Stoopnagle and Budd were a popular radio comedy team of the 1930s, who are sometimes cited as forerunners of the

Bob and Ray Bob and Ray were an American comedy duo whose career spanned five decades, composed of comedians Bob Elliott (1923–2016) and Ray Goulding (1922–1990). The duo's format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, suc ...

style of radio comedy. Along with Raymond Knight ('' The Cuckoo Hour''), they were radio's first satirists. Musician Wilbur Budd Hulick (1905–1961) and former broker-lumberman Frederick Chase Taylor (1897–1950) were both announcers at Buffalo station WMAK (now WBEN) in 1930. The great-grandson of British-born Aaron Lovecraft of

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, Taylor was a second cousin once removed of author H. P. Lovecraft, and was related to Chief Justice

Salmon P. Chase Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States. He also served as the 23rd governor of Ohio, represented Ohio in the United States Senate, a ...

Radio

Hulick and Taylor came together as a team when a transmitter failure kept the station from receiving the scheduled network program. To prevent

dead air Dead air is an unintended period of silence that interrupts a broadcast during which no audio or video program material is transmitted. Radio and television Dead air occurs in radio broadcasting when no audio program is transmitted for an exte ...

, they delivered a barrage of spontaneous, impromptu patter. Hulick called Taylor "Colonel Stoopnagle" while Taylor played "I Love Coffee, I Love Tea" and other selections on the organ. The audience responded with so much enthusiasm that the duo's goofiness became a regular feature on WMAK, generating such local interest that within a year they were headed for New York City. Amid much network hoopla, they were heard on ''The Gloomchasers'', beginning on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

May 24, 1931. Spouting

Spoonerism A spoonerism is an occurrence in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words in a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and ordained minister William Archibald Spooner, w ...

s, Taylor became known under the full name Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle as the partners appeared in several different formats on CBS, creating a variety of voices for their crazy characters, addlepated antics and wacky interviews. Typical of the Colonel's whimsical remarks: "If it weren't for half the people in the United States, the other half would be all of them", "Stoopnocracy is peachy", and "People have more fun than anybody". The announcer on their early 1930s shows was Louis Dean (1874–1933). For many years a rumor circulated that novelist Robert Bloch was a scriptwriter for the program, but Bloch stated that he only sold the team a few gags shortly after he graduated from high school. NBC president Pat Weaver recalled how the two zanies "used to come into my office and, while we talked, lick my supply of stamps, one after another, and flip them up to stick on the ceiling. There was a knack to it that I never mastered, but they carried it off with amazing success. By the end of the summer my ceiling was virtually papered with stamps."

Film

The public finally saw them in action when Paramount released '' International House'' (1933). Their very brief appearance—which looks like it might have been staged for one of Paramount's ''Hollywood on Parade'' short subjects—shows the colonel demonstrating his newest inventions, including "a revolving goldfish bowl for tired goldfish". The duo also appeared in Fleischer Studios's ''

Screen Songs ''Screen Songs'', formerly known as KoKo Song Car-Tunes, are a series of animated cartoons produced at the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. Paramount brought back the sing-along cartoons in 1945, n ...

'' cartoon ''Stoopnocracy'', released on August 18, 1933, in which they appeared in a live-action segment in the middle of the cartoon. They filmed a two-reel comedy for

Educational Pictures Educational Pictures, also known as Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. or Educational Films Corporation of America, was an American film production and film distribution company founded in 1916 by Earle (E. W.) Hammons (1882–1962). Educational pr ...

in 1934, ''The Inventors'', in which they show a college class how to assemble a "Stoopenstein", their version of a

Frankenstein monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compare ...

. Stoopnagle & Budd also appeared in a two-reel musical comedy for Vitaphone, ''Sky Symphony'', and they were featured in the Vitaphone short ''

Rambling 'Round Radio Row ''Rambling 'Round Radio Row'' (1932 - 1934) is a series of short subjects, produced by Jerry Wald, and released by the Vitaphone division of Warner Brothers. The final film in the series, released 1934, was #3 of the second season, and starred M ...

#1'' (1932).

As solo performers

Taylor and Hulick were forced into a trial separation in November 1935, when their scripted, sponsored program for

failed to achieve the success of their free-wheeling, unsponsored shows. CBS reassigned the partners temporarily: Taylor went on a California vacation while Hulick led an orchestra of studio musicians. (Hulick later married the vocalist.) Taylor and Hulick were reunited in January 1936 but left within a few months. Later in 1936,

Fred Allen John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program ''The Fred Allen Show'' (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and for ...

hired them as his summer replacement. Then the

NBC Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Comp ...

engaged them to star as ''The Minute Men'' (1936–37). "Stoopnagle and Budd" made their last radio appearance on February 16, 1938, with the

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, W ...

