Illinois State Society of Washington, DC

Illinois Hall of Fame: Mel Torme

By Mark Rhoads

Mel Torme was one of the best American male jazz singers and composers of the 20th Century. He wrote or co-wrote more than 250 songs including a Christmastime standard that opens with the lyrics "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." It was recorded by fellow Chicagoan Nat King Cole in 1946.  He was also a movie star, radio and TV star, and an author.

Notwithstanding his fame for seasonal songs of Christmas, Mel Torme was born on the south side of Chicago to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants on Sept. 23, 1925.  From about the age of four he was recognized as a child prodigy. While barely in grade school he was singing as a child star for the Coon Sanders Orchestra at the Blackhawk Restaurant at 139 N. Wabash.

Mel was only age seven in 1933 when he won a talent competition for child singers at the Century of Progress World's Fair.  The competition led to his work as a child star on two of the most famous radio serials of the time, The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.

By Mark Rhoads

Mel Torme was one of the best American male jazz singers and composers of the 20th Century. He wrote or co-wrote more than 250 songs including a Christmastime standard that opens with the lyrics "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." It was recorded by fellow Chicagoan Nat King Cole in 1946.  He was also a movie star, radio and TV star, and an author.

Notwithstanding his fame for seasonal songs of Christmas, Mel Torme was born on the south side of Chicago to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants on Sept. 23, 1925.  From about the age of four he was recognized as a child prodigy. While barely in grade school he was singing as a child star for the Coon Sanders Orchestra at the Blackhawk Restaurant at 139 N. Wabash.

Mel was only age seven in 1933 when he won a talent competition for child singers at the Century of Progress World's Fair.  The competition led to his work as a child star on two of the most famous radio serials of the time, The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.

Illinois Hall of Fame: George Gobel

By Mark Rhoads

"My uncle was the town drunk, and we lived in Chicago."

- George Gobel in the 1950s

Emmy Award-winning comedian and TV host George Gobel was born in Chicago on May 20, 1919.  He grew up in Albany Park and graduated from Roosevelt High School at 3436 West Wilson Avenue in 1937. George came from a show business family.  Even before high school, George was a child star on radio singing and playing guitar as the "littlest cowboy" and "Little Georgie Gobel" on The National Barn Dance. The popular national radio show was aired by NBC and produced by WLS Radio in Chicago. 

Illinois Hall of Fame: Studs Terkel

By Mark Rhoads

It might or might not have been a coincidence, but when Hollywood casting agents selected the actors for Eight Men Out in 1988, they chose several actors with close Illinois ties that certainly looked authentic in their parts as characters from the Black Sox Scandal of 1919.  Studs Terkel was one of those who played a quintessential Chicago newspaper reporter.  Another was John Mahoney from Quincy, Illinois who played White Sox Manager Kid Gleason and the great character actor John Anderson from Clayton, Illinois who played Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Paul Galvin

By Mark Rhoads

Paul V. Galvin was an electronics business pioneer who was the co-founder of Motorola, Inc.  He was born in Harvard, Illinois on June 27, 1895. Harvard today is a beautiful small city of 8,000 people in the northwest corner of McHenry County and is a short drive south of Delevan and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The founders of the town chose the present location of Harvard in 1855 as the place most logical for a train wood and fuel stop for trains outbound from Chicago on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway. Railroad engine switching yards were located in Harvard in 1959.

When Paul Galvin finished high school, he took a job as a clerk in the railroad roundhouse at Harvard. He completed two years at the University of Illinois but returned to Harvard to clerk at the railroad station and then moved to Chicago to clerk with Commonwealth Edison Company. When American entered World War I in April 1917, Paul served as a front-line artillery officer in France.

