The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued

Page 248

Chevrolet Program,” “The General Tire Revue,” “The Jell-O Program,” “The Grape Nuts Flakes Program,” and “The Lucky Strike Program.” Despite the name changes, the show and cast went largely unchanged throughout the years. The many forms of “The Jack Benny Show” would remain on radio for more than two decades.

The cast was led, of course, by Jack Benny as the well-known everyman with many comic foibles, including gently exaggerated vanity, pettiness, self-importance, and the ability to squeeze more out of a penny than any man alive. Appearing with Benny in these programs were Eddie Anderson as his valet “Rochester,” who knows him better than anyone and regularly plays on Jack's vanity; Mary Livingstone, his wise cracking secretary and provider of a uniquely female perspective on Jack's peculiarities, and his real life wife for 47 years; Dennis Day, the naive and sheltered singer; Phil Harris, a hard drinking bandleader and hipster son of the south; Don Wilson, the rotund announcer and the target of many of Jack's barbs; and voice actor extraordinaire Mel Blanc as just about every character imaginable, including Polly the Parrot and Benny's sputtering Maxwell automobile.