Mary and Flying

[Yhtapmys]

Mary's stage career as Marie Marsh is pretty much a footnote, but there's an occasional mention of it in the press.
1931 seems to have been a year of appearances in short films and on theatres (Gus Edwards had one show touring where a four-year-old did his impression of the pre-radio Jack). Jack and Mary were on a bill in Syracuse, and here's a short blurb from May 12.

It Takes Mention of Wife To Stir Benny’s Interest
Loew Headliner Foresees Dramatic Career for Marie Marsh
There's no gag to it. That winsome young lady whom Jack Benny leads on to the stage at Loew’s State this week is really Mrs. Jack Benny and she’s about the only subject about which the lackadaisical Jack, can get “steamed up.”
Appraised that he was a very good double for our own Hugh V. O’Connell, Jack agreed with no enthusiasm.
Questioned as to his experiences in Hollywood when he was spectacularly hauled from the Los Angeles Orpheum stage to rush into the “Hollywood Revue” already in the making, Jack said it was “all in the day’s work.” In fact, Jack was just another tired business man at the close of the day until Mrs. Jack’s stage career was brought into the conversation.
“Yes, sir, she’s a darn good actress,” Jack affirms. And, what's more, he confides she never stepped on the stage until she became Mrs. Benny just exactly four years and one week ago.
Mrs. Benny confesses ambitions for a dramatic career and her husband believes there is one in the offing for her.
There is only one subject upon which the Benny's disagree and that is flying. The Mrs. adores it, but Jack won’t let her off the ground. She made one trip from Cuba to Miami
and “loved” it, but it’s the last if peace and harmony are to be kept in the Benny family.
“Until they can make airplanes safe enough to get from their starting point to their destination without fool excuse for a crash like a ‘little ice on the wings’ this family stays on the ground.” Jack says. He has been uncomfortably near a number of spectacular smashes and declares the fliers always have too simple an explanation for the disasters.