Editing Jack Benny (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Life ad benny 1937.JPG|thumb|Benny in the Waukegan High School band, 1909]]
Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky<ref name="dunning">{{cite book |last=Dunning |first=John |author-link=John Dunning (detective fiction author) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22The+Jack+Benny+Program,+comedy%22&pg=PA355 |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3 |edition=Revised |location=New York |pages=355–363 |access-date=2024-12-13}}</ref> on February 14, 1894 in Chicago, and grew up in nearby [[Waukegan, Illinois|Waukegan]].<ref name=book>{{cite book |last1=Benny |first1=Joan |last2=Benny |first2=Jack |title=Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story |year=1990 |publisher=Warner Books |isbn=978-0-446-51546-7 |quote=There are a few things you should know in advance. In the first place, I was not born in Waukegan. I was born at the Mercy Hospital in Chicago... |url=https://archive.org/details/sundaynightsatse00benn }}</ref>{{rp|6}} He was the son of Jewish immigrants Meyer Kubelsky (1864–1946)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Meyer-Kubelsky/6000000005248853788|title=Meyer Kubelsky|website=geni_family_tree|year=1864 }}</ref> and Naomi Emma ({{née}} Sachs; 1869–1917).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Naomi-Kubelsky/6000000005248963471|title=Naomi Emma Kubelsky|website=geni_family_tree|year=1869 }}</ref> Meyer was a saloon owner and later a [[haberdasher]] who had emigrated to the United States from [[Poland]] and Emma had emigrated from [[Lithuania]].<ref>Jack Benny appearance on ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]'', episode 1025: "Academy Awards" (1971)</ref><ref>Dunning, Jack. ''Tune in yesterday: the ultimate encyclopedia of old-time radio, 1925–1976''. p. 315.</ref><ref>Benny, Mary Livingstone, Hilliard Marks, & Marcia Borie. ''Jack Benny'' New York: Doubleday, 1978. pp. 8–10</ref><ref>[[:File:Bennie Kubelsky 1900 Census.jpg|United States 1900 Census, starting at line 94]]</ref><ref>''The Jack Benny Times'', September – December 2008, Vol. XXIII No. 5–6, p. 9. The International Jack Benny Fan Club.</ref> His parents gave him a half-size violin for his sixth birthday in 1900 and he started taking violin lessons from Professor Harlow in Waukegan, who charged 50 cents per lesson. Considered a prodigy, by the age of 8, Benny was making frequent trips to Chicago with his mother to study under [[Hugo Kortschak]] at the [[Chicago Musical College]]. He loved the instrument but hated to practice. Another one of his music teachers was Otto Graham Sr., a neighbor and father of football player [[Otto Graham]]. At 14, Benny was playing in dance bands and his high school orchestra. He was a dreamer and poor at his studies, ultimately dropped out of school and music lessons in the 9th grade. He later did poorly in business school and in attempts to join his father's business. In 1911, he began playing the violin in local [[vaudeville]] theaters for [[USD|US$]]7.50 a week (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|7.50|1911}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{Inflation-fn|US}}).<ref name=book/>{{rp|11}} He was joined on the circuit by [[Nathan "Ned" Miller|Ned Miller]], a young composer and singer.<ref>Fein, Irving, ''Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography'', Putnam, {{ISBN|978-0-671-80917-1}}, {{oclc|3694842}}, 1976</ref>

That same year, Benny was playing in the same theater as the young [[Marx Brothers]]. [[Minnie Marx|Minnie]], their mother, enjoyed Benny's violin playing and invited him to accompany her boys in their act. Benny's parents refused to let their son go on the road at 17, but it was the beginning of his long friendship with the Marx Brothers, especially [[Zeppo Marx]].

