Jack Benny's 40th Birthday Celebration (Shower of Stars, Feb 13, 1958) 

KSW Jack would have loved you for saying that !

Jack never celebrated a "40th birthday" again, because, as he explained years later, "39 is a funny number, 40 isn't."

@@fromthesidelines 'Alka Seltzer' is funny. Words with 'k' in them are funny. Casey Stengel, that's a funny name. Robert Taylor is not funny. Cupcake is funny. Tomato is not funny. Cookie is funny. Cucumber is funny. Car keys. Cleveland is funny. Maryland is not funny. Then, there's chicken. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. Cab is funny. Cockroach is funny - not if you get 'em, only if you say 'em.

Gee that joke hasn't been beaten into the ground

Actually he was 62 years old, but I’ll go with 39. Jack Benny was the greatest and quite frankly still is as nobody has matched him yet.

Rochester returned for the December 11, 1960 episode featuring Jimmy and Gloria Stewart.

Yes. The radio shows from about 1936-1948 were the height of OTR. Great writers and cast.

Tim love that you said that. I have had the opinion for years. Jack could have made a mistake for "LOVE IN BLOOM" in many places. Most of those places would not get a laugh. Jack knew just where it should occur. That takes an accomplished musician to play those wrong notes at just the right time. There are few examples, but when I find one where Jack plays for real - love those clips.

Andy was a semi regular on the show in the late 1930s so I am very glad he did this show. He passed away at the hospital I worked at. I saw him a few times but he was so sickly I did not go up to him and tell him he was a great actor.

No color videotape until later in 1958, and at NBC. Engineers at RCA and AMPEX were still working on the technology. This was a rare CBS color show, and probably the last one Benny was on as main star until his NBC series of specials.

Thanks. Great info!

I wonder if they would have kinescoped it for the west coast (or done it over...but I doubt that). In any event, unless it was shown live on the west coast they would have seen it in black and white, right?

Jack's final "SHOWER OF STARS" special- in color- was telecast in April 1958.

@@fromthesidelines Wouldn't a color tape have been made for time shifting for the west coast?

Because if you watched jack Benny, it's a long running joke...He perpetually told eveyone he was 39 in almost every skit. For the record, he was 64 in this show.

A Maxwell of course!

@@razorback9926 got it

Not sure what you are asking so Let me answer two ways. Eddie was doing the JB Television Show after the Radio show was stopped in 1955. He did this up till the time of his Heart Attack. Now I don't know the date of the broadcast, but based on historical references - this was a LIVE broadcast. It was also (like live shows were) rehearsed during the week prior to the broadcast. This was both for the Technical and artistic endeavors. Eddie started feeling ill during the final rehearsal the day before. He had the heart attack and was rushed to the hospital (Cedars maybe?) Jack was having trouble concentrating for the rest of that rehearsal, and actually was considering canceling the show. Eddie had been with him for years and the two of them were close friends. The hospital stabilized Eddie, and Jack went to the hospital after rehearsal ended. Now in the actual broadcast, Eddie's lines were given to Andy Devine (Andy had not been part of the TV show and had been off the radio show for years). Jack made the point at the top of the show to mention Eddie's 'illness' and that Andy would Do not only his scheduled part, but also do the Rochester part. Jack was brilliant in his management and for his love of those around him. IF you watch this show, Jack mentions Rochesters name frequently. In the 1940's (43 maybe) Jack was coming back from NYC to LA but was taken off the train in Chicago. He had a very bad case of Pneumonia (This was pre Penicillin) . The first week, Burns and Allen filled in. For the next 6 weeks, Orson Wells stepped in as head of the cast. But the shows were written so that JACK was Mentioned every episode. Not just a mention but a good dialogue with the rest of the cast and a punch line. Jack could have died during that time. He was off his sponsored show for 6 weeks or so. Even caused a re-write of his contract with the Sponsor. Jack did the same concept with Eddie. Knowing he'd be watching - Jack made sure Eddie was part of the show regardless of where he was. Years later Strokes also took their toll on Eddie. In one of Jacks final specials, Eddie and Jack were doing their old routine about p utting Jacks clothes on other people so that Jack didn't have to pay for excess weight in the baggage. I saw this and it looked normal. What I read later is that Eddie just didn't have the timing any more. jack didn't care. Jack took what Eddie said and dealt with it so that Eddie Looked good. Jack Benny was a very kind and generous man ( YES THATS RIGHT GENEROUS)

It's scripted. . They know all their lines..

