44-01-10 Where's Hank? - Goodbye Ladies

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND  DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Sade's entertaining Mis' Brighton, Mis' Applerot, Mis' Stembottom, and Mis' Cryder. Meanwhile, Vic calls all over town trying to locate Hank Gutstop because he's been ordered by Lodge Headquarters to suspend him again for non-payment of dues. Sade wants Vic to come to the living room to say hello to her guests, who are getting ready to leave. Vic wants no part of the ladies.

SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

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Sade is asking for trouble when she matches up Appelrot and Brighton against Ruthie and herself.  Appelrot and Brighton together always present trouble to Ruthie. And when Ruthie reaches the end of her rope and has had enough, she goes off half-cocked.  Though Sade can be a terror at home, she is meek around the ladies.

If Vic can ever locate Hank, it will be at least the third time he has been suspended from the lodge for not paying his dues.

TRIVIA:

+ Latin junk: "In hoc agricola sim spittle dum cluck apidivorous nono ickle hunk.  Sogo filia dum Caesar copley cornucopia est. Cicero tossit elmo cookies dim wopple speesh.  Eemo discurnim et fossae librum for a slamp. Nebravit huius caress sprell.  Digitus ex-bombo dum solo feenum chunk.  Bootle peuloorum non spooner booble yiz."

+ Russell mentions Hermie Wolper from school: 19 years old, wears a derby, spends Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the pool hall.

39-03-10 Sade – A Slick Operator

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sneaky Sade finds a way to purchase a Sunbeam Mixmaster, a product being promoted by the show's sponsor, Crisco.

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND THE SYNOPSIS (part 1) (part 2)

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The Sunbeam Mixmaster and Crisco teamed up on an advertising campaign in March of 1939. I cannot find any of those ads on the internet.  What I
did find though was that the Mixmaster probably did save a lot of time - if you were inclined to do things such as buff your silver. Yes, this mixer had an attachment to buff your silver. It also had an attachment to sharpen your knives and open cans. There were attachments to help you make mixed drinks, grind your own meat, and many other applications.

This is not the earliest date in which we have heard about Third Lieutenant Stanley.  He first showed up in the surviving material in January of 1939.

In case you didn't catch it when reading above, Sade cleverly used a penny and amplified it quietly to the enormous sum she was seeking from Vic.

Trivia:

+  If you haven't already figured it out, this was a special contest script: promoting the advantages of having a Sunbeam Mixmaster to make great food with Crisco.

+ Here's a list of all the kids Rush got a chance to name off before Vic stopped him:  Wendell Scott, Keith Vines, Ross Anderson, Lyle Roll, Lester Nafziger, Charley Neece, Everett Ireland, Harry Bliss, Ed Smoler, Bill Moore, Tom Keefer, Sam Sunkman, Millard White, Emory Jackson, Cecil Koker, Clyde Schnepp, Orval Lesters, Ellis Prossman, Joe Greel, Dwight Montgomery, Edmund Klin, Arch Cunningham, Robert Miller, Osbert Reynolds, Harry Ives, Walter Sneed and Franklin Obee.

43-10-27 Thimble Club Meeting

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, DAVID WHITEHOUSE AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Vic, Russell and Uncle Fletcher are stuck outside on a chilly day as the Thimble Club women are nice and warm inside the Gook household.

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Not a bad episode, although the usual absurdity and ridiculousness is kept to a minimum here.

The strength of the episode to me is the fact that Paul Rhymer's script and the fine acting of the three male characters lends itself well to visualizing the proceedings on the porch.

It's also becoming evident that David Whitehouse (Russell) is becoming more comfortable with his role on the show. Something that has been overlooked until now is just what a wonderful laugh he has; it's quite contagious: {{{HEAR}}}

Trivia:

+ This episode provides the names of several women who are in the Thimble Club that up to now, we never knew were members. Here's a list of "new" Thimble Club members:
Mis' Morris, Mis' Donahue, Mis' Johnson, Mis' Craig, Mis' O'Donnell, Mis' Chlorine, Mis' Garrison and Mis' Kester.

For a complete list of the women in the Thimble Club, be sure to check the Thimble Club page.

+ Several women's name make their surviving episode debuts in this episode:
Mis' Morris, Mis' Craig, Mis' O'Donnell, Mis' Chlorine and Mis' Garrison.

+ Uncle Fletcher is short on ridiculous stories in this episode, although he does mention the fact that Mis' Cryder and Mis' Johnson both have named their olderst sons, "William" and that Roy Dejectedly was confused as to where Des Moines, Iowa was.

