A daily almanac of events and people I admire and appreciate. All things, and the people who did things, that were WORTH DOING! Songs and Cartoons and near-insane ramblings by me, too.
Showing posts with label Audiophile Audio File Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Audiophile Audio File Friday. Show all posts
Yikes! It's been almost a month since one of my attempted weekly visits with Vic & Sade!
Let's go see what America's home folks are up to!
First up is the February 27, 1940 episode. Sade is surprised to hear about how much drama happens at Rush's school. She had always thought of school as "...a quiet place where children sit and study and recite their lessons, and everything is as peaceful and quiet as a horse.", but little by little learns that, as Rush puts it, "High school is a hotbed of politics. Wheels within wheels. Crossed wires. High school is a seeting river of human emotions." and that there are "Labyrinthian complexities" to high school life!".
Sade would have never asked, if Mrs. Chinbunny hadn't brought it up. Enjoy!
Our second episode is from March 19, 1940. This one is chock full of the running-situations that made the comedy tapestry of the show so rich. Repetitiveness is not just a burdon of small-town life...it's downright funny.
Listen in as Rush enjoys his newest edition of the "Lt. Stanley" series and Sade receives a letter from Aunt Bess.
And to add a little more substance, here's a little glimpse into a contest Crisco was running featuring Vic & Sade that ran in a 1936 Saturday Evening Post.
Feel good to be back on a Vic & Sade bandwagon again.
As another turkey sandwich flows over our pallet and even more tryptophan coarses through our veins, an afternoon of good solid OTR is just the thing
I too am feeling the lull of the big bird, so I'll leave most of my commentary out this week and let you drink in the goodness of some of the best comed ever created.
From the little house half way up on the next block we finish up our undated 1939 episodes with two that focus on the patriarch of the Gook family.
The first centers on an annual running gag in which Vic is compiling his list of names of whom to send Christmas Cards to and Sades worrying about the oceans of money being spent. "15 centses don't fall from the sky!". This one has some great Paul Rhymer names in it that are worth hearing. Rushes relating the story of the "1st chair barber over at the Butler House Hotel" who has lived his entire life without recieving a Christmas Card and now lives in fear of breaking his streak is pure Rhymer gold.
Enjoy:
The second episode highlights Vic's ego as he relates to writing an article for the local paper...and how easily said ego gets deflated. Sound quality here drifts in and out, but I would never think of omitting this one.
Enjoy:
Now it's on to "Speaking of Radio: the Jack Benny Program" part 12 of 12 and final of this great documentary!
This one covers alot including Jacks 15 year relationship with The Merican Tobacco Co. and Lucky Strikes cigarettes.
There's a very funny overview of the stroyline in which Jack fired "The Sportsmen Quartet" for wanting too much money...
...and creates a new quartet from Bing Crosby...
...Dick Haymes...
...Andy Russell....
...and Dennis Day.
...and a series of sketches in which Mel Blanc plays a bakery man selling Jack "Cimmaron Rolls".
Comedy genius from the smallest of things.
I'm going to have to search hard for something to fill the place of this show on "OTR Friday" now that it's over.
As we work through the undated Vic & Sade episodes of 1939, our first segment today shows us more of just how treasured Vic's lodge, "The Dowsy Venus chapter of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way" is to him.
Sade gets an offer from Mr Gumpox the trash man to store some of "the bushels of trash" in her house in an unused stall next to where Howard the trash horse sleeps. Vic is mortified that she should consider his lodge treasure trash and something to be stored in a horse stall, he is afterall the lodge president.
The items described seem pretty special to me. I can picture in my mind's eye perfectly the framed portrait of lodge founder R.J. Konk with the eyes that light up. Hell...I'd hang that in my living room...certainly not in a trash horse stall.
This episode is rife with Paul Rhymer's midwestern "vicandSadeisms"..."I was as grateful as a lion", "It's as clean as pie", "There's not enough room to shoot a snake" and of course my all time favorite running line and it's variations "Not enough time to choke Billy Patterson" and "Not enough room to choke Billy Patterson"!
I kept wondering, who the heck is Bill Patterson and in this wonderous digital information age it took me only a few minutes to find...
Dig in folks. This is a good one.
The second Vic & Sade undated 1939 episode for today centers around the age old issue of a boy maturing and his parents not acknowledging becoming a man. In modern sitcoms this would be a "very special episode" with lots of learning and hugging and maybe a special message about literacy from Nancy Reagan, but in Rhymer's expert hands it's funny to a 'T' and with genuine reality and warmth under it.
Favorite "VicandSadeism"? "It's no flesh off YOUR foot!".
Enjoy:
In "Speaking of Radio: the Jack Benny Program" part 11 of 12, the spotlight forms on the musical contributers of the show, most specifically on the personalities cultivated for the performers by Jack. This was never like the muscial act on SNL where you change the channel or go to bed, this was truly part of the show.
There was that loveable souse and ladies man, Phil Harris...
