From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Bozo UL?
Date: 21 Jul 92 12:40:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Jul21.124022.24231
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <1992Jul20.214914.13703@twg.com> nolan@twg.com writes:
>
>In article <1992Jul17.053601.7614@news.columbia.edu>, 
>	lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) reminisces:
>
>[HowdyDoodyStuff deleted]
>|>One of the regulars on the show who played the other Aragnak indian character,
>						       ^^^^^^^
>
>I distinctly (after all these years?) remember Phineas  T. Bluster and a
>motley bunch jumpin' around on the stage chanting:
>
>		Ooragnak! Ooragnak!
>		Kangarooooo!

You are likely correct about the spelling, as the show often included some
word games, but it's also possible that this was a pun derived from spelling
the apparent name slightly distorted from its pronunciation so the reverse
spelling fit the pun.  They weren't above that particular form of shenanigan
either.

I remember one specific word game they screwed up, and attempted to make a
joke out of the mistake.  They were deriving first letters of words to form
the word California, but the clue for the second i was a picture of a light
bulb, which could be taken as someone getting an idea about something.  (The
lamp lights, etc., an offbeat metaphor for getting an idea sometimes used in
cartoons, etc.)  Anyway, they used an L instead of an I in that position in the
word, and the skit degenerated into a back and forth about "what does
Californla spell?"  Such was live TV.

>
>|>Chief Thunderthud came back with the following to finally silence the kid:
>|>"You are correct, Paleface! This is not Princess SummerFallWinterSpring, this
>|>is her COUSIN, Princess SummerFallWinterSpring!  The real Princess
>|>SummerFallWinterSpring go back to reservation, have papoose!"
>|>
>|>So, another motto of this busy week:
>|>
>|>I saw and heard it myself as a child, so therefore it's true.
>|>
>|>cjl (Once had a 10-inch Motorola TV)
>
>Oooooo! Yerz wuz bigger'n mine! But my pholks had a nifty old Philco! So
>there!

Some of my earliest memories was seeing that suddenly my older brother was
*very* popular and our house was occupied by many unfamiliar faces of kids
coming to watch this new novelty.  People used to gather in the streets in
front of radio stores to watch the new TV in the window.  Some places rigged
outdoor speakers for their benefit.

>--
>Nolan "Hi! I'm Buster Brown and I live in a shoe. That's my dog Tighe and he
>lives in there, too." Hinshaw

I knew it was Tighe, but is that the exact spelling?  (That's what was
bothering me, is it like the actor on Emergency? (Kevin Tighe?))

However, my original post has the patter more precise as was originally on
Andy's Gang.

Now to blow away Nolan and a few others: it *wasn't* Andy's Gang!

It was originally Smiling Ed's gang.  (I never got Ed's last name; anyone
got that tidbit?) Ed died while the show was already quite popular, so they
got Andy Devine from the Wild Bill Hickok show (he played Jingles) to take
over the show, which was otherwise intact.

This was a bizarre show: First Smiling Ed (later Andy) comes out before a
mythical audience, with one or more of his animal characters to alledgedly
talk about today's show.  (This was filmed TV, not live.  They cut periodically
to an enthusiastic audience of kids howling or applauding as necessary, but
it's *always* the same few cuts!)  There is Midnight the stuffed black cat
that plays the violin and meows mechanically, and a mouse never seen close up
called Squeaky always associated with an excessively squeaking soundtrack,
and a hand-operated puppet limited to only slight motion imparted by the
hand beneath.  This is a pair of feet and a frog-like head with a perpetual
grin, and is identified as Froggy the Gremlin.  The catch-phrase is
"Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy" coming from Smiling Ed or Andy, and
the response in a punky voice is "Hiya kids, Hiya!" with the recorded response
from the audience cut-in of "Hi, Froggy!".  Unlike the cat and mouse, Froggy
doesn't look at all real, yet has a quite sentient, and devious personality.
Ed or Andy will warn Froggy to be nice to their daily guest, who is
invariably character actor Billy Gilbert as Professor whatever, alledged
authority on some stupid subject.  Froggy always promises "to be good" but
we all know he won't be.

Then they cut to the serial episode of Gunga Ram, the elephant boy in
British Colonial India.  I think there was occasionally an alternate
story line.  Then back to a musical segment featuring Midnight and Squeaky
then the appearance of Prof. whatever, who gets taunted and tripped up
by Froggy.  He uses word trips and even some dirty tricks.  (Although since
Froggy can't move off his little podium and can only rock from side to side,
we never understand how he sets up his victims.  In any case, the camera will
zoom in to the lit fuse on the bomb or whatever device Froggy has used against
the professor.)  By the end of the segment, the professor is invariably
in tears, being ridiculed by the canned audience, and Ed or Andy is scolding
the evil Froggy for his dirty tricks.

Froggy would be a great role model for today's criminal youth.

>"Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!"
>Internet: nolan@twg.com			Dingalingnet: (415)962-7197
	
This was a one-sponsor packaged show, thus the perpetual Buster Brown
sponsoring.

"I got shoes, you got shoes
All god's children have shoes.
But there's only one kind of shoe for me,
Good ol' Buster Brown shoes, yay!!!!"

This was done in chorus by these same kids in the canned audience.  Then
it cuts away to this older kid who I swear looks like Wayne Newton dressed
up more like a little Dutch Boy who says:

I'm Buster Brown!
I live in a shoe!
That's my dog Tighe!
Look for him in there too! (Arf! from Tighe at that point)

Gee, maybe Muppet babies *is* better!

cj "child of the '50's" l