August 4, 2025 • 17 mins
What would you do if a stranger showed up at your house saying some friends of yours had told her to look you up for a place to stay? And if you were inclined to show her a bit of hospitality, what would you do when she called her giant husband to come inside.
This was the basis of a stunt on a post-war episode of People Are Funny. And we'll find out in today's excerpt from that program hosted by Art Linkletter.
This comes from an Armed Forces Radio Services rebroadcast and I'm unable to ascertain the exact air date.
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This was the basis of a stunt on a post-war episode of People Are Funny. And we'll find out in today's excerpt from that program hosted by Art Linkletter.
This comes from an Armed Forces Radio Services rebroadcast and I'm unable to ascertain the exact air date.
Support the show on a One-Time basis at https://support.greatdetectives.net
and become one of our Patreon Supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.net
Subscribe to the Podcast at http://www.snackwagon.net or wherever you download your podcasts from.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/old-time-radio-snack-wagon-rare-historic-radio-programs--5919985/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Old Time Radio snack Wagon is on its summer break.
We're tuning up the snack Wagon, ordering our ingredients and
preparing to serve you up a new match of old
time radio snacks in our fifth season. In the meantime,
enjoy this second helping of some of our best season
one episodes and we'll be back with our new season
(00:23):
on Monday, September eighth.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey are you Adam Graham?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
The very same? And this is my old Time Radio
snack Wagon.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon, where we
serve up a bite sized portion of old time radio.
And now here's your snack wagon host Adam Graham.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon, and this
week's snack is a good old fashioned slash of life.
It's fascinating to hear the voices of regular people from
decades past. They have different ways of speaking, different accents,
(01:12):
different sort of phrases that they use compared to folks today.
And it's different than in the movies, where people will
often use exaggerations or invented accents like the mid Atlantic accent.
When it comes to hearing ordinary people, radio, game quiz
(01:32):
and audience participation shows are some of the best sources
you'll find, and one of the most interesting to me
is People Are Funny. In talking about great programs of
this sort during this era, People Are Funny kind of
gets lost in the conversation, as many more are aware
(01:52):
of You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx or
Truth or Consequences hosts by Ralph Edwards. But People Are
Funny was a quite popular series. It ran from nineteen
forty two to nineteen sixty one. Art link Letter was
the second host, coming on in nineteen forty three and
(02:15):
staying all the way through. At the height of its popularity,
a spin off movie was actually made in nineteen forty six.
People Are Funny was really centered around stunts. These were
never mean spirited or really extreme, particularly when you compare
(02:36):
it to some of the things that has happened both
on television and the Internet in recent decades. Some of
these stunts were simple in studio events that can be
pulled off in a matter of minutes. Others were far
more elaborate, taking weeks or even months to complete. This
(02:58):
particular incident is in the middle. Two participants had to
leave the studio, but we found out what happened within
the same taping session. This particular program is from an
Armed Forces radio service resyndication, and I don't have any
idea as to the actual date, but let's go ahead
(03:22):
and take a lesson to both the setup and the
reveal of what happened on People are Funny.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Roy Rowan, Who's first on tonight's show from Hollywood. Our
first guest is Miss Elsie George from Los Angeles. Hello,
Miss George. Now let's see you volunteered as a single
girl out of the audience. What do you do for
a living, Miss George.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I'm a.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Real doctor, real talk, Doctor George.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You're about twenty year well in your late twenties, and
you're a medical doctor.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Well, that's a surprising thing, and that you would volunteer
after seeing well you could operate on yourself no matter
what happened, did you?
Speaker 5 (04:05):
And you're not married.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We think that people are funny about vacations, Dr George,
when they travel and they meet friends in the summer
and they casually get acquainted and pretty soon they say,
you must be sure to look me up when you
come to my hometown if you ever do. Isn't that true? Yes, Now,
people are funny because they never expect these summer acquaintances
to actually show up and pay a visit to them.
