likethebeer | Old Time radio

The Green Hornet: "Charity Takes It on the Chin" 02/21/42

If you've not heard The Green Hornet a lot, you may not know that Flight of the Bumblebee is used as a theme song. And I just realized that they use Flight of the Bumblebee to make up tons of time to tell the actual plot of the story.

Our Miss Brooks: "Cure That Habit" 01/15/50

The Superintendent of Schools is coming to visit the school, which has got Miss Brooks excited, because that means that the Principal, Mr. Conklin, might get in trouble & get fired.

Mr. Conklin has got a case of the hiccups, and someone's coming with the School Superintendent who works for a business to try to cure alcoholism and thinks Mr. Conklin is involved in it.

Looking at the Baroque plot, I would think it were written later, not all the way back in 1950.

Did I mention the story is taking place on Friday the 13th?

So, because of all the things that usually happen on Our Miss Brooks: Mr. Conklin's office has 4 kittens, a snake and a frog; Mr. Conklin gets bitten by the (non-poisonous) snake, thinks he needs alcohol on it; & someone spins him around in a chair to try to cure his hiccups, which makes him dizzy. So when the Superintendent of schools comes (with the guy from the anti-alcoholism institute), Mr. Conklin is dizzy, talking about wild animals in his office, and is given alcohol by a student.

It all gets figured out of course (as well as who wrote the man with the AA place; a joke played by a student).

Escape: "When the Man Comes, Follow" 04/09/49

"Why, he sent me to NY to pick up a Stradivarius. And I had to wait 2 weeks before the guy left it away from him so I could make off with it."

The narrator's boss (who asked him to steal the Stradivarius) is blind. For one.

Ah, the boss's brother is dying (shot) but tells them that, "when the man comes, follow." Looks like they're going off to Arizona.... The only thing that's missing from this story is a dame.

Oh, but someone in this search party (for a treasure in the desert) has been hit, so at least one element is in place.

So: this searching for a treasure has been cursed, and will always lead to double-crossing. Everyone shoots everyone, leaving one last man (who's not double crossed people), & the last water keg has been shot so that all the water has gone on the ground. And "when the man comes, follow," has to do with a shadow that appears, that you have to follow to the direction of the treasure.

X-Minus One: "Project Mastodon" 06/05/56

Ah: a man coming from a country (Mastodonia) that no one has heard of. So, since this is X-Minus One, I imagine that this man is an alien.... Oh, or it could be that the man is in one is now the U.S., but in the past (when you would have had Mastodons).... Yup: they're in the United States, 50,000 years before.

Now, we've got problems with calculating correct times for going forward & backward with time machines - if you're not just right, you can be off by a quarter of a century. Which is what happens: they guys go back 50,000 years, their time machine has a problem, and it takes them a month to fix it. But in our time, 25 years passes.

Weird Circle "The Vendetta" 09/12/43

A story that has an old vendetta, starcrossed lovers, and the man, at the end, killing himself when he thinks his love is dead. "Don't!" I yelled. "Haven't you ever heard of Romeo & Juliet? Oh... dummy. He died, she was actually alive. He really needed a Sassy Gay Friend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwnFE_NpMsE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

I think Flash Gordon used Flight of the Bumblebee, too.

A cure for alcoholism. How’s that been coming along?

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I hear Flash Gordon (it's pretty rare on this Old Time Radio broadcast).

Last I heard, the cure for alcoholism isn't going too well unless the person wants to do it.

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

I’m mistaken. It wasn’t Flight of the Bumblebee. I can hear the song in my head but can’t remember its name. But the Gale Gordon who played Conklin on Our Miss Brooks also played Flash Gordon. I didn't know that.

And even when they want to do it, many times it doesn’t go well. AA was started in Akron, so every summer bikers with sodas would overrun the university campus for a weekend. It was always a fun weekend to wander campus and listen to old biker stories.

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

I had no idea - nice coincidence.

AA's success rate, from what I hear, isn't fantastic. I'd appreciate the trying (having had my own experience with it). I know a few who have successfully stopped drinking & I know what happens when someone doesn't.

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

I do so love X-Minus One. Sometime around Christmas 1978, my family was sitting around making New Year’s resolutions. Grandma and Grandpa were going to quit smoking, again. Mom and Dad were going to learn disco dancing. Fair enough. But I had to trump them. So I announced, “I’m going to build a time machine.” I figured I had all of 1979 to build it and then we could spend the 80s seeing dinosaurs. Alas, that was the beginning of a long tradition of not accomplishing my New Year’s resolution.

I have quite a few friends with serious alcohol issues. I was once told, “I’m not an alcoholic; I only drink half a case a night.” And this was said without a hint of irony.

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

Ha – if I did have a time machine, I’d pick you up and take you back to see Tal in its early years. But then we’d probably learn that it we were the ones who started the fire by being clumsy or some such thing.

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

Definitely, I'd use a gun on Julian, because telling FLLW not to hire him... most probably wouldn't work.

And I'd bring lots of baking soda for dousing a fire....

And take a camera. And lots & lots of film.

Edited Date: 2013-02-24 10:18 pm (UTC)

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

You can’t take guns back in time. Every time you do that Hitler wins. Haven’t you read Bradbury? lol

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

Darn.

I'll get a cast iron skillet & use it as a weapon (and defense against the axe I guess).

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

Now I see Tom and Jerry cartoons in my head.

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

That'll make a fun cartoon.

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

Of course, everyone's got the time they'd go back to. No surprise, at least 1 of my time machine desires has a FLLW angle.

I found that, when I left my alcoholic ex- (& stopped drinking as much as I'd had) that I developed a sweet tooth. Once all those carbohydrates were knocked out of my system, the desire for sugar jumped up. It's more in hand now, but I do eat more sweet things than I used to.

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

Of course one of yours has an FLLW angle. But when we go back to WWI, can we hang out with Hemmingway or Mata Hari instead of going in the trenches?

Dating/living with(?) an alcoholic must have been a nightmare. It’s difficult enough being a very close friend. You get tired of driving them everywhere because another car is wrapped around a telephone pole. And tired of being lied to, “Oh no, I wasn’t drinking when it happened this time either.”

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

Switzerland, 1916, to hang out with the Dada folks (although I'd be way too old & I don't speak their languages). Or just go to La Bibliotheque Nationale & say "bon jour" to Duchamp (I don't want to mess with his mojo while he's thinking about "The Large Glass").

Lived with. Just getting to see the person I actually knew less & less & replaced by the drunk guy who doesn't interest me.

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

We’ll go back in time, pick up our younger selves and let them hang out with the Dada folks.

Sorry. That’s a sad experience. It sounds similar to being with someone who has dementia, eventually you’re having a relationship with the disease and not the person you loved.

From:

likethebeer.livejournal.com

Good idea on the younger selves - I'll be hanging out smoking at "The Wall" in college. Although the kid won't understand too much about the war going on at the edges of the country boundaries. ;>

I'll try to remember the dementia. It's hard not to take it personally, but that's what I pay the therapist for.

From:

immemor.livejournal.com

Remember that time you were smoking at the wall in college and that “creepy” guy in his 40s asked you to go for a ride with him in his time machine? Remember you had to chase him away with an iron skillet? Yeah, about that…

When you’re on the receiving end of that you can hear some pretty mean things and witness some horrible actions. It’s not a reflection of you. But that is easier to say than to feel.