By Mark Rhoads

Paul V. Galvin was an electronics business pioneer who was the co-founder of Motorola, Inc.  He was born in Harvard, Illinois on June 27, 1895. Harvard today is a beautiful small city of 8,000 people in the northwest corner of McHenry County and is a short drive south of Delevan and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The founders of the town chose the present location of Harvard in 1855 as the place most logical for a train wood and fuel stop for trains outbound from Chicago on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway. Railroad engine switching yards were located in Harvard in 1959.

When Paul Galvin finished high school, he took a job as a clerk in the railroad roundhouse at Harvard. He completed two years at the University of Illinois but returned to Harvard to clerk at the railroad station and then moved to Chicago to clerk with Commonwealth Edison Company. When American entered World War I in April 1917, Paul served as a front-line artillery officer in France.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Orion Samuelson

By Mark Rhoads

If you are in any way connected with the farming business in the USA, the voice of Orion Samuelson has been an important part of your day for as long as you have been farming. For more than forty-five years so far, Orion has been the radio voice of agriculture in America.

He has been broadcasting since the 1950s on Wisconsin radio stations and started at WGN radio as director of farm news in 1960. In 2006 he is heard on a syndicate of 260 American radio stations that carry his National Farm Report program. He also has a TV audience of more than thirty million viewers on 190 cable, satellite, and broadcast TV stations for different shows on his own and with his colleague Max Armstrong.

In his lecture called "From Reaper to Satellite," Orion, a resident of Northbrook, Illinois, shares his entusiasm for farmers and their vital work with millions each week. He exudes good will for the two percent of Americans who raise food from the ground and take care of the livestock that feeds three hundred million Americans and millions more overseas. He both reports on the market news of agribusiness and also is an advocate for farmers who understands their professional challenges.

His awards are almost countless but among some of the most significant are the 4-H Hall of Fame, the 1998 Distringuished Service Award of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the 2001 Lincoln Medal--the highest award from the State of Illinois, and his 2003 induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.

By Mark Rhoads

If you are in any way connected with the farming business in the USA, the voice of Orion Samuelson has been an important part of your day for as long as you have been farming. For more than forty-five years so far, Orion has been the radio voice of agriculture in America.

He has been broadcasting since the 1950s on Wisconsin radio stations and started at WGN radio as director of farm news in 1960. In 2006 he is heard on a syndicate of 260 American radio stations that carry his National Farm Report program. He also has a TV audience of more than thirty million viewers on 190 cable, satellite, and broadcast TV stations for different shows on his own and with his colleague Max Armstrong.

In his lecture called "From Reaper to Satellite," Orion, a resident of Northbrook, Illinois, shares his entusiasm for farmers and their vital work with millions each week. He exudes good will for the two percent of Americans who raise food from the ground and take care of the livestock that feeds three hundred million Americans and millions more overseas. He both reports on the market news of agribusiness and also is an advocate for farmers who understands their professional challenges.

His awards are almost countless but among some of the most significant are the 4-H Hall of Fame, the 1998 Distringuished Service Award of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the 2001 Lincoln Medal--the highest award from the State of Illinois, and his 2003 induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Nat King Cole

By Mark Rhoads

"Twenty-third and Wentworth, was it's beating Heart, ...But there was everything, back when Jazz was King, on the South Side of Chicago."

-- Ray Price song in 1974

Nat King Cole was born on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama where his father was a butcher and a deacon in the Baptist Church. His actual birth name was Nathaniel Adams Coles. When Nat was two years old in 1921, the family moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side where his father became a minister.  In those days, Bronzeville ran between State Street on the west and Grand Boulevard on the east (now called Martin Luther King Drive) and between 31st Street on the north and Pershing Road on the south. Naturally enough, gospel music from his father's Baptist Church was an early influence on Nat. When Nat was just 12, his first performance in public was Yes, we have no bananas!

