OLD-TIME RADIO: JACK OAKIE COLLEGE (MARCH 9, 1937)

Lewis Delaney Offield (1903-1978), better known as Jack Oakie, was a versatile comedian who worked in films, stage, television, and radio.  He received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940).   In the early 1920s he began working as a mimic and comedian in amateur theater, making his professional debut as chorus boy in George M. Cohan's Little Nellie Kelly in 1923.  He continued working on Broadway until 1927, when he moved to Hollywood at the end of the silent era, making five silent films over the next two years.  He made his first talking motion picture, under a contract with Paramount Pictures, in 1929.  When his contract with Paramount expired, Oakie went the freelance route, making some 87 films in the 1930s and 1940s.  Because he played in so many college-themed films, he became known as the "World's Oldest Freshman."   The plump-faced comedian was also known as "America's Joyboy," and became one of the top and second banana comedians of his day.  He was noted for his refusal to wear stage makeup and for his many practiced double- and triple-takes.  Oakie was notoriously hard of hearing -- he was functionally deaf -- and was able to perform through most of his career through lip reading and using "vibrations."

Since he was no longer tied to a studio by contract, he was able to also transition to radio with a musical comedy series, Jack Oakie's College, on CBS Radio from 1936 to 1938.  The program -- also known as Oakie's College and the Jack Oakie Caravan -- was a pleasant  mix of sketch comedy, music, and celebrity guest stars, all framed as a "collegiate-style mock show."  In 1937, a 14-yer-old Judy Garland made weekly guest appearances.

Oakie's family had moved to Muskegee, Oklahoma, when he was three, this the "Oakie" in his adopted name.  (One source falsely claimed that Oakie was his mother's maiden name; it wasn't -- her maiden name was Jump.)  The name Jack reportedly came from the first role he played as an actor.

Oakie's hearing disability limited his career in the 1950s and 1960s, but he was still able to  make guest appearances on television and appeared in six films.  In 1940, Oakie bought "Marwyck," the former estate of actress Barbara Stanwyck; renamed "Oakridge," Oakie and his second wife have lived there since their marriage in 1950 until his death 28 years later; he spent much of his time there raising Afghan Hounds -- at one time he had over 100 of them on the property.  The house and grounds are now a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.  

The "Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film" as been an annual event sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1981.  The School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California established the "Jack Oakie Endowed Chair in Comedy" in 2003.  Okie has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and his hand and footprints  can be found at Grauman's Chinese Theater.   The USC School of Cinematic Arts maintains the Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Charitable Foundation, which provides scholarships.

Here's a 1937 episode of Jack Oakie College, with Judy Garland, George Jessel, radio comic Joe Penner, Al Shaw and Sam Lee, the orchestras of Benny Goodman and George Stoll, and Alexander's Swingtime Chorus.  The conceit of the program has Oakie as the president of Oakie College, with the program taking place in the college's fictional "Ephus Hall."  Judy Garland sings "Love Is in the Air" and (in honor of Sophie Tucker) "Some of These Days".

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/38a43327-1a1b-400b-8e24-912f6a187d06

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: WAXWORKS

 "Waxworks" by Ethel Lina White  (first published in Pearson's Magazine, December 1930; reprinted in Australian Woman's Weekly, May 25, 1935; included in Crime at Christmas, edited by Jack Adrian, 1988; in Silent Nights, edited by Martin Edwards, 2015; in Murder at Christmas, edited by Cecily Gayford, 2019; and included in the White collection Blackout and Other Tales of Suspense, 2025; White expanded the story in 1935 for the novel Wax)

