Above is a frame grab from the movie, Casablanca. It's 32 minutes and 9 seconds into the film and Joan Benny, daughter of Jack Benny, thinks that's her father. No, not the black guy. The waiter in the background.
You can click on the above image and see it larger but it probably won't help you decide. Ms. Benny is basing her identification on watching the video and she thinks that man in the waiter's outfit looks like her father and more importantly, has her father's walk. In the movie, there are a few other shots of that waiter in the background.
So is that him? Well, an i.d. from the guy's daughter is not to be dismissed lightly…and it does coincide with that article I quoted in this posting, which says that Jack Benny donned a white waiter's jacket and walked around in the background of a scene. Here's another shot of the same person. This one is from 31 minutes and 48 seconds into the film and it can also be enlarged…
So I'll ask again: Is that him? I don't have a copy of the movie here and am unable to study the walk. Therefore, I've decided not to have an opinion on this. Looking at the photo alone, I think my view would be, "I don't think that's him but it might be." When you add in that newspaper article and the fact that Joan Benny thinks it's her dad, I'm leaning a bit in that direction…but I dunno. If Jack Benny really was in Casablanca, don't you think he'd have mentioned it somewhere?
I've decided to pass the buck to you, the wise and informed visitors who find their way here to newsfromme.com. Below is a poll and you don't have to rush to cast your ballot because I'm not going to cut off voting. You can vote next week or the week after if you want to wait 'til you have a chance to run your DVD of Casablanca. I think this thing is configured to only let you vote once from any given computer IP address so once you vote, you're stuck with your decision.
Thanks to my friend Anthony Tollin, who thought to take this question straight to Joan Benny. And thanks to Tom Roberts who produced these screen grabs.