The next year, Benny formed a vaudeville musical duo with pianist [[Cora Folsom Salisbury]], who needed a partner for her act. This angered famous violinist [[Jan Kubelik]], who feared that the young vaudevillian with a similar name would damage his reputation. Under legal pressure, Benjamin Kubelsky agreed to change his name to Ben K. Benny, sometimes spelled Bennie. When Salisbury left the act, Benny found a new pianist, Lyman Woods, and renamed the act "From Grand Opera to Ragtime". They worked together for five years and slowly integrated comedy elements into the show. They reached the [[Palace Theatre (New York City)|Palace Theater]], the "Mecca of Vaudeville", and did not do well. Benny left show business briefly in 1918 to join the [[United States Navy]] during World War I,<ref name=NavyMemorial/> often entertaining fellow sailors with his violin playing. One evening, his violin performance was booed by the sailors, so with prompting from fellow sailor and actor [[Pat O'Brien (actor)|Pat O'Brien]], he ad-libbed his way out of the jam and left them laughing. He received more comedy spots in the [[revues]] and did well, earning a reputation as a comedian and musician. Despite stories to the contrary, no reliable evidence indicates Jack Benny was aboard during the 1915 ''[[SS Eastland|Eastland]]'' disaster or scheduled to be on the excursion; possibly the basis for this report was that ''Eastland'' was a training vessel during World War I and Benny received his training in the Great Lakes naval base where ''Eastland'' was stationed.  Benny achieved the rank of Seaman First Class. His naval service ended in 1921.<ref name=NavyMemorial/>

Shortly after the war, Benny developed a one-man act, "Ben K. Benny: Fiddle Funology".<ref name=book/>{{rp|17}} He then received legal pressure from [[Ben Bernie]], a "patter-and-fiddle" performer, regarding his name, so he adopted the sailor's nickname of Jack. By 1921, the fiddle was more of a prop, and the low-key comedy took over.

Benny had some romantic encounters, including one with dancer Mary Kelly,<ref name=book/>{{rp|23–24}} whose devoutly Catholic family forced her to turn down his proposal because he was Jewish. Benny was introduced to Kelly by [[Gracie Allen]].

[[File:Jack Benny and daughter Joan 1940.JPG|thumb|Benny and daughter Joan in 1940]]
In 1922, Benny accompanied [[Zeppo Marx]] to a [[Passover Seder]] in [[Vancouver]] at the residence where he met 17-year-old Sadie Marks (whose family was friends with, but not related to, the Marx family). Their first meeting did not go well when he tried to leave during Sadie's violin performance.<ref name=book/>{{rp|30–31}} They met again in 1926. Jack had not remembered their earlier meeting and was immediately taken with her.<ref name=book/>{{rp|31}} They married the following year. She was working in the hosiery section of the downtown LA Broadway Boulevard  May Company, this was across the street from the Orpheum Theater.  Jack was playing at the theater.   Called on to fill in for the "dumb girl" part in a Benny routine, Sadie proved to be a natural comedienne. Adopting the stage name [[Mary Livingstone]], Sadie collaborated with Benny throughout most of his career. They later adopted a daughter, Joan (1934–2021). Sadie's older sister Babe would often be the target of jokes about unattractive or masculine women, while her younger brother Hilliard would later produce Benny's radio and TV work.

In 1929, Benny's agent, [[Sam Lyons]], convinced [[Irving Thalberg]], American film producer at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], to watch Benny at the [[Orpheum Theatre (Los Angeles)|Orpheum Theatre]] in Los Angeles. Benny signed a five-year contract with MGM, where his first role was in ''[[The Hollywood Revue|The Hollywood Revue of 1929]]''. The next film, ''[[Chasing Rainbows (1930 film)|Chasing Rainbows]]'', did not do well, and after several months Benny was released from his contract and returned to Broadway in [[The Earl Carroll Vanities|Earl Carroll's ''Vanities'']]. At first dubious about the viability of radio, Benny grew eager to break into the new medium. In 1932, after a four-week nightclub run, he was invited onto [[Ed Sullivan]]'s radio program, uttering his first radio [[wikt:spiel|spiel]] "This is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, 'Who cares?{{' "}}<ref name=book/>{{rp|40}}