41-12-09 Hank Appointed Lodge's Best-Looking Man

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic has news to tell that he knows will bring Sade's scoffing and ridicule: Hank Gutstop has been elected as the lodge's Best-looking Man!

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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There's really not much to this script; it's just an excuse to put down the lodge and Gutstop. Sade doesn't think Hank is good-looking at all, and the ritualistic way in which he was chosen (blonde boy pulls his name out of a hat) is just a reminder of just how silly the lodge can be.

Trivia:

+ Rush mentions that he was reading about counterfeiting parachute jumpers in his Third Lieutenant Stanley book.

+ Gutstop was at the Lazy Hours Pool Hall playing bottle-pool.

+ Rush is bursting with knowledge again about the various idioms his parents are dishing out.  However, they could care less.  Rush seems to know his idiom sources quite well.

+ Instead of borrowing funds from Vic to buy new clothes, this time Hank just wants to borrow Vic's nice clothes (but not his socks).

+ Cuddy Jackson was mentioned. A member of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way lodge. He stands four feet, eleven inches tall, is bald and has no teeth.

+ This episode aired two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  You wonder what kind of mood the listener may have been in and if this episode made them happy or if they even cared?

40-12-26 Gumpox's Traveling Bed

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

There's big-doings at the Bright Kentucky Hotel as Rush, his pals and a
newspaper reporter have been invited by Mr. Gumpox to witness occupied beds traveling down hallways, passing each other!  This is just another of the bizarre things that happen in their crazy world.

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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Yes, it's all true... and Vic and Sade are so enthralled with the story that they allow Rush to be out past 1 a.m.

Sade wants to tell the story to Mis' Donahue, who's bound to laugh out loud.

Trivia:

+ Blue Tooth's real name is William Gazelle Johnson.

+ There's yet another barber (who works at the Butler House Hotel's barbershop) living at the Bright Kentucky: Cunningham.  His bed is prone to take off too, when the long, heavy trains barrel past the run-down eyesore.

+ Mr. Gumpox says that when they are in bed and he passes Cunningham in the hall, they wave at each other and say, ''Ta ta'' and ''Bon voyage'', respectively.

+ According to Sade, it appears that sometime prior to this episode, a train jumped the tracks and plowed into Gumpox's room.  That'd be a fine how-do-you-do, wouldn't it?

+ Though we have heard and read accounts of beds traveling down the halls of the Bright Kentucky, this is the first account we have in script form.

40-01-20 Rush's Good Looks - Anabel Hemstreet

Rush tells his parents and friends on the phone that Anabel Hemstreet says he's not such a bad-looking boy.

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If this sounds familar to episode 40-02-20 Rush's Good Looks, that's because it's almost exactly the same, except, this episode came first and there's no talk of deja-vu.

And in the 40-02-20 episode, the Gooks talk hauntingly of this episode with the added twist that in the latter episode, they discuss deja-vu (without actually mentioning the term.)

The similarities between the two episodes are uncanny:

• In both episodes, Rush chats up his "good looks" to anyone who will listen.
• In both episodes, it's Anabel Hemstreet who instigates the Rush-is-good-looking talk.
• In both episodes, the Gooks and the Stembottoms make plans to play "500."
• In both episodes, Rush is sent to the store to purchase ice cream (which is a rarity, as Fred is usually the one to insist on purchasing the treat - as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure these are the only three episodes in the existing data where the Gooks purchase the ice cream.)
• In both episodes, Fred has to pump up tires before the Stembottoms can come over.

We know the date is correct because it is mentioned twice in 40-02-20 Rush's Good Looks that these events had taken place a month ago.

The title is one I have given for identification purposes only (however, if I had the power to change things, I would change the 40-02-20 episode to something like Rush's Good Looks - Deja-vu.)

40-03-08 Rush's Slumber Party Enters by the Window

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Rush's slumber party gets out of hand. There are 12 boys plus Rush.

Rush has tried to do the courteous thing by putting the ladder up to his window, that way it cuts down on the wear and tear of the carpet and prevents the boys from tracking in dirt. What it does though is attract the neighbors, who fear the Gooks might be getting robbed or attacked.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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Thirteen boys can create considerable noise and damage.

Sade is embarrassed the neighbors are calling.

Rush was only trying to do what he thought was the right thing.