(04:26):
But tonight it's gonna happen to you. Here's not gonna happen,
doctor George. We're going to send you out to a
nearby neighborhood and you're going to drop in on a
strange family. You don't know them, they don't know you,
and they don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
You're going to arrive.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Now you're going to pretend on your vacation you met
some of their friends who told you, oh, you must
know these nice people out in Hollywood, and they told
you to pay them a visit. Now you're just going
to drop in and you know about them. We'll give
you the information you got the car, John, here's the address,
and a lot of stuff we found out from the
neighbors about these people. You see, they're from Cincinnati and
they have a lot of people back there. They know
(05:01):
you got that. Yes, tell them you won't be there
long a week or so.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
You're just I think you could do it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
I don't know how You've got to pretend that you're
really a good friend. You're breezing in for a visit,
and would you feel better if somebody else went along
with you?
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Would you like that one? Yes?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Please?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Well all right, and of course to send somebody along
and make it a good story. We should pretend that
you're married, all right? The man just pretend that he's
and we'll provide the husband. Would you like to have
the loan of a husband for half an hour?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
All right?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And of course, ladies and gentlemen, people are funny. Provides
a husband. We don't skimp. Harry comes mister ted Evans
a nine foot time did your new husband?
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Doctor? This is the biggest guy you ever saw in
your whole life, Ted, Ted?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You're are you one of the New York giants? No,
he's with a circus, the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey's Circus.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
How long you been with a circus? Ted? Two years? Now? Huh?
Where do you come from originally? Or you're an englishman?
Doctor George, what do you think of this?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Eh?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I don't think I'll lose him anywhere. That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
For a girl who came to CBS without a man.
You must admit you have hit the jackpot. Yes, now, Ted,
you and doctor George, you're going to leave, and here's
what happens. She's going to pretend to be your wife,
and you're going to pay a surprise visit.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
He looks surprised too.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You're going to pay a surprise visit to a Hollywood
family who don't even know you're coming.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Now, you're supposed to have just arrived in town, orv.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Where's the suitcase? Would you bring out the suitcase? What
a piddly little suitcase for this family?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
IRV Atkins has a special car waiting outside, big enough
for Ted to get into.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Because you have two cars, have you herved?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
He rides in one and she rides in the other,
and you will be driven out to this house a
few blocks away. Now, Doctor George, your husband will stay
in the car, and you go up alone and knock
on the door. When somebody answers, you tell him you
know your friends are their pals and so forth and
so on. When they ask you to in, you yell
out to your new husband to bring the bags and
come on up. You see he's down there. They haven't
(07:18):
seen him yet. Let's hear you yell, you know, like,
come on in, honey, this is the place, real long,
Come on.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
In, honey, this is the flies.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
See now, Ted, When you hear that, you come lumbering
up the front walk and then go right in the house.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Go right in the house, take the door with.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You, and miss George, you tell the people in the
house not to worry that he's a real nice husband.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Ted.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
You go on into the bedroom, take off your shoes
and stretch out on the bed. Be friendly, Run your
feet through the wall a few times. Try the room
on for size, Miss George, What do you think this
poor family? He doesn't even know what's going to happen here?
What'll they be doing?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Is there any way we canate them?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You see what happens when you have a doctor on
the show. These big long words resuscitate you. Yes, you
as a doctor, will be needed, and they may call
the cops because you never know how things like this
work out. Don't worry, Ted, No, no, the cops will
take one look at you and they'll go back on
(08:27):
some other beat. Now, Miss George, if they do get
a very huffy about you coming in, tell them your
last trump card. You say that you and your new
husband are tired. You've looked every place for a place
to stay, and you're real tired because you're expecting a
(08:47):
little stranger.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Did I say a little stranger?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well, anyhow, after you've played as much of this terrible
joke as you can on them, you come back to CBS,
ask them to come back with you, and we'll give
them a more pleasant surprise. Okay, I think you'll have fun.
