Medium Rare

The Old Time Radio Researchers have, via archive.org, bestowed upon us a marvelous bounty; their much coveted Singles and Doubles Collection, an Astonishingly Ample Aggregation of Audio Aberrations.. a collection of radio programs for which only one or two episodes remain. While this isn't entirely accurate (a glance at J. David Goldin's indispensable radiogoldindex.com will show that there are many shows in the SADC for which more episodes exist), it's more often true than not, and who the hell am I to nitpick? SHAME ON ME! We're talking about some museum-worthy material here: a joint radio interview with Orson Welles and H. G. Wells (Orson is clearly in awe, and H. G. gives him a pitch for the yet to be released Citizen Kane!), radio broadcasts from the 1920s, etc. etc.. I've uploaded a sampling of the available programs to my box.net account for you (see sidebar), concentrating on comedies for The Gazeeka Box and comic strip-themed shows for the "limited-edition" Four Color OTR player. Box.net limits files to 10 MB for cheapskates like myself so (for now) I had to leave out such gems as The George O' Hanlon Show (!!!!!) and Bert Wheeler starring on The Fresh Up Show (!!!!!!!!!), but there are still plenty of goodies left. Of particular interest (to me) are Tim and Irene Ryan's appearances on Circus Night in Silvertown (1935), and subbing for Jack Benny on the Jell-O Program (1936). Tim Ryan's Ted Healy-isms are much more pronounced here than in his later appearances in Monogram musicals, helping him to rise above some pretty godawful material, but Irene is just as much an unlikable cross between Gracie Allen and Cass Daley as she ever was before her Beverly Hillbillies days. Also of note is the closed-circuit broadcast of the first episode of The Morey Amsterdam Show with Morey in excellent form. This series would go on to become an early television hit on CBS and DuMont, giving a young Art Carney a solid start to his TV career. His future comedy partner is represented here by a 1944 episode of The Jackie Gleason-Les Tremayne Show, much funnier than you'd except (Les Tremayne??). Less successful by far is a 1946 starring vehicle for Phil Silvers, "20th Century-Fox's Brilliant Comedian", that foreshadows not even faintly the later brilliance of Sgt. Bilko. And perhaps most fascinating of the lot is an episode of Living 1949 in which Fred Allen examines American humor ("The average radio comedian is a mouth that speaks the words of others' brains.") and the hellish grind of his own career. As for the comic-themed shows:

Smilin' Jack, 12/18/39 or 2/13/39. The only complete surviving episode of this Mutual series based on Zack Mosley's bizarro aviation strip. Features the beloved shirt-button-popping Fat Stuff, and precious little of Jack himself. An on-air audition, the announcer invites listeners to write in and tell them what they like and don't like about the show. I imagine that a key complaint from kids would have been that virtually nothing happens in the show.

Dan Dunn, Secret Operative #48. Two episodes are all that remains of this syndicated 1930s series adapted from Norman Marsh's incredibly poorly drawn Dick Tracy knockoff. Not a bad show, but unremarkable.

That's My Pop, 7/29/45, based on one of Milt Gross's many brilliant strips. It's a crime that this is the sole surviving episode. While devoid of Yiddish, it's Milt Gross through and through. Shiftless Pop makes a few bucks for himself by turning the house into a sleazy dive while his family is away on vacation. One surprising, and very Gross (literally), gag involves Pop's mother-in-law stomping a giant mosquito to death. The wonderfully wet crunch that results is hilarious. The audience audibly squirms. Beautiful stuff. Aired on CBS.

Moon Mullins, 1/31/47, CBS. Frank Willard's classic strip isn't particularly well-served by this somewhat plodding audition, a pity as the strip and its colorful cast lends itself well to radio. While the material here is weak, Sheldon Leonard is perfectly cast as the scheming lowbrow Moonshine. Another audition for this series exists, dating from 1940.

Bringing Up Father. The date on this file is dead wrong. From the sound of it, and the quarter-hour runtime, I'll bet that this brisk, charming adaptation of George McManus's strip was recorded no later than 1932. It's pretty nifty hearing Maggie and Jiggs speak with their appropriate Irish brogues. This particular episode is, I believe, based directly on a McManus Sunday page. Syndicated by King Features. I wonder if they gave any of their other strips the quarter-hour treatment.

