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About Jack Benny’s 1907 Maxwell, the Maxwell car, and Jack Benny himself from radio to TV...
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0:00
hi there this is Dave and I'm here today
0:02
to talk about Jack Benny's Maxwell it is
0:05
the most famous Maxwell although there
0:07
have been distinguished Maxwell's
0:09
because early Maxwell cars were among
0:11
the first to climb Mount Washington
0:13
without a problem to cross the country
0:16
uh the first car driven by a woman
0:18
across the country it was a big deal
0:21
back in those days at the turn of the
0:23
century so the Maxwell came about in
0:26
1904 the original Maxwell was very
0:29
successful and the company might have
0:30
gone on into the present day basically
0:33
it was a good car uh but once Chrysler
0:36
took over Maxwell Motors and had his
0:39
Chrysler come out in early
0:41
1924 making it a century of Chrysler as
0:44
shown in my book Century of Chrysler
0:46
once that happened they uh eventually
0:49
brought the Maxwell brand into Chrysler
0:51
it became the Chrysler 4 and from there
0:54
on in Maxwell was dead so Jack Benny hit
0:57
the radio in 1932
1:00
Maxwell had been a very popular brand up
1:02
to around
1:04
1925 there were still Maxwells around
1:07
these were cars that you would laugh at
1:09
the owners of but it would be like a
1:11
Dodge Caliber among the Mopar crowd so
1:14
th this or a Toyota Echo you know a
1:16
broken down old Toyota Echo you would
1:19
imagine somebody who's really really
1:21
cheap still owning one of those because
1:23
he doesn't want to get rid of it because
1:25
a new car is just too expensive so that
1:28
is the role that the Maxwell had to to
1:30
play and that's why Jack Benny chose it
1:32
on his radio show because he was just
1:34
starting to play a skinflint he started
1:36
out as a Suave Master of Ceremonies with
1:38
some self-deprecating humor and he ended
1:40
up playing a skin Flint now uh what they
1:43
realized once they were on set the first
1:45
time that the Maxwell showed up is that
1:47
the sound effects man did not have a
1:49
recording of an old car Maxwell or other
1:52
so Mel blank who was there volunteered
1:54
to do impressions of it and he did the
1:58
car coughing and sputtering and it was
2:00
so popular that the Maxwell played by
2:02
Mel blind kept coming on and again and
2:04
again and again and the problem with
2:06
this of course ended up when they went
2:08
onto television and into movies that
2:10
they didn't actually have a Jack Benny
2:12
Maxwell so they had to go out and buy
2:15
one when I went out to look for an old
2:17
script involving the radio show and uh
2:20
the Maxwell I found a little bit of
2:23
dialogue
2:24
including uh Jack Benny saying that he'd
2:26
been thinking of getting a new car but
2:28
he didn't know what kind he'd like and
2:30
Rochester says why don't you get one of
2:33
those new Hudsons they're so streamlined
2:36
they're so low you step down into them
2:39
and uh the reason for that little ad was
2:41
apparent with the next two lines Jack
2:43
Benny says well you step down into this
2:45
car and Rochester said I know but the
2:48
Hudson has a floor Hudson famously had
2:50
the step down design at that point it
2:53
was a very nice car unibody before its
2:56
time so it was low slung giv it very
3:00
good handling but there was plenty of
3:02
room for you in your hat once you got
3:03
inside because the floor was lowered
3:05
because it wasn't body on frame and you
3:07
could do that now Jack Benny show
3:09
continued for decades so certainly by
3:11
the 1960s when the Maxwell was still a
3:14
joke on the Jack Benny show on
3:16
television people didn't think of old
3:18
Maxwell's as old beaters that you still
3:21
drove around it would be like somebody
3:23
today driving a 1955 Chevy you know it
3:27
it's like well yeah now that's a classic
3:29
car even a valiant today you know you
