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Smackout
''Smackout'' (originally premiered as ''Smackout – The Crossroads of the Air'') was an American old-time radio series and was arguably the first and earliest example of the situation comedy (sitcom) genre and format. The series revolves around a general store in Chicago and the store's proprietor Luke Gray, played by Jim Jordan. Whenever a customer came into the general store to ask Uncle Luke, as Gray was affectionately known, for something, the typical response from Luke would be "we're smack out of that" (hence the title of the show). But that never stopped Luke from telling one of his signature tall tales to the customer. Jordan also played a regular customer named Jim and Marian Jordan portrayed the main roles as Teeny, a little girl and regular customer, and Marian, Jim's girlfriend. ''Smackout'' was broadcast from Chicago's NBC radio affiliate WMAQ before becoming nationally syndicated through the NBC Blue Network beginning in April 1933. New episodes of ''Smackout'' wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fibber McGee And Molly
''Fibber McGee and Molly'' (1935–1959) was a longtime highly popular husband-and-wife team radio comedy program. The situation comedy was a staple of the NBC Red Network from 1936 on, after originating on NBC Blue in 1935. One of the most popular and enduring radio series of its time, it ran as a stand-alone series from 1935 to 1956, and then continued as a short-form series as part of the weekend ''Monitor'' from 1957 to 1959. The title characters were created and portrayed by Jim and Marian Jordan, a husband-and-wife team that had been working in radio since the 1920s. ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' followed up the Jordans' previous radio sitcom ''Smackout''. It featured the misadventures of a working-class couple: habitual storyteller Fibber McGee and his sometimes terse but always loving wife Molly, living among their numerous neighbors and acquaintances in the community of Wistful Vista. As with radio comedies of the era, ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' featured an announcer, ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marian Jordan
Marian Irene Driscoll Jordan (April 15, 1898 – April 7, 1961) was an American actress and radio personality. She was most remembered for portraying the role of Molly McGee, the patient, common sense, honey-natured wife of Fibber McGee on the NBC radio series ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' from 1935 to 1959. She starred on this series opposite her real-life husband Jim Jordan. Early life and marriage Jordan was born Marian Irene Driscoll on April 15, 1898, in Peoria, Illinois. She was the twelfth of thirteen children born to Daniel P. Driscoll, (1858–1916) and Anna Driscoll (née Carroll), (1858–1928). Driscoll's paternal great-grandfather, Michael Driscoll, Sr. (1793–1849), emigrated with his wife and children from his hometown of Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland in 1836 to the Boston area and then to Bureau County, Illinois in 1848. As a teenager and young adult, Driscoll gave music lessons and sang in choir at the church which she attended. While at choir practice one day ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quinn
Don Quinn (November 18, 1900 – December 30, 1967) was an American comedy writer who started out as a cartoonist based in Chicago. According to sources, Quinn's career as a cartoonist was short-lived but his career as a writer began after he realized that the magazines and newspapers threw away his drawings he sent in but kept his captions. Quinn was best known as the sole writer (later head writer to Phil Leslie) of the popular old-time radio show ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' for 15 years and as the writer for the program's stars Jim and Marian Jordan for 20 years. Quinn was also the creator/head writer of radio's ''The Beulah Show'', (a ''Fibber McGee'' spinoff), and television's ''The Halls of Ivy''. Quinn also created the popular Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve character on ''Fibber McGee and Molly''. Career Quinn was born in November 1900 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Not much is known about his early life nor is much known about his early career as a cartoonist. However, what li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WMAQ (AM)
WSCR (670 AM) – branded as 670 The Score – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, servicing the Chicago metropolitan area and much of surrounding Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana and parts of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Owned by Audacy, Inc., WSCR is a clear-channel station with extended nighttime range in most of the Central United States and part of the Eastern United States. WSCR serves as the Chicago affiliate for the BetQL Audio Network, CBS Sports Radio, the Fighting Illini Sports Network and the NFL on Westwood One Sports; the flagship station for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bulls radio networks; and the home of radio personalities David Haugh and Matt Spiegel. The WSCR studios are located at Two Prudential Plaza in the Chicago Loop, while the station transmitter resides in nearby Bloomingdale, diplexed with co-owned WBBM. Besides its main analog transmission, WSCR transmits continuouslySome AM stations use HD Radio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Jordan (actor)
James Edward Jordan (November 16, 1896 – April 1, 1988) was the American actor who played Fibber McGee in ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' and voiced the albatross Orville in Disney's ''The Rescuers'' (1977). Biography Jordan was born in 1896 on a farm near Peoria, Illinois. He attended St. John's Church in Peoria, and his family eventually sold the farm and moved into Peoria. It was at church choir practice that he met Marian Driscoll, whom he married on August 31, 1918. With Marian Jim Jordan went on the vaudeville circuit, both as a solo act and with his wife, Marian, at various times until 1924. They went entirely broke in 1923, having to be wired money by their parents to get back to Peoria from Lincoln, Illinois. Jim and Marian Jordan got their major break in radio while performing in Chicago in 1924; Jim said he could give a better performance than the singers they were listening to on the radio, and his brother Byron bet $10 that Jim couldn't do it. By the end of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olympia Café