42-09-28 Princess Moon-on-the-River

Sade finds out from gossip that Lolita di Rienzi is actually an Indian princess known as "Moon-on-the-River"!  This news is startling to her and she can't wait to tell Vic.  But.  He.  Already.  Knows.  And Sade is furious because he's known "for years" and has never said a word about it!

Meanwhile, Rush has fascinating tale to tell about a fight between Mildred Tisdel and Leland Richards.

____________________

Busted!

The transcription disc for this episode survived but was either sold to Radio Spirits in the 1970's or was donated to the Library of Congress. (That might mean that we may never hear this episode.)

[The gist of this episode is revealed in the book,Vic and Sade on the Radio: A Cultural History of Paul Rhymer's Daytime Series] 

44-02-10 Mr. Donahue's Grudge Against Mr. Gumpox

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Russell explains to Vic and Sade that Mr. Gumpox, the garbage collector, feels that Mr. Donahue doesn't much care for him.

There's a bounty of evidence to back up this theory, including new allegations that the friendly man-next-door throws hot coal into Gumpox's window in the middle of the night, scaring the poor man to death (man, he's got it tough in that crazy hotel!)

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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Sade, not knowing if 'Pa' Donahue is a coal chunker or not, does not accept the accusations.  After all, his wife and she are arms-around-
the-neck chummy.  However, prior incidents of blowing of kisses was misinterpreted and the fact that Donahue's lunch was once eaten by Howard (because of Donahue's own carelessness), can't really be blamed on Gumpox.  By all accounts, Gumpox is a nice, generous, sensitive (albeit somewhat narcissistic) man - that everyone likes - except Mr. Donahue and perhaps, Vic.

Trivia:

+ The family discuss the fellows in town who cry a lot.  Who cries the most?  The Brick Mush man, followed by Messrs Sludge, Gumpox and - a surprise - Erickson, the Gooks' landlord.  This is the first we have heard of Erickson's emotional outbursts.

+ This may be first time Leland Richards has been mentioned since he stayed with the Gooks and became 'homesick' about a year prior to this episode.  He appears to at least be an acquaintance of Russell.

+ Both 40-01-19 Gumpox's Horse Eats Donahue's Lunch and 40-06-24 Mr. Gumpox Blows Kisses were mentioned in this episode.

42-10-14 Rush's Soggy Books

STARRING: BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

• Fletcher: "Wilbur Yang was known around Sycamore there as ‘the man with the educated elbow'.  He could tell time with his elbow. As a young fella he fell off a hay-rack and broke his elbow.  After that happened his elbow was very sensitive, see? He could tell by his elbow whether it was gonna rain, whether it was gonna snow, whether it was gonna hail, or whether it was gonna sleet. And he could also tell the time.  His wife – he married a woman twenty-six years old – would wake him up in the middle of the night and say, ‘What time is it, Will?'  Wilbur would simply take hold of his elbow with his fingers, squeeze it good, and say, ‘It's three minutes and six seconds past one o'clock.'  And he'd be right!  Wilbur Yang married this woman twenty-six years old under very peculiar circumstances.  He was standing on the railroad station platform in East Pittston, Pennsylvania.  A stranger come up to him and tapped him on the shoulder and says, ‘Beg pardon, friend. Will you light my cigar for me?  I'm going to be married in half an hour and I'm so nervous I can't strike a match.'  Wilbur lit the fella's cigar for him and then got to thinking. ‘I oughta be married myself,' he said to himself. ‘I'm thirty-two years old.'  Well sir, he noticed a young lady down the platform a piece and he strolled over to where she was standing and says, ‘I'm Wilbur Yang.  I'd like to get married.'  The young lady never blinked an eye.  ‘I'd like to get married,' she said.  So they went to a lunchroom and ate a hearty meal, got in touch with a preacher, underwent the wedding ceremony in the presence of six book agents that happened to be in the neighborhood, caught the evening train for Logwater, Missouri, and for all I know they're still in that community."
• Fletcher: "Ernie Hawfer there in Belvidere claimed everything he ate tasted like molasses.  I say he ‘claimed' because naturally he couldn't prove it. Peaches, bread, chewing-gum, ice-tea, hominy, spinach, olives, turnip-greens, they all tasted like molasses.  That would have been all right only Ernie didn't like molasses.  He went to see the doctor about it.  "Doctor, everything I put in my mouth tastes like molasses."  The Doctor asks, "What's your name, friend?"  "Ernie Hawfer," says Ernie.  "Mister Hawfer," says the Doctor, "Get out of my office and stay out."  Ernie left Belvidere late in the spring of eighteen-eighty-six. He moved to Corpus Christi, Arizona, went into the Wholesale Baling Wire business, and, as I say, he passed away in nineteen-aught-two."  
• Fletcher: "Mervin Gossbeck there in Sterling – Mervin and his brother Charlie were sittin' out behind the house one evening and they got up a game of seeing which one could keep their mouth closed the longest.  Charlie was first and kept his mouth closed an hour and a half.  Well, Mervin was a stubborn half-wit, - couldn't bear to lose. He kept his mouth closed almost a week.  He lost fifteen pounds from going without eating and finally fainted from thirst. The lame-brain bet was only a nickel.  And Mervyn didn't even collect that.  Charlie didn't have a nickel.  Stubborn nit-wits that way – they'll stick with a thing till they drop."
• Rush is down in the dumps because he left his schoolbooks outside overnight and there was a heavy rain, turning his books into "big swollen, soggy chunks of unreadable pulp."  He figures it'll cost five dollars to replace them.
• Fletcher: "Old Harvey Geager there in Dixon used to say, ‘Somebody wins, somebody loses.  Nature takes up the slack.'"
• Uncle Fletcher had found a five dollar bill earlier in the day and wants Rush/Russell to take it to buy new books.  Rush doesn't believe he found it.  Fletcher takes severe umbrage.  The boy relents and accepts the bill.
• Fletcher: "Gus Cheebawater left DeKalb to move to Tulsa, Kansas.  In Tulsa, Kansas he married a woman seventeen years old, went into the Automatic Saxophone business, taught himself to ride horseback without any horse, successfully passed fourteen nickels in counterfeit money he'd made at home himself out of ordinary gingerbread, spent one whole winter sleeping on the handlebars of a bicycle to win a fifteen-cent bet and later died." - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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This script was re-used on Christmas Eve, 1943, with Russell (David Whitehouse) taking the place of Rush.  The title therefore is different as well, being named: "Russell's Soggy Books."

