Entertaining Road Trip

I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed continuously for three-and-one-half hours. It became almost painful. It happened a few weeks ago. I was driving from Columbus to the Halsey National Forest to attend a seminar. As it would be a long and solitary drive, I checked out a couple of the Library’s radio comedies on compact disc (cd) to entertain myself and make the trip seem shorter.

“The Best of Old Time Radio, Staring Abbott and Costello” is a side splitter. Honestly, you need a handkerchief to wipe your eyes, you laugh so much. Thank goddness the route I took was all two lanes for I’m certain that had anyone passed my vehicle, they would have thought I was delirious.

I’ve always loved the humor of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. I’ve watched practically all of their movies. Their movies weren’t as slapstick as the Marx Brothers and there was always a plot of sorts. I can remember one movie where there is a live crab in a soup and it steals Costello’s spoon. It finally grabs his tie and begins pulling him into the soup. It would be great to see that episode again.
On the radio, I’ve always been a fan of their “Who’s on First?” routine. On my drive to Halsey, I skipped back on the cd and listened to that again. Other episodes on this 6-compact disc set included these two crazy guys with guests such as the Andrews sisters, Dorothy Lamour, Frank Sinatra, Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy, and Judy Garland.

Other digitally restored radio cd collections held by the Library include, “Old-Time Radio’s 60 All-Time Favorites”. This 30 cd collection features “The Jack Benny Programs”, “The Bob Hope Show”, “Our Miss Brooks”, “The Shadow”, “Gunsmoke” and “Dragnet”.

The “Road Trip, Humorous Travel Tales” includes 22 episodes lasting a total of 10 hours about travel humor. Jack Benny presents “Driving Back from San Francisco” and “To Buy a New Car”; Fibber McGee and Molly presents “Freeway Ride” and “Fibber Teaches Molly to Drive”; Burns and Allen presents “George Gets a New Car”; Our Miss Brooks does “Driver’s Education” and The Lux Radio Theatre presents, “It Happened One Night With Clark Gable”.

Another comedy collection is “Old-Time Radio, Legends of Comedy” . This 10 cd program includes many of the classic comedians such as William Bendix in “The Life of Riley” and Lucille Ball and Richard Denning in “My Favorite Husband”. George Burns and Gracie Allen present “Gold Rush Gracy” and “Why Was George Late for the Show?”

These and several more radio programs on cd can be found at the library in the cd browser cabinet under “non-fiction” cds. A shortcut to finding your favorite programs is to seach by the subject of “Radio Comedies” or “Radio Programs” on the Library’s on-line catalog.
The listener should be wary. These old-time radio programs may be too entertaining. It might take longer to make your journey by car as you will want to finish listening to a skit before arriving at your destination, or back at home, a ten or 15 minute sit in your car in the garage might be necessary before announcing your return.