Database Queries

This is a database query, not a search engine. If you enter two words into a search field, they must appear in any matching entries exactly as you have typed them. If you enter:

Harris Crosby

In the "comments" search field, you will get no matches as it will search for those two names right next to each other, and that never occurs.

If you want to search for two different terms you must do two different searches.

Similarly, you cannot search for ranges of episodes by searching for something like:

500 to 512

in the Episode Number field. You can find only one episode number at a time. To look for ranges of episodes, I suggest that you use the "browse by 5 episodes per page" feature. (Or use 10 or 20 episodes per page options to go through the database faster.)

The best way to get results is to start with only the keyword you are looking for, leaving out plurals. For example, all the Colman guest appearances can be found by doing a Guests field search for:

Colman

and NOT:

Colmans

This is because the husband and wife are listed separately as "Ronald Colman; Benita Colman" in the Guests field. Similarly, spelling is important, as you will find no matches for:

Coleman

As time goes on, I may change the search feature to use soundex so that spelling is not so important, or I may create a page so ranges of dates or episode numbers can be searched. I belive I have allowed the main search types that people will find useful, but I welcome suggestions.

Airdate Field Searches

Unfortunately, at this time, all airdates are not stored in the database as REAL dates. While they are in a popularly understood format:

1/3/52

they cannot be searched like real dates could in a database. That is, you cannot search for all episodes between March 1, 1945 and December 31, 1945. As far as the database cares, these are only pieces of text. Because of this, you must enter the airdates in this EXACT format:

month/day/two-digit-year

and you must not use a leading zero (like "01" for January - use "1" only).

I am working on that problem, but for now, the airdate field only helps you find a show that you know happened on a certain date. Even then, you must be careful about how you type in the date.

Songs Field Searches

This part of the database is not complete. I decided this would be useful late in the game, so not all shows (especially earlier ones) list the songs. In some cases, I include in this field versions of songs that Rochester sings at the opening of the show, even though he only sings two verses, and they have humorous lyrics. The same is true with screwy versions of songs done by The Sportsmen Quartet that end up being Lucky Strike commercials. Again, sometimes these are listed and sometimes they are not. I have decided to make the file public instead of waiting until I have all this information entered properly, as I fear it will take years for me to complete that part of the project and I want people to be able to hear these files now.

Along that line, if you find any instances of songs noted but not named, like:

"unknown song" - Dennis Day

in the database, but you know the title of the song, feel free to let me know what it is by sending email to crispy@crispy.com. PLEASE remember to include identification of the episode like the episode number or the airdate.

Accuracy of Information

While I have put a lot of effort into trying to be sure the information in the database is accurate, I can make no promises that there are no errors. This site is intended to help people get acquainted with the Jack Benny program, and make access to the actual recordings easy. It is not intended to be an authoritative resource used for real research. I occasionally find mistakes (and disputed points) in my continuing research about Jack Benny, such as files I've obtained that are labled with the wrong airdates. Where my research conflicts with other resources, I try to note the discrepancies.

While I do not guarantee that information found there is without error, the presence of a large user community on the discussion forums at The International Jack Benny Fan Club helps to keep things accurate when looking for answers to Jack Benny questions. Some people that post there really know their stuff. It is a far better resource in both accuracy and scope than this site if you are doing research on Jack Benny.

Oh yeah, and there are some typos in some entries. I'm working on correcting those, slowly but surely.