44-04-04 Sade's Job List For Vic and Russell

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND  DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Sade is busy and she's determined that the boys (Vic and Russell) must run some errands.  Though not against her, the men seem bewildered and are at a loss against Sade's no-nonsense approach to the chores.

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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Sade often forces the men to help with chores.  Despite what excuses they may have (remember: "Handmen play fatball"?) they always comply.  The men of the family fear Sade.  Well, everyone but Uncle Fletcher, but he's nowhere to be found in this episode.

Trivia:

* The oddest part of this episode seems to be the picnic at the foundry where Fred works.  When I try to come up with a reason why I deem it odd, I really can't.  So maybe it's not so weird.  :o

* Not that uncommon in 1944: Sade refers to Ted Stembottom as "Fred", (thanks to Uncle Fletcher just a day prior to this episode).  The entire family practically stops calling Fred by his real name as the days continue.

* I never kept track of how often Russell and Rush were excused from class because of "special teacher's meetings".  This happened quite a bit beginning in 1942 and much more frequently in 1944 - increasing as time went on.

41-xx-xx Sade and Ruthie Mail Each Other Five Dollars

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN 

There's deep confusion between Sade and Ruthie Stembottom over their recent muddled shopping money.

Ruthie, feeling bad about the whole thing and in order to set confusion aside and make things right between the ladies, mails Sade a five dollar bill.  She spends the episode explaining the money confusion to Vic (who acts like he cares but we know he could really care less) and explaining to him that she also sent Ruthie five dollars in the mail.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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Vic has the solution for the ladies but they never take his advice: use your own money to pay for your own items.  As simple as this sounds, the ladies simply cannot resist doing otherwise.

The ladies (plus Mis' Trogle) bought gum drops, a spool of thread and weighed themselves on the penny weighing machine.

+ Rush is at the YMCA watching the fat men play handball.

+ Raymond Belcher Beirman is mentioned again here but Vic uses his name as a figure of speech rather than referring to a real person.  Beirman must be a very mystical figure if we take him literally.

43-12-01 B. B. Baugh and the 10-Cent Store Weigh-Machine

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

• Sade and Mis' Harris had been talking about the effects of furnace heat.  Mis' Harris' roomer Mr. Sludge had been sitting on the floor by the hot-air register night before last or sometime, putting sticks of peppermint candy in rows and making houses out ‘em, and all of a sudden he just sprawled out fast asleep.
• Russell returns from having gone to the YMCA to watch the fat men play handball but was disappointed – it was all skinny fellas.  "they don't fall down and they don't get out of breath and they don't waddle around and bump into junk and they …"
• Sade: "You stay and watch the skinny fellas?  Russell: "For maybe half an hour.  Kept hoping some good old trusty, dependable fat men'd show up.  But none did.
• He eventually went to the Illinois Traction System Depot (i.e., the Interurban Station) to get warm and encountered a group of other guys in there getting warm:  Hank Gutstop, B. B. Baugh, Rishigan Fishigan from Sishigan, Michigan,  Y.I.I.Y. Skeeber, Stacy Yopp, Ernie Fadler, and Uncle Fletcher.
• Sade objects to Russell hanging out with that crowd even if Uncle Fletcher is with them.  Vic sees no harm in it.  She's shocked to learn the topic of discussion was "women."  Russell clarifies they were discussing the psychology of how women react when they step on a penny weighing-machine.  B. B. Baugh, who owns the peanut machine at the Interurban Station is considering the purchase of the 10-cent store weighing-machine.  Women prefer a machine that registers lower, rather than actual, weight.
• Sade is shocked to learn that her name was mentioned - by Uncle Fletcher - who mentioned Sade, Ruthie, and Mis' Keller complain about the 10-cent store machine because it gives correct weight.  He said they prefer the machine at Kleeberger's because it registers three to five pounds lower than reality.  B. B. plans to buy the 10-cent store machine and gear it down so it'll register ten pounds below reality, and then hire agents to spread the news among the ladies. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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It's been said by both Vic and Uncle Fletcher that B.B. Baugh is the most-enterprising businessman in town.  Though the cost of getting weighed is only a penny in 1943, you'd think that after 2-3 years, it'd be clear profit for Baugh, who seems to take low-risk money gambles.

Sade worries about Russell hanging out with Fletcher's gang of cronies, while Vic sees no harm; Vic shouldn't see any harm as they are all his friends as well!  I can imagine Sade saying: "There's nothing more frightening than a gang of seedy barbers and peanut machine misfits filling my little son's head with oceans of talky-talk and trashy-trash!"

Trivia:

+ Paul Rhymer used the word, soporific.

43-11-24 Vic Brings Home A High-Crown Cowboy Hat

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Vic arrives home. Sade and Russell had both seen him approaching as they talked, but he enters without the parcel he had been carrying. Sade immediately inquires if he bought a hat. They discuss the fact that there have been no recent disputes about hats, and they're probably due for one.

Tom Mix - popular man

Vic tells Sade (and a nosy Russell) how the hats are popular in Dismal Seepage, Ohio... and Sade tells him (while walking out on him) to take the hat back to Kleeburgers. 

