[Music]
Hello friends, welcome to This Day in
Jack Benny. I'm John Henderson. This is
not a regular episode of the Jack Benny
program, but a bonus episode. I call it
a a Jack
extravaganza. It is a bonus episode
that's kind of like a state of the
podcast. You know, normally I don't talk
about what's happening right now on the
podcast. I talk about the Jack Benny
episode, but for this bonus episode, as
we get into summer, I thought I'd give a
bit of an update. And with me is my
wife, Stephanie. Hello. Hi. How are
things going? Well, things are going
good. What's the state of the podcast? I
just finished a season of the Jack Benny
program. Did you pick a year? I get a
little bored by just going through a
whole year from start to finish. So,
I'll do a few episodes at a time from,
you know, different years. So, I've got
stuff from the 30s that I just finished,
and I've also done stuff from the ' 50s
this year and from the ' 40s. So,
jumping around a little bit. I like
that. I kind of It keeps it fresh. You
know, you never know what you're going
to get. Also, when it comes to the
references, uh, they tend to do the same
references all year. So, if I do them
straight through, then I'm just saying
the same thing every week. So, this also
makes it a little easier. I like that.
And I know it takes a lot of
organization on your part to keep track
of everything and to know what you've
done, what you haven't done. I've got
lots of questions for you today. So, uh,
my first question is this was a
long-term project. You started back in
2016. Yes. Right. And when you first
told me you were going to do this, I
wondered to myself,
huh, this feels like a very long project
ahead. Yes. Will he be able to finish?
Well, if you think about it this way,
I'm doing an episode a week. Mhm. Jack
Benny did an episode a week for like 30
years. Oh, great. So, you'd think it'll
take like 30 years to do it. So, this is
your hobby for for the next 20. Not
really, though. Can I get into the math?
Of course. So, I was looking up I was
trying to figure out how much I had
left, right? So, I looked up on the
podcast feed how many episodes I've
done. I've done 572 episodes, but that
includes the bonus episodes. Okay. So, I
did 33 episodes like this where it's
like an interview or something. I did 34
episodes that are not the Jack Benny
program. So, like Jack Benny is a guest
on Fred Allen or whatever. And I did 11
episodes of the audio book written by
Kathy Fullerely and read by you. I was
going to say you did the Yes. You did an
amazing job producing. Mhm. I enjoyed
reading it. You did an amazing job
reading this. I learned a lot. It was
quite something. So, if you take the
total episodes that I've done, subtract
the bonus episodes, I think I'm out
about 494 episodes of the Jack Benny
program. Wow. Amazing. Now, how many I
have left is a bit hard to tell. I can't
quite tell how many there are total. It
all depends on which ones you count. So,
something like either 226 episodes left
or 299 episodes left. So, I'm getting
there.
A lot has happened in the time since you
started. Yeah. Right. I think maybe it's
stretching out a little longer than you
anticipated. Well, I thought originally
I could do three episodes a week. Yeah.
But I found out quickly, you know, the
more you listen, the more references you
catch. Right. Right. Like some things
previously would just go over my head
and now I'm like, "Oh, that's probably
something." Right. Okay. So, I'm like, I
got to go to one episode a week. So,
yeah. So, for the summer, we know Jack
is on hiatus, right? The program goes on
hiatus for the summer months and uh you
have done different things from summer
to summer over the past several years.
So, what is the plan for this day in
Jack Benny for the summertime? Yeah.
While I have done things like interviews
with people and I have tried things like
just playing more regular episodes from
different times of the year, uh I think
what I'm going to do this year is uh
pretty similar to what I did last year,
which is play episodes that I had
created for the
Patreon. Uh but I wrapped up the Patreon
and so now I can put them on the regular
feed. Oh, wonderful. Okay. So you'll
have some fresh episodes, some bonus
episodes coming this summer. So like for
example, it'll be episodes where Jack
Benny is guests on another program,
right? But it would also be things like
I I did this one where I took a year
1967 and found everything that Jack
Benny did in that year and kind of put
together a year package. So things like
that. Oh, it's going to be a lot of fun,
I think. Uh, so your website you've been
working on updating uh to uh make sure
you have all of the the content from
each episode available online. Give us a
little
snapshot of what that looks like right
now. Well, right now you can go to the
website
thisdaybenny.com and you can go by year
and you can see all the episodes that
I've done from that year and they've got
little descriptions and things like
that. Now, uh uh because life is busy, I
got a little bit behind. Mhm. So, I've
been focusing on catching that up and I'
I've done maybe half of them and I've
got another half to do. So, maybe
another 10 episodes to update until
we're totally updated. Okay. And if
you've never been there, now is the
time. Wow. And there's so much
information on there, too. And you can,
like you said, search by year. So if
you're looking for something specific or
a certain, you know, decade or 5year
period, you can check that out. And
actually in making the podcast or
talking with friends and things like
that, I often use the keyword search. So
you can just like search Phil Harris or
if I remember like, oh, there was
something about like Tony home
permanent. You can just type that in and
chances are it'll come up, right? Uh so
I think that's a really great resource
actually if you're looking for some
extra things that are behind the scenes.
