BW - EP134—008: Christmas With Jack Benny In A Changing World—Christmas Day With Jack

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

On Christmas Day 1949, The Czech government outlawed all people who’d fled the country during the 1948 Communist coup. While Cary Grant and Besty Drake were married in a private ceremony. At 5PM eastern time, CBS put on a star-studded holiday rendition of “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” Jack Benny played the male title role in this screwball comedy. Holiday specials were a network tradition, and Benny was no stranger to them. At 7PM eastern, The Jack Benny show signed on CBS. This episode was heard by roughly twenty-five million people.