...who more of you may know from later in his career where he was the voices of "Little John" (Robin Hood), "Thomas O'Malley" (The Aristocats) and "Baloo" (The Jungle Book) for Walt Disney...
SIDEBAR: Remember when drunks were funny and not pitiable? sigh! I miss those days.
And simple minded and amiably boy-like, Irish tenor Dennis Day.
Another great 1/2 hour of insight into maybe the best show ever done.
OTR Friday is here again and I share with you another hour of comedy from radio's golden age.
On "Vic & Sade" we're winding down the surviving shows of 1939 and clean up the folder with a couple of episodes without specific dates. Both of these shows are frought with the kind of dialogue and characterization infused by creator Paul Rhymer that makes this show such an evergreen...do yourself a favor and give a listen.
This first show is from sometime in December of 1939. Young Rush Gook played by Billy Idelson is feeling himself get on in years. A teenager with an age complex, he's resigned to settle down his younger ways to a lifestyle more fitting his tired old bones.
Just for laughs, here's a brief looksee at Idelson as he aged in real life.
Idelson circa late 1930's...about the time of this episode:
Idelson as a young man in the early 1960's during his run on "The Dick Van Dyke" TV show, where he played the recurring role of Herman Glomscher, Sally Rodgers' boyfriend:
Idelson inthe early 1970's where he was a going comedy writer, director and creative consultant for shows like "Love American Style" and "The Bob Newhart Show":
And an older Idelson, content in retirement after a decades-long career on some very top-notch comedy shows in radio and television:
This is the kind of show I'm sure Idelson looked back on in later years with an even bigger smile than we get. Listen in...
This second show is from a few I have in a batch of undated 1939 shows. This highlights the characters and personalities of all three main speaking characters and the sharp acting and comic time of cast members, Art Van Havey, Bernadette Flynn and Idelson. Sade is prompting Vic to write a letter to her brother-in-law Walter and Rush is no help at all.
In "Speaking of Radio: The Jack Benny Program" part 10 of 12, we hear more proof of the faith and pride Jack put in his cast members. Never the vain star he portrayed, Jack spotlighted those around him to a degree I don't think any star of any show has ever done, before or since.
Betwixt the interviews, we hear a portion of a show all centering around the life of announcer Don Wilson...
...with the whole cast playing all their parts to a tee. The great Mel Blanc not only plays the stork that brought Don, we also get a cameo by Porky Pig competing for Don's announcer job...
...if course Frank Nelson chimes in to grate Jack...
...Bea Benederet takes a turn as Don's Mother...
...Dennis Day shows his voice acting chops playing Don' elder father...
...as contrast to Bob Crosby's portrayal of the younger Don Wilson, Sr. Bob took over the bandleading chores on Jack's show after Phil Harris moved on and retained the role after the shows move to television.
Contemprary to the "Speaking of Radio" special, Don Wilson even gives a little lowdown about "The Sportsmen Quartet", who provided the musical commercials on the program.
All in all a fact and fun filled show that you're sure to enjoy...
More treasures from the mind and typewriter of Paul Rhymer on Vic & Sade...
First up the episode of October 30, 1939, and this one is frought with running gags well established as well as the language we've all come to love and expect from this show.
Shortly after the noonday meal, the family sifts through "the sheaf of wires, letters, postal cards and telegrams as delivered by the mailman". In the bushels of mail they got, Vic romantically imagines "hundreds of women heavily veiled and greatly agitated have dropped him a line assuring him of their love" but all he has reieved is a reminder to pay his $2 bill at Kleeburger's department store. Rush gets a letter from his Sunday School teacher stating she missed him last week...though Rush was there and was ..."as conspicuous as a horse". Sade garners a postal card from the "Lazy Hours Pool Hall" promising her a free dish of cole slaw with every game of billiards played, but more importantly she wrangles not one, not two, not three, but FIVE letters of greeting from a Christmas Card company in Toledo, Ohio.
Listen in...
Our second Vic & Sade comes from the very next day, October 31, 1939. Another great example of the solidity of telling the tales with but three speaking actors, made all the more evident by Smelly Clark being just outside and Blue-Tooth Johnson...actually IN the room.
And are those strange noises coming from mice? Davenport springs contracting with a change in temperature or "...murderous marauders skulking nearby waiting to plunder and kill!"?
Sheer genius...
Next up is part 7 of the 12 part "Speaking of Radio: The Jack Benny Program".
Here we get more insight into Jack's participation in the writers room as well as a little spotlight on Jack's real life wife Sadie Marx, or as we all know her better, Mary Livingstone...
...also a little clip from the show era of Jack and Mary's adopted daughter Joan...
...as well as a contemporary comment by her, all growed up.
Mmmmm...Old Time Radio comedy. An art form that died a good 10 years or more before I was born, but that still holds hours and hours of pleasure for me.
I may just install a big knobby radio dial on the front of my laptop to make me feel even better as I sit here in the illumination of the WMP oscilloscope whiling the hours away.