Now, you mentioned the audio book. Yeah.
That we did. Was that last year or the
year before? I don't remember exactly
when it was, but Well, I think the year
before last, we created it uh leading up
to the Jack Benny convention and my
actual 39th
birthday. And then, uh we we released it
on the podcast, I think, last year.
Right. So, if you want to go back and
listen to that audiobook, Kathy has done
an amazing job of uh putting that
together, and it was my pleasure to read
it.
to be able to be a part of that.
Well, what you can do is you could go
back in this podcast and find it. But
it's easier to just go to
thisdaybenny.com and on the drop down
menu, click audiobook and then you could
download the whole thing or you could do
chapter by chapter and if you do it
chapter by chapter, there's also little
interviews with Kathy and stuff. I love
that. It was so fun to talk to her and
uh get a little bit of a background on
that book. Such a a great one. And um uh
one of the other things that I was
curious about is if there are any more
audio books in the wings that I'm not
aware of. Well, Stephanie, you would be
the first to know because you would be
the one reading them and there's not.
Although there's a couple books that I
could recommend. Okay. Kathy has also
created um sort of compilations of
scripts that you don't they don't have
the recordings of. Oh. So, it's I think
it's called Jack Benny the Lost
Broadcasts and uh so I think they're up
to volume three and volume four is
coming out soon. So, that's good. But
also, there's a book called Sunday
Nights at 7 which is written by uh Jack
Benny's daughter, adopted daughter, Joan
Benny. Um and it's basically taking his
memoirs that he never published.
Interesting. And then adding to that.
Okay. Fascinating. So, some good summer
reading. Yeah. So, if I was to do
another audio book, that would be a fun
one, but I don't think so. Okay. Because
it was a lot of work to do that first
one. It was fun, though, too. It was
really good. So, you mentioned Patreon.
That's been uh, you know, kind of it's
wound down. It's all done. Yeah. You
know, I really liked doing the Patreon
bonus episodes, but for a couple
reasons. One was uh it was a lot to do a
bonus episode every single week, right?
Uh, actually one cool thing is one of my
Patreon patrons, like one of the people
who was sponsoring me was the actual
grandson of Jack Benny. Oh, wow. Cool.
Yeah. And so I kind of that kind of make
me feel good because um, uh, I wasn't
sure if like people would think that I'm
stealing these episodes, you know, cuz
you know, who has the rights to Jack
Benny? It's kind of public domain,
right? Um, so I feel like that was like
the stamp. kind of worried that I would
get sued by the grandchild rather than
sponsored. So, that's good.
Well, he must appreciate you continuing
to keep the memory alive and the comedy
alive. Yeah. Which I, as a side note, I
have to say, we have four kids. Uh the
oldest is an young teenager, the
youngest is elementary school, and they
laugh all the time as they listen. They
get the jokes, they love uh they love
listening to your work. So, good for
you. The legacy lives on. Uh so another
neat thing that's been happening for you
in the last 5 years is uh being able to
kind of you know meet up with some other
online some other Jack Benny
afficionados or experts and share a bit
of a conversation that way. Yes. So uh
of course I mentioned Kathy Fuller
Seely. She's the author of that book.
And uh so I I do a weekly conversation
with her and a guy who calls himself
Buck Benny. Mhm. And he's got his own
podcast. So he invited me to join him in
a kind of uh YouTube television version
of this podcast where there would be an
intro uh before or after. We used to do
them before, but it kind of was hard to
talk about the episodes without
spoilers, right? Yeah. So, we started
doing it after the episodes, but uh
basically it's a way for me to watch the
Jack Benny television show and also
comment on that. And it's lots of fun to
to chat with my friends who also like
Jack Benny. Right. So, this this podcast
is all radio. It's uh it's a radio
program. This day in Jack Benny is only
the radio show, right? And I always I
thought like will I eventually just also
move to television? But you really can't
do the television show on an audio
podcast. It doesn't work. Well, it's
it's requires more context. Obviously,
there's a visual component. It doesn't
really play to it. I tried one where I
just sort of described what happened
visually and said, "Okay, listen to it."
