Jack Benny 53 12 20 865 Cactus Christmas Tree

Jack Benny is one of the great American comedians. His work spans the 20th century, from vaudeville to radio and movies to TV. In vaudeville, he delivered the snappy comebacks and one liners with intelligence and wit, but it was only with the continuing development of his personal trait comedy that he really became the Jack Benny we all know so well. "Who else could play for four decades the part of a vain, miserly, argumentative skinflint, and emerge a national treasure? The secret of his success was deceptively simple: he was a man of great heart." That's John Dunning's assessment from "On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio," which gives a great history of the man and his show. "Where would I be today without my writers, without Rochester, Dennis Day, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson?" Benny asked in Newsweek in 1947.