3:31
see them you don't think now there's
3:34
somebody who's just cheap and refusing
3:36
to upgrade his car you think now there's
3:38
somebody who's restored a classic car or
3:40
who's bought a classic car and is going
3:41
to restore it so the joke really
3:43
wouldn't work if people didn't know Jack
3:45
Benny so well and Jack Benny really was
3:47
a big celebrity uh for quite a lot of
3:50
his career he was a very famous comedian
3:54
and All America knew who he was and knew
3:56
what he was like even if they never
3:58
watched or listened to any of his shows
4:00
the car that they gave Jack Benny as a
4:02
Maxwell example is not one of the 1925
4:04
models which was the most recent but a
4:07
1907 which even when they gave it to him
4:10
would have been more of a classic car
4:12
and less of a joke first of all Jonathan
4:14
Maxwell had worked with Ransom olds who
4:17
was famously the first person to ever
4:19
put a car onto an assembly line and came
4:22
up with the first mass-produced truly
4:24
mass-produced car it's a curv dash old
4:26
mobile so a 1910 Automotive History
4:29
credited Maxwell with having the unit
4:31
power plant don't ask me what that is
4:33
multiple disc clutch and thermos siphon
4:36
system of cooling with the radiator in
4:38
front of the engine so those are some
4:39
pretty big
4:40
Innovations um Maxwells were also early
4:43
adopters of the steering wheel when
4:44
tillers were still very popular when
4:46
Walter Chrysler took over the Chrysler
4:48
uh took over Maxwell uh not Chrysler
4:51
Corporation just yet when Walter
4:53
Chrysler took over Maxwell Motors they
4:56
had some severe problems with their new
4:58
car and they really did destroy the
5:00
reputation of Maxwell and what
5:03
Chrysler's Engineers did under contract
5:06
Zer Skelton and Breer The Three
5:08
Musketeers as they were called is they
5:10
went through that car and they fixed its
5:12
major problems and they called their uh
5:16
the fixed version the good Maxwell and
5:18
that was a very good ad campaign and it
5:20
really worked and the Maxwell became
5:22
quite popular actually outselling the
5:24
Chrysler uh but again 1925 was the last
5:29
year of the Maxwells 1926 they became
5:32
Chryslers and 1928 they became plymouths
5:36
actually that's not quite Jack Benny and
5:37
the Maxwell Jack Benny himself wasn't
5:40
originally named Jack Benny and he
5:41
wasn't originally a comedian he started
5:43
out as a violinist he was actually an
5:45
excellent violinist his name conflicted
5:48
with another violinist whose name was
5:50
already registered and he had to change
5:52
it and then his name conflicted with
5:54
another musician and he had to change it
5:55
again and he finally chose Jack Benny
5:59
which had no no conflicts with any known
6:01
musicians and he uh started out as a
6:04
violinist he ended up acting as a Master
6:06
of Ceremonies who put in jokes and some
6:09
self-deprecating humor in between sets
6:12
and that's how he got his radio show it
6:14
wasn't originally a comedy it was uh
6:17
songs with Jack Benny acting as MC in
6:20
between he hired a writer Harry KH and
6:23
he quickly developed Harry Khan quickly
6:25
developed a character that we know of
6:27
today as Jack Benny's of the stingy
6:29
skinflint who's a bit Vain and
6:33
self-absorbed and uh he is relentlessly
6:36
mocked by any of the characters in the
6:38
studio and he occasionally mocks them
6:40
but usually all the humor is at the
6:42
expense of Jack Benny in real life Jack
6:45
Benny was actually quite generous quite
6:47
uh unlike his character in pretty much
6:49
every way he was really known for his
6:52
comedic timing Above All Else and uh if
6:55
you look at Johnny Carson he modeled
6:57
himself deliberately according to Johnny
6:59
Carson on Jack Benny as did many other
7:04
comedians so that's a very quick history
7:06
of Jack Benny as well
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