Miss George has a new experience for you and for
them too, Ted and everybody say goodbye to the audience.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Here they go.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
At the beginning of People Are Funny tonight, we sent
a single woman out to drop in on a strange
family in Hollywood who didn't know they were coming, and
pretend she knew friends of theirs who asked her to
drop in on them. And to make it more fun,
we send along with her a nine foot giant from
the Ringling Brother's circus that poses her husband. They're back now,
so send missus George, our doctor gal in with her husband.
(09:44):
And look at the family they brought in with them.
They have one, two, three, four, five people.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
Living in one of the houses.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Miss George. U, let's find out the sequence of events.
Miss George, you were driven out to this neighborhood. You
went up to this house knocked on the door by yourself.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Who answered the door, mister.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Who weymar, weymar? And what did you say?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I said that the Orlando's there in Cincinnati were good
friends of us, and they told us when we got
here to be sure to lift them up.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Did they seem surprised at the name, Well a little.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Bit, and he said, well, come on in right away.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Well they invited you right in. There was no hesitation.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
He said that they were the best among their best friends,
and there's nothing they wouldn't do for a friend of Orlando's.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh so you established usself real solid.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Then you turned around and yelled for your husband to
come in.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
What did they do when they saw him nine feet
tall walking up the aisle?
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Nobody could say a word but mister Waymar, and he
was really brave about it.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
What did he say?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Well, he just went right on talking, he didn't. They
were just as polite as they could be. They tried
to pretend that he was just.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
No taller than this, you mean, they they pretended that
he was a normal sized fellow. How did they react
when you said that you might be there for a
few days.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Well, they sort of looked at each other, But they said, well,
any friend of Orlando's. They they had a lot of
neighbors come into and they all want to know you're
going to spend the night.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Did you ever have to go so far miss George
as to say you were expecting a little stranger.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
No, you didn't do that. You didn't have to. Basically,
as a matter of fact, these folks were so nicety.
I'm going over and chat with them.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You are Missus, that's rights who missus Wayne Meyer?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Missus? And you were home? Of course? What were you
doing when this happened?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Well, I was just sitting there.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
You had had you eaten dinner?
Speaker 6 (11:38):
Yes, and no we haven't eaten dinners yet.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Terry and I were going out for dinner. Well, you see,
I don't blame you for not knowing at this point
whether you've eaten dinner or not. After what's happened to
you tonight, it should n't happen to a dog.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
What business are you in there?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I am my salesman with Wilfs for Club Hu.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
And your name is how old you? Terry? Eighteen eighteen? Well?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
What we What were your reactions when you saw this
giant walking?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I didn't know what to do. You were real polite? Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yes, were you expecting him to really stay? Well?
Speaker 6 (12:16):
When Kerry asked him to to stay overnight, I looked
at her. I thought, well, where am I gonna put him?
You didn't have a bed that he could sleep there?
And I started to shake. I'm still shaving, and I
was gonna put.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Him up, I mean on the floor. Other words, what
you mean is you were going to put him down?
Here's the young son. What's your name?
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Ed? What were you doing when this started out? When
it happened, were you just sitting homework?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Homework?
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Homework?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Oh, your homework is suffering tonight.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Were you willing to have him stay overnight?
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Well, I think you folks proved something very very interesting tonight.
We're always on this show proving that people are funny,
but I think this family has proved that people are
pretty wonderful too, and hospitable and real kind hearted. And
to be confronted by this giant and this stranger and
(13:18):
to have them come in, Miss George, don't you agree?
Speaker 5 (13:20):
I surely do.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
I always thought that the South was a place where
a hospitality reigns supreme, but I think it's out here
too well.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
This is, of course, this is the South.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
This is southern California, the deep South. Well, this is
the southern part of Hollywood. As a matter of fact,
mister and missus Wee Meyer, for being so nice and
for coming back over here.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
I tell you what we're going to do. Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
We're going to give each of them a twenty one
inch television set. What do you think of that? This
panoramic vision? Oh glad, And you're a wonderful looking family.
