Jack Benny Memorial Day Signoff, 1943

When Jack Benny signed off the air for the summer 1943, his last words stirred the nation. Many people have written to him for copies of his little speech. Here it is at last, and we repeat it for what its worth to you. "Today Valley Forge and Bull Run and Gettysburg and Chateau Thierry come marching out of the past and we see them clearly again ... because marching at their side are the men of Bataan and Pearl Harbor and Corregidor and Wake ... and the mean who fell there are still a living part of it. And their spirits has given new life to all men who have died since 1776. Some time will erase the pain of the memory of Bataan and Pearl Harbor as it one erased the pain of Verdun. But tonight the gold stars are too bright and new, the wounds in our hearts too fresh and the pain too sharp to forget. And, thus, Memorial Day becomes more than a roll call of our honored dead and a roll call more of the living. And the living must step forth to answer and they must say ... 'all these men from 1776 to 1943 -- they died for me. So let me work and let me buy bonds and let me -- with the helping hand of God-- make the sacrifice that tells the soul of each one of these men -- you did not die in vain."

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Golden Age of Radio

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