Jack Gets a Mention on Burns & Allen (1953)

[Maxwell]

Another great thing about WWME's (see thread in Jack Benny Today) black & white Sundays is that right after Jack, they are showing Burns and Allen reruns right after.

Jack got a mention in this week's episode from 1953. In it Harry Von Zell wants to buy a cabin and as a result of Gracie's misunderstanding everyone except Gracie (Harry and Blanche Morton, Von Zell, and even Von Zell's agent) end up mad at George who has done nothing.

At any rate in one of George's little monologues he's talking about how he doesn't need any of them as friends. "I have lots of friends at the Friars Club. There's George Jessel and Jack Benny. In fact Jack Benny is a great friend...of Jessel."

This episode was also interesting in that the opening and closing weren't cut so that references to the sponsor were missing. So we got to see the Carnation Milk can and the contented cows at the start and finish, and they also kept in Harry Von Zell's lead in and reading of the middle commercial. I hadn't seen any of those since I was a kid.

For what it's worth, I remember George and Gracie having two sponsors on alternate weeks: Carnation and B.F. Goodrich tires. For those too young to remember those days, most shows with two sponsors would have an opening and middle commercial for the week's sponsor and then a closing commercial for the "alternate sponsor," usually introduced by the announcer's voiceover saying, "And now a word from our alternate sponsor."

Speaking of that, what was the last series with a single sponsor on TV? Was it the Kraft Music Hall? I think that lasted into the early '70s. I know Bob Hope had Chrysler as a sponsor for an anthology series he hosted (Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater), but I don't think that lasted as long as Kraft.

[shimp scrampi]

George (and many other comedians) got a lot of mileage out of Jack's character. He probably should have gotten royalties! In fact, George has one story where he was asked to write an ad for Teacher's Scotch, and he basically wrote a big anecdote about Jack being cheap and somehow related it to the scotch. When he showed Irving Fein his "tribute", Fein suggested Jack get a cut of the endorsement deal, and George promptly rewrote it! The story's in George's "Living it Up". Funny stuff, both the original ad copy and the revised version.

And, heck, where can I get some of those B.F. Goodrich puncture-proof tires? I've had to replace about five flats in the last two years!