This script is important for it's many stories from Uncle Fletcher.  Nine out of every ten stories he tells are worth noting, so the more we run across, the better.

As noted many times, Uncle Fletcher is a very thoughtful person.  He probably did find five dollars that day... and it would be just his way to help out anyone in need, especially his nephew.

39-12-28 A Vic and Sade Christmas Show

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Rush realizes he has no money to spend on friends and relatives for Christmas, so he devises a plan: switch his savings account over to a checking account and write checks for Christmas.  He and Blue Tooth Johnson have decided that adults will not cash the checks ($25 each!) thinking it to be a ridiculous amount, therefore, no money will ever change hands.

As for friends his age, he will send the checks to their parents, who will not cash the checks, thinking either it's bogus or inappropriate.

SEE THE SCRIPT (This is a pdf file - please give it a minute to load)

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I've never thought about it until now but Rush's scheme to get a hold of his savings account is very much like Vic trying to get a wide-brimmed hat!

This appears to be the first episode for Vic after his first stint with heart trouble and long lay-off.  They let him out of the hospital in time for Christmas, it seems.  Or since "Vic" only uttered one line, perhaps it was another actor.

Though this may have not been him, it does appear that he was around the next day (Christmas.)

41-04-xx Mis' Keller's Birthday

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Happy Birthday, Mis' Keller!

Uncle Fletcher wants to surprise his landlady with an almost  quarter ton present; a piece of railroad to be used as a heavy door stop!

SEE THE SCRIPT

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This absurd idea by Fletcher will pop up over and over again and be expanded upon in other episodes.  It's typical of Paul Rhymer to take an absurd idea (especially by Uncle Fletcher) and by repeating it many times, gets the listener used to the idea.  After a while, Fletcher's absurd idea of a 400+ pound object as a door stop no longer seems absurd but almost normal.

In this episode, Mis' Keller is said to be named, 'Geraldine Laura Keller.'  In 1944, she was known as Leiota Keller.  In another episode she was known as Annabel.

Rush makes reference to being at the YMCA to watch the fat men play handball.

43-02-17 Leland Richards Is Homesick

STARRING: BERNARDINE FLYNN AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Sade, Dottie and Uncle Fletcher do their best to cheer up Leland Richards, who is doing his best not to show his emotions, as he is lonesome.

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Poor Leland. I'm not so sure it's that he's homesick as it is the fact that he is stuck in a house with Dottie, who'd drive anyone crazy. I'd probably cry too.