Waxworks -- a popular (I guess) touristy haven for the curious and/or the bored -- have been a staple of the crime and horror genre for decades, usually with those creaky museums that feature a house of horrors -- replicas of famous murderers and unspeakable crimes.  The first major film about wax museums was the German silent Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurekabinett) in 1924, with Emil Jannings (available on Amazon Prime via subscription).  Nine years later, Lionel Atwell starred in Mystery of the Wax Museum, which, along with its remake, 1955's House of Wax, with Vincent Price, are perhaps the two wax museum horror flicks most readers of the blog are familiar with.  (The Mystery of the Wax Museum is currently available on Tubi; House of Wax is available on HBO Max and Hulu, both with subscriptions.)  Then came a floodgate of cheap, sensational films -- Tourist Trap (1979), Waxwork (1978), and House of Wax (2005), most of which relied heavily on supposed humor, gore, and a flash of cleavage.  I won't bother going into the  numerous television crime and suspense shows that used the Wax Museum meme.  For those who are interested, here's a link to a Top Ten Guide to the best and worst of Wax Museum movies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udfjbxN8vf0&t=47s

Ethel Lina White (1876-1944) was a Welsh crime writer whose popularity in the 1930s equaled Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, although her star faded in later years.  Today she may be best known for her novel The Wheel Spins (1936) which was made into the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Lady Vanishes (1938), and saw one theatrical remake in 1979 and a television remake in 2013; it was also adapted as a stage play and as a BBC Radio program (or is it programme?); it was also serialized in 6 weekly fifteen-minute parts in 2008, read by Brenda Blethyn.  After publishing three mainstream novels, White turn to crime fiction with her fourth book, Put Out the Light (1931; also published as Sinister Light).  Her next novel, Fear Stalks the Village (1932) helped cement her reputation, and her third crime novel was the best-selling Some Must Watch (1933; filmed in 1946 as The Spiral Staircase, featuring Ethel Barrymore in an Academy Award nominated role.  The novel was adapted for radio (with Helen Hayes) before the film appeared; and was adapted for radio once again, with Dorothy McGuire reprising her film role; it was televised in 1961 with Elizabeth Montgomery and Lillian Gish, and then in 1975 with Jacqueline Bissett, and finally in 2000 with Nicolette Sheridan.  Among White's other thirteen crime novels were Wax (1935, expanded from the story below), and Midnight House (1942, also published as Her Heart in Her Throat, and filmed in 1945 as The Unseen, with Joel McCrea and Gail Russell -- Raymond Chandler was one of the script writers).

So, "Waxworks."

Sonia Thompson (her last name was not given in the short story; I lifted it from the novel) is a young, talented, and ambitious reporter for the Oldhampton Gazette.  The Waxworks Collection of Oldhampton has recently received an evil reputation:  a stranger in town had chosen the place to commit suicide by cutting his throat; then, two people had died on the premises due to "heart failure."  The first, "had been addicted to alcoholism, and was in very bad shape; the second, a friend of the first, was "a martyr to asthma, and slightly unhinged through unwise absorption in spiritualism." Sonia pitched a story to her editor -- she would spent the night in the Waxworks and record her experience.  The editor approved the story.  At first Sonia planned her excursion for shortly after Christmas, then decided to spend the night on Christmas Eve.  (In England, Christmas Eve is a time often for telling of ghost stories.)

Young Wells, the Sporting Editor at the paper, had taken a shine to Sonia, and she to him.  He volunteered to wait outside the Wax Museum the entire evening...just in case.  He gave her a torch (which unfortunately had a weak battery) for her to signal him if she felt herself in trouble.  He had also asked her to spend Christmas Day with him, something that thrilled her.  So, Sonia snuck into the  museum and hid when the establishment closed and all the other visitors were escorted out by the porter, who then locked the building.  Sonia had stashed some supplies under the clothing of one of the wax models.  She had her notebook and the torch.  She was ready.

It happened that Sonia had made an enemy of one of the reporters at the Gazette -- a venal and petty man named Poke, who had been the rising star of the newspaper until Sonia appeared.  Ho venal was he?  He threw his puppy out of the house to die in the street rather than to pay for a license (licence, since this is England).  Wells had then rescued the puppy from a certain death and now has a loyal four-legged companion.  So we know that Wells is good romantic choice for Sonia.)  Poke has been callous and threatening to Sonia since she began submitting all the good stories.  Wells had warned Sonia to watch out for Poke, who -- unknown to anyone -- had first thought of spending a night in the Waxworks  but was too cowardly to do it.  Lately, Poke "had been subject to sudden red rages, when he had felt a thick hot taste in his throat, as though of blood.  He knew that his jealousy of Sonia was accountable.  It had almost reached the stage of mania, and trembled on the brink of homicidal urge."

