Heard the One About the Jack Benny Stamp?

Holdup man: “Your money or your life.”

(Long pause.)

Jack Benny: “I’m thinking it over.”

For those who remember the running gag about his supposed stinginess, that joke from one of the late Jack Benny’s radio shows has never been forgotten. But Benny has faded in the minds of too many others, concluded comedian Norm Crosby and Benny’s longtime friend George Burns.

Hence, a campaign to honor Benny with a commemorative postage stamp.

The big question is whether it should it be a 2-cent stamp because he was so famous as a miser or a 39-cent stamp because he always insisted he was just 39 years old. (With eyes of robin’s egg blue, as he observed frequently.)

The decision may be made soon, say leaders of the Jack Benny Commemorative Stamp Committee, who this week received a letter of encouragement from William Bolger as he retired as postmaster general.

Bolger told the group that by the special request of Vice President George Bush, the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee--composed of historians, businessmen and stamp collectors--will take up the proposal for a Jack Benny commemorative at its Jan. 18 meeting.

Celebrity Support

The Benny stamp push has the backing of 175 celebrities, including former President Gerald R. Ford, Frank Sinatra and O. J. Simpson. Nearly 400 letters from Benny fans all over the country have been sent to the postal committee, said publicist Gene Shefrin, and they’re still coming in.

Although many supporters think the 2-cent stamp is a funny idea, they point out that in reality Benny was an extraordinarily generous man who donated to numerous causes and who gave much of his time to benefits. At those benefits, it must be noted, he usually played “Love in Bloom” on the violin.

“Jack would have been amused by the 2-cent stamp or 39-cent stamp,” said Fred DeCordova, executive producer of “The Tonight Show.” “But really, he was about as lavish a tipper as you could find. He would would have supported any good enterprise.”

Comedian Don Rickles seemed horrified at the thought of a 2-cent stamp. “Anyone who thinks that’s what Benny deserves should get warts,” he said. “Benny was the most generous man that ever lived.”

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Jim Van Loozen said the advisory committee, which reviews more than 1,500 requests for commemorative stamps each year, previously had a Benny stamp proposal, but it was not until the day after Christmas that he had been dead the required 10 years.

Benny died of stomach cancer on Dec. 26, 1974, at the age of 80.

Until the last, he jokingly proclaimed that he was 39.

If the committee approves the Benny stamp, the matter will be taken up by the new postmaster general, Paul Carlin. But it could be three years before such a stamp appears because the post office issues only 25 to 30 commemoratives a year.

Which probably would have prompted Benny to observe, “Hmmm.”