Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Thursday, May 7, 2015

BABY SNOOKS

Baby Snooks was a popular vaudeville, radio, and film character created by Fanny Brice in 1912.  he name was a take-off from the George McManus comic strip character Baby Snookums.  As Brice evolved Baby Snooks (sometimes called "Babykins"), Snooks gained a background story in a sketch  written by Philip Rapp and David Freeman for Zeigfield Follies of the Air in 1936.  By 1936 Brice (as Snooks) was appearing on the Good News Show, which led to a regular spot on Maxwell House CoffeeTime in 1940.  In 1944, Snooks was given her own show, Post Toasties Time, which soon was retiitled as The Baby Snooks Show.

The Baby Snooks Show was destined to be of the popular radio sitcoms of the 40s.  Snooks (whose last name turned out to be Higgins) now had a "Daddy" (Lancelot), a "Mommy" (Vera), and soon had a baby brother (Robespierre).  Danny Thomas was added to the cast for a while as postman Jerry Dingle.  Snooks was a mischevious little imp (whose pranks these days might be a sign of psychotic behavior but, hey, this was the 40s and people laughed at that stuff then).  The show ran on CBS until 1948.  A year and a half later, The Baby Snooks Show was resurrected by NBC where it continued until Fanny Brice's death in 1951.

From June 9, 1938, here's a short sketch featuring Baby Snooks "At the Doctor's."

http://www.dumb.com/oldtimeradio/listen/571/Comedy/Baby_Snooks/BabySnooks_380609_AtTheDoctors_C.html

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