The Waxworks was dark and dusty, and, knowing the torch battery was weak, Sonia was hesitant to turn it on.  The vague forms did not seem threatening at first, and Sonia jokingly talked to them, chiding some on their appearance.  As the evening wore on, so did Sonia.  She began to get tired but was determined to stay awake to record her thoughts.  Then she thought she saw something move in the darkness.  She counted the statues.  Was there one extra?  She couldn't be sure.  While seated against a wall, she thought she felt something touch her arm.  Was it just her imagination?  She pushed those thoughts aside and tried to think of the next day, of spending Christmas with Wells and his new puppy.  And yet, the dark thought kept coming.  She counted the waxworks again.  Twenty-two, twenty-three...  "Twenty-three?  If her tally was corrected, there was an extra waxwork in the Gallery."

Then lightning struck outside, a blinding flash of light, which revealed a figure she had previously overlooked.  "It was seated in a chair, its hand supporting its peaked chin, and its pallid, clean-shaven features nearly hidden by a familiar broad-brimmed felt hat, which -- together with the black cape -- gave her the clue to its identity.

"It was Hubert Poke."...

An effective, atmospheric tale, well worthy of its Wax Museum melieu.

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE UNEXPECTED MRS. POLLIFAX (1999)

 Emily Pollifax, widow and senior citizen, decides to leave her comfortable and predictable life and joins the CIA.  Through a misunderstanding, a simple courier assignment leads to an adventurous career in espionage and spycraft.  Her adventures are detailed in a series of fourteen novels from 1966 through 2000 by MWA Grandmaster Dorothy Gilman (1923-2012).  Gilman also wrote twelve young adult and one children's book under her then-married name Dorothy Gilman Butters before embarking on Mrs. Pollifax's adventures; she also published ten standalone novels -- including the well-regarded Clairvoyant Countess, A Nun on the Closet and The Tightrope Walker -- from 1967 to 2002.

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, the first book in the series, was filmed twice.  First in 1970 as Mrs. Pollifax - Spy, starring Rosalind Russell in the title role (her last theatrically released film; Russell also wrote the script), and featuring Darrin McGavin, Nehemiah Persoff, and Harold Gould, and directed  by Leslie H. Martinson, who also helmed PT 109, Batman (1966), and Rescue from Gilligan's Island.

The second film, a CBS television movie, linked below, starred Angela Lansbury in a role somewhat reminiscent of Jessica Fletcher.  Also in the cast were Thomas Ian Griffith and Ed /Bishop.  Look closely and you may spot John Light, who plays Hercule Flambeau in television's Father Brown.  Directed by Anthony Pullen Shaw, who helmed 44 episodes of Murder She Wrote, as well as four follow-up films to that series; Shaw also directed Lansbury in 1992's Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris.  The film was scripted by Robert T. Megginson (F/X, Code Name:  Wolverine).

Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Pollifax is advised by her doctor to expand her interests.  Mrs. Pollifax has always dreamed of being a spy, so she contacts the CIA.  Through a mix-up, the agency believes her to be an experienced spy and sends her on a mission to Morocco.  There she teams up with fellow agent Jack Farrow (Griffith), but the two are kidnapped by a terrorist group.  The poor terrorists don't know what they are in for -- because Mrs. Pollifax may be elderly, but she is also brave...and smart.

A fun way to spend an hour and a half.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4EPG9eNsfM&list=PLwF4_8gI8X-z1ICGAxgJSMe2_Nj9ra-8h&index=9

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARY TRAVERS!