This episode ends quite oddly. I'm not at all thriled with this episode and if I ranked it, it would certainly go near the very bottom of the list!

Trivia:

+ Dottie says she can't play cards because she can't tell one card from another. Oh, ish!

+ For the third episode in a row, we have to endure Dottie going on and on about East St. Louis and something that Uncle Fletcher did there. He swears he doesn't know what she is talking about and for once, I think I actually believe him.

+ Leland says that when his Uncle George was 13 years old, he "cleaned up on" a teacher at school - in other words, he pummeled him good!

+ Uncle Fletcher tries to tell a story about Emmitt Swapsworth from Belvidere but since Dottie keeps interrupting him, he never tells it.

+ Uncle Fletcher tells a very short story about Sam Queenslaugh who broke his elbow winding his watch. He bad bright blue eyes.

+ The funniest thing in the epsiode (maybe I should say, "the only funny thing in the episode") is when Uncle Fletcher asks Leland what game of cards he'd like to play: {{{HEAR}}}

A list of the card games: Yankle, Three Card Smirk, Split the Apple, Dog on the Roof, Stub the Butcher's Toe, Nutcracker, Bump, Sweet Alice, Jumbo Hustle, Down Bad Dealer, Let Go of My Shirt, Ponk, Big Snoot, Pink Snooker (which takes 17 decks of cards), Ten High Slump (a popular game at Crooked Indian National Park; you need to be outdoors and near a dead horse... but you can play inside with a fly swatter in place of the dead horse.)

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

43-02-16 Leland Richards is Coming

STARRING: BERNARDINE FLYNN AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Leland Richards is coming to stay at the Gook for a while; his father just took a new job in Washington D.C. and his mother's father is very ill in Missouri and his mother had to go there.

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Leland is about what you'd expect him to be. He's polite, rather quiet and friendly.

The show's ending is quick but is is one of the best endings in the show's history.

Trivia:

+ There is no known record of what actor played Leland Richards.

+ Leland brings a garter snake into the house, unbeknownst to the women there.

+ Uncle Fletcher tells the story of Harry Bubeck from Sycamore, who married a woman 26 years old. He moved to Detroit and changed his name to Tommy Haran and he learned how to play the piano with his hands tied behind his back. As soon as he accomplished that, he joined the police force and earned the reputation for being the worst officer in the city. He was afraid of pickpockets...

+ Dottie Brainfeeble is fixated on joking (2nd show in a row) with Uncle Fletcher about East St. Louis. Uncle Fletcher claims he's never been there.

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

42-xx-xx Lodge Speech Rehearsal

(((HEAR)))

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic pays Rush a dime to listen to his lodge speech - a superfluous address that drums Hank Gutstop out of the lodge (again.) Rush is to also endure having the buttons ripped off his pajamas.

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Neither Rush nor Sade can help themselves to not make noises during the speech.

Trivia:

+ Gutstop is being expelled from the lodge for not paying his dues. Sade says he was kicked out the previous month as well. If you will recall, he was also kicked out at least one other time in the past for the same reason.

+ Smelly Clark and Rush make plans over the phone to go to the YMCA to watch the fat men play handball later.

+ A comparison of Vic and then Rush imitating him (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

+ Vic is about to rip the buttons off of Rush's pajamas...but Sade intervenes: {{{HEAR}}}

+ In an interview in the 1970's, Bill Idelson (Rush) recalls Vic drumming Gutstop out of the lodge and removing his buttons: {{{HEAR}}}

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

41-11-20 Rush Humiliated on Thanksgiving

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Nicer Scott has been over at the Gook house and notices that Rush uses a small set of eating utensils; something like a small child would use.   The utensils even have an angel on them.

Nicer takes this information, spreads it across the neighborhood and hopes to smear and humiliate Rush.

Meanwhile, Rush is infuriated with Nicer and plans to go over and "wang him one upside the bean." Instead, he has to answer degrading phone calls that inquire if he does other baby activities.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:

Nicer Scott is at it again. He has discovered a dirty secret about Rush and is spreading it all over town.

I love what this episode says about families, and the way that each family has its own unique quirks that no one ever mentions because they’ve always done something a certain way. It can be either eye-opening or embarrassing to have the outside world come into your private family sphere and look with fresh eyes at the way you do things. It never even occurred to Rush that his little knife and fork were unusual, until someone else called attention to it.

