Jack Benny and America’s Mission after World War II

My paper explores how the Jack Benny radio program reflected and illuminated America’s sense of mission coming out of World War II by providing listeners a conceptualization of a world in which the promotion of universal values was to usher in an era of lasting peace. A study of the Jack Benny Program from 1945-1950 illustrates how World War II changed the purpose of the show; how Jack Benny, his writers, and his cast understood notions of openness, pluralism, and internationalism; how the correlation they drew between social equality at home and international priorities abroad sometimes preceded official U.S. policies; and how they provided, in the form of the show’s central character, a model of supremely confident leadership in an era fraught with anxieties.  In the twilight of the radio era Jack and his gang forged a community that was the antithesis of a totalitarian state. His mission for peace represents the kinder, gentler side of the National security mindset; for in America’s collective imagination, the values of Jack Benny’s open society were requisites for peaceful coexistence with potential hostile nations following World War II.