The Olympia Café was a fictional greasy spoon featured in a recurring ''Saturday Night Live'' sketch. The staff, led by John Belushi as Pete Dionisopoulos, were Greeks. Staff also included Bill Murray as Nico, a busboy who does not speak English, Dan Aykroyd as short-order cook George, and Sandy, a waitress played by Laraine Newman. Series regulars Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner, and Jane Curtin had recurring roles as regular customers. As various guest stars discovered (with a few exceptions), only three items on the long menu could actually be ordered successfully: the cheeseburger (pronounced "cheeburger" by Belushi), chips (pronounced "cheeps"), and Pepsi (pronounced "Petsi"). Attempts to order Coke (later Pepsi) were invariably met with the retort, "No Coke! Petsi!" (or later on, "No Petsi! Coke!") Likewise, those who ordered french fries got the response, "No fries! Cheeps!" Most famously, if a customer complained about having to order a cheeseburger, Pete would point o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheese Shop Sketch
The Cheese Shop is a well-known sketch from ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. It originally appeared in episode 33, "Salad Days" on 30 November, 1972. The script for the sketch is included in the 1989 book ''The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words, Volume 2''. It was later reworked for the album ''The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief'' and appeared for one last time during ''Monty Python Live (Mostly)'', as a surprising coda to the Dead Parrot sketch. Origins The idea for the sketch came after a day of shooting in Folkestone Harbour, where John Cleese became seasick and threw up repeatedly while trying to deliver a line. During the drive back, Graham Chapman recommended that Cleese eat something and asked him what he wanted; Cleese replied that he fancied a piece of cheese. Upon seeing a chemist's shop, Cleese pondered whether the shop would sell cheese, to which Chapman responded that if they did it would be medicinal cheese and that Cleese would ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabel Randolph
Isabel Randolph (December 4, 1889 – January 11, 1973) was an American character actress in radio and film from the 1940s through the 1960s and in television from the early 1950s to the middle 1960s. Early life She was born in 1889 in Chicago, the daughter of Alexander and May (nee Franklin) Randolph. Career Theater Randolph acted in regional theater all over the American Midwest, from the pre-World War I era up to the start of her radio career in the mid-1930s.Jones, Ken D.; McClure, Arthur F; Twomey, Alfred E. (1976) "Character People" A.S. Barnes, , p. 170 She became leading lady at the Princess Theater in Des Moines, Iowa in 1917 and was still acting there in 1918,University of Virginia (1951) "Iowa Journal of History (Volume 49): the Princess Theater of Des Moines", State Historical Society of Iowa, pp. 13, 21 (available online at thGoogle Books online archive accessed January 1, 2017. and, in 1931, at the Loyola Community Theater in Chicago. On Broadway, Randolph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of , with a population of almost 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before AD 100. In 962, the Kingdom of Germany formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Village Idiot
The village idiot in strict terms is a person locally known for ignorance or stupidity but is also a common term for a stereotypically silly or nonsensical person or stock character. Description The term "village idiot" is also used as a stereotype of the mentally disabled. It has also been applied as an epithet for an unrealistically optimistic or naive individual. The village idiot was long considered an acceptable social role, a unique individual who was dependent yet contributed to the social fabric of their community. As early as Byzantine times, the "village idiot" was treated as an acceptable form of disabled individual compatible with then-prevailing normative conceptions of social order. The concept of a "village savant" or "village genius" is closely related, often tied to the concept of pre-industrial anti-intellectualism, as both figures are subjects of both pity and derision.Dols, M.W., 1987: Insanity and its treatment in Islamic society. ''Medical History'' 31, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unseen Characters
An unseen character in theatre, comics, film, or television, or silent character in radio or literature, is a character that is mentioned but not directly known to the audience, but who advances the action of the plot in a significant way, and whose absence enhances their effect on the plot. History Unseen characters have been used since the beginning of theatre with the ancient Greek tragedians, such as Laius in Sophocles' '' Oedipus Rex'' and Jason's bride in Euripides' ''Medea'', and continued into Elizabethan theatre with examples such as Rosaline in Shakespeare's '' Romeo and Juliet''. However, it was the early twentieth-century European playwrights Strindberg, Ibsen, and Chekhov who fully developed the dramatic potential of the unseen character. Eugene O'Neill was influenced by his European contemporaries and established the absent character as an aspect of character, narrative, and stagecraft in American theatre. Purpose and characteristics Unseen characters are c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Situation Comedy
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
