LUCY AND JACK BENNY’S BIOGRAPHY

S3;E11
~ November 23, 1970

Directed
by Herbert Kenwith ~ Written by Milt Josefsberg and Ray Singer

Synopsis

Jack
Benny needs a private secretary to help him write his autobiography.
Naturally, Harry volunteers Lucy. Through a series of flashbacks we
meet many of the women in Benny’s life – all played by Lucy.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carter / ‘Mother’ / ‘Zelda’ / ‘Debbie’ / ‘Mary’ / ‘Lola’), Gale
Gordon (Harrison
Otis Carter)

Desi
Arnaz Jr. (Craig
Carter) and Lucie
Arnaz (Kim
Carter) do not appear in this episode, although they do receive
opening title credit.

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.
Benny was a Beverly Hills neighbor of Lucille Ball’s and the two
were off-screen friends. Benny previously appeared on “The Lucy
Show” as Harry Tuttle (a Jack Benny doppelganger) in “Lucy
and the Plumber” (TLS S3;E2),
did a voice over cameo as himself in “Lucy
With George Burns” (TLS S5;E1),
and played himself in “Lucy
Gets Jack Benny’s Account” (TLS S6;E6).
This is the second of his three episodes of “Here’s Lucy,” all
playing himself. Benny and Ball appeared on many TV variety and award
shows together. He died in 1974.

George
Burns
(Himself) was born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City in January 1896.
He married Gracie Allen in 1926 and the two formed an act (Burns and
Allen) that toured in vaudeville. They had their own hit show
“The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” first on radio then on
CBS TV from 1950 to 1958, airing concurrently with “I Love Lucy.”
After Allen’s death in 1964, Burns reinvented himself as a solo
act. Burns played himself on a 1966 episode of

“The Lucy Show” (TLS S5;E1).

In 1976 he won an Oscar for playing one of The
Sunshine Boys.
He was also known for playing the title role in Oh,
God! (1978)
and its 1984 sequel Oh,
God! You Devil. He
died at the age of 100.

Mary
Livingstone
(Herself, uncredited voice) married Jack Benny in 1927 and the pair
remained together until his death in 1974. Initially an actor who
appeared on Benny’s radio and television programs, she retired from
show business in 1958, at the same time as Gracie Allen, wife of
George Burns. She died in 1983.

Michael
Barbera
(Jack Benny as a Boy) was a child actor who was 12 years old at the
time of filming. He accrued 18 screen credits before leaving the
industry.

Ben
Wrigley
(Lola’s Butler) played Liberace’s
Butler in “Lucy and Liberace” (S2;E16). He was a British actor
who appeared in My
Fair Lady (1964)
and Bednobs
and Broomsticks (1971).
Wrigley previously appeared as a ticket agent in “Lucy
Flies to London” (TLS S5;E6).
This is the second of his three episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Florence
Lake
(Trixie, right) did four films with Lucille Ball between 1936 and
1938. She will do one more episode of the series as well as the 1974
TV movie “Happy Anniversary and Goodbye” starring Lucille Ball.

Ginger
(left), Trixie’s friend, goes uncredited and has no dialogue.

Louis
Quinn
(Sailor) started
out as a comedy writer for Milton Berle on radio and
moved to acting in 1954. He is best remembered as Roscoe in “77
Sunset Strip” (1958-63).

It
is possible that this character is based on Pat O’Brien, who was also
a sailor and friends with Jack Benny.

Sig
Frohlich
(Sailor, uncredited) makes the second of his uncredited background
appearances on the series.

Walter
Smith
(Sailor, uncredited) made a total of 13
mostly uncredited appearances on the series. He also did one episode
of “The
Lucy Show.”

The
other sailors and patrons of the café are played by uncredited
background performers.

Writer
and Script Supervisor Milt Josefsberg was a writer on Jack Benny’s
television program for a decade. Josefsberg wrote all three of the
“Here’s Lucy” scripts that featured Benny.

This episode was shot without the presence of a studio audience. In her DVD introduction to the episode, Lucie Arnaz says that this episode didn’t ‘wrap’ until the early hours of the morning.

The
evening this episode first aired (November 23, 1970) Desi Arnaz Sr.
(above with Ann Elder) guest-starred on “Rowan
and Martin’s Laugh-In,”
the second half hour of which aired opposite “Here’s Lucy.”