Ragtime and jazz music was flourishing in the small clubs of Bronzeville in the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond the immediate Bronzeville neighborhood, most of the South Side was alive with the hottest Jazz anywhere in the country. From 1922 to 1930, Louis Armstrong was playing at Lincoln Gardens on 47th Street and he met and married his second wife Lil Hardin in Chicago.  Other great stars were playing in Chicago clubs such as Earl "Fatha" Hines and Jimmy Noone.

Nat and his older brother Eddie hung out at the clubs as kids whenever they could getting to know the music and the musicians. Nat graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in 1935. He also studied in the music program of Walter Dyet at Du Sable High School. Just out of high school in 1936, Nat had formed his own band at age 17 and they made their first recording featuring Eddie Cole on bass and Nat on piano. 

By Mark Rhoads

"Twenty-third and Wentworth, was it's beating Heart, ...But there was everything, back when Jazz was King, on the South Side of Chicago."

-- Ray Price song in 1974

Nat King Cole was born on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama where his father was a butcher and a deacon in the Baptist Church. His actual birth name was Nathaniel Adams Coles. When Nat was two years old in 1921, the family moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side where his father became a minister.  In those days, Bronzeville ran between State Street on the west and Grand Boulevard on the east (now called Martin Luther King Drive) and between 31st Street on the north and Pershing Road on the south. Naturally enough, gospel music from his father's Baptist Church was an early influence on Nat. When Nat was just 12, his first performance in public was Yes, we have no bananas!

Ragtime and jazz music was flourishing in the small clubs of Bronzeville in the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond the immediate Bronzeville neighborhood, most of the South Side was alive with the hottest Jazz anywhere in the country. From 1922 to 1930, Louis Armstrong was playing at Lincoln Gardens on 47th Street and he met and married his second wife Lil Hardin in Chicago.  Other great stars were playing in Chicago clubs such as Earl "Fatha" Hines and Jimmy Noone.

Nat and his older brother Eddie hung out at the clubs as kids whenever they could getting to know the music and the musicians. Nat graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in 1935. He also studied in the music program of Walter Dyet at Du Sable High School. Just out of high school in 1936, Nat had formed his own band at age 17 and they made their first recording featuring Eddie Cole on bass and Nat on piano. 

Illinois Hall of Fame: Gene Krupa

By Mark Rhoads

Gene Krupa's Polish-American mother was a hard-working hat-maker who was a devout Roman Catholic. She wanted Gene to study for the priesthood. He attended several parochial schools in Chicago and studied one year at St. Joseph's College, a prep school seminary in Rensselaer, Indiana. Instead, Gene wound up being one of the most exciting pioneer drummers of the age of Swing and Jazz.  He became known to millions by his professional moniker, "The Chicago Flash."

If there is one distinctive recording that comes to mind when people mention his name, it is without doubt one that was made during a high-energy live performance in January 1938 as part of Benny Goodman's historic jazz concert at Carneigie Hall in New York. Even listening to that recording of Sing Sing Sing today, a listener cannot help but feel the electricity in that hall 68 years ago.

According to legend, in the middle of the song Gene started to play the first extended drum solo in history as other musicians left the stage to leave Gene alone in the spotlight.  The solo seemed like an eternity but was really only a few very intense minutes of non-stop fast-paced tom toms.  Finally the musicians returned to an exhausted Gene Krupa just in time to blast away the final stanzas. The solo itself drew a sponaneous round of cheers and when the song finished the hall exploded with decibels never heard before in such a refined venue. Soon, audiences all over the country were demanding drum solos in every upbeat jazz song. Krupa had put jazz drummers on the map.

Gene Krupa was born in Chicago on January 5, 1909. He was the youngest of nine children born to Bartley and Ann Krupa. His father died when Gene was very young and all of the children went to work at least part-time before finishing grammar school. At age 11, Gene's brother Pete got him a job as a chore boy to wash windows and stack inventory at Brown's Music Store on the South Side. Gene tried out several instruments including the saxaphone but a set of drums was the cheapest. "They only cost me sixteen beans," said Gene.

