You Bet Your Life - extra long

I thought I had seen all the You Bet Your Life shows floating around but here's one I had never seen.  Lots of extra time in this one.

Review: You Bet Your Life

If there's every been anyone quicker-witted or funnier than Groucho Marx, I'd certainly like for you to point him or her out to me because I want to see and hear them.

Groucho was not just funny, he was also rude.  Sometimes he was embarrassingly rude.  But even when he was, he was funny.  It was impossible not to laugh.

If you had never seen or heard Groucho, either in his hilarious Marx Brothers films or on TV's You Bet Your Life, there would be no way to describe him to someone.

Not too long ago, I put in a DVD of the TV show, You Bet Your Life, in the player for a 22 year old friend of mine.  He laughed the whole way through and sat there and watched the full fours hours with me.  When he left my house, I gave him the DVD as a gift and he now loves Groucho.

Groucho has that effect on people.  I'd say the current generation would love Groucho as much as they 'love' the current comedians if they only gave the man a chance.

Of course we know that will never happen...

Us old folks and OTR lovers though, have a bunch of Groucho to listen to from his radio game show, You Bet Your Life.  On the show, Groucho is Groucho.  Larger than life, loud, obnoxious and very, very funny.

Yes, it's a game show - but that just kind of seems secondary to Groucho.  I can imagine the sales pitch for this show in the 1940's... I can imagine prospective advertisers running away in fear.  You never knew what Groucho would do or say.  Because he was the one, the only, Groucho.

"Groucho always picks on me"

George Fenneman (again)

More must-see Groucho outtakes

Look here and here.

Must see video outtakes from You Bet Your Life

Here  and here.

©Jimbo 2010/2011

Groucho tickled

According to the book, Hello, I Must be Going, Groucho would watch reruns of You Bet Your Life on televison in his later years.  Afterwards, he would enjoy having a nurse tickle his feet (one of his favorite pastimes.)

©Jimbo 2010/2011

Reminder: Marxisms

Just wanted to remind you of my new blog, Marxisms.

I am having a lot of fun putting it together.  It makes me laugh constantly.  Groucho's timing was impeccable.  As you will see, his timing got better as the show went on through the years.

On the show, You Bet Your Life, Groucho was just funny.  It may be true that some contestants were steered as to what to say and maybe Groucho knew some of it beforehand - I really have no idea if this is true or not.  The only reason I think this could be possible is because Groucho is hilarious and says just the right thing - almost every time.  As if he knew what was coming.

Perhaps it was that the real genius of Groucho was that he knew how to set people up to say the things he wanted them to say!  Could that be his true genius?

At any rate, I'm quite sure you will have fun over at Marxisms.  I'm going to do go through the whole You Bet Your Life series and throw in clips from other places.


©Jimbo 2010/2011

My interview with Jon at OTRCAT.com

Jon helps run the website and company known as OTRCAT. It is my please to have him join me today for an interview.
 


OTR Buffet: Jon, thanks for joining me. What can you tell us about OTRCAT?

Jon: Thanks for inviting me, Jimbo. After many years of listening and collecting old time radio shows, the OTRCAT.com (Old Time Radio Catalog) web site opened in 1999. We offer thousands of old time radio shows on MP3 and audio cd for just $5.00 per disk.

OTRCAT.com offers hundreds of show descriptions with images of the original actors and sponsors. We feature original compilations and thousands of free downloads on the OTRCAT.com website including an "Daily Download" section (which has broadcasts from the same date in history).

Proceeds from the OTRCAT.com website offset the price of machinery, supplies, and growing old time radio collection; every month OTRCAT also sends out free CDs of old time radio shows to various low-income retirement homes, centers for the blind, and American field troops based in Iraq and Afghanistan in hopes they will enjoy the nostalgia of these classic radio recordings.

OTR Buffet:  Do you do all the research over there yourself?  How do you go about researching a subject?

Jon: OTRCAT.com is a family-run business and represents over a decade work & thousands of hours of  researching and writing.  Many hard-print resources and logs available, but the Internet has made research and correspondence with collectors and contributors more convenient than ever.  Researching the individual series and writing about them has been a passion.  We’ve recently been working on old time radio articles including texts on Atomic Radio, Soap Operas, Espionage and Horror and Mystery shows.  We’ve also had guest authors write about Aimee Semple McPherson, Cathy Lewis, War of the Worlds, Kay Kyser, Hans Conried & Arch Oboler and others which I hope are a compelling and entertaining read.