What did you find out was weird about your family later in life? I learned that most families don’t put weird-tasting dead bacteria on their popcorn, that animal skulls are not as widely-used in home decor as I thought, and that cars that don’t work anymore usually go to the junkyard, not just the backyard. 

SEE THE TRANSCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Sarah Cole said it best:

[Rush] is in a rage at the neighbor boy, who has passed the word among his friends that Rush eats with a baby knife and fork. As it turns out, Rush DOES eat with baby silverware, because that's what Sade has always put by his plate, and he didn't want to make a fuss about it. His struggle is the struggle we all face, or that remind us of what our children are confronting.

Freedom From Want

Trivia:

+ The episode title mentions Thanksgiving. Although Thanksgiving isn't mentioned on the show, November 20, 1941 was indeed Thanksgiving.

+ It's worth pointing out that this was the very first Thanksgiving since Franklin Roosevelt's famous Four Freedoms speech (January 1941.) The Four Freedoms would be masterfully depicted by Norman Rockwell in 4 paintings two years later, including the famous, "Freedom From Want" Thanksgiving scene.  This was also the last Thanksgiving before rationing and World War II, so this Thanksgiving embodied a freedom from want.

1941 US Postage stamp

You could imagine families talking about this Thanksgiving during the war as the Thanksgiving where various foods were in abundant supply.  In the war years, there would be little butter, sugar, meat etc.

The Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor 17 days from the day this episode aired, forever changing the world and certainly changing Thanksgiving dinners for the next four years.

+ It's well known that Rush dislikes Nicer Scott a lot. So, one wonders why was Nicer over at the Gook house to begin with?  The answer might simply be: Thanksgiving.  Perhaps the Scott family was invited over.

I can imagine a missing episode where Rush protests inviting them over, much like he whined about Nicer having to sleep over when the Scott's had company.

+ Sade is preoccupied reading the paper and about a local wedding.  Mentioned in the list of wedding guests Sade reads is "J. Cadwalader Urquart" - reminding one of "Otis J. Cadwalader" who was Molly's old boyfriend on Fibber McGee and Molly (and played by Gale Gordon both on radio and in the motion picture, "Here We Go Again." )

Oddly, the first Fibber McGee and Molly motion picture was Look Who's Laughing that came out the day after this episode aired.  (November 21, 1941.)

Isn't it likely that Paul Rhymer saw a pre-screening of the film (in Chicago, the home of both Vic and Sade and Fibber McGee and Molly at the time) and was influenced to use the name, which he had heard many times on the radio?  Perhaps the name was used in "Look Who's Laughing?"

+ Sade reads that the bride and groom rode away from the wedding on a motorcycle.  That was probably a very funny idea in 1941 but really doesn't seem that odd today...

+ The back of the fork has "Darling Baby" inscribed on it. Why would the fork say this if Rush was adopted at 7 years old? And if the utensils are for a baby, why are they 2/3rds the size of regular forks and not 1/3rd or smaller?

+ Dismal Seepage, Ohio is mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio. It will later go down in Vic and Sade lore more than places like Grovelman, South Carolina and East Brain, Oregon.

+ It's mentioned that Mr. and Mrs. John M. Weeper lives on South Center Street.  They held the wedding party that Sade read about in the paper.

+ This episode didn't just occur on Thanksgiving, but on the very first Thansgiving that those in the United States observe.

Sade mixes up her metaphors: {{{HEAR}}}

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

41-07-01 Easy Chair

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Uncle Fletcher has 2 easy chairs. He decides to take one of them over to his niece Sade's house so he can sit in it when he comes over, so as to not wear out their furniture.

There are a couple of problems with this: firstly, he didn't ask if he could do it. Sade immediately notices there's really not enough room for the chair and that it doesn't match the furniture. We also suspect the chair is trashy (it's at least 20 years old) and worn.

Add to those things the fact that no matter what Sade says about why the chair can't stay, Uncle Fletcher won't let her talk or get her point across, thinking she is just being grateful for the chair.

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This is typical Uncle Fletcher. He's actually trying to do a good thing but it really winds up being a bad thing.

There's really only one good Uncle Fletcher story in this one.  His stories are so amazing though, you sometimes only need one to keep you going.

Trivia:

+ The chair was hauled over on Mr. Gumpox's garbage wagon, again giving us a clue as to what kind of condition the furniture is in (so far, everything Uncle Fletcher has brought to the Gooks that had to be loaded on Gumpox's garbage wagon has been useless junk.)

