[78-L] RCA Victor humour

Tue Oct 29 07:42:31 PDT 2013

Thanks, Thomas, when I typed "Calamity Jane" it didn't feel right, although it was also a movie that tickled me when I was a kid.  The scene I was remembering was where Hope was sitting in a barber's chair and it went nuts - spinning around rising to the ceiling then down to the floor - it doesn't sound that funny now but it sure had me going when I was 9.

db

>________________________________
> From: Thomas Brown <stacksofmags at aol.com>
>To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com 
>Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 4:57:19 AM
>Subject: Re: [78-L] RCA Victor humour
> 
>
>
>
>Calamity Jane starred Doris Day and Howard Keel, not Bob Hope.  He was in Paleface and Son of Paleface.
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>
>To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>Sent: Tue, Oct 29, 2013 2:18 am
>Subject: [78-L] RCA Victor humour
>
>
>Like beauty, "funny" is in the mind of the
 beholder.  Many people would call Bob 
>Hope one of the finest comedians but he often left me cold, although as a kid I 
>was in stitches watching "Calamity Jane", (or was it "Son of Paleface"?  I've 
>forgotten).  Johnny Carson's humour lost some of it's effect because he seemed 
>to want to make it clear that he was reading cue cards - obviously looking down 
>below the camera during his routines.  David Letterman, on the other hand, often 
>brings his cue card operator into the routine which adds to the humour.  To get 
>back to RCA and records, I always enjoyed the Allan Sherman "Peter and the 
>Commisar" record but more for the "End of a Symphony" than the title track, (if 
>you want a spoof on "Peter and the Wolf", nothing can beat Peter Schickle's 
>"Sneaky Pete and the
 Wolf"), but, unfortunately, when the Sherman record was 
>mastered onto CD, (and I hope it wasn't one of my ARSC friends who did it), the 
>applause is
>painfully and speaker damagingly loud compared to the program content.
>
>
>db
>
>
>
>>________________________________
>> From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>>To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> 
>>Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 10:01:29 PM
>>Subject: Re: [78-L] Mr. Magoo
>> 
>>
>>On 10/28/2013
 8:35 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
>>> dl wrote:
>>>>> RCA's sense of humor was sometimes very hard to detect.
>>>
>>> Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band is not funny?????  Homer and Jethro is not
>>> funny?????   "Sing Along with Jonathan and Darlene Edwards" is not
>>> funny?????  Bob Arbogast "The Chickens Are In the Chimes" is not
>>> funny????   Wingy's "Stop the War the Cats are Killing Themselves" is
>>> not funny????  "Am I Dreaming or Are All My Favorite Bands Playing?" is
>>> not funny?????  And check out "Bob and Ray On A Platter" instead of
>>> "Throw a Stereo Spectacular".
>>>
>>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>
>>Jonathan and Darlene was funny, as well as their only album for RCA. 
>>Guckenheimer was funny. The Chickens was Sacha Burland and Mason Adams, not Bob 
>
>>Arbogast, and was only a single. Wingy and All My Faves were 20 years earlier, 
>>ditto Spike Jones. Bob and Ray On a Platter was forced, not nearly as good as 
>>their on air stuff, much better than Stereo Spectacular 'tis true. Homer and 
>>Jethro, no contest. But they were still fighting a losing battle against Verve, 
>
>>Capitol and Coral, later United Artists. Nobody's mentioned Spike Jones but 
>>he'd rarely been funny on Victor after 1950, notable exception being the one 
>>side he made with Homer and jethro which RCA SAT ON for 3
 or 4 years.
>>
>>dl
>>>
>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Mr. Magoo
>>> From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>>> Date: Mon, October 28, 2013 7:17 pm
>>> To: 78-L Mail List<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESE0RGxpqf8
>>>
>>> Never heard this one before!
>>>
>>> As for Magoo, the music by Dennis Farnon is
 funnier than the sketch, and
>>> it's
>>> not top drawer either. CJBC in Toronto used a couple of portions of it
>>> as the
>>> opening and closing for their daily dose of Bob and Ray. (I did the same
>>> years
>>> later on a daily comedy bit on another station.)
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>> On 10/28/2013 6:34 PM, David Breneman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> An album that's nowhere near as funny as you wish it would be, as I recall.
>>>>> Like the Bob and Ray Stereo Spectacular, or Lord Buckley's Hipsters
>>>>> Flipsters,
>>>>> or Allan Sherman's Peter. RCA's sense of humor was sometimes very hard
>>>>> to
>>>>> detect. (Defend 'em all you want, but I have never laughed at any of those
>>>>> albums.)
>>>>
>>>> Re Magoo in Hi-Fi -
>>>>
>>>> I have a very nice copy of it, which I bought because I always thought I
>>>> loved *everything* Jim Backus did (with the exception of Gilligan's Island).
>>>> It's pretty unimaginative stuff. Magoo is building a Hi-Fi. He reads
>>>> that he needs woofers and tweeters, so naturally he goes out and gets some
>>>> dogs and birds. The jokes go down hill from there. All this inanity is
>>>> commented upon by his doofy nephew Waldo - and that's insipid doofiness,
>>>> not comic doofiness.
>>>>
>>>> Re "Why Don't You go Home for Christmas" -
>>>>
>>>> It's a monologue by Backus, delivered to his apparently shrewish wife,
>>>> emploring her to go spend Christmas with her parents "So *I* can have a
>>>> Happy New Year." ("If you had any class, you would go by bus.") You
>>>> can almost imagine him in a smoking jacket, hoisting a martini and leaning
>>>> against a console stereo, as he begins "Every year, about this time, Old
>>>> Jingle-Bells-Ville..." Much more humor in three minutes
 than the whole
>>>> Magoo LP.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> 78-L mailing list
>>>> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>>>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 78-L mailing list
>>> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 78-L mailing list
>>> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>>>
>>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>78-L mailing list
>>78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>>http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>>
>>
>>
>_______________________________________________
>78-L mailing list
>78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>78-L mailing list
>78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>
>
>