By Mark Rhoads

Gene Krupa's Polish-American mother was a hard-working hat-maker who was a devout Roman Catholic. She wanted Gene to study for the priesthood. He attended several parochial schools in Chicago and studied one year at St. Joseph's College, a prep school seminary in Rensselaer, Indiana. Instead, Gene wound up being one of the most exciting pioneer drummers of the age of Swing and Jazz.  He became known to millions by his professional moniker, "The Chicago Flash."

If there is one distinctive recording that comes to mind when people mention his name, it is without doubt one that was made during a high-energy live performance in January 1938 as part of Benny Goodman's historic jazz concert at Carneigie Hall in New York. Even listening to that recording of Sing Sing Sing today, a listener cannot help but feel the electricity in that hall 68 years ago.

According to legend, in the middle of the song Gene started to play the first extended drum solo in history as other musicians left the stage to leave Gene alone in the spotlight.  The solo seemed like an eternity but was really only a few very intense minutes of non-stop fast-paced tom toms.  Finally the musicians returned to an exhausted Gene Krupa just in time to blast away the final stanzas. The solo itself drew a sponaneous round of cheers and when the song finished the hall exploded with decibels never heard before in such a refined venue. Soon, audiences all over the country were demanding drum solos in every upbeat jazz song. Krupa had put jazz drummers on the map.

Gene Krupa was born in Chicago on January 5, 1909. He was the youngest of nine children born to Bartley and Ann Krupa. His father died when Gene was very young and all of the children went to work at least part-time before finishing grammar school. At age 11, Gene's brother Pete got him a job as a chore boy to wash windows and stack inventory at Brown's Music Store on the South Side. Gene tried out several instruments including the saxaphone but a set of drums was the cheapest. "They only cost me sixteen beans," said Gene.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Clayton Moore

By Mark Rhoads

Some of you reading this who are old enough can close your eyes right now and hear the exciting music of The William Tell Overture at the start of a show introduced by an announcer who said, "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, The Lone Ranger rides again!"  When the medium of black and white television was still new and rapidly growing from 1949 to 1957, Illinois-native actor Clayton Moore had a huge base of young fans across America for his role, adapted from radio, as The Lone Ranger on ABC-TV.  The role of The Lone Ranger was popular not only as an action adventure but also for the values of honesty and fair dealing that the former Texas Ranger stood for.

Clayton Moore was born on Sept. 14, 1914 in a home at 6254 N. Glenwood in the Edgewater neighborhood on Chicago's north side.  He attended Hayt Grammar School, Sullivan Junior High, and Senn High School.  He was the drum major at Sullivan and an accomplished gymnast and acrobat at Senn.  His family liked to engage in winter sports such as skiing, skating, and tobagganing in Palos Park.  In later life Moore attributed his happy childhood and foundation of midwestern values to his success on television, in movies, and in a second career of personal appearances on college campuses, in western shows, and in parades.

By Mark Rhoads

Some of you reading this who are old enough can close your eyes right now and hear the exciting music of The William Tell Overture at the start of a show introduced by an announcer who said, "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, The Lone Ranger rides again!"  When the medium of black and white television was still new and rapidly growing from 1949 to 1957, Illinois-native actor Clayton Moore had a huge base of young fans across America for his role, adapted from radio, as The Lone Ranger on ABC-TV.  The role of The Lone Ranger was popular not only as an action adventure but also for the values of honesty and fair dealing that the former Texas Ranger stood for.