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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When you see 'hat' in the title, you know what's about to take place at the small house halfway up the next block.  Audiences in 1943 knew what was about to take place too, provided they'd been listening a while.

Why does Vic even bring the hats to the house?  Why not keep the hats at Ike's house?  Leave one at work and one at the lodge?  Why does he torment himself?  Perhaps he lacked the love of his mother as a child and yearns to be idled by Sade's nagging voice?

Have you noticed that as time goes by in the series, the wide-brimmed hats have suddenly become cowboy hats?  Vic can't resist buying hats with larger and larger brims.  Did we miss Vic purchasing a sombrero?  I wouldn't be surprised.

We see that Russell is stitching up an indoor baseball.  I've made note of it before but I have yet to figure out what an "indoor baseball" is.  Both Rush and Russell have stitching duties with theirs, in various episodes.  Vic and Sade expert Louie Johnson suggests a soft baseball of some sort.

41-04-01 The Growing Hat

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNADINE FLYNN

Vic buys a new hat with a narrow brim, but each day, before he comes home, he stops off at Kleeburger's and exchanges his hat for another hat of the same style and color except the brim in imperceptibly wider.  He hopes to do this for several weeks, finally arriving at the size brim he prefers.  The ruse doesn't work.  Sade confronts Vic:

Sade: Gonna tell you about a certain fella that's bound and determined to wear a broad-brimmed hat.  He looks rotten in a broad-brimmed hat.  He's been told ten million times he looks rotten in a broad-brimmed hat.  But he still works away like a beaver figuring up ways of getting a hold of a broad-brimmed hat.  When you came home that first day, that hat was nice and becoming and was a well-fit in a hat.  That second day you came home, I saw your hat - I was just a tiny bit perplexed.  Brim was even broader the third day. When the brim still seemed even broader, I smelt a mouse.  I smelt it strong.  The fourth day, I knew.  Then the fifth and sixth days, I just watched with curiosity.  The hat you brought home today wasn't any broader in the brim than the one yesterday.  I saw that at last, you had reached the climax.

- The above is from COMEDY MAGAZINE, SUMMER 1980.  Sade's lines are from the script, by Paul Rhymer.

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I gave this episode a title because I do not know the correct one.  I simply gave the title for identification purposes only.  We do, at least, have the date of the episode.

Vic again tries to get a cowboy hat; this trick a bit more ingenious than any other wide-brimmed tricks we have seen from him.  Writer Paul Rhymer shows us just how clever Vic can be - and it's still not clever enough to fool Sade (on April Fool's Day no less!)

It took Vic a whole week and six hats to pull off his ploy.  Imagine the work involved in doing this: he'd have to buy a small hat and take it back to the store and get a larger hat the next day - this would happen everyday for six days.  That's just  ridiculous.  Imagine what the salesmen at the haberdashery must think of Vic!  (In an earlier episode, we know they think he must not be "right" in the head.)  This would surely prove that!

No matter what he tries, he can't fool Sade.

42-12-17 Vic and the Cowboy Lodge Hat

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sneaky Vic brings home another cowboy hat - this has been done despite the fact that Sade has told Kleeberger's not to sell him any hats.

Vic dreams up a plan; the hat will be for lodge use only.  He runs it by Rush, who warns Vic that he must convince Sade.

When the time comes for Vic to convince Sade, he completely loses his voice!

SEE DIALOGUE AND B.SCHWARZ SCRIPT SYNOPSIS

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Some observations...

• To the newcomer to Vic and Sade: Vic likes wide-brimmed hats but Sade won't allow him to buy them.
• Vic is so deceptive and persistent in his hat-buying that Sade has had to go to Kleeburger's and order them not to sell him any more hats.  This was probably an episode unto itself.
• Vic mentions having a plan, proving to us that he thinks about the hat-buying in advance, probably for hours and how to be deceptive about it. 
• Vic speaks of a coming punishment if he were to get caught - a sign that Vic is treated like a child by Sade (mainly because Vic IS a child.)
• Once Vic has to explain himself, he physically cannot do so - Sade has such an effect on his brain.  Remember, the hat wasn't even for Vic.  It (supposedly) was for the lodge.  He's probably much more guilty than we are lead to believe.

41-01-16 Rush – Hot Soup Delivery Boy

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

• Vic and Sade discuss Rush's need for new clothes.
• Rush arrives and announces he has a problem – he's got a job: deliver a bowl of hot soup to a sick lady way out on Armstrong Avenue.  How does he get it there without spilling it?  Mis' Harris is paying him a dime to deliver the soup to Mis' Weekley at 1926 West Armstrong Avenue.
• Rush ponders possible delivery methods, and Sade reminds him the soup's getting cold.  She suggests using the street car.  Rush says he'd still have to walk eleven blocks to get to and from the street-car.  Also, the street-car costs seven cents, which would cut his profit to three cents.
• Vic suggests having Mis' Weekley meet him halfway – bring a napkin and spoon to the corner of Morris Avenue and Jefferson Street.  
• Rush regrets having accepted the job.  Usually, Mis' Harris' roomers do the deliveries, but only Mr. Breep was home, and she doesn't trust him – thinks he'll just put the soup in his auto radiator.
• Vic recalls a fella in Dixon that used to put hot soup on his mustache to make it look rich and glossy: "the girls admired his silky mustache to such an extent that several of ‘em committed suicide and…"
• Vic suggests Rush pour the soup over his clothes, speed over on his bike, wring out his clothes in a bowl, and present the soup to Mis' Weekley with his "best compliments and the sincere hope that she enjoys a rapid recovery."
• Sade suggests taking it to Mis' Childers in that neighborhood and have her re-heat the soup.  Rush says it'll still take too long – and all for a doggone dime.
• Vic suggests dumping the soup. Wash the bowl, fasten it to the bike, ride out to the west side, buy a can of soup at the grocery, have Mis' Childers heat it, pour it in the bowl, and saunter around the corner to Mis' Weekley.  Rush focuses on the cut into his profits. Sade says: put the soup in her tin bucket with the tight-fitting lid, wash the bowl, ride to Mis' Childers', have it re-heated and deliver it.  Everyone agrees that's the best solution. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

