xx-xx-xx Rush Reveals Recent Exploits of Blue Tooth Johnson

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

• Rush tells tales on Blue Tooth Johnson. 
• He took his whole Sunday School class to lunch at the Purple Room inside the Butler House Hotel Restaurant. 
• He was sitting in study hall at 2:15 and went to sleep and fell out of his chair and landed on Leland Richards' foot that stuck out in the aisle - Leland, Mildred Tisdel and Eunice Raypole hollered in fright. 
• He was called on in class by Miss Monroe to answer a question but his upper jaw was glued to his lower jaw by some homemade taffy; he was sent to Mr. Chinbunny's office where his taffy was confiscated.  - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

___________________

Blue Tooth is capable of almost any kind of mayhem.  He flies under-the-radar on the show; we tend of think of him as just a fellow that Rush tags along with to the YMCA to watch the fat men play handball.  But Blue Tooth's exploits run almost the full course of the series and though he's not a hoodlum, he certainly can find trouble of all shapes and sizes.  A look at his character at the character database wouldn't be a waste of time.

The date is unknown although the show aired prior to Rush leaving for the Navy.  The title is not known and the one given here was made up by me, purely for identification purposes.  That being said, I still had detailed notes on the episode but critical data was missing.

40-06-18 June Christmas Card Pressure

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade: Now who in name of Detroit, Michigan is trying to sell us Christmas cards?

It's the middle of June and Vic has left a Christmas card sample book in the Gook living room. It seems his boss Mr. Buller has a niece that's selling them.

Add her to the 8 other people who hound the Gooks to buy Christmas cards.  Or as Sade says: {{{HEAR}}}

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Paul Rhymer’s take on the “Christmas Creep.”

We all have friends and family who hate Christmas. Maybe you’re that person yourself. While some people find Christmas depressing, other people are annoyed by all its commercial trappings — the obligation to waste money on presents that the recipients might not actually want or need, the artificial merriment and the forced sentimentality, the push for special foods and decorations to make the holiday perfect,

and…Christmas cards. Oh, Christmas cards. Has anything else caused as much strife for the Gook family as Christmas cards? It’s only June and already Vic and Sade are arguing about Christmas cards.

Paul Rhymer’s Christmas-themed episodes are usually about this stressful side of Christmas. There is little starry-eyed sentimentalism around Christmas to be found in Vic and Sade. For the Gooks, Christmas means unnecessary expenditures and endless social obligations — the buying of presents, the arrangement of visits, and, of course, the purchasing and sending of Christmas cards. These things are not treated as kind gestures that make the doer feel happy, but as chores that must be done in order to maintain one’s place in the social hierarchy.  It’s a pragmatic take on the holiday season, but one that I think a lot of people can sympathize with.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

________________________

The Gooks are being overrun with Christmas card salesman! It seems the pressure starts mounting right around the first of June every year.

Put yourself in Sade's shoes - would you not buy from poor Mr. Gumpox? What about your neighbor Mis' Harris?

Luckily, Rush has stopped selling Christmas cards. I can imagine a destroyed episode we missed somewhere that has Sade telling Rush he must not sell Christmas cards anymore because the Gooks can't afford the extra ten spot.

Trivia:

+ Vic is going to supper with Mr. Buller at the Butler House Hotel this evening.  They are dining in "the fashionable Purple Room."

+ It's only June and Mr. Erickson (the Gook landlord) and Sade's sister Bess are already starting to put the pressure on the Gooks to buy Christmas cards. 

+ There are at least two gimmicks the Toledo-based Christmas card company uses to attract people to sell the cards: Their name in gold-lettering  and an hour's worth of free parking in downtown Toledo, Ohio,  Whoo!

+ Mr. Gumpox also sells Christmas cards. (For a complete list of those who sell cards visit this link.)

+ The family figures out they need to spend $80.00 on Christmas cards in order to patronize friends and family so that feelings won't get hurt.

Rush reads some 1940 Christmas cards: {{{HEAR}}}

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