
one of the most crucial components of
the show's humor and endured the longest
as the most effective Counterpoint to
Jack's egotism vanity and frustrated
efforts at patriarchal control
Anderson's career and Rochester's radio
characterization would be impacted by
racism and evolving cultural political
and Industrial limitations opportunities
and pressures across the tumultuous
period from Rochester's introduction to
the show to Anderson's rise to public
Acclaim in both the mainstream White
media and the African-American press by
1940 to Rochester's inclusion as a flash
point of debate over racial
representation in the mass media in the
wartime and post-war era
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