I am a child of the Sixties.  Little wonder that my idols are those show compassion, kindness, empathy, and common sense.  Mary Travers (1936-2009) has been one of those idols.

Before there Peter, Paul and Mary there was The Song Swappers, a group of (mainly) high school friends who sang backup for Pete Seeger on several Folkways records.  By the time they recorded this song in 1955, Mary Travers was in her late teens and working as a dental technician, regarding her singing as merely a hobby.  Little did she know.

"Solidarity Forever" - Pete Seeger with the Almanac Singers and The Song Swappers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUwcL5H2Im0

Travers then made it ever so briefly (it closed after thirteen performances) to Broadway in the musical The Next President in 1958.

Then, in 1961, she joined Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey to form Peter, Paul and Mary to instant success.  The group became a leading voice in the folk and pop music fields and acted as a conscience for a generation.   The trio dissolved in 1970, reforming in 1978 until Mary Traver's death.  Travers also released five solo albums.  Here's a small sample of the woman with the strong voice -- and the conscience -- of an angel.

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" - with The Kingston Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhNKnoLMKYo

"I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMYtuXphJiY

I Shall Be Released" - with Mama Cass Elliott and Joni Mitchell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEZFt5ZZj9s

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6x3mRbZo3k

"There Is a Ship"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTEdhMwXiM4

"Early Morning Rain"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OCnHNk2Hac

"Follow Me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXBvN50XH58

"Lonesome Valley" - with Joan Baez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt64OQETmO0

"Finlandia (A Song of Peace)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTBiRiHnRmM

"The Conscientious Objector"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iiRU0vt1xE

"Blowing in the Wind"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld6fAO4idaI

"Home Is Where the Heart Is" - with Holly Near

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLBk__ptOzE

"The Times They Are Changing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSOoJiKbpWs&list=PLFaKjSxM-zLgrOSq-wUQASkaLukDyV5i0&index=19

"House of the Rising Sun" - with BB King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5LCW74lNp4&list=PLFaKjSxM-zLgrOSq-wUQASkaLukDyV5i0&index=15

"For Baby (For Bobbie)" -- the  most powerful version of this song EVER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7NE1CpeA4&list=RDIW7NE1CpeA4&start_radio=1

HYMN TIME

 Aretha Franklin & Mavis Staples -- what a combination!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdCWR-XpGxI

GREEN HORNET COMICS #7 (JUNE 1942)

If you are a certain age, you cannot listen to Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee without thinking of the Green Hornet.

The Green Hornet debuted on January 31, 1936 on Detroit radio station WXYZ -- the same station that had debuted The Lone Ranger.  It was created  by writer Fran Striker and station co-owner George Trendle; Striker had previously created The Lone Ranger while working for Trendle; Striker would go on to create Challenge of the Yukon, aka Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, for WXYZ in 1939.  The Green Hornet was the crime-fighting alter ego of Britt Reid, a young crusading newspaper publisher.  The conceit of the series was that Britt Reid was the son of Dan Reid, Jr., the nephew of the Lone Ranger.  Reid is aided in his battles against crime and corruption by his valet, Kato.

The Green Hornet very popular and soon moved to, first, the Mutual Broadcasting Network, then to NBC Blue, the Blue Network, and ABC Radio, ending its run in 1950, then returning briefly for a near-three-month run in 1952.  It spawned two movie serials, a short French film, and a 2011 film.  A reboot has apparently been in development hell since 2016.  Van Williams and Bruce Lee starred in The Green Hornet television series in 1966-67.   A proposed animated, updated series has been in development since 2020.  The character also appeared in three Big Little Books (1940-1942) and in two television tie-in novels (1966); in addition, the character has appeared in at least three Green Hornet anthologies from Moonstone Press since 2009.

