Lucy Gets Jack Benny’s Account

S6;E6~
October 16,
1967

Synopsis

When
the bank needs to find unique depositors, Lucy sets out to convince
notorious miser Jack Benny to become a customer. But first, they
have to build a vault secure enough to satisfy Benny.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carmichael),
Gale Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney), Roy
Roberts
(Mr. Cheever)

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode.

Guest
Cast

Jack
Benny (Himself)
was
born on Valentine’s day 1894. He had a successful vaudeville
career, and an even greater career on radio with “The Jack Benny
Program” which also became a successful television show. His screen
persona was known for being a penny-pincher and playing the violin.
His theme song was “Love in Bloom.” Benny was a Beverly Hills
neighbor of Lucille Ball’s and the two were off-screen friends.
Benny previously appeared on the series as Harry Tuttle (a Jack Benny
doppelganger) in “Lucy and the Plumber” (S3;E2) and did a voice
over cameo as himself in “Lucy With George Burns” (S5;E1). He
later appeared on three episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Benny and
Ball appeared on many TV variety and award shows together. He died in
1974.

Gladys
(voice on the intercom), six Native Americans in full war paint, and
Irving the gorilla, all go uncredited. It is possible, however, that
actor George Barrows was inside the gorilla costume. Barrows played
gorillas in three previous “Lucy Show” episodes.

The
episode was filmed on September 15, 1967.

The
script, written by Milt Josefsberg and Ray Singer, won an Emmy
nomination in 1968, the only writing nomination of the entire series.
The episode was so popular with viewers that it was included in “The
Lucy Show” rerun series presented on CBS in prime time every summer
through 1971.

Lucy
proposes that the bank go after unique accounts like the Queen of
England or the King of Thailand or Mickey Mouse (“Put
your money where your mouse is!”). Lucy calls Benny “the Maharajah of Beverly Hills” because he doesn’t trust banks and keeps all his money in his home.

The
scene at Benny’s home begins with him practicing the violin, but when
the doorbell rings he stops ‘playing’ and the music continues.
Before answering the door, he shuts off the stereo and says “I’ll
be right back Jascha.” Jascha
Heifetz
(1901-87) was a Russian-born musician considered him to be the
greatest violinist of all time.

In
Benny’s home there is an autographed photo of Bob
Hope
prominently displayed. At one point the camera actually nudges a few
inches mid-shot in order to get the photo in the frame. Hope had a
cameo the first time Benny appeared on the series in “Lucy and the
Plumber” (S3;E2). Throughout their careers, Hope and Benny would
appear on each others programs and even did two films together. In
the episode, Benny describes Hope as “one
of his fans.”

Benny
says he used to have a polar bear named Carmichael. On Benny’s radio
show he often referred to a pet polar bear named Carmichael, voiced
by Mel Blanc. Blanc did the voice of a parrot in The
Fuller Brush Girl
(1950) starring Lucille Ball. He will also lend his voice talents to
a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Coincidentally, Carmichael was Lucille Ball’s surname in her previous sitcom, “The Lucy Show.”

Seeing
a photo of Jack Benny in the navy Lucy asks if he was in the Korean
War. Benny takes one of his famous long takes and then says “bless
you!”
Benny actually served in World War I, often entertaining the troops
with his violin. The Korean War started in 1950 and ended (unofficially) in 1953.

Lucy
also spots photos of Benny with two presidents. Benny met several
times with President Harry S. Truman and also met John F. Kennedy in
1962.

Lucy
recognizes a photo of Rochester. In 1937, Eddie
Rochester Anderson began
playing Rochester Van Jones, Jack Benny’s valet, on his radio show
“The
Jack Benny Program.”
Anderson became the first Black American to have a regular role on a
nationwide radio program. When the series moved to television,
Anderson continued in the role until the series ended in 1965.

