Vic and Sade
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vic and Sade, created and written by Paul Rhymer, had a 14-year run and was the most popular radio series of its kind, reaching 7,000,000 listeners in 1943, according to Time. For the majority of its span on the air, Vic and Sade was heard in 15-minute episodes without a continuing storyline. The central characters, known as "radio's home folks," were accountant Victor Rodney Gook (Art Van Harvey), his wife Sade (Bernadine Flynn) and their adopted son Rush (Bill Idelson). The three lived on Virginia Avenue in "the small house halfway up in the next block." The program was presented with a low-key ease and naturalness, and Rhymer's humorous dialogue was delivered with a subtleness that made even the most outrageous events seem commonplace and normal.
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[edit] Broadcast history
June 29, 1932 to September 29, 1944 (15 minutes daily)
August 21, 1945 to December 7, 1945 (15 minutes daily)
June 27, 1946 to October 26, 1946 (30 minutes weekly)
1949, July (three ½-hour episodes for television, Monday nights)
1957, Spring (seven 15-minute episodes for TV, Thursday nights)
Vic and Sade was first heard over NBC's Blue network in 1932 and originated in Chicago. At the height of its popularity, it was broadcast over all three major networks and as many as six times a day.
[edit] Cast and credits
1932
VIC GOOK Art Van Harvey
SADE GOOK Bernadine Flynn
RUSH GOOK Billy Idelson
1938 (Special appearance)
MR. GUMPOX Cliff Soubier
1940
UNCLE FLETCHER Clarence Hartzell
1943
RUSSELL MILLER David Whitehouse (the last regular)
1943
DOTTIE BRAINFEEBLE Ruth Perrott
BLUE-TOOTH JOHNSON Dick Toerne
CHUCK BRAINFEEBLE
LELAND RICHARDS
1945
MR. SPRAWL Johnny Coons
ORVILLE WHEENEY Johnny Coons
SMELLY CLARK Johnny Coons
MIS' HARRIS
JIMMY CUSTARD
DWIGHT TWENTYSIXLER
SWEETCORN MCBLOCK
L.J. GERTNER, ET AL.
1946
MR. SPRAWL Johnny Coons
ORVILLE WHEENEY Johnny Coons
HARRY DEAN Johnny Coons
MIS' HARRIS
MIS' KELLER
MIS' KESLER
POLICE CHIEF CULLERSON, ET AL.
1949 (for television)
SADE GOOK Bernadine Flynn
VIC GOOK Frank Dane
RUSH GOOK Dick Conan
IKE KNEESUFFER Cliff Soubier
1957 (for television)
VIC GOOK Art Van Harvey
SADE GOOK Bernadine Flynn
RUSH GOOK Eddie Gillilan
ANNOUNCERS
Bob Brown
Ed Herlihy
Ed Roberts
Jack Fuller, etc.
CREATOR-WRITER
Paul Rhymer
DIRECTORS
Clarence Menser
Roy Winsor, etc.
THEME
Chanson Bohémienne
[edit] Overview
Vic and Sade was written by the prodigious Paul Rhymer for the entire length of its long run. The principal characters were a married couple living in "the small house halfway up in the next block." After the first weeks in production an extra character, an adopted son, was added to the show, and it was in this format, with only three characters, that the program thrived for the next eight years and won many awards for the writer, actors and sponsor.
In 1940, the actor who played Vic, Art Van Harvey, became ill, and Sade's Uncle Fletcher (Clarence Hartzell) was added to the cast to fill the place of the missing male lead. When Van Harvey recovered his health, Uncle Fletcher was kept on as a fourth character.
During the WWII years, the actor who played Rush, Bill Idelson, was called into military service, and he left the show. The spring months of 1943 were a tumultuous period, but eventually a second son figure, Russell Miller (David Whitehouse), was brought in, and the program continued as it always had.
Vic and Sade went off the air September 29, 1944 but was brought back several times. In 1945, the cast was augmented to include many characters who were previously only talked about. In 1946 it was a summer replacement series and also featured an augmented cast. In 1949 three television episodes were made using an elaborate set that included the whole house as well as the front and back yards. In 1957 it ran for seven weeks as a television series but returned to the original three-character format.
The show's strength and appeal stem from its author's unique outlook on the world, his peculiar sense of humor and his ability to create a universe of people, places and fascinating situations out of exiguous material.
[edit] Characters
Part of the magic of Vic and Sade is that all of the action, all of the people and all of the places in the town were created strictly through the dialogue. Listeners heard just the voices of the three, later four, principal speaking characters, embellished with very few sound effects.
