BW - EP151—010: Jack Benny's Famous Slump—Looking Ahead to D-Day

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

In the fall of 1944 after Jack’s switch to Lucky Strike, General Foods did move a show opposite Jack. It wound up being The Kate Smith Show. The company uprooted Smith’s Friday program, countering Benny with a One-Hundred-Seventy-Thousand-Dollar ad campaign. While they did temporarily put a dent into Benny’s rating, Kate Smith lost forty-percent of her audience, dropping to ninety-third place in the overall ratings. The following season General Foods moved her back to Friday, but Kate Smith never again had another Top-fifty show. Well, that brings our look at Jack Benny’s show in the spring of 1944 to a close. I mentioned that Benny’s last episode for General Foods aired on June 4th, 1944. Our next episode of Breaking Walls will move only two days into the future, for perhaps the most important day in broadcasting history. Next time on Breaking Walls, we spotlight radio broadcasting on June 6th, 1944 to align ourselves with the Country’s heartbeat on the day the invasion of western Europe finally began. The reading material used in today’s episode was: • Sunday Nights at Seven — by Jack and Joan Benny • On The Air — By John Dunning • Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg As well as articles from • Broadcasting Magazine • Radio Daily • Variety And a massive special thank you to William Cairns for providing me with invaluable research on Benny’s 1940s run. William has a Jack Benny book on its way. On the interview front: • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Frank Nelson, and Don Wilson spoke with Chuck Schaden. Hear these full chats at Speakingofradio.com. • Mel Blanc and Mary Jane Higby spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org • Jack Benny, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Don Wilson were with Jack Carney • Dennis Day was also with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver. • Orson Welles spoke to Johnny Carson Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • The Hut on Fowl's Legs — By Modest Mussorgsky