Where's Jack? (New Game)

[shimp scrampi]

That'll be an interesting interview LL!

Getting back to the mystery photo #4 - All of these pictures so far have been DVD frame grabs which accounts for some of the image variability. You can make individual frames a little more 'mysterious' than well-known publicity shots...hints for future posters of mystery photos!

Reviewing what we know...this is from a Jack Benny show done on film. The person Jack is speaking with has an unusual accent. I'll drop one more hint - if I could possibly ever replicate this accent, I might say "Mama Mia! That's-a Spicy Haggis!"

[shimp scrampi]

OK, another hint ... a few years later, thinking back on his meeting with Jack, this man might try to erase the memory with a vodka martini.

[Roman]

Well, it must be Bond, James Bond, Sean Connery. From the look of the picture, I'm guessing that it's a pre-Bond Connery. Who'd have thought that Jack would be the one who looks more debonair and sophisticated.

[shimp scrampi]

Roman gets it!

This is the Rome show of the four-episode European arc. It's a blink-and-you'll miss him bit, but Connery's naturally heavy Scottish brogue mixed with a ridiculous 'pizza-man' type stereotype Italian accent is something to behold.

[shimp scrampi]

Here's Dennis (looking very Errol Flynn/Ed Wood) making an introduction. Who is he introducing to whom? (Hint: Not the founders of that old-school Jack Benny Fan Club with the Pasadena chapter...)

[Jhammes]

This would be a picture of Dennis Day introducing his real life mother,
to actress Vera Felton, Dennis' "radio" mother ("My mother, the bricklayer...") ?

[shimp scrampi]

Jhammes gets it! It's Mary McNulty, Dennis' real-life mom on the left, being introduced to Verna Felton on the right. Sadly, the picture showing what happened next, Verna Felton twisting Mrs. McNulty's arm in a judo wristlock hold, is lost to history... EHHHH, shaddup, shimp!

[shimp scrampi]

OK, this is a very weird one, and I don't know ALL the details. But, what's WRONG with JACK?

[shimp scrampi]

Here's the same image again a little larger:



Quite a shapely pair of gams, Jackson...almost too good to be true, aren't they?

[Alan]

The pic did seem weird, but shimp, that is gross-out hilarious..... those shorts!

[shimp scrampi]

OK, I will drop a couple of more hints as I see them in the image. Look closely at the proportional amount of weight displacement by the cat vs. Jack on the bed. Also, that's an awfully high collar on that shirt considering the relative state of Jack's undress, isn't it? Ever hear that old campfire story about "The Velvet Ribbon"?

[shimp scrampi]

I guess this one has stumped the crowd! Lots of views and not a lot of answers...until now. I think it's best to keep the game rolling, so I am going to give up the dope, at least what I know of it, on this one - because I think it's a fascinating story.

That's not Jack! It is a wax figure of Jack!

The woman in the picture is Katherine Stubergh, who was something of a pioneer in this field. She did wax props for GONE WITH THE WIND, and all of the wax figures in the Vincent Price movie HOUSE OF WAX, as well as displays for Grauman's Chinese Theater.

I found this picture on a website, www.alvarezwaxmodels.com , which features the work of one of Ms. Stubergh's students, Henry Alvarez - he began studying under Katherine Stubergh in the late 1960s.

What puzzles me about the image is what it could possibly be promoting or where it was from - the "Gilligans Island" bamboo hut setting doesn't seem to match up with any of Jack's movies from the early '40s era (I'm inferring from the clothing styles, Jack's undyed hair, etc.) Let alone I can't even think of a publicity photo of Jack ever showing him with a 3-day beard look like that. Hardly the 'classic' image of Jack in suit with violin.

Mr. Alvarez was kind enough to answer an e-mail inquiry from me about the photo. He did not have specific information on the origins of the picture, but told me: "knowing Katherine, that was either a publicity shot or a display created for a department store like Bullocks or Macy's. Katherine did alot of manniquin figures and sometimes used other likenesses to suit the scene. With her in the photo indicates to me that it was for publicity. She often had photographers in who wanted to shoot something unusual."

So, it is even possible that the Benny head was stuck on as a gag in some kind of other display - but that still doesn't explain the Don Johnson stubble look...

"Wax Jacks" have been a little trivial pursuit of mine since the topic came up in a chat a couple of months back. I've always had a penchant for wax museums ever since I was a kid, but can't seem to recall seeing many, if any, Jack Benny figures. Mr. Alvarez went on to say that there were a couple of Jack Benny heads made and sent me this photo of another figure made from Katherine Stubergh's sculpture of Jack's head. This (more typical pose) was made for LifeWax, a now-defunct museum in Lake George, New York in the early '70s. Enjoy! And anyone feel free to post an EASIER new mystery photo!

[LLeff]

So are we sure that's even supposed to *be* Jack? Or is it like on Ebay when someone sees something that remotely (or even not so remotely) resembles him that they just say it *is* him? Perhaps the artist was inspired by Jack's appearance at the time she was making a beachcomber setting?

[shimp scrampi]

Oh, no, have I created another 'Casablanca' controversy?

I can only offer reasoned inference as to why I think at least the head of the figure is supposed to be Jack. 1. It sure looks like him (certainly debatable, eye of the beholder and all...). 2. doing wax figures specifically for the entertainment industry - actually working for the movie studios - was Stubergh's main line of work at the time, if you browse through the history and pics on that website, you'll see she was doing figures of most of the entertainment biggies at the time, often sculpting from life. 3. We know that Stubergh definitely did at least one sculpture of Jack - that was used in the later figure (which has a young face for Jack in the early '70s), and probably more, according to Mr. Alvarez (who was mentored by Stubergh obviously later than this photo was taken). The photo was labeled 'Katherine with wax figure of Jack Benny' - when it was labeled, I'm not sure, but if you run a wax sculpture business there's got to be some way of keeping all of those different heads straight!

It takes a long time to make a sculpture, seems counterintuitive that she'd have a "Jack" on hand and then make a separate sculpture 'inspired' by Jack to toss in a beachcomber display. Why not just add some stubble and use the head you have?! It does seem likely it's a gag/publicity shot - but a publicity shot for Katherine rather than Jack - so her ability to put someone well-known in an incongruous setting might have been the 'hook' for that photo. Anyway, absolute "proof" is probably lost to history but for me it seems to make sense.

[Maxwell]

So are we sure that's even supposed to *be* Jack? Or is it like on Ebay when someone sees something that remotely (or even not so remotely) resembles him that they just say it *is* him? Perhaps the artist was inspired by Jack's appearance at the time she was making a beachcomber setting?

When I first saw it, I thought it was Gandhi.