Clayton Moore was born on Sept. 14, 1914 in a home at 6254 N. Glenwood in the Edgewater neighborhood on Chicago's north side.  He attended Hayt Grammar School, Sullivan Junior High, and Senn High School.  He was the drum major at Sullivan and an accomplished gymnast and acrobat at Senn.  His family liked to engage in winter sports such as skiing, skating, and tobagganing in Palos Park.  In later life Moore attributed his happy childhood and foundation of midwestern values to his success on television, in movies, and in a second career of personal appearances on college campuses, in western shows, and in parades.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Fibber McGee and Molly

By Mark Rhoads

There is a scene in the 1973 movie Paper Moon that features Ryan O'Neal's daughter Tatum O'Neal sitting down to enjoy one the very few pleasures that poor people had during the Depression -- listening to a popular radio show. Tatum's character eagerly tunes in Fibber McGee and Molly just in time to hear Fibber open the hall closet door to the sound of a resounding crash.

During the golden age of radio from about 1932 to about 1952, the city of Chicago was just as likely to be the point of origin for national network hookups as either New York or Los Angeles. One of the best known network shows was The National Barn Dance produced by WLS Radio in Chicago and carried by NBC Blue Network (later ABC) affiliates for many years.  The Quiz Kids from WMAQ Radio in The Merchandise Mart was also carried on NBC Blue as was Amos n Andy starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. The two white actors imitated their version of black dialects to play the role of a taxi driver and his friend. While Gosden (Amos) was from Virginia, Correll (Andy) was also born in Peoria and lived in Rock Island and Chicago until he died. Correll also recruited retired Broadway actor Tim Moore, who was African American and a native of Rock Island, to play the role of The Kingfish on the TV version of Amos n Andy from 1951 to 1953.

By Mark Rhoads

There is a scene in the 1973 movie Paper Moon that features Ryan O'Neal's daughter Tatum O'Neal sitting down to enjoy one the very few pleasures that poor people had during the Depression -- listening to a popular radio show. Tatum's character eagerly tunes in Fibber McGee and Molly just in time to hear Fibber open the hall closet door to the sound of a resounding crash.

During the golden age of radio from about 1932 to about 1952, the city of Chicago was just as likely to be the point of origin for national network hookups as either New York or Los Angeles. One of the best known network shows was The National Barn Dance produced by WLS Radio in Chicago and carried by NBC Blue Network (later ABC) affiliates for many years.  The Quiz Kids from WMAQ Radio in The Merchandise Mart was also carried on NBC Blue as was Amos n Andy starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. The two white actors imitated their version of black dialects to play the role of a taxi driver and his friend. While Gosden (Amos) was from Virginia, Correll (Andy) was also born in Peoria and lived in Rock Island and Chicago until he died. Correll also recruited retired Broadway actor Tim Moore, who was African American and a native of Rock Island, to play the role of The Kingfish on the TV version of Amos n Andy from 1951 to 1953.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Jack Benny

by Mark Rhoads

Armed robber: "Your money or your life."  Very long pause.  "Well?"

Jack Benny: "I'm thinking, I'm thinking."

Jack Benny was one of America's most popular radio comedians and movie stars of the 1930s and 1940s who was also popular on television in the 1950s and 1960s.  He was born with the name Benjamin Kubelsky at Chicago's Mercy Hospital on St. Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 1894.

When he was a child, his family lived at 224 South Genesee Street in Waukegan.  His parents gave Benjamin (Jack) a half-size violin for his sixth birthday in 1900 and he started taking violin lessons from Professor Harlow in Waukegan.  At the age of 8 in 1902, he was making frequent trips to Chicago with his mother to study under Dr. Hugo Kortschalk at the Chicago Musical College which later became part of Roosevelt University.  He played in the Waukegan High School Orechestra and by the time he was a freshman at Central High School in Waukegan, Jack had also nailed down a job as a violinist in the pit orchestra of the Barrison Theatre in Waukegan, a local vaudeville theater.

Jack teamed up in two different acts that also featured a pianist with music and comedy.  "From Grand Opera to Ragtime" was the common name in each act.  But Jack was twice challenged by other performers with similar stage names so he had to change his name twice and finally settled on "Jack Benny" around 1919.  Jack also entertained while he was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I.  He did not go to Europe, but remained close to home at Great Lakes Naval Station near Waukegan.

