Why I Can’t Stand Jack Benny Contest Ends: December 30, 1945

 

Jack Benny throughout his career made himself the butt of his jokes.  He took this to an extreme in December 1945 when he sponsored a “Why I Can’t Stand Jack Benny” contest with the winner being given $10,000 in war bonds.  The Supreme Judge of the contest was his longtime radio nemesis, real life close friend, radio comedian Fred Allen with whom he carried on a legendary feud over the years.  The winning submission, by Carrol P. Craig, resorted to poetry:

 

Jack Benny
He fills the air with boasts and brags
And obsolete obnoxious gags.
The way he plays his violin
Is music’s most obnoxious sin.
His cowardice alone, indeed,
Is matched by his obnoxious greed.
In all the things that he portrays
He shows up my own obnoxious ways.

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December 19, 1944: The Plot to Overthrow Christmas

 

How wonderfully daffy the golden age of Radio tended to be.  A broadcast on December 19, 1944 of the show This Is My Best:  Norman Corwin’s comedic poem The Plot to Overthrow Christmas, a hilarious look at a plot by Hell to stop Christmas, with Orson Welles starring as Nero.  Amazing the entertainment heights that could be reached without car chases, explosions, profanity, bathroom jokes and sex.

Bob Hope Show: Christmas 1945

 

Broadcast on December 18, 1945, the Bob Hope Christmas show for 1945 gives an interesting insight into America as it observed its first peacetime Christmas in five years.  Hope mentions product shortages in his jokes and in a skit the housing shortage comes up.  His guest star was actor Wayne Morris.  Morris had served as a Navy flier, shooting down seven Japanese planes and contributing to the sinking of five ships, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.  He earned four Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals.  A rising star before the War, Morris never recovered from putting his career on hiatus during the War.  He spent the rest of his career mostly in low budget Westerns.  He died of a heart attack in 1959 at age 45 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.