orchestra, after which they dissolved their partnership. Neither Taylor nor Hulick ever commented on the separation and did not disclose the reasons for the split, but ''Billboard'' columnist Jerry Franken soon printed an explanation: "They couldn't be sold. Translated, that means their stuff was too good... The Stoop's humor was not of the wallop-in-the-mush variety, but more akin to

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

Allen's style with more nonsense." Franken reported that scriptwriters for the Whiteman show were ordered "not to write anything along the lines of aylor'sformer work."Jerry Franken, ''Billboard'', March 12, 1938. The failure and humiliation were evidently too much for Taylor and Hulick to sustain, and they went their separate ways. The

Mutual network The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. rad ...

hired Hulick almost immediately, as co-host of '' What's My Name?'' with

Arlene Francis Arlene Francis (born Arline Francis Kazanjian; October 20, 1907 – May 31, 2001) was an American actress, radio and television talk show host, and game show panelist. She is known for her long-running role as a panelist on the television game s ...

. He became a radio game-show emcee, hosting Mutual's ''Music and Manners'' and ''Quizzer Baseball'' before relocating to Pennsylvania for a career in farming. Stoopnagle cbs 1940

Taylor, retaining his "Col. Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle" stage name, appeared in comedy movie shorts and whimsical radio programs. After a radio comedy series with Donald Dickson on the

Yankee Network The Yankee Network was an American radio network, based in Boston, Massachusetts, with affiliate radio stations throughout New England. At the height of its influence, the Yankee Network had as many as twenty-four affiliated radio stations. The ...

in New England, Taylor was a summer substitute for

on ''Town Hall Tonight'' in 1938. "Col. Stoopnagle" substituted for ''

Burns and Allen Burns and Allen was an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. They worked together as a successful comedy team that entertained vaudeville, film, radio, and television audiences for over forty years. The duo ...

'' (1943), ''

Duffy's Tavern ''Duffy's Tavern'' is an American radio situation comedy that ran for a decade on several networks ( CBS, 1941–42; NBC-Blue Network, 1942–44; and NBC, 1944–51), concluding with the December 28, 1951, broadcast. The program often featured ...

'' (1944),

Bob Hawk Bob Hawk (December 15, 1907 - July 4, 1989) was an American radio quizmaster and comic whose early work in radio set the standard for the "man in the street” interviews. Early years Born in Creston, Iowa, Hawk began his career by reading po ...

(1947), and

Vaughn Monroe Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 – May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter, big band leader, actor, and businessman, who was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for rec ...

's ''Camel Caravan'' (1947–48). Taylor also achieved success as a whimsical quizmaster, in ''Quixie Doodles'' on Mutual and CBS (1939–1944), ''The Colonel'' (1943), and ''Stoopnagle's Stooperoos'' (1943). Furthermore, Taylor was also a quizmaster on an experimental television program in July, 1944, on Schenectady station WRGB.

Books

Taylor had four books published under the name of "Colonel Stoopnagle", including: * ''You Wouldn't Know Me from Adam'' (1944) (Foreword by

) * ''Father Goosenagle: Nonsense and Fun for Everyone'' (1945) * ''My Tale is Twisted! Or the Storal to This Mory'' (1946) * ''My Back to the Soil; or, Farewell to Farms'' (1947) Among Taylor's book introductions/forewords: * Paul Webb ''Comin' Round the Mountain'' (1938) * Lawrence Lariar, editor ''Best Cartoons of the Year 1945'' (1945)

Later lives

F. Chase Taylor was married twice, first to Lois deRidder of Rochester, New York (divorced 1936), then to newspaperwoman Kay Bell. Budd Hulick married his erstwhile radio vocalist, Wanda Hart. Taylor made one foray into the new medium of television (other than the experimental 1944 broadcast, referred to above), ''Colonel Stoopnagle's Stoop'' (1949). That same year

Ed Gardner Ed Gardner (born Edward Poggenberg; June 29, 1901 – August 17, 1963) was an American comic actor, writer and director, best remembered as the creator and star of the radio's popular ''Duffy's Tavern'' comedy series. Early years Gardner w ...

invited Taylor to join his production company in Puerto Rico, to write scripts and make appearances on ''Duffy's Tavern''. Taylor was working in these capacities when he fell ill in 1950. He died in Boston of a heart ailment at the age of 52, survived by his wife. Hulick returned to his radio roots in 1950, back at WKBW in Buffalo, as co-host of the late-weekday-afternoon half-hour ''The Mr. and Mrs. Budd Hulick Show'', a light-conversation program aimed at the feminine audience. The Hulicks relocated to New Jersey in 1956, where Hulick became a local radio personality. He died in Florida in 1961.

References

External links

{{commonscat
Rick Squires' ''Stoopnocracy is Peachy!''
American comedy duos American comedy radio programs