SEE THE PARTIAL DIALOGUE AND SYNOPSIS

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This seems like a job for the Thermos. The Thermos bottle was invented in 1892 but it appears that the Gooks either haven't heard of these or don't have one. Seems like it's the perfect solution.

41-07-10 Bring Your Figures

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Muddled shopping money?  No big deal.  Stuff happens.

We know to expect this whenever Sade and 'Lady' (Ruthie Stembottom) get together downtown.  So what if the gals can't keep track of the tiny amounts of money that they are allowed?  So what if there's a few dollars missing?  It's not like they are buying anything important.

As a matter of fact, the ladies consume the same kinds of worthless junk every week.  It's money to blow and really, is of no consequence to the bread winners...

That's the way the story is supposed to go, anyway.  Vic, an accountant by trade, is fine with the mixed-up money.  I think he kind of gets a kick out of the way the ladies foul it all up; it's entertainment to him.  But Fred, Ruthie's blue collar husband, has a bad reaction this time around to the unaccounted-for spondulix.

Who's responsible?  No one knows (and no one will ever know) but Fred aims to find out!  He's even bought those stereotypical green visor caps for all four people (it's use is to lessen eyestrain) as he intends to have a pow-wow with the Gooks and go step-by-step through the muddled transactions! By golly, he wants some answers to that missing penny and the other misplaced monies.

But wait; one big 'ole ish and kybosh on that!

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

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This script is surprisingly good and it reads fresh. I use the word 'surprisingly' because the notes I had previously were terribly short.  It was as if this episode had been overlooked.  Rhymer provides strong voices to each character.  It feels as if he were completely in his prime here.  This script could very well be in the top 50 I have seen. 

Trivia:

+ Mr. & Mrs. Coomer live on Madison Street.

+ Sade bought white thread #50 (she always buys that color/#) and the girls bought gum drops, weighed themselves, had ice cream...

+ The fact that Vic could care less about a few dollars (remember, this was still ''The Great Depression'') might provide circumstantial proof that Vic was better off financially than perhaps we - or Sade - know. 

+ The concept of the green visors is clever and totally Rhymeresque; there is always pleasure reading/hearing the way he took something that was already absurd and made it even more so.  Can you imagine Sade and Ruthie wearing green visors, trying to figure out where they lost seven cents?

+ While he was there and at-the-ready to contribute to the conversation with appropriate anecdotes, Rush gets totally ignored in this episode.  You'd figure an ordinary American citizen...

+ This episode ends with the ''stuff happens'' phrase.

44-09-25 Saving Blue Tooth from Tragedy

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Russell and five of his friends plan to congregate and formulate plans to save Blue Tooth Johnson from the tragedy that is his public adoration of Mildred Tisdel.

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A hard-to-understand episode because of sound quality but one thing you won't miss is that "nature has given ____ (fill in the blank) the beautiful gift of laughter!"

Trivia:

+ Russell is anxious to call Heinie Call on the telephone, despite the fact that in previous shows the two did not get along.

+ Sade said Ruthie accidentally fell asleep in Yamilton's a few days earlier while exchanging stockings (during the downtime between all the red tape.)

+ Blue Tooth wrote Mildred a note, a poem, gave her a birthday present and walked home with her.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

44-09-20 Rev. Cook's Dun Letter

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

In the mail, Sade gets a letter addressed to the "Reverend V. Cook" - and opens it, thinking the letter is to her. After reading the letter, she knows she made a mistake but feels embarrassed at the damaging things she's learned and doesn't know what to do next.

Vic provides lots of unhelpful advice and Russell provides a dark background to what might happen...

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Between the years of 1941 and 1946, America cinema would be greatly influenced by the pulp writers and darker, more psychological films would be produced by the handfuls. We look back on these and call them film noir. It seems as though Russell was actually more influenced by this type of film rather than Gloria Golden or even some of his more favorite cowboy features.

This odd eipsode of Vic and Sade seems to yell at the influence of film noir as the plot (and especially Russell's idea of where it could all wind up.) This is not "a funny episode" but memorable all the same for it's flavor. There's a darkness to it. Sade's guilt seems real. Knowing that the pastor has a secret debt is damaging (even if unspoken) and could be volatile to the pastor and community (hey, this was 1944!)

For fun, let your imagination go as to what damage Sade could do with the information if she wanted to.

