Training For A Fight With Fred Allen: Jack Benny (January 29, 1939)

Jack Benny, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“Training For A Fight With Fred Allen” is an episode of Jack Benny, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 29, 1939. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

Jack Benny announces he is training for a boxing match, and his friends on the Jell-O program tease him about whether he is preparing to fight Fred Allen. Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Kenny Baker and Don Wilson trade jokes with Benny while Phil Harris unveils a bubble gum theme song and Kenny Baker sings. Benny drives to Andy Devine's farm with Rochester, where the car crashes into the barn. Benny then tries boxing with Rochester in the barn while Mary Livingstone watches. The broadcast is a 1939 Jell-O program, originally aired on January 29, 1939, on NBC and CBS Radio.

A Jell-O radio program, with scenes at Jack Benny's home, the studio, and Andy Devine's farm

Characters: Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Kenny Baker, Don Wilson, Rochester, Andy Devine, Fred Allen

Listen for: Benny's boxing training with Rochester in Andy Devine's barn, after the car crash

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.