For the flipside, a comic strip based on a radio comedy success, check out the wonderful Charlie McCarthy strips over at Allan Holtz's Stripper's Guide.

Rain or Shine Restored!

It was undoubtedly Frank Capra's involvement that led Sony to restore Rain or Shine starring Joe Cook, but the restoration is premiering at the Palace Theatre in Landing, NJ, a few miles from where Joe used to live along Lake Hoptacong. If any of you do manage to attend the September 15th screening, let me know.. and be sure to drop by the Lake Hoptacong Historical Museum while you're there. Its president, Martin Kane, informs me that they have an extensive Joe Cook collection that includes photos, home movies, and even the piano that visitors to Joe's home used to sign (autographs include Babe Ruth, Groucho and Chico, Ginger Rogers and hundreds more).

"... It's no good that way!"

I've said it before but it warrants saying again: Joe Cook was the most likable and versatile comic of the 1930s and it's a pity that his film career was so brief. Cook was tragically debilitated by young-onset Parkinson's, but not before his film career had already petered out with the release of Arizona Mahoney for Paramount in 1936 (which I still have yet to see). Cook, a creature of the stage, apparently had no particular love for film, doing little to pursue a Hollywood career. His real interests outside theater lay in live radio which similarly afforded him a degree of spontaneity that film couldn't provide. But Joe Cook on radio, as skilled with words as he was, was still half of a performer, and listening to transcriptions of Cook's appearances as host of Shell Chateau makes it very apparent that, much like Ed Wynn, he was playing to the studio audience and not the listeners. Cook, who was otherwise very meticulous in his attempts to shore up his legacy as a performer, treated film off-handedly after Rain or Shine, one of the best early talking feature comedies and a record of both his greatest Broadway success and his numerous talents, failed to generate a career in features. His generally funny Educational shorts were treated in much the same way as Clark and McCullough's RKO series; less as a means to an end than a way to publicize himself and pick up some money between theatrical gigs. Cook's entire career is a series of unfortunate "what ifs", not so much a matter of poor management, but of poor timing and missed opportunities. By all rights, he could have started much earlier. A 1925 Educational Kinograms newsreel, embedded below, shows Joe in his vaudeville prime, a masterful juggler and mimic whose personality comes across with full force despite the absence of sound. Cook clearly had the makings of a top-flight silent comedian, but did it ever cross anyone's mind? And if it had, did Joe simply refuse the offer? What if Cook had signed with a studio other than cash-strapped third-tier Columbia to make his feature debut? Would Paramount or Warners have been able to provide Cook the PR support and guidance he needed to make his Hollywood career a success? Misfortune even seems to have dogged his legacy; his estate, including hundreds of radio transcriptions and scrapbooks was scattered to the winds on Ebay in 2003-04, making a comprehensive biography extremely unlikely. Still, I'm hugely grateful for what does exist, and while I must forever remain greedy for more, Cook is still better and more thoroughly represented in film than many other major talents.

Joe Cook appears in the final item in this 1925 Educational newsreel.


Joe completely bamboozles Tom "IPTBI" Howard in this scene from Rain or Shine (1930).


Rain or Shine. A mustard stain on Tom Howard's vest reminds Joe of an important life lesson from his childhood.


The Greatest Man in America! Joe's formidable juggling skills were documented repeatedly, but this is the only footage I've seen of his balancing and wire-walking abilities. Dave Chasen, later of Chasen's Restaurant fame, plays stooge for Joe in this sequence. He's rather like a less-subtle, talking Harpo Marx.

Radio Free Joe

Lord help me.. I have Joe Cook on the brain! I've spent more time than I care to acknowledge trying to track down Joe's radio shows.. even going so far as to actually attempt spending money in the effort. I first caught notice of Joe's radio career while window shopping on Ebay a few years ago. I was startled and depressed to discover that what appeared to be the bulk of Joe's personal estate was being cast to the four winds. Letters, photos, home movies, scrapbooks, etc., all very rare windows into the life and career of this unique and extremely talented comedian being scattered.. permanently diffused, useless for research. None if it was within my price range, either. Certainly not the huge and almost certainly one-of-a-kind transcription discs of Joe's radio appearances. In desperation, I sent out emails to both buyers and sellers but to no avail. Money walks. I had little doubt that, given the scarcity of the material and Cook's extreme obscurity, that I'd go to my grave without hearing Joe's contributions to the world of OTR (sob).