After traveling on the vaudeville circuit for most of the 1920s, Jack's act evolved to one with less music and almost all comedy.  On Jan. 24, 1927 at the Clayton Hotel in Waukegan, Jack married Sadye Marks in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony.  Sadye was a younger woman he met in Vancouver years earlier and she was the younger sister of the wife of one of Jack's good friends.  Sadye later took the stage name of Mary Livingstone on Jack's radio program and sometimes played his girl friend on the show.  But Jack's "character" was always a bachelor on radio, TV, and in the movies, allowing him to chase the famous beauties of Hollywood for laughs.  He character drove an old Maxwell car, and was very very very cheap.  A miser in fact.  Just before the stock market crash in 1929, Irving Thalberg signed Jack to a five year-contract with MGM Pictures.

Jack and Sadye started to divide their time between New York, the radio center then, and Hollywood where he made pictures.  Among their close friends were George Burns and Gracie Allen.  Later Jack would develop a make believe "feud" with fellow comedy star Fred Allen that lasted for years with mutual insults flying back and forth during visits to each other's radio programs.  In the 1940s, Jack brought the students of Chicago's famous Quiz Kids show and Quizmaster Joe Kelly to his program so that his cast could challenge the kids on tough questions.  The Benny cast members beat the Quiz Kids, by cheating on the score.

In 1941, just before America's entry into World War II, Hollywood writer and director Ernst Lubitsch cast Jack and Carole Lombard in a semi-serious comedy, To Be or Not To Be, about a group of Polish actors using their skills to fight the Nazis.  Early in the film, Jack is shown wearing a Nazi uniform and saluting an actor who looks like Hitler.  When his father Meyer Kubelsky saw that scene in a movie theater, he stormed out in a fury not realizing that the rest of the movie was an anti-Nazi message.  Meyer and Jack did not speak for weeks until Meyer was persuaded to go back to see the entire film which he then liked so much that he saw it 45 more times.  The movie did not come out until March 1942, two months after Jack's co-star Carole Lombard, Clark Gable's wife, lost her life in a plane crash on a tour to promote war bonds.

Jack's CBS-TV series and other specials in the 1950s and 1960s were safe variety fare for that time but the country was getting more sophisticated and he never built up the huge steady audience that he had enjoyed on radio.  But he was in constant demand as a guest on many variety shows.  Jack was 71 in the fall of 1965 which was the first broadcast season in 33 years that did not have some Jack Benny program on either radio or TV.  Jack's last appearance in Illinois was at a benefit for the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra in April 1974.  The Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan is named in Jack's honor as is the The Jack Benny Center for the Arts in Bowen Park in Waukegan.

Jack at the age of 80 was cast in 1974 to star with Walter Matthau in Neil Simon's play, The Sunshine Boys.  But his health went down fast at the end of the year due to pancreatic cancer that was diagnosed too late in the progress of the disease.  Jack recommended that his close friend George Burns take the part and Burns appeared both in a stage and film version.  Jack Benny died on Dec. 26, 1974.

For more about the life of Jack Benny, visitors might want to see The Jack Benny International Fan Club web site.  For a list of his TV shows and movies, visit Jack's page on the Internet Movie Data Base.

Armed robber: "Your money or your life."  Very long pause.  "Well?"

Jack Benny: "I'm thinking, I'm thinking."

Jack Benny was one of America's most popular radio comedians and movie stars of the 1930s and 1940s who was also popular on television in the 1950s and 1960s.  He was born with the name Benjamin Kubelsky at Chicago's Mercy Hospital on St. Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 1894.

