Jack Benny liked to portray himself as a skinflint but his generosity as a comic allowed other characters to get their fair share of laughs...usually at his expense. Benny got more laughs playing the straight man and didn’t care if he was the butt of the jokes. With his brilliant timing, smooth delivery, and trademark mannerisms, Benny was a huge influence on the development of the radio sitcom. References to Benny’s reputed stinginess, vanity, and infirmities were expected and weekly running gags established the program’s memorable characters.

Versatile actor/comedian Jack Benny had a long career (1911-1974) and was truly a star of stage, screen, and radio. Recognized as a leading 20th-century American entertainer, Benny often portrayed his character as a miser, playing violin poorly, and claiming to be no older than 39, regardless of his actual age. His radio and television programs, popular from 1932 until his death in 1974, were a major contribution to the sitcom genre. We’ve carefully chosen 11 radio episodes starring Jack Benny from our master archives for this collection.

Created by author Jack Boyle, Boston Blackie was a master safecracker and hardened criminal who served time in a California prison. Rehabilitated, he decided to use his knowledge of the underworld to fight crime as an amateur detective. Known as "an enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend", Boston Blackie's exploits were adapted to film, radio, and television.

The golden age of radio had incredible detective shows that kept Americans glued to their radio sets. Families gathered around their living room radios to hear their favorite Hollywood stars voicing fiction’s most famous gumshoes. This collection includes Dick Kollmar starring as ‘enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend’ on Boston Blackie, Bob Bailey playing two different private eyes, George Valentine in Let George Do It and the man with the action-packed expense account in a 5-part adventure of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

In the realm of unforgettable radio voices, there is one that stands head and shoulders above all others - one distinctive voice that could never be convincingly duplicated, one that brought its owner undreamed of success. It was a voice of sandpaper and gravel and rusty scrap iron, rasping over a nation's loudspeakers for more than 30 years.

A squabble - touched off by Fred Allen's remark comparing Jack Benny unfavorably to a 10-year-old violinist - soon escalated to epic proportions. The pair set radio ablaze with their famous feud. Here are Jack, Fred, Mary Livingstone, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Portland Hoffa, Minerva Pious, Alan Reed, Jack Smart, Parker Fennelly, Kenny Delmar, and all the rest of their regulars carrying on through the 1940s in 10 hilarious on-air conflagrations!

A woebegone old car, a harried department store clerk, a monosyllabic man in a sombrero, and a train announcer whose line ran somewhere between Orange County and the Twilight Zone are all memorable characters from The Jack Benny Program, and all the products of a single talented throat: Mel Blanc. "The Man of a Thousand Voices" was Carmichael the Polar Bear, who lived improbably in Jack's cellar.

Who's that bear? And what's he doing in Jack Benny's basement? It's the famous Carmichael—guarding the vault and getting laughs! Dish up the Jell-O for Mary Livingston, Phil Harris, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Dennis Day, and Don Wilson in twenty classic prewar episodes—and be sure to leave a plate for you-know-who downstairs!

Join your favorite radio stars under the Christmas tree. Enjoy Bing Crosby, Amos & Andy, The Father Knows Best family, The Great Gildersleeve, Fibber McGee & Molly, and more, even Al Jolson and Boris Karloff. Hear legendary performer Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge. There are no “Bah Humbugs” is this amazing collection of 100 great Christmas classics.

It was the decade of a World War and a Cold War. It was the decade of the Zoot Suit and FDR. But most of all, it was the decade of Jack Benny! Radio's favorite comedian truly came into his own during the 1940s.

Struggling to make his down-and-out orchestra plucky and profitable, Phil Harris conducts his zany sidekick, winsome wife, precocious kids, and grouchy grocery boy through a symphony of silliness. If you long for a series where the drinks are stiff and the whimsy is wicked, you've come to the right place!

Roll on the floor with laughter with comedy legends such as Abbott & Costello, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Ozzie and Harriet, Jack Benny, Bob & Ray and so many more in one collection.

This collection contains four Christmas radio classics from The Jack Benny Program.

Before TV’s The Twilight Zone, there was radio’s The Inner Sanctum Mystery, Lights Out!, The Weird Circle, and so many other great mysteries starring Orson Welles, Jane Wyman, Dana Andrews, Edmond O’Brien, James Cagney and more. 100 great mystery classics in one collection.

Who's laughing now? It's you! Why? Because you're settling back with a rib-tickling collection of great radio comedy! All of your favorites are here: Jack and Fred, Phil and Alice, Fibber and Molly, Edgar and Charlie, George and Gracie, Lum and Abner, Snooks and Daddy, and many more! Crack a smile as the kings and queens of comedy crack wise. Here are 24 digitally restored and remastered episodes of radio revelry from shows that have kept Americans in stitches for more than 50 years.