More than twenty folks have sent me screen grabs of this moment in Casablanca, all presuming that the gent in the background is the one alleged to be Jack Benny. Clearly, it ain't him. Brent McKee writes…
Jack Benny was at Warner Brothers during the time that Casablanca was being shot, doing George Washington Slept Here. Production on the movie ended in June 1942 after which Benny went on an extended USO tour which included visits to Egypt, British Palestine and Iran. Production on Casablanca started on May 25, 1942 and lasted until August. So it is possible that Jack Benny could have done that brief scene at Rick's — but to me it just doesn't look like him.
Doesn't look like him to me, either. But amazingly, I find that I don't have a copy of Casablanca on DVD. I have it on Laserdisc but my Laserdisc player isn't hooked up and I don't have the time to do the major rearranging that would be necessary to get it running. So maybe Mr. Benny is elsewhere in the movie…or maybe that ad that said he was in the film was a hoax. What does anyone think?
(By the way: I'm not sure whose screen grab I posted above but I think it's the one from Andrew Leal. Thanks to everyone who sent one in.)