Jack's Brother??

[Ron Reeland]

Hi: I worked in Ottawa, Illinois in the late 1950's. Ottawa is about 100 miles southwest of Chicago just off Interstate 80 at Route 23. There is a decades old store there known as "Bell Clothing Store". My father and others claimed it was operated by a brother of Jack Benny.

About a week ago, another former Ottawan repeated that "fact".

Did Mr. Benny have any brothers or sisters? Is there any truth to the story?

I attempted to research Jack Benny's family but could not locate family information except for his parents. There are so many results that it is difficult to sift through them.

Thanks,
Ron

[Maxwell]

I only know of his sister Florence, but that doesn't mean anything. He referenced her every so often on his radio show, and he even had a plot with her and husband coming to stay at his home at one point.

[JohnM]

Jack Benny didn't have a brother.

However, some searching found this article that says it was his cousin, Irving Bell, who owned the store in Ottawa.

according to the article, Irving lived with the Kubelsky's for awhile as a teenager and worked in Jack's father's store.

http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/d ... ?id=399721

[Ron Reeland]

John and Maxwell: Thanks for the help. The mystery is solved. So the owner of Bell's clothing was a cousin. It was just great to have a link to the Times newspaper story. Quite recent, too; 03/14/2010.

I printed the story and will mail or maybe E-mail the link to the man who recently repeated the myth that the owner was Jack Benny's brother.

I have wondered from time to time over 6 decades if there was any truth to the story. I had to wait for computers to enlighten me with help from this Forum.

Thanks Again,
Ron

[JohnM]

Wow, Ron that's amazing that story has been going around for that long. Although I suppose I can understand how brother and cousin could be mixed up...especially since Irving actually lived with Jack's family in Waukegan as a kid.

[Maxwell]

Wow, Ron that's amazing that story has been going around for that long. Although I suppose I can understand how brother and cousin could be mixed up...especially since Irving actually lived with Jack's family in Waukegan as a kid.

Yeah, I can imagine "He was like a brother" morphing into "He was a brother."