And miss George you happy? Yes, all right, now to
the dream.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
But on Tuesday night you listen to.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Radio, Well we always do.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
All right. I don't want to lose you.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Goodbye to all of you, and thanks for proving that
people are funny.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Welcome back. I enjoyed this. There's clearly an element of curiosity,
of experimentation and just trying to find out what people
will do. And sometimes that sort of thing can leave
you disillusion but not in this case. And it does
give some insight into how people related to each other.
(14:43):
And we'll try to do right even if it really
put them out.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
And I definitely can.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Understand the feeling of Missus Wayne Meyer when confronted with
this really challenging situation. She was going to give the space.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
On the floor.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Hopefully they had somewhere with enough space for them. They
were definitely good sports, and I appreciated mister Langletter really
trying to make sure they were not upset. By all accounts,
he was a really nice person. He's probably best remembered
for his interviews with kids and asking them these questions
(15:25):
that elicited these hilarious responses, And I think there's a
sense in his manner that he wants to have fun,
but he never wants to be mean or just embarrass
somebody for the sake of doing it and for people
to walk away with a smile. One thing that's also
interesting is the prizes that are given out on so
many of these older radio programs. The prizes are nice.
(15:50):
A twenty one inch television was certainly a good prize
during the era, But rarely was the prize something big
that was going to change your life, at least not
in the early days. Mostly it was a chance to
win a little something nice or maybe a few hundred dollars,
(16:11):
be on the radio and have some fun, or if
it was people are funny, also have the opportunity to
maybe also learn a little bit about human nature and
how people really were. It's time for me to close
up the Old Snackwagon, but don't worry. We'll be back
with another serving of old time radio goodness before you
(16:33):
know it. If you want to enjoy some of our
longer form podcast, you can feast away at my website
at Great Detectives dot net. Your emails are also welcome
at Adam at snackwagon dot net.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
The Old Time Radio Snackwagon comes to you from Boise, Idaho.
Your host is Adam Graham. Sound production is by Ryn's
Media LLC. You can listen to past episodes of the
Old Time Radio as well as connect on social media
at our website at snackwagon dot net. Email suggestions for
(17:08):
episodes to Adam at snackwagon dot net. This has been
the Old Time Radio Snackwagon.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Until next time. Goodbye,
The Old Time Radio snack Wagon is on its summer break.
We're tuning up the snack Wagon, ordering our ingredients and
preparing to serve you up a new match of old
time radio snacks in our fifth season. In the meantime,
enjoy this second helping of some of our best season
one episodes and we'll be back with our new season
(00:23):
on Monday, September eighth.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey are you Adam Graham?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
The very same? And this is my old Time Radio
snack Wagon.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon, where we
serve up a bite sized portion of old time radio.
And now here's your snack wagon host Adam Graham.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon, and this
week's snack is a good old fashioned slash of life.
It's fascinating to hear the voices of regular people from
decades past. They have different ways of speaking, different accents,
(01:12):
different sort of phrases that they use compared to folks today.
And it's different than in the movies, where people will
often use exaggerations or invented accents like the mid Atlantic accent.
When it comes to hearing ordinary people, radio, game quiz
(01:32):
and audience participation shows are some of the best sources
you'll find, and one of the most interesting to me
is People Are Funny. In talking about great programs of
this sort during this era, People Are Funny kind of
gets lost in the conversation, as many more are aware
(01:52):
of You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx or
Truth or Consequences hosts by Ralph Edwards. But People Are
Funny was a quite popular series. It ran from nineteen
forty two to nineteen sixty one. Art link Letter was
the second host, coming on in nineteen forty three and
(02:15):
staying all the way through. At the height of its popularity,
a spin off movie was actually made in nineteen forty six.