Trivia:

+ For the first time ever, Sade calls Russell, "Willie baby."

+ The Reverend's first name is "Vincent."

+ Mr. Kleeburger's first two initials are "N.S."

+ Vic says he has gotten letters addressed to the Reverend at Consolidated Kitchenware. Seems unlikely, but...

+ The Reverend owes $4.50 to Kleeburger's and has for at least 3 months; he's made one payment of fifty cents!

+ Vic's advice to Sade is to "throw the half-wit letter away!"

+ There's a half-told story in this episode which could have dire circumstances: Ike Kneesuffer's brother-in-law had wanted to borrow from him a length of piano wire. Piano wire has often been associated with assassination/strangulation.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

44-09-05 Sade's Debtors

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN

Sade tries to figure out who owes her money and how much.  She gets Vic to help.

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In another episode, Russell and Vic talk about Sade being tight-fisted. While she's not selfish, she certainly proves in this episode that she keeps track every penny owed to her.

This episode is full of interesting trivia.

Trivia:

spondulicks

+ Mr. Croucher (ie. Croucher's grocery store) is actually a butcher. Croucher's grocery is probably a butcher shop that also sells other items. 

+ The cost of a single brick of mush costs ten cents. The Brick Mush man adds three cents to each brick for "tax," yet the money goes into his pocket. The Brick Mush man is called, "shrewd" by Sade but it's pretty obvious that he's actually a crook.

+ Mis' Call is the kind of person who doesn't want anyone to owe her anything and doesn't want to owe anyone anything.

+ Mis' Donahue likes pecans on her chocolate ice cream.

+ Mis' Otto and her young son Clarence were mentioned for the first time. Clarence is obviously Cracky's younger brother.

+ Sade uses the word 'spondulicks' twice in this episode, making the 5th and 6th times in the surviving series.

+ The owner of Kleeburger's is Mr, Kleeburger and this was the first time he was mentioned by name.

+ Sade and Mis' Heddles made a bet about which side of the street a house was on. The house in question was an odd number address. Sade said she won the bet because odd numbers are always on the right (that's incorrect, they are on the left) - however, they were probably going down the street "the wrong way" meaning everything was backwards. Either way, the bet was only for a penny!

This episode confirms that Mis' Heddles is a member of the Thimble Club.

+ The Greek has a weighing machine outside his confectionery.

+ Russell wears neckties to school.

+ Sade is owed a total of $9.82 by her friends; $9 of which is owed to her by Ruthie Stembottom, who is afraid to pay up because her husband Fred will notice the large amount.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

43-10-11 The Victor R. Gook Fontanelle

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

B.B. Baugh has written a musical piece on the cornet for Vic entitled, "The Victor R. Gook Fontonelle." He was so taken with the fact that Baugh did such a thing that he invited him over for supper without asking Sade.

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A good episode that once again finds Russell doing a fine job with the script.

Trivia:

+ Vic tells Russell that a 'Fontanelle' is a spirited march, a spritely gallup or a gay dance. Russell contends that a 'Fontanelle' is a soft spot on a babies' head.

I could find nothing about a musical work called a 'Fontanelle.' But Wikipedia clearly shows that Russell was right. In other words, the song title literally means, Victor R. Gook has a soft spot on his head.

+ For supper, Sade had planned on having left-over meatloaf, canned vegetables and canned peaches.

+ B.B. Baugh has replaced Alf Musherton as the 3rd chair on the Sewage Disposal Worker's Band - which apparantly has changed it's name to the Sewage Disposal Workers Semi-Classical Silver Cornet Band. (Recall that this was a made-up club name Vic gave Russell to resign from in an earlier episode.)

Seems apparent by now that the Sewage Worker's band is made up completely of cornets. The fact that Baugh is 3rd chair in the band proves there are numerous cornet players in town. As a matter of fact, the cornet seems to be far the most popular musical instrument mentioned on Vic and Sade.

+ Russell says that B.B. Baugh is the inventor of Stingyberry Jam. (This is tackled at length in a later episode.)

+ Vic says that B.B. Baugh is an accomplished musician, artist and a talented composer.

+ B.B. Baugh lives at the Bright Kentucky Hotel. He had composed the song for Vic between the hours of 8 and midnight by candlelight in his hotel room with trains chugging by his window.

I believe this episode contains one of the funniest little sequences in the show's history, when Vic and Russell discuss when Sade might be home from shopping: {{{HEAR}}}

It also includes Vic singing: {{{HEAR}}}

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

42-08-24 Rush's New School Clothes

STARRING: BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade wants Rush to meet her downtown in the afternoon so she can purchase school clothes for him while they are on sale.

We already know that Rush hates having his mom pick out school clothes and Rush also knows that enemy-friend-enemy Nicer Scott is going to be shopping for his own school clothes by himself this same afternoon, ready to razz him for having his "mommy" pick out his school clothes for him.

It gets worse as Rush finds out a myriad of Sade's lady friends are also going with them plus Mildred Tisdale.

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Middle-of-the road episode with not much going on. The episode, however, features great sound.

Trivia:

+ Rush had been playing baseball before he came home. This time, he was playing left field. In previous episodes he has played pitcher, 1st base and 3rd base.

