OTR Friday for Lazy Tryptophan Comas!

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.

Talk to you soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone out there is ready to get their grub on...cause if yer not, I call dibs on your stuffing!!!

Time to spend time with loved ones and be thankful for all things. As you sit back and relax this holiday morning watching the 84th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, cringing at the Pikachu and Hello Kitty balloons and closing you eyes and longing for Bullwinkle and Underdog instead, here's a little bonus oldtime radio treat for you to plug your earholes from the inane chatter of the announcers and clatter of marching bands as well.

This program was a special broadcast from Armed Forces Radio for Thanksgiving of 1944. Germany had surrendered to allied forces in WWII and the war in the Pacific was coming to a head and our fighting boys had been away from home for too many Thanksgivings. This was to be their last and some of radio's finest wanted to send a "We miss you" audio card.



The host for the show is the wonderful Lionel Barrymore...


...and he's joined by musical and comedy stars alike in what to me is warm and just plain feels like the holidays are here. I hope you enjoy.

Also appearing are Percy Faith...

...Dinah Shore...

...Harry Von Zell...

...the funny and too-often forgotten Wally Brown...

...for a touch of class, John Charles Thomas...

...the comic stylings of Fanny Brice and Handley Stafford in their roles as "Baby Snooks" and "Daddy" respectively...

...Frank Morgan...

...and even an original Thanksgiving song written by Irving Berlin. Hey, if he gave us "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade"...why not a Thanksgiving tune too.

Have a great long weekend and I'll talk to you soon.

Goodbye Mark Crowley... There's a "Vacant Chair"

This week's Jeffy Music Monday is turned over to an old song from the 1860's performed by Kathy Mattea. Thanksgiving is approaching and it was Abraham Lincoln who established it as a National Holiday. A way to be with family when the Civil War was tearing the country apart.

This was the first ever Thanksgiving song and tells of a family's "Vacant Chair" at their table as a brother was lost fighting the war.



I am losing a brother this week too, albeit not as permanently...


This weekend we had a farewell "Pub Crawl" for my good buddy and member of my "blog family" (though he swore to whatever pagen Gods he worships he would never read the dang thing) Mark Crowley.

Mark, along with his significant other Katherine are leaving Southern California for the home of Outlaw Country and all great live music, Austin, Texas...and I'm jealous as hell.

The usual suspects for Pub Crawl fun showed up. Preparing for our drunken march at "The Steamy Grotto/House of Whacks/Jeffy's apartment below are (l. to r.) Mark, Katherine, my nephew Scott, Mark's mother Kathy, the lovely backside of Naomi "Nay Nay" Barraza and Action Frank...

Below l. to r. Scotty, Kathy, (can't get enough of Naomi's back), Frank, Kelli "designated driver and probably eternally miserable" King and Mike Crowley...

As we hit lovely downtown Huntington Beach, the sun set on our party, but we didn't go down just yet.

We were all there for food, drinks and to say goodbye to one of our favorite people and got to know Katherine (a newer member of our family) a little better.

We wish them all the luck and happiness they deserve.

I'm gonna miss ya, ya big dumb ol' softie of a mook!

Talk to you soon.

Sunday Funnies - Nemo issue 22 - part 1 of 2

"Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" did it again with grand glimpses into the art of the past with issue 22...in fact, I don't believe there was a single issue published which I didn't read cover to cover.

Here's a nice glimpse into the treasures I'll be sharing this week and next...

A retrospective editorial by Richard Marschall, our tour guide through each and ever issue, and I think one all of us comic strip lovers can relate to.

The Art Deco movement of the 1920's is instantly recognizable. I think I appreciate it much more in architecture than I do as a comics of cartoon style, but one thing is sure, when it's done right it sure is easy to get instantly lost in. Such clean and easy to read graphics as exampled here with John Held's "Merely Margie" and "Joe Prep" strips.

And who doesn't love flappers?

Ham Fisher and his strip "Joe Palooka" are sometimes relegated to footnote status for comics fans as the place where Al Capp learned his chops and the lawsuit Fisher filed against Capp for supposedly lifting "Li'l Abner" from "Big Leviticuss". The honest truth though is that "Palooka" was a great strip itself. There's a reason that "Palooka" and Fisher were revered...it's good solid story telling. Inspiring a film in 1934, a series of 9 shorts for Vitaphone from 1936-37, an 11 film series from 1946-1951, a CBS radio serial, a syndicated television series and even a mountain in Pennsylvania named after the character, here's a nice little sequence of the strip that started it all from 1933.

From 1886, 100 years before this issue of "Nemo", Richard Marschall spotlights the political cartoons that helped shape the era. For further scholership tutelage on Politics from Prof. Marschall, check out the article he did here on the cartoons of 1884.

Next week I'll post the rest of this issue which includes, more "Sam's Strip" and an in-depth examination of Jimmy Swinerton.

Talk to you soon.