Happy Thanksgiving: Jack Benny Edition

Today, we'll have a festival of sorts of Thanksgiving related pieces -- from songs to videos to old radio shows.  And this is a good place to start.

I'm a big fan of Jack Benny, and have been since a kid.  Perhaps I got it from my Grandma Rose who loved Benny, and I remember watching his TV show with her when little.  Later, when I was at a senior at Northwestern I finally had built up enough contacts to figure out how to get access to their great radio archive -- it was like entering a wonderful, wall-to-wall recordings of old radio programs, and I was able to tape record a bunch of old Benny shows for my collection, which I still have.  They're gems.

It turns out that my friend and reader of these pages, Eric Boardman -- an all-around talented fellow and Second City alum -- is quite the fan, as well.  He sent me the following several months back, about the Jack Benny Show's Thanksgiving special on November 30, 1952 --

"It's no secret, I am obsessed with the Jack Benny radio show. Each night I listen to an episode on my phone as I fall asleep. (Do you conk out with a smile on your kisser?)
 
"Yes, I know Thanksgiving is long over, but this particular program will bring joy to any season. Today's sitcom staffers should study the construction. And everybody else should howl with laughter---and marvel at the gags radio encourages. Benny's writers are constantly surprising us with 'visual" images' And Mr. Benny generously shares the jokes with his crackerjack cast. (Thanks always to the Sportsman Quartet for making cigarette commercials satisfying.) 'The Lucky Strike Program with Jack Benny' is high art, maybe the highest of the genre.
 
"Happy listening!"