+ Russell's friend, Oyster Cracker, has a cousin named "Lombard."

The men on the porch take turns talking like the ladies of the Thimble Club (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

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41-04-xx Shopping Trip Five Dollar Bank

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNADINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade is proud of herself. She went shopping with Ruthie Stembottom and kept track of all the transactions on paper. There was no way the money could get fouled up. Yet, it did.

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Not surprising at all. Sade is wise as a horse when it comes to reading people but on the other hand, she has a tremendous weakness for anything having to do with math. Every trip shopping with Ruthie winds up in muddled money, which is a running joke on Vic and Sade.

Trivia:

+ Sade seems to think since she cannot do math correctly, Rush can't either. She makes him subtract a nickel from a dime on paper. Also other simple math problems...

+ Sade and Ruthie bumped into Mis' Cryder in the underwear department at Yamilton's. The underwear department there must be a hot spot for socialization as it's been mentioned at least 3 times in the surviving episodes as a place where people were together.

+ In this episode, Sade refers to Ruthie as a "featherhead" and "scatterbrained." Those two words could easily describe Sade's poor ability to properly calculate.

+ Items Sade bought while shopping: white thread #50 (recall she bought the same thing here), candy, use of weighing machine and more wash rags. [Recall that just a few episodes ago, Sade purchased 36 wash rags.]

+ Items Ruthie bought while shopping: hooks and eyes, candy, use of weighing machine and safety pins.

+ The "Ten Cent Store" (assuming Sade was referring to the "Five and Ten") has a weighing machine.

+ Vic and Rush notice and point out the flaws in Sade's financial frailties: {{{HEAR}}}

+ And again... {{{HEAR}}}

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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}}}

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39-09-22 Wildflowers

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Sade had promised members of the Thimble Club some names of wildflowes and a little information about them.

Well the week goes by and she's forgotten all about it.

She knows Vic will save the day though, since he grew up on a farm out in the country. But Vic doesn't know a wildflower from Wild Thing.

However, Rush's imagination - blended with half facts and truths, provides some stunning wildflower information for 6 separate Thimble Club members.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Sade gathers last-minute information about wildflowers for her Thimble Club meeting.

In this episode, we find out that Vic and Sade’s is a mixed marriage — he was raised on a farm; she was raised in town. Sade has certain misconceptions about what farm life entailed for Vic. She seems to think growing up on a farm must have made him a naturalist and a botanical encyclopedia. However, this knowledge would not have been of much use to young Vic as he labored in the fields. He only knows about a few common, garden-variety flowers…plus the repulsively-named “rotten splotches.” (My parents once owned an elderly, incontinent house pet who earned this as a nickname, incidentally. The language of Paul Rhymer has pretty much cemented itself into our vernacular.)

Since Vic can’t provide the information (and Sade’s increasing annoyance at his good-natured efforts is one of the comedic high points of this episode), Sade turns to that master schemer and quick thinker, Rush. He helps her come up with a few facts…and a lot of fiction. Sade has probably criticized Rush in the fast for doing fast, sloppy, last-minute schoolwork. But now, I’ll bet she sees the value in this improvisatory skill set of his, one that is practiced and honed regularly by anyone who is in school. 

I love the glimpse we get of Rush’s moral compass:

SADE: Both Mis’ Oliver and Mis’ Carmelson will call out stuff at thimble meetin’ that ain’t true!
RUSH: Nobody’ll check up on ‘em, though. You take the average American citizen, he wouldn’t bother to go to the trouble —
[…]
SADE: Certainly made a botch of this. Makin’ ladies call out trash that ain’t even true!
RUSH: I wouldn’t worry, Mom. You’ll never get caught. 

Perhaps young Rush has a future as a politician?

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Rush's made up names, Sade's passing off the fake information and Vic's lack of wildflower knowledge just make for a lot of fun.

Trivia:

+ Mis' Carmelson, Mis' Welch, Mis' Cryder and Mis' Oliver are all mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio. They are all Thimble Club members.

+ Vic names several flowers he thinks might be of the wild variety. The actual wildflowers he does name are too common for Sade and the others are not wildflowers at all. The flowers he names are: dandelions, bluebells, chrysanthemums, tulips, iris, rotten splotches, carnations, heliotrope, sweet pea, orchids and poinsetta.

+ One of the wildflowers that Rush names is actually the name of a marble (kinnikinnick, but see Mis' Crowe's note at the bottom of the transcription.)

+ Mis' Appelrot is mentioned as being the Thimble Club Chairman ("chairwoman", these days!)

Rush makes up little-known facts about 6 wildflowers (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

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