40-11-11 Uncle Fletcher Arrives In Town

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic and Rush are walking down the alley towards home. As they near the house, they see Sade on the porch with lots of items – an indication that Uncle Fletcher has arrived back in town.  His stuff is there, but no one knows where he is (none of the neighbors saw him arrive).

They enjoy looking at the odd items he's dropped off, including a square football made by Jackson Sisters Manufacturing Co. of Topeka, Kansas.

Sade feels responsible for her unique uncle and worries and wonders about his every move when he's not around.

They wonder why there are three full warm cups of coffee among the items...  They also wonder why the items were left at the Gook house and not at the rooming house over on Kelsey Street (a very short distance away) where Fletcher will be living. 

Vic spots the garbage wagon delivering Uncle Fletcher. In spite of the apprehension, everyone's pleased to see him arrive.

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND THE SYNOPSIS

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As stated previously, Uncle Fletcher comes and goes during his first year on the show. I suspect because Art Van Harvey was ill and then would get better - causing the necessity for Clarence Hartzell at times and then no need for him at all at other times. This also sets his character up to be 'flighty' in nature.

I don't understand why there are three cups of coffee.  This seems to be a major punchline of the episode but I am totally missing the point.  The only (totally Rhymeresque) explanation seems to be: coffee for Fletcher, a cup for Mr. Gumpox (who drove Fletcher to the Virginia Avenue house) and coffee for Howard, Gumpox's horse.  Many times, Rhymer set up a joke and never gave the punchline, leaving us to come up with our own explanation.

Trivia:

+ This script synopsis/part of the script uses the word potatoe that Vic and Sade enthusiast/FOVS member Louie Johnson pointed out was commonly misspelled in the Barbara Schwarz material; but he isn't sure if the mistake is Paul Rhymer's or Schwarz's (or Schwarz's "helper", if there was one).  The Xerox of scripts show dozens/hundreds of misspellings.  So we do know Mr. Rhymer was not a genius in that department...

+ The following may not be classic or funny, but it sounds just like Rush:

Rush: Russell Duncan can turn a flip-flop.  Turns a flip-flop on the slightest pretext.  I wouldn't be surprised but what it's easy to turn flip-flops if a guy could get up his nerve and try it once.  That's the big trouble.  An individual is scared to attempt their first flip-flop.  Why, take my case.  I've stood in our backyard hours at a time tryin' to force myself to try it.  But, by George, I'm always haunted by the fear that I'll fracture my neck.  Once a guy breaks the ice though, he's all set. Easy as rollin' off a log.  Russell Duncan'll stroll up to ya on the public street an' turn three or four flip-flops an'...

41-09-09 Vic Gets Gift "Rap" Again

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

The gang at work has elected Vic to buy a gift for Mr. Ruebush at Christmas. While he and Sade discuss possible gifts to buy, Rush is busy in the background, almost constanly using the telphone to collect debts that will allow him to buy Defense Savings Stamps.

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This is sort of an unusual episode.

For one thing, Rush is there the whole episode but the action seems to be taking place around him.

For another thing, this seems to be some sort of propaganda episode for Defense Savings Stamps.

Even though this episode took place about three months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor (and thus the Declaration of War against the Japanese), the United States began selling Defense Savings Stamps in May of 1941 to help support the production of military equipment, most of it for the British Allies and the Lend-Lease deal.

Some stamps could be had for as little as a dime.

The photograph on the left shows that less a week after this episode aired it was, "Defense Week."

It was common for radio shows to be used for government propaganda purposes - although as a rule, it seems that Paul Rhymer and his Vic and and Sade program were not usually a part of such campaigns.

Trivia:

From 41-08-26 Uncle Fletcher the Protector

+ Sade mentions that Vic had went on a trip with Mr. Ruebush. This seems to imply that perhaps the recent Art Van Harvey vacation could have been (and probably was) explained away using that excuse.

+ Mr. Ruebush likes candy.

+ The Thimble Club (with Sade as one of the committee members) bought Defense Savings Stamps.

+ Cracky Otto is described as wearing a skull cap (a beanie, most probably) and tennis shoes.

+ Sade suggests (jokingly) that she and Vic should sit in the basement in the evenings in order to elude phone calls for Rush.

+ Here's a list of the gifts Sade suggests that Vic buy for Mr. Ruebush for Christmas:

• easy slippers 
• pipes 
• cigars
• valice (luggage) 
• handkerchiefs 
• candy 
• chair 
• footstool 
• umbrella holder 
• picture 

+ Rush calls several friends in this episode and that provides us with a list of telephone numbers that we haven't known before this episode:

• Smelly Clark (#2457-J) 
• Vernon Peggles (#2596-W) 
• Arnold Shipley (#7329-L)
• LeRoy Snow (#6509-R) 
• Heinie Call (#5542-L)

I love it when Vic gets frustrated when the telephone rings. His expression can't be beaten!: {{{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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40-12-17 A Bijou Lifetime Pass

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Rush has the opportunity to buy a lifetime pass to the Bijou theater. But will Sade allow him to spend money from his savings account to buy it?