+ Rogers department store was mentioned for the first time.

+ Mr. Scott, Mis' Goffers and Mis' Tisdale were mentioned for the first time. Little was said of them although Mis' Goffers and Mis' Tisdale (Margaret's mother) were to go on the shopping trip and Mr. Scott is Nicer's dad.

+ For the first time in the surviving episodes (I think) Sade calls Rush, "Dr. Sleech."

+ As of this episode we learn that Mildred is 13 years old.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

41-03-25 Muddled Shopping Money

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade's been shopping with Ruthie Stembottom and she comes home wih a muddled money situation and missing a spool of thread. This is what happens when you owe someone twelve and a half cents.

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Sade seems to have little if any math skills. The muddled shopping money experiences will continue to plague Sade for the rest of the series.

Trivia:

+ Rush was silently reading from 3rd Lieutenant Clinton Stanley Among the Counterfeiting Left-Handed Natives of the Orange Sea or How Luck and Honesty Won Fame and Fortune. In it, 3rd Lieutenant Stanley faced death by drowning but escaped through a secret tunnel. Later, he is bound and gagged and all he can do is flex his muscles. He gets Lady Margaret to put a bullet on his arm. He flexes his muscle and the bullet shoots across the river and kills a counterfeiting, left-handed native of the Orange Sea.

+ One of Vic's nicknames for Rush in this episode is most-improbable -- "dove hiney": {{HEAR}}

+ Things we know that Sade bought: shoelaces for a dime, hairpins, Spool of white thread #50 for 5 cents, 15 cents worth of candy (for Ruthie) and 12 and half cents for Mis' Cryder's church charity and $1 worth of washrags.

+ Mis' Wilton is mentioned for the first time. Sade saw her in the underwear department of Yamilton's and stopped to talk to her.

+ Rush asks Vic what the word, "grandiloquent" means: {{{HEAR}}}

Sade is upset over her muddle money matter (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

40-06-19 Vic's Wide Brimmed Hat

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON  

Vic is in possession of a brand new, wide-brimmed $8.00 hat.  He claims that Kleeburger's gave it to him for finally paying up his $2.00 bill.

Sade suspects from the beginning that Vic actually bought the hat himself and involved Rush in his shenanigans.

After a while, Sade has the whole thing figured out; Vic had purchased the hat the day before when he paid his outstanding bill; then Vic had the clerk give the hat to Rush as he walked by this day (Rush was used a  pawn.)

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Vic receives a wide-brimmed hat as a gift from a grateful business owner, or so he claims…

I don’t fully understand what Sade has against her husband looking like a peeled onion. A lot of what drives Sade is incomprehensible to me. My theory, though, is that it all boils down to the small-town social hierarchy. This is all pre women’s-lib, and as hard-nosed, independent, and domineering as Sade may seem sometimes, her position in the community is still inextricably linked to her husband’s success, because that’s the way her society functions. While Sade has a social life of her own, much of her prestige hangs on that of Vic, who wears a clean white shirt to work every day and has his letters typed up by a regular stenographer. If he wears something that makes him look ridiculous, it reflects badly upon her, because so much of her identity is bound up in Vic’s. So, as she sees it, it’s in her (and Vic’s) best interests to make sure he doesn’t go and do anything that makes him look silly or eccentric. She thinks she’s doing him a favor. 

Even though Sade really has no business dictating to Vic how he dresses, I can’t help but admire the way she has Vic’s scheme sussed out from the very beginning of this episode. I laugh every time at the simple, acidic way she observes, “Lotsa clippins…” as he reads her newspaper clippings about the popularity of broad-brimmed hats. She’s got him right where she wants him and although he’s probably dimly aware of it, he keeps blundering on in the hope that his scheme will eventually work on her. Poor Vic.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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Even though Vic is guilty of the "crime" that Sade suspects him of, Vic seems to have his dander up that she even suspects him in the first place!

Vic whips out articles he saved up to show Sade that wide-brimmed hats are not the horrible things she imagines them to be.  As a matter of fact, they are quite popular nationwide.

click to enlarge

He even has an article that says Gloria Golden admires men who wear hats with "generous brims."

Why doesn't Sade allow Vic to wear a wide-brimmed hat?  Perhaps he would look like an onion or a cowboy.  But does he ever tell her how to dress?

If you boil it down, Sade is a nag.  I sometimes feel sorry for Vic.  She nags about everything he does!  I wouldn't doubt that Vic strangled her to death in one of the dumped Proctor and Gamble episodes.

Trivia:

+ Sade says that wide-brimmed hats make Vic look like a "peeled onion" and a "Cowboy from the Wild-West show."

Sade's being a nosy nag... {{{HEAR}}}

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

39-12-xx Rush Is Getting On In Years

STARRING: BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

14 year-old Rush has come to the conclusion that he is "getting on in years." After telling his mother about how he's getting older and more tired - at the end of the show the phone rings and without hesitation, accepts an invitation to go and play on a trapeze and then play Fox and Geese, a winter chase game.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Rush reflects upon entering his golden years with Sade.