[edit] Speaking characters
- Vic
- Victor Rodney Gook was the chief accountant of the Consolidated Kitchenware Company Plant Number Fourteen. He was the Exalted Big Dipper of the Drowsy Venus Chapter of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way which was founded by R.J. Konk. Vic's passion was parades, alarm clocks and doorbells. He was often asked to submit articles to the Kitchenware Dealers Quarterly and the lodge magazine.
- Sade
- Sade was a housewife who took pride in her housekeeping. Her interest outside the home was primarily focused on the Thimble Club where she and the thimble ladies would get together to sew and gossip. She was very pragmatic about things and had little sense of humor. Her world extended to a very small radius and she cared little for anything outside her tightly drawn circle.
- Rush
- Rush's (and later Russell's) favorite activities were playing baseball (and football) in Tatman's vacant lot, watching the fat men play handball down at the YMCA and taking in the Bijou moving picture show. Rush and Russell had the same friends, but they differed in character: Rush was the schemer who was always looking for ways to make a quick buck and had an angle on everything; doing homework, and especially algebra, was not high on his priority list. Russell enjoyed and did well in school despite the fact he was more the dreamer, the naive young romantic; he was always willing to lend a hand no matter how impractical his outlook was; it follows then that chores around the house were not something he excelled at.
- Uncle Fletcher
- Uncle Fletcher was a talker who had a story and advice about everything. If there was one activity, outside of telling stories, that he can be noted for, it would be riding on Gumpox's garbage wagon - and he even got a special pass to allow him to do so. He especially enjoyed discussing the interesting facts and statistics about such things as his watch fob collection, key collection, photos and snapshots, and his landlady's washrag collection. And he liked popping popcorn.
[edit] Non-speaking characters
- Bess and Walter
- Sade's sister and her husband. Walter ran a barbershop in Carberry, and Bess would send letters and postcards that always began "Dear sister and all..." Bess and Walter had a daughter named Euncie (Yooncie) who was learning to play the piano, the pieces invariable found her stomping on the loud pedal with both feet and dragging her fingernail down the white or black keys.
- Fred and Ruthie Stembottom
- ... enjoyed playing Five Hundred with Vic and Sade. Ruthie would go with Sade to the washrag sales at Yamilton's Department Store. Fred would often attempt to extort hard manual labor out of Vic (pour concrete floors, tear down partitions, change tires on the car) on the pretext of inviting him over to play cards.
- Sade's other friends
- include, among others: Mis' Brighton, Mis' Trogel, and Mis' Appelrot.
- Vic's work associates
- Mr. Ruebush (his boss), Miss Hammersweet (his secretary), Gus Fuss (from Plant Number 17 in Dubuque) and Mr. Buller (in Chicago).
- Vic's lodge acquaintances
- Hunky J. Sponger, and the members of the All-star marching team: Y.Y. Flirch, J.J.J.J. Stunbolt, Harry Fie, I. Edson Box, Homer U. McDancy, H.K. Fleeber, Robert and Slobert Hink, and O.X. Bellyman.
- Rush's friends
- Smelly Clark, Blue-tooth Johnson, Rooster Davis, Leland Richards, Vernon Peggles, Milton Welch, LeRoy Snow, Heinie Call, Willis Roreback and Russell Duncan (not to be confused with Russell Miller). Nicer Scott was his deadly enemy. Mildred Tisdel, Eunice Raypole and Anabel Hemstreet were the girls in the neighborhood.
- Russell's friends
- Russell had most of the same friends as Rush with the addition of Oyster Crecker. His enemy was Heinie Call, although their relationship never reached the same feverish pitch as Rush and Nicer.
- Neighbors
- Mis' Harris, Mr. and Mis' Donahue, Mr. and Mis' Razorscum, and Ike Kneesuffer (who played indoor horseshoes in his basement). There was also Mis' Call, Mis' Fisher and Grandpa Snyder.
- Townfolk
- Hank Gutstop (also in the Lodge), Stacey Yop, Alf Musherton, Pelter Unbleat, and B.B. Baugh. Mr. Gumpox was the garbage man. The Brick-mush man once got his head caught in a revolving door (at Yamilton's). Rishigan Fishigan from Sishigan Michigan was introduced to the show as part of Mr. Buller's christmas shopping list, but soon became a regular friend of both Vic and Uncle Fletcher.
[edit] Places
The town in which Vic and Save live is unnamed but is actually a vaguely fictionalized Bloomington, Illinois.
