This Day in Jack Benny John Henderson

January 24, 1954 - After a look at the home life of Bob Crosby, Jack Benny and the gang dramatize the Robert W Service poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew".
References include "Santa Baby" by Ertha Kitt, the end of the Chlorophyll fad, and the game of Scrabble. Plus a Lucky Strike commercial by the poet Ogden Nash.
 

January 17, 1954 - This episode begins with Jack Benny and the gang have lunch at the drug store and ends with Jack fighting a parking ticket in court,
References incule Terry Moore's ermine bathing suit, golfers Fred Wanpler, Lloyd Mangrum, Sam Sneed and Ben Hogen, musicians Bing Crosby, Liberace, The Bell Sisters, The Ink Spots, The Fred Waring Choir, and Teresa Brewer with her song "Ricochet Romance". Plus the movie "The Eddie Cantor Story", detective Boston Blackie, and Mandrake the Magician.

January 18, 1942 - This episode was broadcast two days after the sudden death of Jack Benny's co-star Carole Lombard. The episode is all music.
"In respect to Carole Lombard, his co-star in "To Be Or Not Be", an Alexander Korda-Ernest Lubitsch film, to be released through United Artists, Jack Benny cancelled his Jan. 18 broadcast of the NBC Jack Benny Show, sponsored by General Foods (Jell-O). Although no specific explanation was given, the show was replaced by a musical program, featuring Mahlon Meerick's orchestra, Dennis Day, soloist, and the Sportsman's Quartet, vocal group. Don Wilson announced. Miss Lombard was scheduled for a guest appearance on the Jan. 25 Jell-O program."
-Broadcasting Magazine

January 9, 1944 - Jack Benny picks up his new pet Camel. The camel is played by a young Stan Freberg in his only appearance on the Jack Benny show. This is also the last episode with Jack's pet polar bear.
 
References include bodybuilder Charles Atlas, comedian Fred Allen, and the Draft categories 4-F (Not qualified for military service) and 4-H (Deferred for reason of age, 38-44).

December 26, 1954 - The day after Christmas and Jack Benny visits Dennis Day who has a cold. Plus the unedited master recording for this episode survives and includes a couple of cut jokes and behind the scenes banter.
References include "This is Your Life", "Robert Montgomery Presents", Louella Parsons, and John L Lewis.

December 14, 1941 - Horseradish, a ride in the Maxwell, a bird on a stick. Jack Benny is Christmas shopping for Dennis Day. This is one week after Pearl Harbor and the mention the blackouts that followed. Merry Christmas!