When
Lucy admires a cast photo of Benny’s old television show, Benny says
he often sees Dennis Day and sometimes “trips over” Phil
Harris (right),
a reference to Harris’ persona as a lush. In “Lucy and Joan”
(S4;E4) Joan
(Joan Blondell) says she’s been in pictures so long she saw Phil
Harris take his first drink.
Harris
was
a bandleader who became a comic radio star as a Jack Benny sidekick
in the 1930’s. Although his fondness for bourbon was largely a
creation of the Benny’s writers, Harris played the part to the hilt.
Dennis
Day (left) appeared
for the first time on Benny’s
radio show in 1939 and remained associated with him until Benny’s
death in 1974. He was introduced as a young, naïve boy singer – a
character he kept through his whole career.

There
is a flirtatiousness between Benny and Lucy that ignores the fact
that Benny was married to Mary Livingstone. Lucy even proposes that she and Benny go out on a date. Curiously, Livingstone is nowhere to be seen at
the home (nor are any servants, but perhaps that is due to Benny’s
frugality).

Jack
Benny gets entrance applause in his second scene, indicating the
episode may have been shot out of sequence to accommodate the unusual
settings.

Benny
tells Mr. Mooney his social security number is 1. Benny says his
father’s name is Mortimer and his mother’s maiden name is J.P.
(Judith Priscilla) Morgan. In real life Benny’s
birth name was Benjamin
Kubelsky
and he
was the son of Meyer Kubelsky and Emma Sachs.

Benny
says he has a tattoo that says “J-E-L-L-O” because “in
those days sponsors were hard to get.” In
1934,
General
Foods,
the makers of Jell-O
and
Grape-Nuts,
became the sponsor strongly identified with Benny for 10 years.
The Jell-O jingle spelled out the name of the gelatin desert
product.

The
Westland Bank’s new Benny vault is 300 feet down. Lucy
notes that due to its subterranean location, the vault is “smog
free.” This the third mention on the series of the Los Angeles smog
problem. It was previously joked about in “Lucy and Tennessee
Ernie Ford” (S5;E21) and “Lucy Meets Sheldon Leonard” (S5;E22).

The
vault is equipped with land mines, a guillotine…

knife-throwing wild
Indians (who demand overtime)…

a pool filled with piranha…

“Piranha fish? What a picnic they’d have with Jackie Gleason. You know, by the time he could say, ‘Away we go,’ he’d already be gone.” Lucy has done Jackie Gleason’s famous “away we go” exit move several times on the series. Gleason himself will make a cameo appearance on the 1968 “Here’s Lucy” episode that features Jack Benny.

snapping turtles…

Irving the
gorilla (who is managed by Benny)…

and a pit of quicksand. Milt
Josefsberg, writing in his book, The
Jack Benny Show,
talks about the episode’s quicksand effect:

“For
the quicksand routine, we had to build a small special elevator in
this hole. The floor around it was raised about a foot via a small
sloping wall, and the entire area was then filled with lukewarm
water. Then this small lake was covered with a dark sawdust-like
material, a couple of inches thick, which floated on the surface,
giving it the appearance of solid ground. As Lucy and Jack walked
into this pit, the slightly sloping walls made them seem to sink.
When they reached the ‘elevator hole,’ they stood still, the
machinery was turned on, the elevator went down, and they slowly
began to sink from view. Because
the machinery powering the elevator sat beneath it, the floor could
only descend four or five feet. When Lucy and Jack felt the elevator
stop as it reached bottom, they were almost shoulder high in the
gooey mixture, but now they slowly bent their knees, giving further
illusion that they were going to disappear into a bottomless pit.”

The
effect almost doesn’t happen. Benny was apprehensive about being able
to stay on his feet, and Ball had an attack of claustrophobia.
However, both got through the scene like professionals.

The
quicksand effect cost Desilu $25,000, the most expensive television
episode at the time. Lucille Ball later commented, “I
don’t mind how expensive a gag is, as long as it gets a good
laugh!”

Callbacks!

Piranha ate Lucy’s purse in “Lucy Gets the Bird” (S3;E2).

Blooper
Alerts!

When
Benny bars the door to show Lucy the secret entrance to his vault,
the doors make a metallic clinking sound as they are secured. When
Benny goes through the secret passage, the sound happens
again, causing Lucille Ball to look around wondering what the noise
was.