Jack Benny married Sadie Marks (above) on January 25, 1927. The couple met
while she was said to be working as a lingerie salesgirl at a May Department Store
in Los Angeles. Sadie changed her name to Mary Livingstone, a scripted character
in one of Jack’s vaudeville shows.
Mary Livingstone (1905-1983) Jack Benny (1894-1974)
NO, they didn’t meet in LA! Can’t you Americans ever acknowledge that not everything significant happens in your gloriously exceptional country?
They met at the Ferrera Court, East Hastings St., in Vancouver, B.C. The building is extant and, now, rather dismal.
My great-great aunt was Sadie’s aunt by marriage, and my own family lived in the same building. It was my father’s first home, from 1920.
I have, right here, a book given by Uncle Harry to Sadie on her 21st birthday.
Sadie Marks went to King George High School, Vancouver, with my grandmother and my Aunt Belle, about a hundred years ago.
The Bennys had supper at my grandparents’ home in Vancouver in the 1930s, and my grandparents stayed with them in Beverley Hills.