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Reflections April 2015

Play Young

By Geno Lawrenzi, Jr.

“I'm 39, son, and I'll tell you why,” he said as he removed and polished his glasses. “People younger than my real age are dropping dead of heart attacks and strokes every day. Nobody dies at 39. Next question, please?”

Comedian Jack Benny was the best in the world at playing young. The star of radio, television and films early in his career developed a running gag of telling people he was 39 years old.

He perpetuated the myth in show after show, and it always drew a laugh. Why? Because most people hate admitting their age. They don't like getting old but can't do anything about it. So they choose the next best path and simply lie about their age.

While working as a general assignment reporter at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, I was assigned by my city editor to cover a newsworthy event at the University of Southern California. Benny and his sidekick Eddie “Rochester” Anderson were there to donate their 50 years of show business memorabilia to UCLA.

More than 30 reporters, including some of America's top television anchors, were there. I took a seat in the front row. With the Herald-Examiner photographer firing away, I managed to get in the first question.

“Mr. Benny, you keep telling the world that you're 39 years old when it's obvious you are much older than that. What's your real age, sir?”

Benny let the laughter from the other reporters die down, then he said, “39.” He wasn't smiling.

Trying to play Gotcha, I persisted and asked him how old he really was.

“I'm 39, son, and I'll tell you why,” he said as he removed and polished his glasses. “People younger than my real age are dropping dead of heart attacks and strokes every day. Nobody dies at 39. Next question, please?”

Benny is good at playing young. It actually gave him motivation for feeling and acting young.

Certainly it was good for his health, and being 39 (at least in his mind) must have done wonders for him psychologically.

I decided to use what I had learned from Benny in my own life. I didn't think anybody would believe 39, but I decided they might accept 59. I tried it out on a few people, including my brother.

“If you're 59, you're younger than me,” said my brother, John, “and we both know that's not true.”

“What's wrong with me being 59? That makes you 58. Aren't you happy?”

“Not really,” he said. “It gets me confused.”

As people age – hopefully gracefully – they try to keep up with as much of the physical activity of their youth as they can muster. A person ran 10 miles a day when he was in his teens or early 20s? He tries to run five miles a day after retiring from his job. If that's too much, no problem. Just drop it to a mile or two a day, and do it only on weekends.

I run around with a group of older guys in Phoenix who love physical activity. We work out at the gym, play tennis, do jazzercise and run wind sprints. We meet three times a week and we're in the best shape of our life. But that's easy to do when you're 59 and playing young.

 

Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter whose email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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