"I Can't Stand Jack Benny Because" contest entries

[Kathy FS]

Hi, has anyone ever seen a list of the runners-up winners of the "I can't stand Jack Benny because" contest? I have seen the winning poem several times (printed, and read out by Ronald Colman during a JB show, and heard Jack list some of the winners, but did anyone publish some of the other entries? Laura, do you perhaps know if any of the (what, 70,000+?) entries exist anywhere, like in the Benny archives or General Mills archives? I just wonder what other creative jabs people got in. From hearing Jack call out the names of some winners, they were split between men and women, and came from all over the country. So far I only have one of those huge mp3 collections from ebay to listen to, it did not include a subsequent show that the winner and Fred Allen guest starred on. Hope I can find it! thanks everyone for great questions and comments! Kathy

[LLeff]

Laura, do you perhaps know if any of the (what, 70,000+?) entries exist anywhere, like in the Benny archives or General Mills archives? I just wonder what other creative jabs people got in.

I've asked around about these from time to time, but almost everyone who was alive and involved in the series at that time is either dead or doesn't know. There are a few additional ones that were published in one of the biographies (probably Milt's, but I'd have to check). The one that comes to mind was particularly amusing since Fred Allen was the lead judge:

"I can't stand Jack Benny because he made Fred Allen and *HIM* I *REALLY* can't stand!!!"

[Kathy FS]

Is anyone up for some sleuthing? I went back to the script (the one posted in the tobacco documents collection) and found the following winners and their mailing addresses, circa January 1946

Mr. Carroll P. Craig, Sr.
735 Radcliffe Avenue
Pacific Palisades, CA

Craig was the first prize winner, of course, he got $2500 in Victory bonds

second prize $1500 bond
Mr. Charles S. Doherty
Hotel Bolton Square
Cleveland, OH

third prize $1000 bond
Miss Joyce O'Hara
1014 Dragoon Avenue
Detroit 9, MI

$100 bonds went to 50 winners; Jack was able to read 9 addresses of winners over the air that night

Helena Williams
1809 West Sherman
Phoeniz, AZ

Ruth Payne
909 Chester Avenue
Topeka, KS

Mrs. Dorothy Pickering
28 Sound View Drive
Greennich, CT (maybe its really Greenwich and that is how it sounded?)

Capt Alfred J. Helphant
3311 NE 19th Avenue
Portland, OR

Mary E. Flett
208 N. Princeton AVe
Fullerton, CA

E. Amolly (could it really have been Amali?)
401 N. Piedmont
Arlington, VA

Harris V. Petell
27 S. First STreet
Burgenville, NJ (could it be Bergenville?)

Phillip H. Clark
1524 Osage
Bartlesville, OK

Mrs. Florence Livingston
Jamestown, TX

that is all Jack had time to read. If any Bennyphiles out there live near one of these places, or wants to try Googling or myancestry.com surfing for these folks, maybe we could locate a child or grandkid who knows something (gosh or maybe even has a list of winning entries!)

thanks!!! Kathy

[Kathy FS]

Hi Laura and all the IJBFC folks, thought you would find this amusing. I plugged the name Caroll Craig into anwho.com, and since he was a "senior" I had a little hope of finding "junior." Up popped an address and phone number for a Caroll P Craig in Thousand Oaks CA (1332 CAlle Balsa, zip 91360). Usually I am deathly afraid of calling strangers on the phone, but I tried anyway, and I just had a nice, brief chat with Mr. Craig.

Yes, it was his father who won the contest in January 1946, He said there was a bit of controversy at the time that the winner was from Southern California (was it a fix? haha) Craig, Sr was an aeronautical engineer who just wrote a little on the side, so it appears to have been talent rather than inside connections that won the contest. Craig (jr) said that his father got to meet Jack Benny, and that there were articles in the Santa Monica and LA papers, but that is all he remembered of any publicity. No he did not appear on the Jack Benny program. Yes he remained a JB fan. Craig sr did a little bit of writing, a few children's books and things like that, but it just remained a hobby. Craig jr seemed a bit guarded when I talked to him, said he could answer some questions but what questions did I want to ask? He seems not to know much more about this adventure than what I got out of him. I asked if they had given him anything like a publication of other winning entries or anything and he did not remember seeing anything like that. And I said that wasn't it interesting that JB would have a contest for folks to write in NOT about how great he was, but why folks didn't like him and he agreed that is was a great joke. I promised to send him anything we unearth like a newspaper article or photo we might find in the LA or Santa Monica paper....

Kathy