Well, I was wrong. It seems today that there's no media so obscure that it won't be digitized and made available somewhere, and Joe Cook's radio work is no exception. The good folks of the Old Time Radio Researchers Group have made available, on archive.org, a set of all known extant episodes of The Shell Chateau (aka The Shell Show), including five hosted by Joe, some of his last radio work as a headliner. The Shell Chateau had been created in 1935 as a vehicle for Al Jolson, but restless Jolie was chronically hard to pin down to a schedule and his role as host and star attraction was frequently filled in by others, such as Wallace Beery. Starting on January 7th, 1937, Joe Cook took over as host and revamped the variety hour into a "Three-Ring Circus of Entertainment", featuring not only performers but sports celebrities, cartoonists and other notables of the day. Cook hosts The Shell Show with his customary affable cheeriness, but the show, with all and sundry reading awkwardly from scripts (especially the non-performers), sounds downright atavistic in comparison with the earlier, vibrant Jolson episodes. But it's downright hard not to like a series that has the devil-may-care audacity to feature opera stars, animal trainers, ballerinas, and Betty Boop all on the same bill of fare. Nonetheless, Cook makes a far less interesting master of ceremonies than he does a featured comedian. Much of Cook's time is spent trying to salvage interviews with mike-shy guests with puns and gags, and this general overexposure tends to take the luster off those occasions when he grabs the spotlight for one of his trademark monologues or novelty numbers.

Incidentally, Toto the Clown (Armando Novello), one of the guests on the 1/23/37 show, is the same Toto who, back in 1918, ditched his series of shorts with Hal Roach, thus making room at the Roach studio for Stan Laurel. On the show, Toto makes his entrance in a tiny clown car while Cook describes the action for the listening audience ("Here he comes now in his famous automobile! The smallest automobile you've ever seen! It's only two feet high! You could almost park it in your vest pocket!"). Toto, who is announced as speaking in public for the first time, is a true eccentric with a thick accent who throws Cooks repeatedly by diverging from the script. It just doesn't get much stranger than this, folks.

Shell Chateau 37-01-16 Guests - Sonja Henie, Larry Adler, Betty Boop (Mae Questel)
Shell Chateau 37-01-23 Guests - The Happiness Boys, Rube Goldberg, Toto the Clown
Shall Chateau 37-02-06 Guests - George O'Brien, Enzio Pinza, Mitzi Green
Shell Chateau 37-02-13 Guests - Effrem Zimbalist, Jean Hersholt
Shell Chateau 37-05-29 Guests - Walter Hampton, Connie Mack, Bert Lynn ("inventor of the electric guitar")

What's the name of his other leg?

Don't never say I didn't never do nothing for you. Thanks to the futuristic miracle of the digital interwebnet, I'm proud to bring you Penny Wise, one of Joe Cook's shorts for Educational Pictures and one of the precious few films this very talented comedian ever made. This is, IMO, one of the best of Cook's Educationals. Penny Wise (1935) features Joe once again as Mr. Widget, this time employed as a department store salesmen. The carefree Widget is perceived by his frustrated coworkers as inept at his work, but why they should think so is unclear as it's plainly obvious that Widget is, in actuality, barking mad. Like all good comics, Widget is on an entirely different plain of consciousness from the dunderheads who surround him and, as far as he's concerned, being a salesman means promoting the store's competitors, insulting old ladies, and whacking golf balls off customers' heads. Meanwhile, the store's president is mighty fed up with his general manager, whom he blames for loss of revenue and who is, incidentally, engaged to his daughter. In order to prove that the store "runs itself", and thereby prove that the general manager is deserving of neither a job nor his daughter's hand in marriage, the president in his Solomon-like wisdom decides to place the most "incompetent" salesman in charge while he takes a little vacation. If his business is in utter ruins by the time he gets back, he'll double the general manager's salary and consent to the marriage. Naturally, as madness=incompetency in the weird world of this film, Widget is placed in charge of the store with madcap consequences. Besides blowing up like a balloon after drinking yeast and burping all over people, Cook gets to demonstrate his impressive juggling and balancing skills. During the climactic chase, he even orders the projectionist to rewind the film so that he can have a second chance not to be caught (and beaten to death) by the marauding store president! DON'T YOU EVER MISS IT!!

