What turned out to be a great Hollywood marriage?

 


Jack Benny was one of the relatively few top stars who remained happily married to the same woman for all of his married life. According to his pal George Burns though, before his marriage he did sow his wild oats, ‘’He slept with every girl from coast to coast.’’ Apparently, he had a particular liking for married ladies.


Jack would be married to Sadie Marks, later named Mary Livingstone for 44 years. The person he owed this love to was another friend, Harpo Marx.


Harpo had been invited to a small music recital where the host’s daughter, Mary, was to play the violin and Zeppo thought Jack would be interested and so invited him.


According to Zeppo Jack was bored rigid and demanded they leave early. Unknown to Jack and Harpo, Mary had heard the whole conversation and, understandably, not pleased, plotted her revenge.


Jack was playing nearby and Mary went along to his show with some friends. They had planned to sit throughout his entire show with not even a smile among them as they listened to his gags. Throughout his act he was aware of a small crowd of young ladies who remained impervious to his jokes and, understandably, he was not pleased
A few years later they met up again when he was set up with her on a date by another friend. Jack had absolutely no recollection of her and was immediately smitten. Unfortunately for Jack his attraction for Mary was not reciprocated and she declined a second date.

Jack was not to be put off and came up with his own plan. Knowing that Mary worked on a hosiery counter in a local store he turned up and bought every piece that was on offer. The way to a girl’s heart? Make her the number one salesperson.

He was besotted with her and they married shortly after. Shortly after, he became a major star on the radio where he built a coterie of costars including Mary. His popularity often took him away from her though. Whenever this happened he made sure to send roses to her every day he was absent.

They adopted a baby girl, Joan, which led to a lovely anecdote. They hadn’t intended to adopt Joan, but another child. There was a problem with paperwork and they would have to wait for that particular child so they took Joan for a few days. Joan was sickly and tiny. But, they fell in love with her and decided to keep her. Jack would tease her by saying he didn’t fall in love with her till the second day and one day Joan brought a tear to his eye by saying, ‘’I loved you all my life and you didn’t love me till the second day?’’While his marriage to Mary remained strong their professional career came to an end when Mary developed panic attacks whenever faced with an audience, and so retired.

The end came quickly for Jack. In October of 1974, he suffered dizzy spells and numbness in his arms. In December he suffered stomach pains and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A couple of weeks later he went into a coma and died on December 22.

The day after the funeral Mary received a single red rose. And the day after, and the day after. Thinking there was a mistake she went to the florist who explained that Jack had arranged for a single red rose to be delivered to her for the rest of her life. She died on June 30, 1983.

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