OTR Buffet: Please tell me how you first got into old-time radio.   (I'd like to know some of your first memories of OTR and what were some of the shows you listened to.)

Jon: I missed hearing the golden age of radio when it was broadcast live, but I listened to some comedy and horror radio shows when I was a kid on cassette tapes and father's open-reel player.  While living in Los Angeles, I found myself addicted to old time radio during long commutes and subsequently spent a lot of time sitting in the driveway waiting for THE WHISTLER show to end when they broadcast the shows on AM in the evening.  With the advent of digital recording, being able to store and listen to the shows on demand is easier than ever.  One of the beautiful things about the MP3 format: you can have virtually an entire series stored on a single disk and can fast forward, rewind and resume listening to any episode at any point in time!

OTR Buffet:  When we chatted earlier, you mentioned you liked Dragnet.  Dragnet is a unique show with it's own style.  Can you talk about that style, tell us some fond Dragnet memories?

Jon: Jack Webb's Dragnet are some of my favorite old time radio detective shows.  My wife and I have listened to the series many times through.  His no nonsense questioning of suspects and witnesses are really entertaining (as are the stories – based on true life crime).  The stories are tastefully written and cover some fascinating crime history.  The suspects and witnesses are great memorable characters and the plots, delivery, one-liners and sound effects are all top-notch from the golden age of radio!

OTR Buffet:  I always thought it was kind of strange that Dragnet's Friday lived with his mom.  It's kind of strange, don't you think?

Jon: He's a man dedicated to his job, Jimbo!!  In Friday’s defense, there were several episodes where Joe Friday took out a "police woman" to prove he wasn't a Norman Bates-like character in his personal life.  I recall one where his mother was shocked that the police woman was "pretty."  Joe Friday living at home makes the fodder with his partner (Ben Romero) all the more entertaining; there are a lot of dry-wit skits where Romero bores Joe Friday with his inane troubles and arguments with his wife and mother in law.

OTR Buffet:  Another show you mentioned you liked a lot is You Bet Your Life.  That was indeed a great show and a classic.  Groucho is so very funny.   I think it's a shame that the teens today have no idea who Groucho is.  Even in this current wacky world of Lady Gaga and reality television, I think You Bet Your Life would still do well if they ran the reruns against other televison shows!  How do think Groucho's show would do if it currently ran on CBS on Friday nights at 9pm?

Jon: Every episode of Groucho Marx's YOU BET YOUR LIFE has some laugh out loud moments for me.  It's amazing some of the material passed censors--Groucho's wit always won out. Regarding competing on today's television: the duck that falls out of the ceiling is pretty compelling television!!  There was only one Groucho Marx, but I'm not sure if it would really appeal to a mass audience.  I think there will always be Marx-bros fans out there that will always enjoy Groucho's impromptu one liners although I'm not sure Television format added that much additional humor from the radio broadcasts (there wasn't much visual humor on the television episodes I recall.)  The Marx Bros films on the other hand had all kinds of great visual gags, but the time, budge and game-show format constraints made YOU BET YOUR LIFE just as entertaining as an audio radio broadcast as the video version.  If I recall correctly Groucho has editing control of the radio broadcasts before they were broadcast where he had them cut out dead air time and condense all the jokes – the end product is a great show that always makes me laugh.

OTR Buffet:  You also mentioned you enjoyed the show, Suspense.  I was fortunate enough to have Christine Miller do an interview with me a couple of months back, I hope you will read that on the Buffet.  I enjoy Suspense as well.  What are some of your favorite episodes of the show and why?

Jon: Indeed - I enjoyed your interview with Christine and share her love for Suspense.  Agnes Moorehead’s “Sorry Wrong Number” always comes to mind when I think of Suspense.  SUSPENSE is a top-notch series with broadcasts with top name actors of the era including Jimmy Stewart, Gene Kelly, Dane Clark, Cary Grant, and Jack Webb.  Episodes like “Donovan’s Brain”, “House in Cypress Canyon” , “The Hitchhiker”, Vincent Price in “Three Skeleton Key”, and “The Doom Machine” are some of my all-time favorites that come to mind.  The writing and performances are indeed “well calculated to keep you in Suspense!”