People Are Funny was really centered around stunts. These were
never mean spirited or really extreme, particularly when you compare
(02:36):
it to some of the things that has happened both
on television and the Internet in recent decades. Some of
these stunts were simple in studio events that can be
pulled off in a matter of minutes. Others were far
more elaborate, taking weeks or even months to complete. This
(02:58):
particular incident is in the middle. Two participants had to
leave the studio, but we found out what happened within
the same taping session. This particular program is from an
Armed Forces radio service resyndication, and I don't have any
idea as to the actual date, but let's go ahead
(03:22):
and take a lesson to both the setup and the
reveal of what happened on People are Funny.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Roy Rowan, Who's first on tonight's show from Hollywood. Our
first guest is Miss Elsie George from Los Angeles. Hello,
Miss George. Now let's see you volunteered as a single
girl out of the audience. What do you do for
a living, Miss George.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I'm a.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Real doctor, real talk, Doctor George.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You're about twenty year well in your late twenties, and
you're a medical doctor.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Well, that's a surprising thing, and that you would volunteer
after seeing well you could operate on yourself no matter
what happened, did you?
Speaker 5 (04:05):
And you're not married.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We think that people are funny about vacations, Dr George,
when they travel and they meet friends in the summer
and they casually get acquainted and pretty soon they say,
you must be sure to look me up when you
come to my hometown if you ever do. Isn't that true? Yes, Now,
people are funny because they never expect these summer acquaintances
to actually show up and pay a visit to them.
(04:26):
But tonight it's gonna happen to you. Here's not gonna happen,
doctor George. We're going to send you out to a
nearby neighborhood and you're going to drop in on a
strange family. You don't know them, they don't know you,
and they don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
You're going to arrive.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Now you're going to pretend on your vacation you met
some of their friends who told you, oh, you must
know these nice people out in Hollywood, and they told
you to pay them a visit. Now you're just going
to drop in and you know about them. We'll give
you the information you got the car, John, here's the address,
and a lot of stuff we found out from the
neighbors about these people. You see, they're from Cincinnati and
they have a lot of people back there. They know
(05:01):
you got that. Yes, tell them you won't be there
long a week or so.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
You're just I think you could do it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
I don't know how You've got to pretend that you're
really a good friend. You're breezing in for a visit,
and would you feel better if somebody else went along
with you?
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Would you like that one? Yes?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Please?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Well all right, and of course to send somebody along
and make it a good story. We should pretend that
you're married, all right? The man just pretend that he's
and we'll provide the husband. Would you like to have
the loan of a husband for half an hour?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
All right?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And of course, ladies and gentlemen, people are funny. Provides
a husband. We don't skimp. Harry comes mister ted Evans
a nine foot time did your new husband?
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Doctor? This is the biggest guy you ever saw in
your whole life, Ted, Ted?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You're are you one of the New York giants? No,
he's with a circus, the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey's Circus.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
How long you been with a circus? Ted? Two years? Now? Huh?
Where do you come from originally? Or you're an englishman?
Doctor George, what do you think of this?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Eh?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I don't think I'll lose him anywhere. That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
For a girl who came to CBS without a man.
You must admit you have hit the jackpot. Yes, now, Ted,
you and doctor George, you're going to leave, and here's
what happens. She's going to pretend to be your wife,
and you're going to pay a surprise visit.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
He looks surprised too.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You're going to pay a surprise visit to a Hollywood
family who don't even know you're coming.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Now, you're supposed to have just arrived in town, orv.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Where's the suitcase? Would you bring out the suitcase? What
a piddly little suitcase for this family?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
IRV Atkins has a special car waiting outside, big enough
for Ted to get into.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Because you have two cars, have you herved?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
He rides in one and she rides in the other,
and you will be driven out to this house a
few blocks away. Now, Doctor George, your husband will stay
in the car, and you go up alone and knock
on the door. When somebody answers, you tell him you
know your friends are their pals and so forth and
so on. When they ask you to in, you yell
out to your new husband to bring the bags and
come on up. You see he's down there. They haven't
(07:18):
seen him yet. Let's hear you yell, you know, like,
come on in, honey, this is the place, real long,
Come on.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
In, honey, this is the flies.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
See now, Ted, When you hear that, you come lumbering
up the front walk and then go right in the house.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Go right in the house, take the door with.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You, and miss George, you tell the people in the
house not to worry that he's a real nice husband.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Ted.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
You go on into the bedroom, take off your shoes
and stretch out on the bed. Be friendly, Run your
feet through the wall a few times. Try the room
on for size, Miss George, What do you think this
poor family? He doesn't even know what's going to happen here?