+ People that Uncle Fletcher named off that had sat in the chair are far too numerous and many are too hard to understand to name them all here.

+ Eugene Parklow ran for Coroner and got beat. He ran for Alderman and got beat. He ran for County Clerk and got beat. He ran for Deputy Sheriff and got beat. His biggest ambition was to run for Mayor (1896) and get beat and he realized that ambition.

Parklow died in a peculiar way: he was hot, so he drank a tin of cold water. He drank some hot water because the cold water made him cold. The hot water made him hot again so he drank some more cold. This happened 36 times. He died: (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

+ In a previous episode, there was a Eugene Partlow.

+ When Sade comes home, Rush and Uncle Fletcher hear her, yet Uncle Fletcher calls her "Vic."

+ Reverend G. Alder was a preacher in Belvidere for years. He died.

+ Uncle Fletcher has some doilies with sayings sewn on them:

• Please Be Seated
• Hello There, George! 
• Rain or Shine, You'll Always Be Mine
• By They River Gently Flowing, Illinois, Illinois, Illinois, Illinois

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41-05-30 Five Men from Maine

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Homer U. McDancey from East Brain, Oregon calls the Gook household trying to get in touch with Vic. Instead, Rush, who is home alone, takes a message.

The message: five men from Hunkerman, Maine want to meet up Vic. They aren't from the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way and they aren't from Consolidated Kitchenware.

 The mystery ensues... who are these men and what do they want?

WHAT MIS' CROWE SAYS:

Vic receives a very strange phone message.

This is one of my favorites. We never find out who these five men from Maine are and how they know about Vic. We aren’t even offered any convincing explanations. The entire episode is just Vic, Sade, and Rush being mystified about it. This is also another instance of the number five as a comedy device in Vic & Sade, which supports my husband’s theory that five is the funniest number.

Rush offers the possible explanation that McDancey’s story is an effort to get him into Maine for an “ambush,” and as proof comments that the names sound “fictitious as a horse.” Sade agrees with him. I like how they are so convinced that these names sound fake when they are no more ridiculous than most of the names in the Rhymer universe – in fact, they’re quite tame for Vic & Sade, except for the last guy, who has the same first and last name, and seems to have the middle name “Pew” (I listened to this so many times – I’m convinced he’s saying “Pew” and not “Q”). 

At the end, we get a little bit of pathos from Vic, as he obviously knows that the story of five men across the continent who are dying to shake his hand can’t be true, but obviously wishes that it was. We know how much Vic loves attention and admiration! Although he never had any real intention of going to Maine, he’s still a little sad and disappointed that it will never be.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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The men from Maine mystery is never solved (at least in this or other surviving episodes.)  One guess is that the five men from Maine are book publishers and would like Vic to write a book - possibly about parade ingenuity - but that's only a guess.

[In November of 2014, I found in the 'Schwarz Notes' that Vic did contemplate writing a book on parade procedure, as remembered by a Friends of Vic and Sade alumnus...]

McDancey, who has written at least one book and a is fellow member of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way All-Star Marching Team, may have told his own publishers about Vic's prowess as both a writer and as a parade enthusiast. Of course, that's only a shot in the dark but we have so few facts to work with that almost anything is a possibility.

Trivia:

+ There is no Hunkerman, Maine according to Google Earth.

+ The five men from Maine are:

• Ollie J. Yawk
• V. Donald Gicks 
• Q.L. Cunningham
• D.S. Slank
• Erkhardt Q. Urquhart 

click to enlarge

+ As of at least 1940, the Vic and Sade producer was named Charles Urquart (see photo.)

+ Sade mentions Mis' Scott's brother, Erkhardt  (you may recall, he's the fellow with the bed in the back of his car) and notes that he's from Iowa.

+ Sade tells "the funniest thing she's ever heard", but Vic and Rush seem to care very little about her story about Mis' Elders storming out of an argument, only to find she had retreated from her own house. Vic seems to be far more intrigued as to who the 5 gentlemen from Maine could be and what they want with him.

+ As she has said in the past about Mr. Buller and H.K. Fleeber, she thinks Homer U. McDancey is a bit crazy.

Rush thinks that Homer U. McDancey has an ambush set for Vic: {{{HEAR}}}

🎙 Hear the Vic and Sadecast 074 – Five Men from Maine (11/12/17)


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

41-05-21 Uncle Fletcher's Keys

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNADINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Vic: All your pals seem to wind up dying under most-unusual circumstances.