RUSH: But, ya know, Mom, I never laughed at that.
SADE: Didn’t ya?
RUSH: No. And that’s another reason why I think I’m gettin’ on in years. I’m more serious, grasp the angle I’m attemptin’ to put across?
SADE: Uh-huh.
RUSH: A year or so ago I woulda let out a great big haw-haw at Smelly and Leroy makin’ fun of Mildred Tisdel. But not anymore. Nowadays I monkey around with deep topics.
SADE: Mm.
RUSH: I leave foolishness to the children.

Oh, Rush. He appears to be entering that most wonderful period of adolescence, where he feels everything much more deeply than everyone else, and no one understands the brevity and futility of life but him. He is about to start wearing all black and writing sad poems and reading lots of Dostoyevsky. Between trips to the YMCA to goof off, of course.

Sade quietly humors Rush throughout this episode. Once again, it’s just her and her son — no Vic, no important adult stuff to attend to — so she listens to him ramble on and on and feels no need to correct him. I love it when we get to hear Rush go on for so long uninterrupted.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Obviously, Rush is confusing the fact that he's getting older with the fact that he is maturing. But he hasn't quite matured enough to turn down a go at a trapeze or play Fox and Geese!

There's really not a not a lot going on in this episode. For one thing, there is no Vic around to chortle in calling him, "Grandpa" or some such names.

Trivia:

+ Some of the reasons why Rush he's is getting older: felt like taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon, didn't laugh or make fun of Mildred Tisdel's unusual analogies, wasn't dazzled nor didn't laugh at the comical colors or clowns in Yamilton's window, resigned to go to the store and no longer complains,

+ The courthouse is mentioned for the first time.

+ Sade's Uncle Steemer from Dixon is mentioned for the first time. His hair was turning white at the same time he was going bald.

+ Mis' Tarman is mentioned for the first time. She had borrowed Sade's fancy .98 cent apple peeler 3 months prior and just returned it.

+ Mildred told Rush she felt like a violin and a rainbow.

+ Ed Miller is mentioned for the first time. He is 17. Acts like a kid.

+ Rush and Rooster Davis make plans to use the trapeze at the YMCA.

+ Chuck Myers is mentioned for the first time. He is a boy at Rush's school; he makes plans on the telephone with Rush to play Fox and Geese with Rush and Rooster.

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39-11-06 Charlie's Fish Snapshot

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNADINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Charlie Razorscum calls up Sade and asks about a picture of a fish that he thinks he left over their house three months before.

Sade tells him to come on over and look but she sure it's not there as she has cleaned the living room many times since the day he was over.

Before he comes over, Rush finds it in a bookshelf cubbyhole. Maybe Sade is not such a great housekeeper after all?

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I really don't think Sade was a bad housekeeper, but this episode shows that these folk were humans and made mistakes.

Trivia:

+ Barney Clutcher is mentioned for the first time. He lives in Dixon. He "lost the use of his head." Someone "hit him in the head with a banjo and left him silly," according to Sade.  (((HEAR)))

There's kind of a hidden joke in that story.  Rhymer sets it up the joke to be about Barney's head and him getting whacked with a banjo.  While you're thinking about that, there's a far more complicated story going on.

You may not immediately realize it either (took me 3 or 4 listens to catch it)  because Rhymer wisely has Vic miss the joke as well.

Oh, the joke: Barney lost a five dollar bill in Chicago's busy Union Station.  He traveled all the way home to Dixon where he realized he lost the money.  That trip alone took twelve hours.

Okay, he found his five dollars.  Yes, indeed, that's a miracle.  But Barney had to go home on the train again, which took another twelve hours.

So Mr. Clutcher, who Sade pointed out wasn't all there because of the banjo fiasco (say that 3 times fast) spent 24 hours and a two way train ticket to get $5.00.  The train ticket was probably $10-13 total and how much is 24 hours of your life worth?

The point is, Rhymer knew exactly how to set up the humor in that situation.  And I believe a lot of us were duped by Vic. 

+ Sade asks Rush if he washed his hands: {{{HEAR}}}

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39-10-30 Five Christmas Card Salesmen

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON  

Sade is surprised to find five letters in the mail written to her. Upon
opening them she realizes they are all from that crazy Christmas card company in Toledo, Ohio.

The letters appear to be "softening her up" for the five Christmas card salesman in town; Grandpa Snyder, Mis' Harris, Mr. Erickson, Mis' Wheeler and Mis' Scott.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Sade receives five letters attempting to butter her up in preparation for Christmas card sales.

Not one of those rolling-on-the-floor episodes, but great nonetheless. The form letter Sade receives is full of Rhymerian humor. The overwrought language, the unctuousness, the fake poetry quotations. All funny. My favorite part is Sade trying to stumble through the fake Robert Burns poem in Scots.

This seems like a great deal of trouble to go to in order to sell Christmas cards — after all, it’s a seasonal product. You buy it once a year. Invest maybe a few dollars a year. How can this company afford such aggressive sales tactics? I greatly fear that their Christmas card salespeople are doing a lot of the labor for very little compensation. But they must get something out of it, if they continue to hound Sade year after year.

