Notable by their absences are Mary Livingston and Eddie Anderson. Jack explains his co-star and wife is still under the weather, and like Fibber without Molly (in 1939), a supporting guest is invited - in this case Orson Welles. But where's Rochester? He would be awfully darned funny up against Welles. Still, it's a fun program. Dennis Day gets his Irish up - can you imagine? Of course, it's all about Jack putting on airs. He wants Orson Welles to give him some acting lessons, so they work on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" together, with the result being a groan - quite literally. Good fun from St. Patrick's Day, 1940.

This 1938 thriller is particularly well done.

Well, McGee and Molly fight City Hall in this 1940 broadcast starring Jim and Marion Jordan, and company.

Gracie Allen's presidential campaign brought her to several other radio programs to campaign - even crossing over the usually razor-wired boundaries of network affiliation. Above is a picture of Gracie clowning with Jack Benny from about this time. We're in the year 1940. FDR is about to be elected to an unprecedented third term in office. This was very controversial, although with the major media outlets squarely on his side you wouldn't know it to listen to these programs, most of which actively endorsed him. There was political humor in 1940, much of it obliquely directed to the issue. The presidential field didn't want for lack of potential candidates, and that's the joke: Everybody and his mother seemed to be running for president, but no one believed for a minute the end result was anything other than a lock for the third term incumbent. Enter Gracie Allen into the presidential fray, as the candidate for the Surprise Party.