Who is Jack Benny?
For you younger readers Jack Benny was a comedian who started.on Vaudeville and had a popular radio program in the 40’s and 50’s before moving on to having his own TV show and making many guest appearances on YV. His thing was most notably being stingy. He often used a violin as his prop.
I was listening to one of his old radio shows from November of ‘47, which was aired live in front of a studio audience. What amazed me most was that his sponsor was Lucky Strike cigarettes. The only time I tried smoking as a kid was with a friend who had a pack of Lucky Strikes. As an old guy having survived a heart attack, I am very thankful I hated smoking and my experimentation was with one or two of them. I didn’t understand how adults enjoyed smoking so much.
But I digress. It was refreshing to listen to the old radio program and brought back many memories of both watching black and white TV and listening to old radio programs as a kid. Jack Benny had a Black butler named Rochester on the show and was often his side kick.
I’m glad that YouTube keeps the old stuff alive for us “old timers.” I’ve watch a lot of old black and white TV shows like Highway Patrol, The Lone Ranger, and other old TV shows I grew up with as a kid. Old timers will often talk about their three TV stations and four, if they were lucky. We had to watch them when they were aired or we’d miss them. Lives were structured back then by favorite TV shows.
Jack Benny always got high ratings on both TV and radio. I sometimes miss those old shows, but am thankful now that both radio and TV history is preserved on YouTube. In the evenings as I relax before going to bed I’ll revisit my past with these old shows. I don’t recall the 50’s too much and the 60’s for me were more turbulent times. But I’m very thankful to see men smoke pipes on old TV shows. Pipes were almost as common as cigarettes, but cigars not so much except that Columbo always smoked cheap cigars.
I enjoy revisiting the past and might be why I’ve smoked a pipe for 50 years. Some things never change, except today there aren’t too many who smoke pipes. It seems my pipes and my wife I’ve had the longest. Today it is my Peterson System pipe, which is one of mty oldest and a favorite pipe. This morning my tobacco is Very Dark Cherry and my coffee is Stumptown Holler Mountain. Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.
Dave
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