At
the start of the episode, Harry is on the telephone with Jack Benny’s
manager Irving
Fein
(inset). In real life, Fein was Benny’s manager and publicity
director from 1947 to 1975. Fein also managed George Burns later in
his career.

Jack
Benny’s present-day living room is a re-dressed version of Lucy
Carter’s living room. The front door, fireplace, and kitchen door are
all in the same location in both sets.

The
title of Jack Benny’s autobiography is…

“The Women in My Life or I
am Curious Jell-O”

Jell-O
was a long-time sponsor of Jack Benny’s radio and television
programs. I
Am Curious (Yellow)
is a 1967 Swedish art film that was controversial and censored in
many US cities due to sexual content.

Chapter 1 ~ MOTHER

The first flashback is
set in Jack Benny’s childhood home in Waukegan, Illinois where Lucy
plays his mother. In reality, Benny’s mother was named Emma Sachs Kubelsky, although it is not mentioned here.

Little
Jackie practices “Love in Bloom” on the violin. “Love
in Bloom”
by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin was published in 1934 and became the
signature song of Jack Benny.

When
Mother (Lucy) says Jackie walks like her, he shouts “Now
cut that out”
which was one of Jack Benny’s common replies in his comedy routines.
He says it later on in this episode.

Mother
gets a telephone call from next door neighbor Mrs. Heifetz to
complain about Jackie’s violin playing. Mother claims that Jackie
plays much better than her son Jascha. Jascha
Heifetz
(1901-87, inset photo) is considered
to be the greatest violinist of all time.
Coincidentally, Lucille Ball was neighbors with Jack Benny and often
could hear his violin practicing from her yard!

Chapter 2 ~ ZELDA

In
the second flashback, Jack is in the navy and meets a waitress named
Zelda.

Benny really did serve in the US Navy during World War I. The name
Zelda was also used as a former girlfriend on a 1957 episode of “The
Jack Benny Program.” The character was played by Sandra Gould, who
had appeared on two episodes of “I Love Lucy” and one “The Lucy
Show” but is probably best remembered as the second actor to play
Mrs. Kravitz on “Bewitched.”

Jack’s
sailor friend wants to go to Roseland and dance instead of visiting
another museum. Roseland
was a popular New York City dance hall that opened in 1922 and closed
in 2014.

Chapter 3 ~ DEBBIE

The
third flashback is set during Jack Benny’s vaudeville days. Lucy
plays Debbie
Fink, his comedy partner. Fink was a surname Benny used in a 1961
episode of “The Jack Benny Show.”

On
stage, Benny plays “Sweet
Georgia Brown”
on the violin while Debbie dances the Charleston. The song was first
written in
1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard.

Chapter 4 ~ MARY

In
the fourth flashback, Jack Benny is a radio star broadcasting with
Mary
Livingstone. In this sequence, Lucille Ball lip synchs to the voice of the real Mary Livingstone, who became Mrs. Jack Benny in 1927. She frequently performed with her husband on radio and television.

As part of the ‘radio show’ Mary (Lucy) reads a letter
from her mother who lives in Plainfield, New Jersey. Jack calls her
“the
midnight cowboy of New Jersey.” Benny is
probably referencing the 1969 Oscar-winning film Midnight
Cowboy.
In
reality, Mary Livingstone was born Sylvia Marcowitz in Seattle,
Washington.

Chapter 5 ~ LOLA

In
the fifth flashback, film star Jack Benny breaks up with blonde
bombshell Lola Lavere (Lucy).

In retaliation, Lola threatens to get the studio to
re-issue The
Horn Blows at Midnight.
The 1943 film was a financial failure at the box office and Benny
would often make fun of the fact on his TV and radio shows.

The
striped wallpaper in the first flashback is the same as was seen in
the first sequence in “Lucy and the Generation Gap” (S2;E12).

Continuity!
Lucy says she never thought she’d meet a big star like Jack
Benny when in fact the two met in the second episode of the series
when the Carters stayed at his Palm Springs home – for a fee!

Reel
Life! The episode ignores the fact that Benny and Livingstone
were married in order to play up the women in his life. The final
scene has Benny double dating with George Burns and calling
themselves swingers!