[edit] In town
The Bright Kentucky Hotel (which was shabby), the Butler House Hotel (which was expensive), the Ten Cent Store, the Greek's Confectionary, Croucher's Grocery Store, Yamilton's Department Store (the place with washrag sales), the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy (which had only three tables), the Royal Throne Twenty-five-cent Barbershop, the People's Bank Building, the Unity Building (where Lodge meetings were held), the courthouse, the Bijou Moving Picture Theater (usually featuring films staring Gloria Golden and Four-fisted Frank Fuddleman), Tatman's vacant lot (where Rush/Russell played baseball; at one time it was called Seymour's vacant lot), Kleeberger's Haberdashery (who Vic perpetually owed two dollars), and Miller Park (which featured a zoo and a lake).
[edit] Out of town
Sweet Esther Wisconsin (where they had a parade every day), Grovelman South Carolina (described as the geographical center of the United States), East Brain Oregon, Yella Jump North Dakota, Sick River Junction Missouri (where the Missouri State Home for the Tall was located), Fiendish Indiana, and Dismal Seepage Ohio. Many real towns were mentioned all the time, including Peoria, Dwight, Freeport, Chicago, Toledo, Detroit, Pontiac, etc.
[edit] Influence
Once voted the best radio serial in a poll of 600 radio editors, Vic and Sade also received praise from many well-known listeners, including Ray Bradbury, Norman Corwin, Stan Freberg, Edgar A. Guest, Ogden Nash, John O'Hara, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jean Shepherd, James Thurber and Henrik Willem Van Loon. According to Bernadine Flynn, the show received a letter from a judge who always called for a recess in the afternoons so that he could listen to "Vic and Sade." Nash and O'Hara both compared Rhymer to Mark Twain, while others made a comparison with Charles Dickens, but Rhymer defies comparison since his work is unlike anything before or since.
[edit] Extant episodes
Despite such high praise, 2000 disc recordings of the show were destroyed just before 1940 and some 1200 have been lost since that time. Today only about 330 original recordings have survived. (See #Audio downloads). It is estimated that Rhymer wrote more than 3500 scripts for the show. Some of his scripts were collected in books (See #Bibliography).
[edit] Resources
[edit] Wisconsin Historical Society
Paul Rhymer's papers, including many Vic and Sade scripts and recordings, are held at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Bill Idelson's autobiography is scheduled for 2006 publication by BearManor Media.
[edit] Audio downloads
- Internet Archive (surviving Vic and Sade episodes) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
- Interviews and 300+ episodes
- Vic and Sade episode (6/30/41)
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
- Books containing complete Vic and Sade scripts.
- Firestone, Ross. The Big Radio Comedy Program. New York: Contemporary Books, 1978. (Contains: "Mr. Dempsey and Mr. Tunney Meet in a Cigar Store")
- Rhymer, Paul, ed. by Mary Frances Rhymer, foreword by Ray Bradbury. The Small House Halfway Up in the Next Block: Paul Rhymer's Vic and Sade. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972. (30 scripts)
- Rhymer, Paul. Vic and Sade: The Best Radio Plays of Paul Rhymer. New York: Seabury Press, 1976. (30 scripts)
- Whipple, James. How to Write for Radio. New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. (Contains "Sade Thinks Baseball is Just a Game")
- Wylie, Max ed. Best Broadcasts of 1940-41. New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1942. (Contains "Mis' Keller's Birthday")
- Periodicals
- Thurber, James. "Onward and upward with the arts * soapland", The New Yorker. Five-part series appearing in May 15, 1948 (p. 34-44), May 29, 1948 (p. 30-41), June 12, 1948 (p. 46-53), July 3, 1948 (p. 37-44) and July 24, 1948 (p. 55-60).
- "Vic and Sade," Time, vol. 42, Dec. 27, 1943. (p. 42).
- Williamson, Albert R. "Vic and Sade's Creator" The Magazine of Sigma Chi. Volume 55, Number 3, July 1936. (p. 109-111).
[edit] Discography
- LP records
- Paul Rhymer's Classic Vic & Sade Original Radio Broadcasts. Producer, George Garabedian. Writer, Paul Rhymer. LP. Annaheim: Mark56 Records, 1976.
- Son of Jest Like Old Times: More Genuine Original Recordings of Radio's Most Famous Funny Men. LP. New York: The Radiola Company, c1971.
- "Vic and Sade: Exactly as heard on Mutual on October 26, 1946." The Spike Jones Show. LP. Sandy Cove, Conn: Radio Yesteryear - The Radiola Company, 1972.
- Vic and Sade: One Full Hour with Radio's Homefolks. Writer, Paul Rhymer. LP. New York: Golden Age Records, 1978.
[edit] External links
- Dick Judge's compilation of Vic and Sade opening lines
- Max Schmid on Vic and Sade
- Rick Schrage on Vic and Sade
- Stephen M. Lawson on Vic and Sade
- Nostalgia Pages Forum!
- Vic and Sade.net