When he was a child, his family lived at 224 South Genesee Street in Waukegan.  His parents gave Benjamin (Jack) a half-size violin for his sixth birthday in 1900 and he started taking violin lessons from Professor Harlow in Waukegan.  At the age of 8 in 1902, he was making frequent trips to Chicago with his mother to study under Dr. Hugo Kortschalk at the Chicago Musical College which later became part of Roosevelt University.  He played in the Waukegan High School Orechestra and by the time he was a freshman at Central High School in Waukegan, Jack had also nailed down a job as a violinist in the pit orchestra of the Barrison Theatre in Waukegan, a local vaudeville theater.

Jack teamed up in two different acts that also featured a pianist with music and comedy.  "From Grand Opera to Ragtime" was the common name in each act.  But Jack was twice challenged by other performers with similar stage names so he had to change his name twice and finally settled on "Jack Benny" around 1919.  Jack also entertained while he was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I.  He did not go to Europe, but remained close to home at Great Lakes Naval Station near Waukegan.

After traveling on the vaudeville circuit for most of the 1920s, Jack's act evolved to one with less music and almost all comedy.  On Jan. 24, 1927 at the Clayton Hotel in Waukegan, Jack married Sadye Marks in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony.  Sadye was a younger woman he met in Vancouver years earlier and she was the younger sister of the wife of one of Jack's good friends.  Sadye later took the stage name of Mary Livingstone on Jack's radio program and sometimes played his girl friend on the show.  But Jack's "character" was always a bachelor on radio, TV, and in the movies, allowing him to chase the famous beauties of Hollywood for laughs.  He character drove an old Maxwell car, and was very very very cheap.  A miser in fact.  Just before the stock market crash in 1929, Irving Thalberg signed Jack to a five year-contract with MGM Pictures.

Jack and Sadye started to divide their time between New York, the radio center then, and Hollywood where he made pictures.  Among their close friends were George Burns and Gracie Allen.  Later Jack would develop a make believe "feud" with fellow comedy star Fred Allen that lasted for years with mutual insults flying back and forth during visits to each other's radio programs.  In the 1940s, Jack brought the students of Chicago's famous Quiz Kids show and Quizmaster Joe Kelly to his program so that his cast could challenge the kids on tough questions.  The Benny cast members beat the Quiz Kids, by cheating on the score.

In 1941, just before America's entry into World War II, Hollywood writer and director Ernst Lubitsch cast Jack and Carole Lombard in a semi-serious comedy, To Be or Not To Be, about a group of Polish actors using their skills to fight the Nazis.  Early in the film, Jack is shown wearing a Nazi uniform and saluting an actor who looks like Hitler.  When his father Meyer Kubelsky saw that scene in a movie theater, he stormed out in a fury not realizing that the rest of the movie was an anti-Nazi message.  Meyer and Jack did not speak for weeks until Meyer was persuaded to go back to see the entire film which he then liked so much that he saw it 45 more times.  The movie did not come out until March 1942, two months after Jack's co-star Carole Lombard, Clark Gable's wife, lost her life in a plane crash on a tour to promote war bonds.

Jack's CBS-TV series and other specials in the 1950s and 1960s were safe variety fare for that time but the country was getting more sophisticated and he never built up the huge steady audience that he had enjoyed on radio.  But he was in constant demand as a guest on many variety shows.  Jack was 71 in the fall of 1965 which was the first broadcast season in 33 years that did not have some Jack Benny program on either radio or TV.  Jack's last appearance in Illinois was at a benefit for the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra in April 1974.  The Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan is named in Jack's honor as is the The Jack Benny Center for the Arts in Bowen Park in Waukegan.

Jack at the age of 80 was cast in 1974 to star with Walter Matthau in Neil Simon's play, The Sunshine Boys.  But his health went down fast at the end of the year due to pancreatic cancer that was diagnosed too late in the progress of the disease.  Jack recommended that his close friend George Burns take the part and Burns appeared both in a stage and film version.  Jack Benny died on Dec. 26, 1974.

For more about the life of Jack Benny, visitors might want to see The Jack Benny International Fan Club web site.  For a list of his TV shows and movies, visit Jack's page on the Internet Movie Data Base.