May 15, 1949 – Mary is sick. Phil asks Jack to borrow $2,000 and so he visits the vault. Jazz composer Hoagy Carmichael stops by. Then Jack is off to his violin lesson. References include the newly ended Soviet Blockade of West Berlin, NY Giants manager Leo Derocher, comedians Fred Allen and Milton Berle, Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini, and “The Horn Blows at Midnight”.
April 4, 1954 – Rochester is Spring cleaning, Dennis wants to join the Navy and Jack sits down to read a book. In the book Jack plays a psychiatrist and Mel Blanc thinks he is a refrigerator.
April 11, 1954 – A short history of the Jack Benny radio show before the episode starts. Jack hasn’t received a new contract from the sponsor to renew the show for another year. In the episode they mention Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Abbot & Costello and the jingle for Papermate pens. Plus Amy Vanderbilt appears in the commercial, Lucky Strike cigarette in hand, to promote her new book on etiquette.
Season 4, Episode 11
April 11, 1954 – On the Jack Benny television program the guests are George Burns and Gracie Allen. But Gracie is late o Jack dresses up as Gracie and does her routine.
April 9, 1950 – This is a famously good episode (many collections label it “Jack gives 50 cents to a bum”). Frank Fontaine plays the homeless man as well as Winston Churchill, Cary Grant and Spencer Tracy. After this episode Frank Fontaine brought the character to the Jackie Gleason Show.
Jack Benny Episodes 