And it actually kind of worked a little
bit, but it is more fun to to do it and
actually see the episode. So, that's on
YouTube if you just look up Buck Benny.
Okay, fantastic. I know that um you do a
lot of research and behind the scenes
kind of looking into where some of these
references come from. How do you decide?
I mean, as we're listening, even as a
family, if we're listening to an
episode, sometimes the kids will say,
"Why is that funny?" or "What are they
laughing at?"
And so I know that was kind of the
initial uh the initial prompt, but like
you said, some of these episodes or some
of these years uh they carry the same
jokes through all year. They do a lot of
callbacks and things like that. So how
do you decide what to put in as an intro
clip and what to take out or not not put
in at all? Mhm. Well, if it's a joke
that's recurring, the first time I do
it, I might do a kind of an in-depth
version of it and have a nice long clip
and then as I hear it over and over
again, I'll just sort of do a short
version of that. Right? So, for example,
Mel Blank, there's a running gag where
he does an Al Jolson impression. He's
like, "Jack Jack Jack Benny, I I need a
job. It's between Mel Blank. I'm the
voice of Bugs Bunny and I do Al Jolson."
Right? Yeah. And so the first time I'm I
explained Mel Blank and I explained who
Al Jolson was and things like that and
then he's this was a recurring bit. So
he would do it over and over again. So
then I would start to just say like Al
Jolson was so I try to do it a little
different every time. So if you are
listening back to back it's not the same
thing. Uh but also I don't play the
episodes back to back so hopefully it's
a little fresh every time. Right. Is
there ever a time when it's a
two-parter? Do you know what I mean?
Yes. or are they always kind of
self-contained? There's plenty of
two-parters. Most of them though, you
could just hear the one and it doesn't
matter, right? Like if they do um The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer part one and
part two, you could listen to either one
and you don't have to listen to the
other one. There's very few episodes
where you need to listen to both. Like
there's one where Jack Benny gets
knocked on the head and suddenly he's
not cheap, he's
generous. And that's a cliffhanger and
you kind of need to have heard that
episode for the next one. How's it going
to end? Yeah. And then there's a a sort
of a story arc where Jack Benny uh goes
on a trip to Yoseite and there's a story
arc where Jack Benny um I he's robbed
and so uh he doesn't have Ronald
Coleman's Oscar, so he tries to get a
new replacement Oscar. So there's a few
ones that have recurring bits, a story
arcs, but really you could listen to any
of those anyway. and they they they
catch you up at the beginning. Well, it
sounds like you're uh doing a really
good job of keeping on top of some of
those things and not, you know,
repeating yourself over and over uh
without, you know, shaking it up a
little bit. Yeah. And also, everyone is
always changing. So, I feel like by
doing them out of order, it gives
variety when you listen in order. I know
you've done years of research on um this
program and on even the cultural
references, the time period, right?
you're very knowledgeable about this
particular time in history in radio
broadcasting because there's a ton of
cross references to all kinds of things
that are going on. Uh what is something
that has stood out to you as a
researcher
uh that was surprising? Maybe something
you know consistent from 1930s to 1960s
or even from the 1930s to today or just
something absolutely wild and strange
that you were not expecting. Yeah. Uh I
think it's interesting to hear the
differences in language, right? Like the
way that words are used differently back
then versus now. For example, uh there's
episodes early on where they'll say,
"Oh, I'm all in." Right? And when I
first was listening, I assumed that
meant the same thing that we mean today.
When we say, "I'm all in." It's like,
"I'm 100%. I'm with you." Right? But in
those days, allin meant I'm beat. I'm
tired. Okay. Interesting. I wouldn't
have expected that. Yeah. So, things
like that are interesting. Uh, and then
of course there's a bunch of like
specific references that I find
interesting. So, I I I looked quickly to
see what I could find. Uh, so here's
some that that stood out to me. Um, and
maybe you could see if you know them. Is
this a game now? Yeah, sure. I get to be
the contestant. You're going to test
these out on me. Uh, okay. Barnum was
right. Uh, Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Yes. Okay. But specifically, uh, Barnum
said, "There's a sucker born every
minute." Yeah, of course. So, when
someone says Barnum was right, what they
mean is there's a sucker born every
minute. What a sucker, right? Exactly.