OTR Buffet:  Doing the OTRCAT you probably have come across some shows most of us have never heard of.  Can you recommend any "under-the-radar" shows that we have never heard before and if so, can you tell us something about them?

Jon: OTRCAT.com has a "rarities" section of the website with some of the lesser known shows.  Some of our original genre compilations of Rare Detectives & Rare Soap Operas are fun way to get a sampling of recordings that only have one or two episodes still in known existence.   Recordings like Singing Sam (“The Barbasol Man”) and others are a great listen.  Other rare recordings like "Lonesome Gal" of interest was a music program from the 40's created by Jean King who starts her program swooning " "Sweetie, no matter what anybody says, I love you more than anybody in the whole world."

OTR Buffet: You also mentioned to me that you like the show, X Minus One.  It's a show I have listened to but I haven't listened enough of it to really ask any questions with any kind of authority.  Tell me why you like the show and maybe a memorable episode or two.

Jon: The X MINUS ONE adapted short stories of sci-fi writers Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, Robert Heinlein and Frederik Pohl are outstanding.  Radio is the perfect medium for science fiction as everything in your mind's eye is more realistic than any film you may see.  I've always been a big fan of the sci-fi genre in general  and we wrote a short primer on Sci-Fi in old time radio. X MINUS ONE episodes like "The Martian Death March", "Cold Equations", "The Roads Must Roll", "Perigi's Wonderful Dolls" are all some of my all-time favorites that come to mind, but almost every episode in the series is outstanding and unique.  The sci-fi authors address problems of the 1950s era in a creative format which still are valid and immensely entertaining today.

©Jimbo 2010/2011

What he was doing in my pajamas, I'll never know...

Groucho Marx - with no moustache!!!

Fun with Groucho and forks

Some fun with Groucho on You Bet Your Life:



©Jimbo 2010/2011

Groucho talks with a wedding planner on YBYL

Groucho: How much do you charge for this grand larceny?

Wedding Planner: We have two plans. One is $25 and the other is $15.

Groucho: What do you get for the $25?

Wedding Planner: Well for $25, you get a minister of your choice, an organist who'll play whatever songs you'd like; witnesses if you need them..

Groucho: What do I get for $15?

Wedding Planner: Well for $15, you get the same things as the $25, except you get a live organist.

Groucho: For $15 you get a live organist. What do you get...a dead one for $25? I'll take the one with the dead organist [...] What's the most splice-jobs you've had in one day?

Wedding Planner: One Valentine's Day we had 27 weddings.

Groucho: Is that what killed the organist? What are your working hours on a job like that?

Wedding Planner: Well I work 9 to 5 and I am on call 24 hours a day.

Grouch: Oh. Well you're sorta like a fireman, eh? You slide down a brass pole with rice in one hand and a dead organist in the other.

Revistited: CONTROVERSY...

As you may recall, I recently posted about Ernie Kovacks being on You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx and how contoversial I thought the program was.

Here now, I present an edited version of the show, highlighting what I referred to in that post:

You Bet Your Life skit on The Jack Benny TV show

Stuff I'd buy if I was a millionaire [#18]

You Bet Your Life board game

The funniest shows and why

Personally, I'm in love with radio comedies.  Truth be told, there are few comedies that hold up and pass the test of time.  But there are a few:

Molly and Fibber; 1950's

Fibber McGee and Molly - Fibber is funny without Molly. Molly is funny without Fibber. WWII came, 3 of the cast went to war, the show replaced them with more funny people. The war ended, things got rearranged and they were still funny. Show went to 15 minute serials. Still funny.

Puns (ridiculously FUNNY puns, to be more precise) and malaprops at every turn. Scripts by Don Quinn were expertly written and Fibber & Molly (Jim and Marian Jordan) would blow lines at every show and it still didn't matter.

Recurring characters that remain so good at what they do, you don't mind when you "know what's coming"; there's a sense of "I know someone just like that guy" at every knock of the McGee door.

To my way of thinking, Fibber McGee and Molly are the kings of radio, comedy or not. The show is the Babe Ruth of old-time radio.