Fletcher: Fine!

Uncle Fletcher is visiting the Gooks and he has a few stories to tell - but these aren't the ones that will put everyone to sleep! The stories he tells in this episode are perhaps the all-time greats of the series!

________________________

The sound is really not great in this episode and that's a terrible shame because this may be the funniest of all of the episodes; certainly it's in the top 5. Uncle Fletcher's stories are outrageous. While far from perfect, the sound does improve after about the first minute and a half.  I fixed it the best I could but some episodes, it's almost useless.

Trivia:

+ Harry McPritchard once told Fletcher that throwing away a key is bad luck. Fletcher tells the story that McPritchard fell off a piano stool and got his knee caught in his necktie and choked to death: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Leland Richards always carries around a bunch of keys.

+ Charlie Hingles borrowed Fletcher's key-wound watch and broke it. He got mad at Ed Werfer and threw the watch at him, hitting him in the head and then it bounced off of a building, smashing it into "40 pieces": {{{HEAR}}}

+ Ollie Mudfiggle's keys made a big impression on the girl at the ticket window at the theater in Dixon. Ollie came up to buy his ticket and she saw his keys and let Uncle Fletcher inside, free of charge. But Ollie died a strange death. He was packing his suitcase for a trip ad his suitcase was full. He asked his wife to sit on the suitcase. What she didn't realize is that his head was in the suitcase when she sat down. Ollie died. {{{HEAR}}}

+ Fletcher explains how you become more important when you have a big ring of keys: (((HEAR)))

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41-05-12 Exalted Big Dipper Day

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic knows that in a few days, it will be Exalted Big Dipper Day. According to the Volume 7 of Vic's lodge library, there is a ritual that must be attended to in the home if no formal celebration is held at the lodge.

The ritual for Vic is elaborate and a barefooted Sade is needed to help perform it correctly. So Vic has Rush read the ritual out of the book.

Somehow, Vic manages to talk Sade into helping him with it. She doesn't even put up a fight.

WHAT MIS' CROWE SAYS:
A very important celebration draws near.

A hilarious episode and, as with all the episodes that deal with the Lodge, a commentary on the nature of ritual. What is a somber, serious, awe-inspiring display to one person is a ridiculous, “heathenish” joke to another. But we all have to put our reactions and our derision off to one side and treat it with respect, especially if we live in the same house with the first person. Sade is giggly at first, but she manages to corral her amusement and come through for Vic. Rush, of course, treats it with delighted amusement the entire time.

My favorite part:

RUSH: “If convenient, station several persons in an adjoining room and instruct them to maintain a low moaning and wailing during the course of the meal.”
SADE: I’m afraid that won’t be convenient.
VIC: No…it won’t.
RUSH: [excitedly] Leland Richards and Vernon Peggles and Bluetooth Johnson and Smelly Clark’d be only too delighted–
VIC: Read.
RUSH: Huh?
VIC: Read!
RUSH: Leland Richards can slop out more low moaning and wailing than any–
VIC: Read.
RUSH: [disappointed] Oh…

Vic would have made Rush’s day if he’d allowed that – and completed the eerie atmosphere necessary for his ceremony – but he can’t stomach Rush’s amusement. Knowing Rush and his friends it wouldn’t have been long before the low moaning and wailing dissolved into uncontrollable giggling, anyway.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcription by Lydia Crowe)

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One of my favorite episodes. The ritual is silly enough to make you laugh on it's own. Surprisingly, Sade goes along with it without much of a fuss at all!

Trivia:

+ Letters from the lodge come in yellow envelopes.

+ Here is the ritual from Volume 7, page 118 of the lodge library:

The Exalted Big Dipper will seat himself at a small table at precisely 11 o'clock. The room will be illuminated by green lights so arranged that large shadows are cast on the wall opposite of the Exhalted Big Dipper.

The Exalted Big Dipper's wife will enter bare footed, carrying a plate of thin soup. This she will place on the table, bow twice to the Big Dipper without speaking, turn around and tip-toe away.

The Exalted Big Dipper's wife's face will be free of talcum powder and lip red. She will see that hands are clean and her hair neatly combed. If convenient, station several people in an adjoining room and instruct them to maintain a low moaning and wailing in the course of the meal.

After the Exalted Big Dipper has finished the thin soup he will be served a small bunch of white grapes. The white grapes will be followed by one ounce of rare beef, ungarnished by salt, pepper or any other condiments.