I have tagged this episode with the word “five.” My husband has a theory that five is the funniest number and that Paul Rhymer knew this. Five is a number that arises frequently in these shows, and I intend to make a closer study of it. So, here it is…the first recorded episode with the number five as the center of a joke.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcription by Lydia Crowe)

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Run-of-the-mill episode with no big laughs to speak of. Still, an enjoyable program just because it's Vic and Sade.

Trivia:

+ When Vic sees he has a bill from Kleeburger's Department Store, he has Rush throw it in the garbage.

+ Sade gets a coupon in the mail from the Lazy Hours Pool Hall for a free dish of cole slaw with every game of billiards on Thursday night.

+ The letters Sade receives from the Christmas card company in Toldeo, Ohio are all addressed to her differently:
to: Mrs. Victor Gook
to: Mrs. V. R. Gook
to: Mrs. Victor R. Gook
to: Mis' Victor Gook
to: Mrs. V. R. Cook

+ Mis' Harris and Grandpa Snyder both call hoping to meet with Sade about Christmas cards.

+ Mis' Wheeler is mentioned for the first time. She sell Christmas cards.

Sade tries to read one of the letters from the Christmas card company that has part of a Robert Burns poem in Gaelic: {{{HEAR}}}

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39-08-30 Rush Mad at Pre-selected School Clothes

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Rush is upset and what 14 year-old boy could blame him?  Sade has gone
and picked out all of his school clothes at the various department stores around town.  All Rush has to do is go in and they will fit him to the right size.

Being 14 years old, he feels he is too old for such stuff.  Sade is afraid he would pick out crazy clothes.

Vic and Sade feel that Rush should just be happy his parents can afford clothes for him and not sulk.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Sade has selected Rush’s school clothes in advance and Rush is terribly unhappy about it.

Whenever Rush wants to do something grown up, Sade reminds him that he’s a “little boy.” Whenever Rush does something childish, Sade chides him for being a “big, monstrous, grown-up high school gentleman.” The poor guy just can’t win!

Sade is worried about Rush picking out “loud, crashy” clothing, but so what? He is a teenager, after all. But Sade has always been concerned about appearances. She badly wants to be accepted by her community, and she’s a little overly-conscious of what others will think. It extends to her husband, too — particularly in the area of headwear. She wants a good social standing among her friends and neighbors, and she isn’t going to let anything stand in the way of that.

Such customer service in those days, though! Sade’s request would be too extreme for most stores in today’s world (especially if she were shopping for school clothes at a big-box store, like most parents do nowadays). But it’s no trouble for the fine professionals at Yamilton’s, Kleeburger’s, and Emson’s.

Rush is such a teenager in this episode. The potential for embarrassment is everywhere, his parents are unbelievably cruel and unfair, and everything is a gigantic disaster. He’s suitably overdramatic about the situation and Bill Idelson really gets to shine.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Not a very memorable episode.  Rush is whiny and sulky and mad at Sade.

Trivia:

+ In a previous episode, Mis' Harris was not a member of the Thimble Club but in this episode, Rush relays a message from her to Sade, "That she will not be at the Thimble meeting."

+ Sade pre-bought Rush a blue serge suit, a pair of reddish brown shoes and a  plaid cap.

+ At Yamilton's, Rush is to ask for Mr. Richards.  At Kleeburgers, he is to ask for Mr. White (a young fellow with nose glasses) and at Emson's Shoes, he is to see Mr. Finn (he's bald and probably has an artificial leg).

+ Mr. Call is mentioned.  We can assume this is Heinie Call's father.

TWO SIDES...

JIMBO: This episode and a later one (42-08-24 Rush's New School Clothes) seems to show that Sade doesn't trust Rush when it comes to buying clothes. We also know she doesn't trust her husband when he buys clothes either (a suit and numerous hats.)

I say this is because Sade is all hung up on controlling the family but I have a feeling (from other conversations we have had and writings you have submitted) that you will say that Sade is only being prudent and that their clothes' selection reflect on her.

That might be, but why does Ruthie and the other ladies have to come along? Rush doesn't want to be embarrassed and she doesn't seem to care if he's put into that situation.

SARAH COLE: One of the keys to understanding the relationship between Sade and Rush is that Sade can't get used to the idea that Rush is nearly an adult. A mother can take a child shopping with her friends -- she had probably done it plenty of times when Rush was a little boy. Rush, however, is no longer a child. Although Sade may still think of him as the eight-year-old the Gooks adopted, he is approaching a man's estate, and expects to be treated with adult respect.

In Sade's defense, it has just occurred to me that she has probably never seen a healthy adult parent/child relationship modeled. She had left school to marry, her father was seldom (if ever) mentioned, and her mother died when she was still fairly young. The only behavior she has ever seen is that of adults governing their inexperienced offspring. Discovering that, eventually children expect to govern themselves is a disagreeable surprise to her.

The issue is not that Sade won't let Rush pick his own school clothes (for, no matter what he may think, he is inexperienced in the selection of smart, yet durable attire), but that she treats the process so casually that it is incidental to her real motivation: an afternoon socializing with her friends while shopping. Eventually, the social circle expands to the point where even Sade sees Rush's embarrassing position, though pride, perhaps, keeps her from altering her plans.

