Jack Benny: King of Classic Comedy

Comedian Jack Benny (L) in a 1977 skit with Eddie Anderson who played Benny's sidekick and valet Rochester. Public Domain

Many of our country’s most beloved entertainers started out in vaudeville, a national network of theaters offering bills of miscellaneous acts: singers, dancers, comedians. For Americans, it was television before there was television. TV variety shows, in fact, with hosts like Ed Sullivan and Carol Burnett, were vaudeville’s final encore.

Performers known for one skill in vaudeville sometimes became stars later doing something completely different. Funny man W.C. Fields began in vaudeville as a juggler. Comedy legend Jack Benny began as a musician.

Dry Humor Makes a Star

Born Benjamin Kubelsky in Chicago in 1894, Benny helped out at his father’s dry goods store while studying the violin. By age 17, he was good enough to score gigs in vaudeville. Joining the Navy’s entertainment division in 1918, Benny discovered his talent for comedy and demoted the violin to a prop, which he deliberately played badly for comic effect. After the war, he returned to vaudeville, this time as a comedian.