Former television executive Joseph Giaquinto will speak to the New Canaan Men’s Club Friday about the nearly 40-year career of Jack Benny, whose radio and television shows were ranked as the most celebrated comedy programs of the period, built on Benny being the target of jokes from his regular cast members.
Benny’s show played off his made up reputation for being stingy, his vanity about his musical ability on the violin, and his being perpetually 39 years-old, with his writers devising innumerable comedic situations and good natured gibes for cast members to weave those traits into the shows’ sketches. The television show won Emmy Awards for comedy in 1959 and 1961.
Benny, who died in 1974, was memorialized by the CBS network just days after his death on Dec. 26 with an hour-long special presenting clips from the show and interviews with his friends hosted by newsman Charles Kuralt.
The Men’s Club meets Fridays at 10 a.m. in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 111 Oenoke Ridge, with Giaquinto’s presentation expected to begin around 10:40 a.m.
A 38-year veteran of the television industry, Giaquinto worked at the ABC and NBC networks, sports network ESPN and Westinghouse.
In his remarks, Giaquinto will describe Benny’s challenge in launching the radio program during the Depression as well as how he assembled what television historians consider the best cast and team of writers to emerge in radio from 1945 to the mid-1950s.
Before his television career, Giaquinto had two active duty tours in the U.S. Army and five years in advertising with the William Etsy Ad Agency.
Men 55-years old and above interested in joining the club may email ncmens@ncmens.info.