Live studio audience.

Art Gilmore. He lived to be 98 years old, dying in 2010. He was also the announcer on the Red Skelton Show.

Great announcer

Bill Lundigan.

Yeah right

Bill Lundigan, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't watched this in a while, but Lundigan was the host/announcer on all the other "Shower of Stars" episodes I've seen.

The blonde hostess of course was Faye Emerson, probably the leading female TV hostess/pitchwoman of the '50s. She was married to Tonight show bandleader Skitch Henderson.

BILL IS A GREAT HOST

Gee! Wish I had been told that 60+ years ago! My Mom wore stilettos for years for working and drove every single day with them on! Several years later (when I was much younger😄) I also drove with heels on - and a standard shift to boot! Mist women did not change shoes to drive!!

who is the announcer

They weren’t lame back then! Please don’t look at history through modern eyes!

@@sandybruce9092 It is perfectly valid to view history through modern eyes. History is not hostage to contemporaneousness.

Yes, Bill Lundigan does seem to call him "Dan"........................

There are many reasons for criticizing this special, but lack of star power isn't one of them. It's just not a fair criteria to apply. The point here was to include as many people that **used to work directly with Jack on his own shows as part of his own cast**, not to include the biggest stars possible. Bob Crosby was on the show because he was Jack's orchestra leader for several years. Bing wasn't Jack's orchestra leader. Jackie Gleason had been on Jack's TV show exactly once. Lucy had yet to work with Jack on his show EVEN ONCE by the time this special was made in 1959-- her one guest star appearance on his show wasn't until two years later. Neighbors or not, their careers had barely even crossed yet. There were so many former castmates of Jack's in this special, there was hardly enough time for them to get more than a couple of minutes of screentime each as it was. Surely you don't think Jack couldn't have had bigger stars on this program if that was the point? As if he couldn't have at least gotten his best friend in the world George Burns to show up?

gymnastix It was probably more important that the celebrities featured were closely associated with Jack Benny's radio and television career. Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball didn't fit into this category.