Download the movie here courtesy of RapidShare. It's a lightweight 35.4 MB file with a fairly small picture (240 x 180) so those with slower computers and/or connections won't be left out of the fun. Oh, and it's free.

Too Many Cooks

click on thumbnails for full-sized images

I found these publicity stills for Joe Cook's series at Educational on eBay a couple of weeks ago and feel compelled to share. An expert juggler, acrobat, sharpshooter, dancer, magician, and musician, it was once said that Cook's understudy was the Barnum and Bailey Circus. And unlike a lot of once-famous depression-era comics, Joe Cook is every bit as capable of winning over an audience today as he was in 1931. Cook's special charm shines through even in silents, as evidenced by this 1925 newsreel appearance in which Cook displays his juggling skills and even a bit of mime. Of all the Broadway comedians who spent time at Educational, Joe Cook appears to have been most successful at bringing his brand of humor to the screen. The two shorts I've thus far seen are hysterically funny and again beg the question of why Joe Cook's film career never took wing. By all rights, as one of the 30s most endearing and versatile "nut" comics, Joe Cook should have been a major film comedy star, and yet he spent his film career producing sporadic shorts and features for the minor leagues. It's more of a legacy than has been left by many another stage talent, but it hardly seems fitting for the comic once described by one Broadway critic as "the greatest man in America".

Geoff Collins Revisits The Producers - and Says "What If?"

Further to my earlier ramblings on the subject, I feel the movie version of The Producers is such an excellent Broadway-to-Hollywood transfer that it would have been entirely at home in that early-talkie period when Hollywood was raiding the New York stage for something - anything - to turn into a movie musical. So here's a "What If". Please feel free to contribute to this.

Of course, in the late twenties, the hoped-for flop would have to be Springtime For Hindenburg.

What if The Producers had been a Broadway show in 1928, and a movie in 1930? Who would play Max and Leo? And to get you started, here are a few combinations to consider.

RKO Radio's version; Max : Robert Woolsey. Leo: Bert Wheeler. Now there's a controversial choice - but think about it; a good combination of brashness and innocence. It wouldn't be wonderful, but it would be funny and efficient.

Hal Roach's version; Max: Oliver Hardy. Leo: Stan Laurel. Now that would be sublime, but the movie would be five hours long. Forget it. How about...

Educational's version; Max: Joe Cook. Leo: Harry Langdon. Oh, for a time machine! Here's an even better one - and God knows which studio would put this out...

Max: Bobby Clark!! Leo: Eddie Cantor!!! Of course, to accomodate Paul McCullough there would have to be three Producers : Bialystock, Bloom and Blodgett.

Paramount's version; Max: W.C. Fields. Leo: Jack Haley. And it would have to be directed by Eddie Cline to become a cherished loopy classic.

Warner Bros.' version; Max : Ned Sparks (God help us!!!) ; Leo: Joe E. Brown, borrowing Bert Lahr's mannerisms (as usual).

Another, later RKO version; Max: Leon Errol. Leo: Fred Astaire. And (it goes without saying) Ginger Rogers as Ulla - recycling her Lyda Roberti accent from Roberta. Oh, and while we're still at RKO, how about the supporting cast? My personal choices: Edward Everett Horton as Roger DeBris; and Eric Blore as Carmen Ghia. (Paramount would use Franklin Pangborn).

And finally, the MGM version ("More Stars Than There Are In Heaven") [pause for an intake of breath]; Max: Ted Healy. Leo: Buster Keaton.

(Look, I know Speak Easily is very enjoyable, readers, but I just didn't have the heart to cast Jimmy Durante as Max; I just couldn't do it.)

Supporting cast: Greta Garbo as Ulla. El Brendel as her brother. Whaaattt?

Okay, that's enough. The van's arrived. The men in white coats are here. Take me awaaayyy....

