Fred Allen & Jack Benny: Best of Frenemies
Comedians Fred Allen and Jack Benny were good friends who enjoyed playing comic adversaries. The long-running feud between the two began after an ad-libbed joke on Fred Allen’s radio show in 1936. Jack Benny went back at him on his radio show a week later and from there it was on. The pair announced an on-air fist fight to settle their differences. The “Battle of the Century” was held on March 14, 1937. It ended with the two singing a duet which made their “feud” more popular than ever. The verbal sparring between the two lasted well into the 1940s.