First up, as usual a couple of visits to radio's home folks on Virginia Ave., Vic and Sade.
From September 22, 1939 we find our favorite family relaxing in their living room after lunch, when suddenly Sade remembers that she's promised the other ladies in her "Thimble Club" to provide them all with names of wildflowers and interesting facts associated with them. Again we hear the genius of Paul Rhymer as he milks big humor from something so seemingly common and ordinary.
And from October 6, 1939, Vic is pulled from his enjoyment of a game of indoor horseshoes over at Ike Kneesuffers to come home and wait for Fred and Ruthie Stembottom to take him and Sade for a ride. Already distressed he will spend a miserable hour or so riding in Fred's ratletrap car on the usual round trip to Chenoa (complete with periodic stops to pump up the bald tires on Fred's car), he learns the evening is to be much more involved.
It's a trip to Hopewood and a double feature at the moving picture show that Fred has in mind...the cutest idea he's had since the bullet that choked Billy Patterson, and Vic's expected to act as grateful as a horse about the whole thing.
No matter how much disdain Vic has for the idea, the double feature sounds grand to me. Gloria Golden and Four-Fisted Frank Fuddleman in "You Are My Own Wonderful Husband, Sub-Aldern Gleek" and "Your's is a Magnifiscent Love, Petty Officer Griswald".
Once again, we never leave the living room of the Gook's cozy little home and never hear another character speak save the little nuclear family, but by the end I feel I know what Ike Kneesuffer's basement inddor horseshoe pit look like, know what it feels like to ride the farm roads of Illinois in Fred Stembottom's car and have the enjoyed viewing pleasure of watching the romantic goings on of Gloria Golden and Four-Fisted Frank Fuddlman under my belt.
Thanks again Mr. Rhymer.
On now to part 6 of "Speaking of Radio: The Jack Benny Program". This segment contains mainly show excerpts from two episodes of the long running show.
The first half is a tribute to Jack and his life story, presented by CBS narrated by the great Ken Carpenter.
Carpenter is usually associated with Bing Crosby as his long time annoncer. In fact, Bing once called Ken "The man with the golden voice". The rundown of Jack's life from birth to vaudeville to radio to the assembling of his cast is told very entertainingly if a bit cloying and spritely with orchestration and impersonations of the cast with plenty of inside jokes thrown in.
As Jack then comes to the microphone to thank everyone in the production, Fred Allen bursts into the studio...
And then the talk turns to the long-running Benny-Allen feud, followed by a fantasy reinactment in which Benny and Allen supposedly started in vaudeville as a duo act. Violin, Clarinet and snappy patter. Funny stuff with Mel Blanc playing the booking agent.
The Benny-Allen feud was great when heard played out in it's entirety. Completely organic and never seeming forced, two of the funniest minds playing at each others weaknesses. Fred was such a smart writer and Jack always keeping the bar high, their continued play-anymosity never seemed tired or old. It proved such a ratings boosters that other feuds in radio sprung up like the Hope-Crosby feud, but that was more like fun sibling rivalry and the W.C. Fields-Charlie McCarthy feud which was just cartoony and forced.
Even without the other segments' insight with contemporary interviews with cast and crew, Part 6 is just plain good listening.
I'm throwing in a bonus clip today. A clip I've harbored on my hard drive for a decade or better and never paid much mind too. When I listened last week I nearly fell off of my chair.
Jack Benny and George Burns were best friends dating probably back to their days on the vaudeville circuit in the 1920's, and they're both two of my favorite comedians. Here we have a short clip, probably from the 1950's or even 60's from the sound of their voices. A Friars Club roast for a couple of writers (Wedlock and Snyder anyone?) and a very rare listen to both of these wonderful funny men working blue.
Get the kids out of the room and get ready to laugh
I'll say it again. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for the information super-highway where all this is so available to those of us who appreciate it.
Our first episode of Vic and Sade comes from sometime in September 1939. Rush hatches a scheme to impress his teachers and get better grades. Sade shows a proper motherly disdain and Vic's sarcasm only serves to fuel Rush's bad idea.
Trivia note, we learn that Rooster Davis' real first name is Edwin.
Hippety-hop and la-de-dah.
Our next episode comes from September 6, 1939. This one contains another running theme with Vic trying to squeeze in some office work at home, and constantly being interrupted. I find this very similar to me trying to get work done at my office and find Rhymer's satiric barbs hitting me in the head.
BTW...Blue-Tooth Johnson is out by the garbage box...
From small town to the big time show bidness...
This week on "Speaking of Radio: The Jack Benny Program" part 5, we get the low down on the art of the running gag and inside struggles with the censors from head writer himself George Balzer.
Then we're treated to an extended excerpt from an episode parodying "King Solomon's Mines" with guest star Deborah Kerr showing some nice comedy chops.
Listen closely, that's not only Don Wilson as the tribal chief and Dennis Day as Kerr's coniving brother, but Mel Blanc sneaking in a bit of Woody Woodpecker and Bugs Bunny among the animal noises in the jungle.
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