Breaking Wynn

For your entertainment and edification, here is the February 5, 1945 episode of Happy Island starring Ed Wynn. As you'll notice, this particular episode sounds like a decidedly average mid-40s radio comedy. Ed is just plain "Bubbles" rather than "King Bubbles", there's absolutely no mention of Happy Island, and there's nothing particularly fantasy-like about the plot (Bubbles is made warden of "the State Prison"). If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that this conceptual, and no doubt budgetary, streamlining was a last-ditch effort to save the show. Good fun, nonetheless, and keep an ear out for a very young Jim Backus who plays at least three roles in this episode, including one who is a definite forerunner of Thurston Howell III.