Dee Green Hijacks the Post

 Old Time Radio on Film

 

RKO Pictures

Back in the 1940s, radio stars Jim and Marian Jordan were so popular as Fibber McGee and Molly, they made 3 movies.  (This was in an era that had 24-hour theaters for war workers; they ate up movies like popcorn.)  "Look Who's Laughing" 1941, "Here We Go Again" 1942, and "Heavenly Days" 1944.

All three are on the Internet Archive, and I'm slowly experiencing them now and then.  It's interesting to see Fib and Molly do their radio bits on film; their lines were written by their radio writer, Don Quinn, and it's so schtick-heavy, Fibber's Closet just gets a second or two.  In other words, good stuff for the fans.

 

 

RKO Pictures

Fibber bears an unexpected resemblance to Richard Milhous Nixon.  (That's Hal Peary on the left, standing aghast as Throckmorton P Gildersleeve.)  (Hehehehaugh.)

Molly assumes the Little Girl to flirt with Charlie McCarthy, 

RKO Pictures

and butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, I betcha...(Yes, it's a grown woman pretending to be a little girl, flirting with a ventriloquist's dummy.  That's show biz!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RKO Pictures

 

 

 

Bergen and McCarthy are in the first two.  Charlie was considered such a bon vivant, by the second film they had him dancing with chorus girls, and-- 

RKO

--wait a minute-- something about the ribbon holding back all that hair-- isn't that Miss Dinkelmeyer?

Columbia Pictures

 I think it is!  From The Three Stooges, "Brideless Groom".  Shemp's student.

"Your little dreamboat is sailing!  HOO!  HOO!"

 

 

 

 

 

Huh!  I gotta check this out...Miss Dinkelmeyer was played by a gal named Dee Green.  First credited appearance 1945, 3 years after this.  But her CV doesn't include this film.  And IMDB seems to make a point of listing every single chorus girl in the picture.

Let's have a closer look.

 

Similarities in the shape of her chin, her mouth, nose, cheek, her eyes, height and build, and that dense hair.  Interesting.  They say the ear is a defining feature, as individual as a fingerprint.. 

Pretty close there, too.  And we can again see similarities in the mouth, nose and brow.

You know, folks, I think it IS her.  If it isn't, they sure look alike.

Well, what are we to think.  This happens once in a while.  The info stream goes dry and all you're left with is a face and a guess.  For example, I'm fairly certain the THRUSH goon on the left is Milt Kogan

Man From Uncle, s03e02, 1966

- you know, that guy from the Desilu-Universal Galaxy.  Here he is in Columbo, 1978, getting an uncomfortable neck rub from Trish Van Devere (who's also still with us)-

Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder, 1978

 - again uncredited (although this is obviously him).  That's what makes this an interesting hobby.  If you can start accurately picking them out of anonymity, it adds to the body of the Art an infinitesimal glow. 

OJ Meltdown

 

Here's an oldie I found banging around in the back.  I was pretty impressed when American Journalism turned into a scene from Farenheit 451, with the talking newsheads transfixed by one person (a celebrity, OJ Simpson) on the run from the Law.  It seemed to go on for hours.  (90 minutes.)  So I made this bit.  

I don't really like doing topical commentary; it doesn't age as well as the artier stuff, and people have opinions.  So I never included this in anything.  It might have been posted here at one time.  Anyway, it is now.

OJ Meltdown (3:36) 

 PS- I guess this means we're going to do weekly audio, instead of skipping a weekend a month for written content.  Which will drop in during the week, as it occurs.  Stay tuned.

"Building Code" Sighted

 

The Last Hurrah (1958)

 

It's on the right, under Spencer Tracy's hand.  Other examples of this phenomenon can be found on our Building Code Under Fire page.

Tony Regan in Mr Lucky (1959)

I discussed Mr Regan in an earlier post; he's one of those actors who never speaks and is supposed to be completely in the background, a cut-and-paste character in a way, like the little people in architectural drawings.  He was a casting director who found his way into a lot of "bystander" work, and is pretty recognizable once you know him.  (On the right.)

 

Mr Lucky was a crime/mystery TV program that ran for one season. These two meatballs emerge and saunter through a scene, tailing a principal- and that's it for them, they're not even characters.  They're just "the Boys".

1959 seems pretty early for him.  The thing about actors like this, playing parts just above the horizon of obscurity, there's very little info.  Which makes them more interesting. 
 

Midway Barker, c 1940

 

It's summer carnival time.  Here's an authentic barker, working the crowd at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.

Frozen Alive Barker (2:27) 

Paul Frees, June 22, 1920

 

Happy 105th to audio's greatest voice man.  

People of Earth, attention....

The Mort Drucker Dracula

Extremely Scary Trailers

The complete 3-part anthology (including these excerpts) can be found on our podcasts page.

 

  

 

Leftover pic of Isabel Randolph

 

This happened to be the frame I paused it at, the other night when I was fixing dinner, and since I'd mentioned her recently...seen here with the venerable Roy Roberts, who always came across like a distant relative visiting from Butte.  

It's from a Dick Van Dyke episode, "Sol and the Sponsor", and although Isabel did play Rob's mom in the series, she isn't here.