Another issue that would influence her decisions is the Depression. In 1939, the country was beginning to emerge from the second dip of the Great Depression (see Amity Shlaes' history of The Forgotten Man). Frugality had been a crucial virtue, and Sade is domestically virtuous! The fact that Vic presumably makes a good salary as head bookkeeper, and that the economy is starting to improve have not occurred to her. Even at the expense of Rush's self-respect, a sale is an opportunity not to be missed.

An ideal solution to the situations in both of these episodes would have been for Sade and Rush to go together to pick out his clothes, with Sade acting as adviser, rather It would have provided a fine opportunity for mother/son bonding. But Sade still has a lot to learn about being a mother; just as Rush has a lot to learn about being a son.

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38-11-30 Sade Wants to Buy Vic a Hat

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade makes elaborate plans with her husband Vic for him to get off work two hours early the following day so that the two can meet downtown for the purpose of buying Vic a new hat.

Sade doesn't seem to trust Vic to buy his own lid, mainly  because Vic likes the popular wide-brim variety (see article at right.)  Sade won't allow Vic to go around and "look like a cowboy from Pennsylvania" - whatever that means; Sade even quips, "Goodness, why don't you buy a lassoo?"  Plus, Vic is prone to get a hat that looks like "the inside of a gunny sack."

Click to enlarge

Vic doesn't like to go hat shopping with Sade at all as she is prone to make him "look a sap."  Apparently, she is so bossy in the store that the "half-wit" clerks think Vic is "a little on the loony side." In turn, Vic gets "sulky and sour" and Sade doesn't like this. Sounds like they make a cute couple in the department store.

Intermingled in the hat conversation is Rush trying to tell a story that shows a lot of promise: Smelly Clark's Uncle Strap escorted a woman to Peoria for purposes of enjoying a fish dinner... but due to the many household interruptions, we sadly never hear the conclusion.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:

This is a momentous episode with a lot of firsts in the surviving recorded episodes. It is the first detailing Vic’s long, hard-fought battle to acquire a broad-brimmed hat. It is the first mention of Smelly Clark’s Uncle Strap, and the first episode in which Rush attempts to tell the story of Smelly Clark’s Uncle Strap and his lady friend going to Peoria for purposes of enjoying fish dinner. He will attempt this story many, many times in the future, and I don’t think he ever succeeds in finishing it. And it’s the first mention of Mr. Buller, Vic’s eccentric and blustery superior at the kitchenware plant. 

Vic’s life-and-death struggle with Sade over the matter of the hat is already funny, but Rush’s need for attention and his complete lack of social graces add even more humor to today’s brief interlude. One can sympathize with Rush when his stories are steamrolled over by his parents, but the way he doggedly attempts to finish his story even in the face of outside interruptions like the telephone and doorbell show his complete lack of realism about this matter. Like most teenagers, Rush can be extremely self-centered, and even interruption by inanimate objects is something he takes very personally.

If only Vic and Sade would just listen to him for a couple of measly minutes! Their lack of attention to him may seem a little on the mean side today. But “children are seen and not heard” was probably the dominant philosophy when Vic and Sade were growing up, and for them, Rush’s talkativeness seems rather brazen.

How did that fish dinner in Peoria end up? It’s a mystery for the ages.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcription done by Lydia Crowe)

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This show ranks right up there with the very best in the entire run of Vic and Sade. The wide-brimmed hat issue will rear it's ugly head in future episodes and is a one of the funniest running jokes in the series.

Rush's never-completed story - and apparently in another episode that is unfortunately unavailable - he tried to tell the same story without much luck) is funny even without the punchline. All of Rush's stories are exciting even when they are duds. Though I haven't figured out exactly where writer Paul Rhymer was going with this story, the flair that actor Billy Idelson puts behind it, even when constantly interrupted, is one for the Vic and Sade Hall of Fame.

Trivia:

+ Kleeburger's, Silver's and Yamilton's department stores are all mentioned for the first time in the surviving shows.  Washrags are also mentioned for the first time.

+ This is the first time in the surviving episodes that Ruthie Stembottom calls about playing "500", a card game the two families enjoy often.  Her husband, Fred is mentioned but their last name is not mentioned in this episode.

+ Sade jokingly refers to Ruthie and her husband as "Mr. and Mrs. Dumptydoodle."

+ Smelly Clark and his Uncle Strap are mentioned for the first time in the surviving shows.

+ Mr. Buller is mentioned by Vic; when he buys a hat, he simply calls the store and makes them deliver it to him and will pay anywhere from $5-$7; He's not worried about the color or style.  He apparently lives on the edge.

+ Sade suggests that they buy Vic the "Baltimore Banker" style hat.

HAT PICKER

Sade never graduated from high school, and is very proud of her husband's prestigious position as chief accountant for a local plant of a national company. That is, she has social prestige because of Vic's position. She wants him to look the dignified, respectable part. The trouble is, Vic is, by nature, flamboyant, and will not look that part without coercion. If he could, Vic would wear a cowboy hat to work. So, in order to protect her social status, Sade picks Vic's public costume: respectable, narrow-brimmed hats. And I bet she picks his ties, too! - Sarah Cole

{{{HEAR}}} Rush tries to tell a story about Smelly Clark's Uncle Strap (all of the story is edited together.)

Bill Idelson talks about the famous Uncle Strap story (((HEAR)))

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