- He started singing and dancing in contests as a youngster. He entertained troops during WWII. After the war, he was one-half of the comedy act Benson and Mann, teaming with straight man Jack Mann.
- Fellow ex-vaudevillian Milton Berle hired him to appear as a heckler named Sidney Spritzer on his variety shows. Spritzer would be seated in the front row of the balcony overlooking the stage and give Berle comic grief.
- He was one of the last living vaudeville and burlesque performers.
- His parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland.
- Over time, he climbed to the top of the bill as the featured "first comic" or, as it was sometimes called, top banana.
- He appeared in talent shows before he turned 10, and by the time he entered show business he had changed his name to Benson.
- Benson gained national exposure during the 1960s, when fellow vaudevillian Milton Berle hired him to play a faux heckler named Sidney Spritzer. The character would turn up in the balcony overlooking the stage of Berle's variety show (where the studio audience could see him) and banter with Berle about the host's alleged lack of talent and originality. The character was likely the inspiration for The Muppets' Statler and Waldorf.
- For many years, he also appeared opposite strippers and other performers in burlesque shows, vaudeville's more disreputable cousin.
- He was honored for Best Documentary at the 2011 Backlot Film Festival for "The Last First Comic" uncovering the roots of American comedy also going inside the colorful world of the Burlesque show.
- Benson married his wife Lillian in November 1936; the 79-year marriage, which lasted until her death in March 2016, remains the longest entertainment industry marriage on record, surpassing Dolores and Bob Hope's 69-year marriage in 2006.
- For more than a decade, Benson served as one-half of the comedy act Benson and Mann, teaming with straight man Jack Mann.
- In the early 2000s, when Milton Berle was in his 90s, he and Benson got together again for a tour in Florida.
- Benson won an amateur contest as a dancer in the 1920s and, by the mid-1930s, he was touring the country telling jokes.
- As vaudeville theaters began to close in the 1950s, Benson moved to Las Vegas, where he lived for 35 years.
- He never forgot his lines, never lost his timing and never forgot where the world of vaudeville had taken him.
- Having enjoyed a long and successful run on the east coast American Burlesque circuit, Benson travelled west to play Las Vegas for the first time in 1957, with the Minsky Follies show.
- Benson started singing and dancing in contests as a youngster. He entertained troops during World War II and first partnered with Jack Mann in 1946.
- He worked in the vaudeville theater, in which a variety of performers - singers, jugglers, dancers, magicians - appeared on a single bill.
- "You name any small town in the country," his daughter recalled, "and he said, 'I've worked there.' ".
- Benson became Johnny Carson's favorite comic and appeared frequently on the Carson-hosted Tonight Show.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content