Snooks - never has a child been so good at being bad

Baby Snooks - In my opinion, the most underrated radio show of all time. Baby Snooks was (and remains) a hilarious classic about a small female child (played by forty-something year-old Fannie Brice) who drives her daddy crazy by being a somewhat cartoonish, enigmatic, non-stop curious brat.

Her rapid brow-beat questioning (Why? Why?) along with the fact that at every opportunity she was willing to get others in trouble (her friends, her daddy and especially her innocent baby brother) drove her daddy (played to the hilt by Hanley Stafford) bananas; so much so that you just know he wanted to rip her little eyeballs out.

Snooks was like a ticking time bomb and daddy had to sit on the bomb in every episode. In the air is the hint of Road Runner violence at every corner of the script (a lot of it written by Jess Oppenheimer, who created the I Love Lucy television series.) And Snooks is like the evil, conniving - yet very, very funny Lucy Ricardo would have been - as a child.

If you have never heard Snooks, you are missing the thrill of your OTR life. This show is hilarious.

You Bet Your Life - The only non-sticom in the group, YBYL was 1950's-era quiz show with wacky Groucho Marx at the helm.  While a lot of what he spewed on the show was probably scripted, Marx had such a flair for the pseudo-obscene and for punny innuendoes with almost anything was liable to come out on live radio (and later, televison); and remember, this was a quiz show.  The show remains a time capulse of a roulette wheel of What-Will-That-Crazy-Groucho-Say-or-Do Next?

No one knew what Groucho would do or say!

The quiz seemed secondary to the interviews with the contestants, which Groucho used as a backdrop to (basically) a weekly stand-up routine.  He never once minded embarassing a particularly plump female or making a "play" at a 16 year old high school cheerleader. He made fun of people's names and ethnicity; he would voice his opinions or question someone pointedly and obtusely when you could tell he was puzzled with or disagreed with some known-facet of a contestant's life made public on the show.

While Groucho was unpredictable, somehow he always managed to remain the same.

Despite the fact that the host was rude and crude, somehow the reactions he got from the studio audience from his over-the-top comical audacity makes for hilarious listening.  After all, Groucho was so intimidating (by keeping a contestant on-guard and edgy) that they were liable to embarrass themselves without any help from Groucho.

The Aldrich Family - Henry Alrich was a teenage boy with problems running out his ears.  Although the Henry character (and virtually all the other characters in the show) almost always played "straight man" to the usually not-so-far-out situations the writers came up with (Henry raises rabbits and they keep multiplying; Henry goes ice skating and falls through the ice; Henry is late for a dance and forgets to return his boss' bicycle that must be returned...); the real fun is listening to how Henry's father (played perfectly by House Jameson) reacted and tried to remain level-headed about every predicament - and how he tried to turn everything into some sort of important experience-is-the best-life-lesson for Henry.

Along for the ride is Henry's opportune friend Homer, who innocently took advantage of almost every situation but always managed to do so without looking like a bad guy.

Lum and Abner - Two kind-hearted but very uneducated residents of Pine Ridge, Arkansas traverse the world in a seemingly never-ending radio serial; each full of spit-take phrases and diction that will remind some of The Beverly Hillbillies or Snuffy Smith without the phony TV laugh track or comic panes.

Lum is thrice as smart as Abner (and that's not saying much) and they are almost daily-swindeled by wiley Squire Skimp. When they aren't being taken for their life savings, Lum is "chasing" women or being chased by some ugly "widder" with 5 young-uns. Meanwhile, Abner is married. but it seems his goal in life is to gossip and play checkers as often as possible.

Both run a rural grocery store where life in the little town revolves. 90% of the town's crazy characters are played by the show's stars (Chester Lauck and Norris Goff.) Every show ends with a wock-wock-wock ironic twist to whatever the show was about.

Once a week (it seems) they are faking a broken leg or being "quarateed" for a fictional (make that "actual") case of measles.

Ridiculous rural humor that's like a never-ending CBS-TV sit-com of the 1960's but set in World War II, Norman Rockwell-era America.

Groucho's Garland of Gags

Groucho's Garland of Gags

Stuff I'd buy if I was a millionaire [#09]

A 1951 Time magazine with Groucho Marx on the cover