Readers: over to you. Improve on this!

"The best of the old comedy favorites, the brightest of the new stars"

Founded in 1915 by Earle W. Hammons for the production and distribution of classroom films, Educational Pictures quickly, and lucratively, shifted gears and began producing comedy shorts. Educational hit its peak sometime in the mid-20s, releasing Jack White's acclaimed Lloyd Hamilton shorts and distributing Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat cartoons. But in 1933, following a financially disastrous partnership with Mack Sennett to produce features (as Sono Art-World Wide Pictures), Educational was forced to sell off its exchanges and reopen at Paramount's old Astoria, Long Island facility (where The Cocoanuts and Follow The Leader were shot). Now releasing through 20th Century Fox, Educational had become a strange twilight zone of down-on-their-luck silent era names like Buster Keaton and moonlighting Broadway celebrities like Bert Lahr and Joe Cook, taking advantage of the studio's convenient proximity. Not only silent era performers but producers and directors found Educational a friendly port during the industry's turbulent transition to sound. The studio's product was wildly uneven during its final decade with even the best shorts looking extremely threadbare. As cheap as the shorts may have been, and as poor as the writing frequently was, the talent on display was undeniably impressive.

I found this 1936 trade ad for Educational on Ebay last month and it nicely illustrates the bizarre blend of "old comedy favorites" and "new stars" that populated the studio's product at the time. Buster Keaton, at a low point in his life but still capable of wonderful work, and the brilliant Joe Cook are clearly the studio's prize performers (Joe Cook had no better film vehicles than his shorts), but the lower ranks are pretty fascinating, too. Bert Lahr, the most famous of the second-stringers depicted, should have been a major film personality (IMO) but his film career never clicked and today he's remembered primarily for his performance as the Cowardly Lion. Tom Howard, Joe Cook's stooge from Rain Or Shine (1930), had his own series, appearing with his own stooge George Shelton. Both went on to star through the 1940s in the radio quiz parody It Pays To Be Ignorant. Until I saw this ad, I had no idea that professional milquetoast Ernest Truex had ever been the featured performer in anything, let alone his own series of shorts. He found work in film and on TV through 1965 as the meek next-door neighbor or the ineffectual boss. Truex's wife, Mary Jane Barrett (bottom right), appeared with him frequently on Broadway and, it seems, at Educational, although she doesn't have an IMDB listing. The rest of the comics are the aforementioned "new stars" and of them, only Tim and Irene Ryan, the poor man's Burns and Allen, went on to have any kind of substantial screen career. Gruff Tim and madcap Irene became a standard feature of poverty row musical comedies through 1944. I've never seen any of their work for Educational but The Wacky Family (1936) must be one of the weakest film titles of all time. Tim, a prolific B-comedy screenwriter, died in 1956. Irene Ryan, who divorced Tim in 1942, went on to lasting fame as Granny Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. Incidentally, Tim and Irene are featured on the original 1934 sheet music for Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town. I'm assuming they introduced the song on radio. Does anyone out there know? The team of Patricola and West had a brief series of for Educational between 1935 and 1938, reportedly interchangeable with that of Educational's other musical comedy duo, Timberg and Rooney (curiously not depicted). It seems that Earl Oxford appeared in exactly one short for the studio and I can't find even that many for the amiable looking Fred Lightner (any relation to Winnie? There's a definite resemblance). Singer Niela Goodelle headlined her own series (and appeared at least once with Earl Oxford on Broadway), but I'm unsure about Nell Kelly, another Broadway singer.

This eclectic lineup represents Educational's last gasp. E. W. Hammons, eager to re-enter the features market ever since his 1931-33 partnership with Sennett, gambled it all and lost. In 1938, he merged Educational with Grand National Pictures just as it was sinking into bankruptcy, apparently in a bid to save it. But Grand National's situation was terminal and, when it finally folded in 1939, it took what remained of Educational with it (Fox took over distribution of the Terrytoons). Just a few years later, adding insult to injury, a vault fire at Fox's Deluxe labs destroyed a tremendous number Educational's negatives, all but wiping out the studio's (presumably superior) silent output and erasing most of the film careers of Lloyd Hamilton and Lupino Lane, a staggering blow to the record of the silent era.