What'll they be doing?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Is there any way we canate them?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You see what happens when you have a doctor on
the show. These big long words resuscitate you. Yes, you
as a doctor, will be needed, and they may call
the cops because you never know how things like this
work out. Don't worry, Ted, No, no, the cops will
take one look at you and they'll go back on
(08:27):
some other beat. Now, Miss George, if they do get
a very huffy about you coming in, tell them your
last trump card. You say that you and your new
husband are tired. You've looked every place for a place
to stay, and you're real tired because you're expecting a
(08:47):
little stranger.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Did I say a little stranger?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well, anyhow, after you've played as much of this terrible
joke as you can on them, you come back to CBS,
ask them to come back with you, and we'll give
them a more pleasant surprise. Okay, I think you'll have fun.
Miss George has a new experience for you and for
them too, Ted and everybody say goodbye to the audience.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Here they go.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
At the beginning of People Are Funny tonight, we sent
a single woman out to drop in on a strange
family in Hollywood who didn't know they were coming, and
pretend she knew friends of theirs who asked her to
drop in on them. And to make it more fun,
we send along with her a nine foot giant from
the Ringling Brother's circus that poses her husband. They're back now,
so send missus George, our doctor gal in with her husband.
(09:44):
And look at the family they brought in with them.
They have one, two, three, four, five people.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
Living in one of the houses.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Miss George. U, let's find out the sequence of events.
Miss George, you were driven out to this neighborhood. You
went up to this house knocked on the door by yourself.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Who answered the door, mister.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Who weymar, weymar? And what did you say?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I said that the Orlando's there in Cincinnati were good
friends of us, and they told us when we got
here to be sure to lift them up.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Did they seem surprised at the name, Well a little.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Bit, and he said, well, come on in right away.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Well they invited you right in. There was no hesitation.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
He said that they were the best among their best friends,
and there's nothing they wouldn't do for a friend of Orlando's.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh so you established usself real solid.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Then you turned around and yelled for your husband to
come in.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
What did they do when they saw him nine feet
tall walking up the aisle?
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Nobody could say a word but mister Waymar, and he
was really brave about it.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
What did he say?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Well, he just went right on talking, he didn't. They
were just as polite as they could be. They tried
to pretend that he was just.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
No taller than this, you mean, they they pretended that
he was a normal sized fellow. How did they react
when you said that you might be there for a
few days.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Well, they sort of looked at each other, But they said, well,
any friend of Orlando's. They they had a lot of
neighbors come into and they all want to know you're
going to spend the night.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Did you ever have to go so far miss George
as to say you were expecting a little stranger.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
No, you didn't do that. You didn't have to. Basically,
as a matter of fact, these folks were so nicety.
I'm going over and chat with them.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You are Missus, that's rights who missus Wayne Meyer?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Missus? And you were home? Of course? What were you
doing when this happened?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Well, I was just sitting there.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
You had had you eaten dinner?
