JACK BENNY - INSCRIBED SIGNATURE CO-SIGNED BY: MARY (MRS. JACK BENNY) LIVINGSTONE - HFSID 59322

JACK BENNY and MARY LIVINGSTONE
The legendary comedian and his wife sign their autographs for Maurice.
Inscribed signatures: "To Maurice/Jack Benny" and "To Maurice/Mary Livingstone", 4x2½, irregularly cut. Writing in unknown hand on verso. Vaudeville comedian JACK BENNY (1894-1974) hosted a popular radio show from 1933, moving smoothly to TV (1950-1965). Benny appeared in over 25 movies, the most critically acclaimed of which was To Be or Not to Be (1942). Benny's comic image as a tone-deaf, penny-pinching bachelor contradicted the real Benny, a philanthropist, devoted husband and competent violinist. MARY LIVINGSTONE (1905-1983), born Sayde Marks, a cousin of the Marx Brothers, married Benny in 1927. Called on to appear on his radio show when the slated performer was ill, she proved so adept at puncturing Benny's feigned pomposity with wry wit that she developed a fan base of her own, remained on the show and formally adopted her stage name of Mary Livingston (commonly spelled Livingstone, as it is on her Hollywood Hall of Fame star). Jack and Mary were not portrayed on his show as a married couple. Curiously, despite her success as a performer, Livingstone suffered from recurrent stage fright, and she retired in 1958 at the height of her husband's popularity. Livingstone died at her home of cardiovascular disease on the day she had been visited by First Lady Nancy Reagan. Lightly creased and soiled, touching the "Jack" in Benny's signature. Overall, fine condition.