William D. Block Memorial Law Library), and much more call Downtown Waukegan their home. Genesee Theatre Waukegan Municipal Beach Waukegan Harbor Light Green Town on the Rocks outdoor music venue Ray Bradbury sites Waukegan History Museum Bowen Park Jack Benny Center for the Arts Lake County Sports Center Notable people Jack Benny Waukegan is the hometown of comedian Jack Benny (1894–1974), one of the 20th century's most notable and enduring entertainers, but although he claimed for decades on his radio and television shows to have been born there, he was actually born at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. Benny's affection for the town in which he grew up can clearly be felt by this exchange with his co-star (and wife) Mary Livingstone during a conversation they had on The Jack Benny Program on Mother's Day of 1950 while they were discussing the itinerary for his summer tour that year: Mary Livingstone: Aren't you going to bring your show to Waukegan? Jack Benny: Mary, I was born in Waukegan — how can you follow that?!. On a 1959 episode of the television game show What's My Line?, Benny quipped to host John Charles Daly They say that I put Waukegan on the map. But it's not true. Waukegan really put me on the map. That's a fact. Nevertheless, Benny did put Waukegan on the map for millions of his listeners (and later viewers) over the years, and the community was proud of his success. A Waukegan middle school is named in his honor (which he said was the greatest thrill he had ever experienced), and a statue of him, dedicated in 2002, stands in the downtown facing the Genesee Theater, which hosted the world premiere of his film Man about Town in 1939, with Jack, Mary, Dorothy Lamour, Phil Harris, Andy Devine, Don Wilson and Rochester (Eddie Anderson) appearing onstage. Jack Benny's family lived in several buildings in Waukegan during the time he was growing up there, but the house at 518 Clayton Street is the only one of them that still stands. It was designated a landmark by the city on April 17, 2006. Ray Bradbury The science-fiction author and novelist Ray Bradbury (1920–2012), was born in Waukegan, and though he moved with his family to the West Coast while still a child, many of his stories explicitly build on Waukegan (often called Green Town in his stories, such as Dandelion