I wasn't thinking about George Burns at all, since "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" was never a Top 10 Nielsen ratings hit. I meant strictly the fact Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason and Red Skelton were the biggest comedy stars on the same network (CBS) as Jack Benny, that having booked one, a few or all of them on his special would have helped boost Benny's own career at the time. And this wasn't just any special, but a near milestone one purporting to celebrate the 40th birthday of Benny (then about to turn 64 years old, one year shy of the ability to collect Social Security. Of course, the conceit was Benny had been perpetually only 39 years old, which this supposed 40th birthday special would have negated, but for the fact (as you noted) the Benny-as-39 condition resumed thereafter until his December 1974 death (at the actual age of 80 years old).. I am fully aware Bob Crosby had been Benny's orchestra leader (after Phil Harris, on radio). But to most viewers the fact is Bing Crosby was a bigger star than his brother Bob. And I thought Hope and Crosby woudl have been naturals a guests on this special, since both had already appeared on Benny's TV series by then. Also, this special was broadcast February 13, 1958, not in 1959 as you just stated--"Jackie Gleason had been on Jack's TV show exactly once. Lucy had yet to work with Jack EVEN ONCE by the time this special was made in 1959-- her one guest star appearance on his show wasn't until two years later." And, contrary to your assertion, Lucy (as well Desi Arnaz) HAD worked with Jack previously, in fact in the very TV special which celebrated the groundbreaking of CBS Television City, titled "Stars in the Eye," which was broadcast November 15, 1952. So the paths of the two stars had certainly crossed as more than just neighbors on North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills. Also, that special was directed by longtime Benny and "Burns & Allen Show" director Ralph Levy, who had also directed the 1951 pilot of "I Love Lucy." There was also a great sharing in other ways between Lucy and Benny, including of Benny writer Milt Josefsberg, who would later script Lucy's series' (and later some of "All in the Family"). Benny's and Lucy's writers also shared the practice of only slightly reworking scripts of previous episodes and passing them off as new ones. This must have become very tiresome for the viewer after a few decades. And that practice should have been an indication it was time to hire some new writers with fresh ideas. After all, it was partly because of stale scripts that both Benny's and Lucy's series' were, ultimately, canceled (by CBS and then NBC for Benny, by ABC after Lucy's aborted 1986 comeback attempt "Life with Lucy"). In fact, Benny's famous Christmas episode (SPOILER ALERT), wherein he shopped for gifts in a department store for his celebrity friends and drove the store clerk (portrayed by Mel Blanc) to distraction and, presumably, also suicide (since one hears an off-screen gunshot being fired), had been re-staged at least three times--at least once on radio, then twice (in 1954 and 1957) again on television. This TV re-staging seemed unnecessary, since by '54 the ability to simply re-air a filmed episode was possible (unless, perhaps, that Christmas episode was one which aired live originally, as was sometimes Benny's practice, even after teh era when videotape was possible). Benny also re-staged an episode (SPOILER ALERT) concerning a cruise to Hawaii, the first time (1953)with guest star Marilyn Monroe (her only episodic TV appearance), the second staging (1963) with Jayne Mansfield. And these are only a few examples of this practice (by Benny and Lucy and their writers) of re-staging and re-shooting episodes of sitcoms. One surmises the two comic actors and/or their writers were taking advantage of a malady presumed to be suffered by the viewing pubic, that of cultural amnesia. Perhaps that situation was not as likely in the 1950s and '60s even as it would be today, when so-called "Millennials" often state they cannot recall anything beyond the reference point of a few years previous. No, I wasn't thinking Benny couldn't have obtained bigger stars for his "40th birthday" special, only wondered why he hadn't. Posthumously, for the newer viewer of today, the guests on this TV special would seem extremely unknown. Then again, for some younger persons (indeed, perhaps for many or most viewers of today), I would certainly not place on any bets they would even know of Jack Benny, let alone Dennis Day or Don Wilson. In any event, Benny and his writers obviously were not thinking in the longer term when they booked the guests for this TV broadcast. And while we're on the subject, just because a film or TV episode is older doesn't make it "classic." Sometimes, the result is just "old." For example, although I do still enjoy Jack Benny's comedy, I see little or no humor in any episodes of "The Milton Berle Buick Show" or "The Phil Silvers Show", just some badly dated vaudeville shtick which, even then, must have seemed forced and tiresome. I think more comedy writing of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries will hold up better in the long run. That said, I also don't think we have the stronger characterizations in film and TV anymore (with a few exceptions--"Frasier," "Seinfeld," etc.).

"No, I wasn't thinking Benny couldn't have obtained bigger stars for his "40th birthday" special, only wondered why he hadn't." Did I not explain very clearly why he hadn't? Because obviously this was not the intent of this special, to book the biggest stars possible, but to book as many of Jack's **former cast** as possible. I also didn't say that Lucy NEVER worked with Jack. I said that their careers had barely crossed paths, which is true. It's beside the point anyway-- even if she had been a frequent guest, such as Bob Hope or George Burns, there was no room for guests who were there just because they were big stars. It's crystal clear that this wasn't what they were going for. Why else would they book the very first announcer Jack ever had on his first radio show? No one knew who this guy was even in 1958. He wasn't booked for name value-- obviously. This isn't obvious? Jack didn't need to book Lucille Ball to "boost his career" with this special. He was near the top of his popularity. And no, of course no one was thinking "in the longer term" when they created this special-- it was a live show intended to be seen once. If they thought anyone was ever going to see this again, don't you think they'd have preserved it in color? It's never been shown once on TV, not once, since 1958. And "while we're on the subject". . . when did I ever even ONCE use the word "Classic" to describe this special? As a matter of fact, to the contrary, I went out of my way to note in the description of this video that I find it to be rather rather strange, the musical numbers bizarre, and the show overstuffed with guests. It's a very valuable document of Jack's career in that it's the ONLY video representation of so many of his former cast members, and it's a fun way to pass an hour which I thought would make a nice post for Jack's birthday. I never used the word "classic", and I don't think this IS a classic. If I did, however, that would be an **opinion** that I'd be fully entitled to have without anyone implying an ability to distinguish between the concepts of "old" and "good".

What's My Line? Yes it actually seems likes it’s a real celebration and gathering of old friends for Jacks personal benefit rather than a crafted commercial offering made for maximum financial return.