40-01-19 Gumpox's Horse Eats Donahue's Lunch

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Mr. Donahue gets totally upset when Howard, Mr. Gumpox's horse, eats his lunch! Seems Donahue forgot his pipe and tobacco... and when he went inside to get it, Howard did the deed.

Donahue was so upset, he hit poor Howard with a folded up newspaper!  

MIS' CROWE SAYS:

It’s human nature to take sides in a grievance, even if you weren’t there to see it to begin with. What I find interesting is how quickly Vic switches sides on poor Howard here:

VIC: Well, I’d say he was considerable at fault. Certainly not very smart to leave an unlatched dinner bucket fulla meat and stuff right under a horse’s chin.
SADE: That’s what Mr. Gumpox pointed out.

But later, Howard’s manliness as a horse is called into question:

RUSH: Folded-up newspaper wouldn’t hurt a horse, Mom.
SADE: No? Howard whinnied and screamed and leaped six feet in the air. 
VIC: Howard’s a sissy.

And Vic immediately switches sides:

VIC: My way of thinkin’, Pa Donahue had the real grievance.

Gumpox’s great affection and respect for Howard is touching, and shows that Gumpox is a good soul — so, of course, I’m siding with Gumpox here. You don’t leave a bunch of food unattended in front of an animal…and then you definitely don’t hit the animal because you’re mad at him. Especially a delicate animal like Howard.

 SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Ripley's Believe-it-or-Not! 1940

Trivia:

+ This episode runs short.

+ Rush says Charlie Razorscum can get "terrible mad."

+ Sade says the odd incident is like something you would find in the Believe-It-or-Not! section of the paper.

(Robert) Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not! was a common feature in most decent-sized newspapers across the U.S. in the late 1930's and early 1940's.  (It was also a popular radio show.) Many papers that didn't carry the Ripley's comic often carried one of the knock-off strips that were very much like it.

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