Two early proposed comic strips were rejected by Trendel, who finally approved a comic book line from Helnit Comics.  Green Hornet Comics ran for six issues beginning in December 1940.  The Helnit comics adapted storylines from the radio shows.  The comic book was taken over by Harvey Comics with issue #7.  Harvey's Green Hornet Comics were anthologies, and included stories about other characters, rather than focusing strictly on the Green Hornet as the Helnit comics had.  The Harvey series lasted until 1949 with issue #47.  The Green Hornet also made guest appearances kin several of Harvey's other comic books.  Dell Comics published a one-shot issue about the character (Four Color #496) in 1953, and Gold Key put out three issues tied to the television series in 1957.  NOW Comics began a line of Green Hornet comics in 1989. and Dynamite Entertainment acquired the comic book license to the character in 2009; several of their comics featured the son of Britt Reid as the new Green Hornet, aided by Mulan Kato, the daughter of the original Kato -- who would become the Green hornet herself after Britt Reid, Jr. disappeared.

There has also been a Green Hornet video game and numerous merchandising toys and collectables.

The influence of the Green Hornet on popular culture has remained with us for ninety years now.

Back to Harvey Comics:

Issue #7 featured to original Green Hornet stories, plus a three-page text story about the character.  "The Case of the Murdering Clown" pits the Hornet against the villainous Clown, who manages to escape the electric chair and vows his revenge.  "Case of the Museum Mummy" has the discoverer of the mummy dying at the opening of the Tutenkiem exhibit.  The text story details how the Green Hornet first defeated the murderous Clown.

Also included in this issue are adventures of the Spirit of '76 (Gary Blakely, the great grandson of George Washington's aide-de-camp, dons his ancestor's uniform to battle Nazis), Robin Hood (Dr. Fairbanks fights crime by dressing up as Robin Hood and assembling his own band of Merry Men; here he goes after a protection racket against truck drivers), the Mighty Midgets (Foxy, Goofy, Nosey, Smarty, Skinny, Fatty, and Sour-Puss join the Army with Sergeant Goliath and meet two Axis spies), the Zebra (John Doyle, sentence to death for a crime he did not commit, escapes from prison and uses his prison uniform to become the Zebra, as he attempts to solve the crime he was accused of and to rescue his from a powerful political boss), and The Blonde Bomber (Honey Blake, ace news cameramanwoman in her first -- of 21 -- public domain appearance, tries to save a friend from killing herself; the character was created by Barbara Hall, who had an impressive five-year career in comics before marrying and starting what some consider to be the first hippie commune in America in 1946).  Also included are a number of gag comic pages (including Art Helfant's Daffy Drafty from Army and Navy Fun Parade), and two pages of puzzles presented by the Green Hornet.

Check it out.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=31005

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE COBRA

The Cobra by "Maxwell Grant" (Walter B. Gibson)  (from The Shadow Magazine, April 1934; reprinted in The Shadow #7:  "The Cobra" & "The Third Shadow" from Nostalgic Ventures, May 2007)

The Shadow has some competition!  A rival crime fighter, the costumed vigilante known as The Cobra, has been going after the criminal gangs of New York.  The Cobra appears to be far better -- and far deadlier -- than The Shadow in fighting crime, and The Shadow's reputation is taking a hit.  Who is this newcomer who appears out of nowhere and shoots to kill without hesitation?

As The Shadow investigates, he must also deal with both the criminal gangs and the police who are after him.  Also out to put paid to The Shadow's career is The Cobra himself.

The action is fast and furious, the guns blazing.

This is one of the stories in which The Shadow is just The Shadow; his various alter egos -- Kent Allard, Lamont Cranston -- do not appear, nor do his various assistants.  It's just The Shadow versus his various foes, although Commissioner Weston and Detective Cardona are in the background hoping The Shadow will prevail.

I'm a fan of the pulp character, although I much prefer other pulp heroes such as Doc Savage or The Spider.  At times, Gibson's writing style can be too plodding for my taste, but in this tale, he's hitting on all  cylinders.  It's the best Shadow story I've read in some time.

P.S.  For those who are counting, there were 325 Shadow novels published in the pulps, almost all by Gibson, between April 1931 and Summer 1949.  This was #51.