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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book ever about Jack Benny and his show!,
By Zongo "Media Historian" (Gig Harbor, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jack Benny show (Hardcover)
I could not put this book down! It has 44 chapters and a great table of contents to help you navigate to the information that you want to read about. The chapters are as short as a couple of pages or as long as 20 pages. There are whole chapters on Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Mary Livingstone, Rochester, and Don Wilson! The chapter titles "Stooges" has well labeled and easy to find multi page subsections on Mel Blanc, Frank Nelson, Sheldon Leanard (the Racetrack tout), Artie Auerbach (Mr. Kitzel), Sam Hearn (Schlepperman and The Rube), as well as the phone operators. There is an informative chapter on Jack's relationship with Jack Paar, that no other book covers in as much depth. If you like to read short articles about specific facets of Jack's life and his show, then this is the book for you. Of all the books on Jack, this is the one that I come back to the most. You can tell Milt is a comedy writer because much of the book is laugh out loud funny. There are many poignant moments presented as well, like the fact that the book includes the text, in it's entirety, of Bob Hopes eulogy to Jack Benny. Some of the other books on Jack are better as an overview of his life, but none outshine this book as a look at the inner workings of Jack's show and the cast and crew involved in it. The other refreshing thing about this book, is that many of the stories about Jack I hadn't read before. Many of the other books repeat the same stories told by Jack in interviews over the years, and it is wonderful to read some "new" stories instead of just rehashing. Great, great read for fans of The Jack Benny Show, and well titled! "Well, were running a little long folks..."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it Down,
By
This review is from: The Jack Benny show (Hardcover)
I listened to the Jack Benny Program as a very young child and was better able to appreciate his humor on TV. As an adult I've relished listening to tapes of Benny's radio programs. Milt Josefsberg's "The Jack Benny Show" drew a Benny portrait, albeit sometimes disjointed and sketchy, that gave me a real feel for the entertainer, human being, and his entourage. Josefsberg amply demonstrated Benny's innocence, love of humor, schnookiness, modesty and artistry. That alone made the book worth reading. I also treasured his relating Jack Benny to George Burns, Bob Hope, the Ronald Colmans, Fred Allen and his various writers. The book did lose punch when describing Benny's last years and alluding to his possible extramarital relations on one hand while eliminating the possibility on the other. Curiously, while Josefsberg addresses Benny's last illness, he never provides a cause of death. In fact, Benny's family and doctors never told him that he had stomach cancer. I completed my read knowing so much more about Jack Benny and Company and glad that I did.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Covers Benny's career from early 1900's to the end in 1974,
By
This review is from: The Jack Benny show (Hardcover)
The book covers Benny's career from 1910's to the very end in 1974. It includes his relationship with his father and mother as well.
Written by one of his writers who worked with him from the mid-forties and on, whom Jack confided in. It includes Benny's vaudeville, movie, radio, and television experience as if Benny was writing an autobiography. Published in 1977 when most of the people written about were still alive. While punches are thrown, they are delivered with a velvet glove. On the plus side, it gives a complete realistic description of Benny as a person, which is why so many people liked him. It also shows how radio and early television worked in those days. It gives a good insight of the Fred Allen vs. Jack Benny "feud" and a good character of Fred Allen himself. On the negative side, with the exception of Jack's wife Mary Livingstone, it basically ignores the other people who worked with him. Not an essential read, but a good addition to those wanting to know more about Jack Benny, particularly the real man himself By the way, why does Amazon include a 'NO' in 'was this review helpful to you?'. People are only human and don't like opinions that differ from themselves, thus the 'NO' makes it too easy express such displeasure. Are they trying to discourage negative reviews, hence not purchase the CD. Such reviews only help a person in not being dissatisfied a product that received positive reviews
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