Mhm. Smoked glasses. What do you think
that is? Smoked glasses. Okay. I'm going
to take a guess. Mhm. Uh, through my
current lens, I would say
uh not seeing things clearly. Yeah, it's
just sunglasses. Oh, what? They they
used to call sunglasses smoked glasses.
Really? Okay, that's interesting. Uh,
you might have heard of this one. An
alligator pear. Was that an avocado? An
avocado. Yeah, right.
Where do you think they got the name
serotan? It's a product name.
Serotan. No clue. It's nature spelled
backwards. Oh, come on. That's actually
pretty clever. Well, and this was one of
those references that took me forever to
find because in the episode they make up
a fake name. Okay. Mhm. And uh and they
they're like and remember backwards it's
Yatapamus. Okay. Which is obviously
gibberish, right? And so I had to find
what they were referencing. Oh, that's
pretty good. That's what it was. Uh
movie theater dish night. Mhm. You used
to be able to go to the movie theater
and because you bought a ticket, you
were in a raffle and you could get a
dish. Oh, I thought you just got a dish.
Oh, maybe that is right. I was thinking
of bank nights. Bank nights, you were in
a raffle and you could get money, but no
matter what, you got the dish. I think
you're right. So, the dish, you'd
collect the dishes, right? Yeah. Setting
up exercises. That's just morning
gymnastics. Oh, seven up in milk. They
tried to get that going for a while. Did
you try that? I did try it. It was much
better than you would think. I don't
believe it. I don't believe it. All
right, last one. Let me find a good one.
For some reason, there's a constant
running gag that Greta Garbo has big
feet. Really? Yeah. Huh. And now that I
know that, I see it in all kinds of uh
Looney Tunes cartoons as well. Oh, yeah.
There is a lot of crossover, isn't
there, for some of those kinds of
things. Uh, and lastly, this isn't
really a reference, but I found the uh
single from uh Mel Blank by doing
research for this radio show. Mel Blank
put out a record where one side is his
impression of Al Jolson singing Tutt
tootsie and the other side is I've Got a
Lovely Bunch of Coconuts. Oh wow. And
you know, this is after the success of
him doing that impression on the radio.
And so they have an episode where he's
just promoting his record basically. Oh
wow. Fantastic. Well, you know, this
work that you put in is actually really
I think it's really important. Uh
especially because it's keeps sort of
this context that I think sometimes is
lost as we go, you know, years into the
future and we look back and go, "Oh, you
know, what were they doing?" You give us
a little bit of background info and we
go, "Oh, that's what they were doing."
Yeah. Yeah. And it is fun. I mean, at
first I just wanted to explain so people
could get what was happening in the
show, but as I've done it, I've actually
just enjoyed getting the clips, you
know, and finding these obscure
references. I think, you know, as I
consider your preparation each week for
what you're about to put into the
podcast, and sometimes you'll come to me
and you'll say, "Uh, okay, can you
listen to this? What are they saying?
Yes. Am I hearing this correctly? And
what in the world could this be?" And
then I step into my role as your
research assistant and cuz you've tried
every term you can think of to find the
information and I'll come up with
something just slightly different and
we'll find it. Man, that feels pretty
good. It's very satisfying when you
you're like there's no way I'm going to
find this reference. When you eventually
find it, it's very satisfying like a
completing a puzzle or you know solving
a mystery, right? So if you are
listening to you know this uh state of
the podcast address today and you have
further questions or you know you just
really want to express appreciation how
can listeners get in contact with you?
Uh well you can email
jackbennyodcast@gmail.com or you could
write a comment on the website at
thisdaybenny.com or on
Twitter thisdaybenny. You mean X? Yes.
the the artist formerly known as
Twitter. Exactly.
Actually, if you still type in
twitter.com, it'll take you there. I
feel like it'll just I think that's just
what it's going to be called in people's
minds forever. Well, this is much
appreciated and uh I know it takes a lot
of time and energy each week, but it's
something that you enjoy and it you're
doing a great job. So, thank you.
Thanks. And thanks for taking your time
out to chat with me
today.
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Heat. Heat.
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