The beef will be followed by a single lettuce leaf and a sip of cold water.

At the conclusion of the meal, the Exalted Big Dipper will remain seated and ponder for two hours.

Our founder, R.J. Konk, instituted this procedure on the 19th day of December, 1881. He was in Topeka, Kansas at the time and in an address he delivered to the fire department in that city he said, "in hoc ey de burg gee spim spittle dum cluck no but am vip ad nauseum spinch gonk cornacopia division..." 

+ Rush volunteers the services of Smelly Clark, Blue Tooth Johnson, Leland Richards and Vernon Peggles to make moaning and wailing sounds but Vic declines.

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41-05-08 Landlord's Sneaky Trick

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

The Gook landlord, Mr. Erickson, drops by and tells Sade that he is giving the home the Gooks rent to his daughter Beulah Feeple as an anniversary present. He envisions wrapping up the house up in red ribbon and Rush being dressed up like Cupid to present the gift.

The bottom line is this: he's actually not giving Beulah the deed - thus, it really won't be her house. Basically, it's just another trick by the sneaky landlord but this time it's a sneaky trick against Beulah and not the Gooks.

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Erickson must really be a crumb. While Vic and Sade show no empathy to Beulah, this episode contains none of the usual derogatory comments leveled her way by Sade. So maybe there is some empathy for her, only hidden.

Trivia:

+ When Vic sees Rush coming up the sidewalk he says, "Here comes Raymond Belcher Beirman, the brainy bum from Buffalo." [Yet another reference to Beirman, who is showing up in many places in this part of the series.]

+ This is Beulah's 7th wedding anniversary.

+ Vic says, "The only advantage Beulah gets from the anniversary present is being able to say she owns property on Virginia Avenue."

+ Rush tries to tell a story about Smelly Clark (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

+ Rush tells a quick story about Cracky Otto, who broke a violin over a guy's head and still tried to take violin lessons (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

+ Rush tells another quick story, this one about Vernon Peggles and Leland Richards: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Freda was mentioned for the first time in the audio episodes. She is Heinie Call's sister.

Rush tells yet another quick story about Heinie at Freda's wedding: {{{HEAR}}}

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41-04-04 Dinner Invitation Withdrawn

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNADINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

The Gooks are invited at the last minute to a big meal over at Mis' Harris' rooming house only to be uninvited again before they can leave the house.

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Though there was total confusion, I don't see how Mis' Harris can univite the Gooks.

Episode is loads of fun for listening to Vic complain about having to remove his easy slippers and put on a suit.

Trivia:

+ Mr. Breep was mentioned for the first time. He's a roomer at Mis' Harris' house and is also (probably) a lawyer.

+ Dinner at the Harris house was to include steak, biscuits, ice cream "and all the tasty trimmings."

+ Rush inquired whether Mis' Harris would be making "trick mashed potatoes that look like rice" - I wander what he was talking about?

+ The Gook meal included meat (beef punkles?), potatoes, raisin bread, pickles, olives and watermelon.

+ The easy slippers that Vic was wearing had tassels and Indian heads on them; he had gotten them from his in-laws, Bess and Walter Helfer.

+ Before they are about to leave, Sade wants to make sure the front door is locked. There was a time when middle America did not bother to lock their doors but by early April 1941 (the time of this episode), Americans were being rounded up in Germany and Italy, spies were being spotted all over the globe and the world was becoming a smaller, more crime-ridden place.

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41-03-31 Rush Wants His Interest

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BILL IDELSON

A re-working of the 40-04-15 Milton's Dirt in Fruit Jars script. Instead of getting jars of dirt from other states and selling them to Milton Welch, Rush wants to get the interest off of his savings account and pay the ones he owes and buy a few items. The ending is not quite as good as the Fruit Jars episode but it suffices.

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Sade is missing from this episode and that's probably a good thing. Sade would never let Rush even hint at getting at his bank account. She would have been a wet towel that would shut Rush up - and the conversation would have shifted to whatever Sade wanted to talk about.

While I liked the ending of the original script better, Rush has grown up quite a bit in a year, so tears seem to be out of the question. And you have to love Vic; when he and his son have a one on one, Vic always seems to come through.

Trivia:

+ Rush owes Smelly Clark a dime, Leland Richards 8 cents and Russell Duncan 3 packages of chewing gum. He's in debt to the Greek for a quarter.

When Rush gets the idea that he could withdraw his savings account interest...(edited): {{{HEAR}}}

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