Speaker 6 (11:38):
Yes, and no we haven't eaten dinners yet.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Terry and I were going out for dinner. Well, you see,
I don't blame you for not knowing at this point
whether you've eaten dinner or not. After what's happened to
you tonight, it should n't happen to a dog.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
What business are you in there?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I am my salesman with Wilfs for Club Hu.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
And your name is how old you? Terry? Eighteen eighteen? Well?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
What we What were your reactions when you saw this
giant walking?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I didn't know what to do. You were real polite? Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yes, were you expecting him to really stay? Well?
Speaker 6 (12:16):
When Kerry asked him to to stay overnight, I looked
at her. I thought, well, where am I gonna put him?
You didn't have a bed that he could sleep there?
And I started to shake. I'm still shaving, and I
was gonna put.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Him up, I mean on the floor. Other words, what
you mean is you were going to put him down?
Here's the young son. What's your name?
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Ed? What were you doing when this started out? When
it happened, were you just sitting homework?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Homework?
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Homework?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Oh, your homework is suffering tonight.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Were you willing to have him stay overnight?
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Well, I think you folks proved something very very interesting tonight.
We're always on this show proving that people are funny,
but I think this family has proved that people are
pretty wonderful too, and hospitable and real kind hearted. And
to be confronted by this giant and this stranger and
(13:18):
to have them come in, Miss George, don't you agree?
Speaker 5 (13:20):
I surely do.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
I always thought that the South was a place where
a hospitality reigns supreme, but I think it's out here
too well.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
This is, of course, this is the South.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
This is southern California, the deep South. Well, this is
the southern part of Hollywood. As a matter of fact,
mister and missus Wee Meyer, for being so nice and
for coming back over here.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
I tell you what we're going to do. Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
We're going to give each of them a twenty one
inch television set. What do you think of that? This
panoramic vision? Oh glad, And you're a wonderful looking family.
And miss George you happy? Yes, all right, now to
the dream.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
But on Tuesday night you listen to.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Radio, Well we always do.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
All right. I don't want to lose you.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Goodbye to all of you, and thanks for proving that
people are funny.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Welcome back. I enjoyed this. There's clearly an element of curiosity,
of experimentation and just trying to find out what people
will do. And sometimes that sort of thing can leave
you disillusion but not in this case. And it does
give some insight into how people related to each other.
(14:43):
And we'll try to do right even if it really
put them out.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
And I definitely can.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Understand the feeling of Missus Wayne Meyer when confronted with
this really challenging situation. She was going to give the space.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
On the floor.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Hopefully they had somewhere with enough space for them. They
were definitely good sports, and I appreciated mister Langletter really
trying to make sure they were not upset. By all accounts,
he was a really nice person. He's probably best remembered
for his interviews with kids and asking them these questions
(15:25):
that elicited these hilarious responses, And I think there's a
sense in his manner that he wants to have fun,
but he never wants to be mean or just embarrass
somebody for the sake of doing it and for people
to walk away with a smile. One thing that's also
interesting is the prizes that are given out on so
many of these older radio programs. The prizes are nice.
(15:50):
A twenty one inch television was certainly a good prize
during the era, But rarely was the prize something big
that was going to change your life, at least not
in the early days. Mostly it was a chance to
win a little something nice or maybe a few hundred dollars,
(16:11):
be on the radio and have some fun, or if
it was people are funny, also have the opportunity to
maybe also learn a little bit about human nature and
how people really were. It's time for me to close
up the Old Snackwagon, but don't worry. We'll be back
with another serving of old time radio goodness before you
(16:33):
know it. If you want to enjoy some of our
longer form podcast, you can feast away at my website
at Great Detectives dot net. Your emails are also welcome
at Adam at snackwagon dot net.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
The Old Time Radio Snackwagon comes to you from Boise, Idaho.
Your host is Adam Graham. Sound production is by Ryn's
Media LLC. You can listen to past episodes of the
Old Time Radio as well as connect on social media
at our website at snackwagon dot net. Email suggestions for
(17:08):
episodes to Adam at snackwagon dot net. This has been
the Old Time Radio Snackwagon.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Until next time. Goodbye,
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