MIS' CROWE SAYS:

Rush has a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity.

What I like about this one is how Rush seems to have absolutely no ambition to move out of his small town or change his lifestyle at all, as he calculates that he will continue to go to the Bijou twice a week for the rest of his adult life. These days, everyone who grows up in a small town generates grand plans for fleeing it at about Rush’s age, so it’s refreshing to encounter someone who means to stay put. Rush also has no way of predicting the rise of television in the next fifty years and the movie theater’s slow slide into obsolescence. Of course, if the Bijou manages to stay in business, the concurrent inflation in the price of movie tickets will make his lifetime pass even more profitable.

The thing is, the uncertainty of the future aside, Rush’s pitch is pretty good! The pass will pay for itself in two years. Surely his theater-going habits won’t change that much in the next two years. Rush could agree to put twenty-five cents in a jar to go back into his bank account every time he goes to the movies and by the end of the two years, he’d have an extra two bucks to go into his college fund. His pitch would have worked on me, is all I’m saying.

Then again, it does sound a little too good to be true. Perhaps Sade suspects Leland Richards of being a snake oil salesman? 

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Intermingled with Rush pleading his case so that he can buy the pass, is talk of baboons - yes, baboons.

Sade isn't very educated but she is by no means dumb. Whenever Vic or Rush are up to something, her instinct tells her something is up. As time goes on through the series, Rush seems to become more and more like Vic. When Sade inquires about whatever they are up to, they both act nearly the same.

Trivia:
+ A D. Hoggell is the custodian of the Zoo.

+ Rush mentions he has a new 3rd Lieutenant Stanley book he got from Russell Duncan but he doesn't give the title, nor does he read from it.

+ Leland Richards' Uncle Hartley gave him the lifetime Bijou pass, as he is an electrician and was doing work for the theater and part of the payment was the pass. This was the first mention of Uncle Hartley.

+ Rush and Sade argue a bit about the $50. Listen carefully and you will hear Sade say, "You have as much chance drawing a big chunk of money out of that bank as you have of sending your underwear to Detroit, Michigan parcel post."

{{{HEAR}}}

Sade's first reaction to Rush spending $50: {{{HEAR}}}

Hear the Vic and Sadecast about this episode


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40-10-27 Hot Soup

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade tells Mis' Brighton about Vic, who has a very mild case of the sniffles. As the day goes on, Mis' Brighton has told others and others have told others and before the Gooks realize it, the neighbors have inundated the Gooks with three telephone calls and three bowls of hot soup for Vic, who is feeling fine.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Vic is coming down with a cold, or that’s the news that has spread around town, anyway.

I’ve written previously about the theory of “Vic and Sade” as the original “show about nothing,” and I think this episode is particularly Seinfeld-esque. Humor in both “Vic and Sade” and “Seinfeld” is based largely on the quirks of human behavior. “Seinfeld” takes place in urban New York, a setting known for behavior that some people might think of as rude, so a lot of “Seinfeld” plots revolve around the characters’ terrible behavior or their obsessions with some perceived slight. “Vic and Sade,” by contrast, takes place in a small town in the Midwest, a place known for what some might consider to be excessive politeness that borders on passive aggression, so a lot of “Vic and Sade” plots revolve around this other side of human interaction. Whereas Seinfeld’s New York City might be characterized by a lack of human connection, leading to selfish and callous behavior, Vic and Sade’s small town is characterized by too much connection and too little privacy. In short, the two shows have similar philosophies of humor, but different settings: in one environment, we get “no soup for you,” and in the other we get a rain of unwanted soup, but both cause the main characters considerable distress.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Trivia:

+ Myrtle Guller had not been mentioned before this episode. Her husband can't read or write.

Click image to ensue pseudo-hilarity

+ Mis' Beamon was mentioned for the first time. She lives on West Elm Street. She informed Ruthie Stembottom that Vic was ill.

+ Mis' Hettles called the Gooks to ask about Vic's health.

+ Mis' Oglethorpe was mentioned for the first time. She informed Mis' Trogle that Vic was ill.

+ Russell Duncan was mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio. He is a friend of Rush and Rush was anticipating a phone call from him.

Vic jokes about being ill: {{{HEAR}}}

Hear the Vic and Sadecast about this episode

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