This was a half-hour Easter special broadcast put together by the Easter Seals to raise money to help crippled children. As usual, such a benefit attracted a large number of stars, but apart from a couple of highlights it's otherwise a very average variety show.
The nominal hosts and Jack Benny and his announcer Don Wilson, and the two relatively brief segments where Benny gets to perform are highest among those few highlights. He gives a funny monologue then later has a great scene with fellow guest Van Johnson, in which their two movie careers are compared to amusing effect, and Johnson explains that he hasn't come on Benny's TV show since he hasn't been paid yet for the radio appearance he made years ago.
This is followed by a moment that's unintentionally almost as funny, in which Van Johnson, seconds after announcing that after visiting crippled children in a hospital he cannot read from a prepared speech, reads from a clearly prepared speech.
The other highlight is a young Shirley MacLaine, who gives a very spirited performance of what seems to be a somewhat obscure Rogers and Hammerstein song. For the rest of the program, however, we have Kitty Kallen singing a very forgettable (and glacial) song, another unremarkable musical number from a very uninterested-looking Bob Crosby, and a rather annoying piece in which Liberace performs as both himself and his "hillbilly brother." This was done for a good cause at the time, but as a variety show it's rather indifferent; it's the Jack Benny material that makes it worth watching for me.
The nominal hosts and Jack Benny and his announcer Don Wilson, and the two relatively brief segments where Benny gets to perform are highest among those few highlights. He gives a funny monologue then later has a great scene with fellow guest Van Johnson, in which their two movie careers are compared to amusing effect, and Johnson explains that he hasn't come on Benny's TV show since he hasn't been paid yet for the radio appearance he made years ago.
This is followed by a moment that's unintentionally almost as funny, in which Van Johnson, seconds after announcing that after visiting crippled children in a hospital he cannot read from a prepared speech, reads from a clearly prepared speech.
The other highlight is a young Shirley MacLaine, who gives a very spirited performance of what seems to be a somewhat obscure Rogers and Hammerstein song. For the rest of the program, however, we have Kitty Kallen singing a very forgettable (and glacial) song, another unremarkable musical number from a very uninterested-looking Bob Crosby, and a rather annoying piece in which Liberace performs as both himself and his "hillbilly brother." This was done for a good cause at the time, but as a variety show it's rather indifferent; it's the Jack Benny material that makes it worth watching for me.
