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Jack Benny’s Maxwell
Feb 4, 2025
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
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to talk about Jack Benny's Maxwell it is
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the most famous Maxwell although there
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have been distinguished Maxwell's
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because early Maxwell cars were among
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the first to climb Mount Washington
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without a problem to cross the country
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uh the first car driven by a woman
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across the country it was a big deal
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back in those days at the turn of the
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century so the Maxwell came about in
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1904 the original Maxwell was very
0:29
successful and the company might have
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gone on into the present day basically
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it was a good car uh but once Chrysler
0:36
took over Maxwell Motors and had his
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Chrysler come out in early
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1924 making it a century of Chrysler as
0:44
shown in my book Century of Chrysler
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once that happened they uh eventually
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brought the Maxwell brand into Chrysler
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it became the Chrysler 4 and from there
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on in Maxwell was dead so Jack Benny hit
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the radio in 1932
1:00
Maxwell had been a very popular brand up
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to around
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1925 there were still Maxwells around
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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
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cheap still owning one of those because
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he doesn't want to get rid of it because
1:25
a new car is just too expensive so that
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is the role that the Maxwell had to to
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play and that's why Jack Benny chose it
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on his radio show because he was just
1:34
starting to play a skinflint he started
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out as a Suave Master of Ceremonies with
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some self-deprecating humor and he ended
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up playing a skin Flint now uh what they
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realized once they were on set the first
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time that the Maxwell showed up is that
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the sound effects man did not have a
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recording of an old car Maxwell or other
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so Mel blank who was there volunteered
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to do impressions of it and he did the
1:58
car coughing and sputtering and it was
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so popular that the Maxwell played by
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Mel blind kept coming on and again and
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again and again and the problem with
2:06
this of course ended up when they went
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onto television and into movies that
2:10
they didn't actually have a Jack Benny
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Maxwell so they had to go out and buy
2:15
one when I went out to look for an old
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script involving the radio show and uh
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the Maxwell I found a little bit of
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dialogue
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including uh Jack Benny saying that he'd
2:26
been thinking of getting a new car but
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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
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and uh the reason for that little ad was
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apparent with the next two lines Jack
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Benny says well you step down into this
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car and Rochester said I know but the
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Hudson has a floor Hudson famously had
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the step down design at that point it
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was a very nice car unibody before its
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time so it was low slung giv it very
3:00
good handling but there was plenty of
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room for you in your hat once you got
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inside because the floor was lowered
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because it wasn't body on frame and you
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could do that now Jack Benny show
3:09
continued for decades so certainly by
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the 1960s when the Maxwell was still a
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joke on the Jack Benny show on
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television people didn't think of old
3:18
Maxwell's as old beaters that you still
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drove around it would be like somebody
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today driving a 1955 Chevy you know it
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it's like well yeah now that's a classic
3:29
car even a valiant today you know you
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see them you don't think now there's
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somebody who's just cheap and refusing
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to upgrade his car you think now there's
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somebody who's restored a classic car or
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who's bought a classic car and is going
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to restore it so the joke really
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wouldn't work if people didn't know Jack
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Benny so well and Jack Benny really was
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a big celebrity uh for quite a lot of
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his career he was a very famous comedian
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and All America knew who he was and knew
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what he was like even if they never
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watched or listened to any of his shows
4:00
the car that they gave Jack Benny as a
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Maxwell example is not one of the 1925
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models which was the most recent but a
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1907 which even when they gave it to him
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would have been more of a classic car
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and less of a joke first of all Jonathan
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Maxwell had worked with Ransom olds who
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was famously the first person to ever
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put a car onto an assembly line and came
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up with the first mass-produced truly
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mass-produced car it's a curv dash old
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mobile so a 1910 Automotive History
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credited Maxwell with having the unit
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power plant don't ask me what that is
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multiple disc clutch and thermos siphon
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system of cooling with the radiator in
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front of the engine so those are some
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pretty big
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Innovations um Maxwells were also early
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adopters of the steering wheel when
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tillers were still very popular when
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Walter Chrysler took over the Chrysler
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uh took over Maxwell uh not Chrysler
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Corporation just yet when Walter
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Chrysler took over Maxwell Motors they
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had some severe problems with their new
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car and they really did destroy the
5:00
reputation of Maxwell and what
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Chrysler's Engineers did under contract
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Zer Skelton and Breer The Three
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Musketeers as they were called is they
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went through that car and they fixed its
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major problems and they called their uh
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the fixed version the good Maxwell and
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that was a very good ad campaign and it
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really worked and the Maxwell became
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quite popular actually outselling the
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Chrysler uh but again 1925 was the last
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year of the Maxwells 1926 they became
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Chryslers and 1928 they became plymouths
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actually that's not quite Jack Benny and
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the Maxwell Jack Benny himself wasn't
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originally named Jack Benny and he
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wasn't originally a comedian he started
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out as a violinist he was actually an
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excellent violinist his name conflicted
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with another violinist whose name was
5:50
already registered and he had to change
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it and then his name conflicted with
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another musician and he had to change it
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again and he finally chose Jack Benny
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which had no no conflicts with any known
6:01
musicians and he uh started out as a
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violinist he ended up acting as a Master
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of Ceremonies who put in jokes and some
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self-deprecating humor in between sets
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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
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between he hired a writer Harry KH and
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he quickly developed Harry Khan quickly
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developed a character that we know of
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today as Jack Benny's of the stingy
6:29
skinflint who's a bit Vain and
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self-absorbed and uh he is relentlessly
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mocked by any of the characters in the
6:38
studio and he occasionally mocks them
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but usually all the humor is at the
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expense of Jack Benny in real life Jack
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Benny was actually quite generous quite
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uh unlike his character in pretty much
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every way he was really known for his
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comedic timing Above All Else and uh if
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you look at Johnny Carson he modeled
6:57
himself deliberately according to Johnny
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Carson on Jack Benny as did many other
7:04
comedians so that's a very quick history
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of Jack Benny as well
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