Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy

Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley is Professor in the Radio-Television-Film department at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of, among other books, At the Picture Show: Small Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture and the editor of Hollywood in the Neighborhood: Historical Case Studies of Local Moviegoing.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 • Becoming Benny: Th e Development of Jack Benny’s Character-Focused Comedy for Radio2 • “What Are You Laughing at, Mary?” Mary Livingstone’s Comic Voice3 • Masculine Gender Identity in Jack Benny’s Humor4 • Eddie Anderson, Rochester, and Race in 1930s Radio and Film5 • Rochester and the Revenge of Uncle Tom in the 1940s and 1950s6 • Th e Commercial Imperative: Jack Benny, Advertising, and Radio Sponsors7 • Jack Benny’s Intermedia Juggling of Radio and Film8 • Benny at War with the Radio Critics9 • Jack Benny’s Turn Towards TelevisionConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

“…a deeply researched and powerfully argued analysis of Benny’s persona, productions, distribution, advertising, and sponsorship from the early 1930s through the late 1950s. …It is a must-read for scholars seeking to understand the inner workings, products, and impact of mass media and intermedia develop­ment, consumer culture, and celebrity culture during the heyday of mid-twentieth-century American commercial radio broadcasting and how to write about such issues incisively and inclusively.”