Comedian Jack Benny (1894-1974) was one of the top stars of radio, television, and stage in a career which spanned over 50 years. A master of comic timing, Benny changed the nature of the weekly comedy show on radio and his likeable skinflint stage personna delighted audiences in the United States and around the world.

Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky on February 14, 1894, in Waukegan, Illinois. His father, Meyer Kubelsky, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1889. After marrying Emma Sachs four years later he opened a small haberdashery shop in Waukegan. Benjamin, the eldest child, had no desire to enter his father's business, but he had a natural talent for music which his parents encouraged by purchasing a small violin for him and paying for expensive lessons. Considered something of a prodigy around his home town, he played as a member of a musical...