Customer Reviews

THE STORY OF VIC & SADE

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A little disappointed in this book. My dad had been the engineer on this show and I knew a lot of the episodes, so I was looking forward to a book more about 'behind the scenes' and the people involved in the show, whereas this book is probably 90% scripts. The scripts are fun to read, but it just wasn't what I was expecting. It's more like 'Paul Rhymer's scripts from "Vic and Sade" with comments by Bill Idelson'.

I enjoyed this book for all the new information about Paul Rhymer, however, what completely puzzled me was the total lack of stories about Uncle Flecher! He was a favorite character of mine among the 4 actors and I wondered if Billy Idleson had something against him.

"Vic and Sade," the radio comedy created by Paul Rhymer and populated by his characters and eccentric humor, is something that either grabs you and becomes part of your vocabulary, or else eludes you altogether. Organizations such as "The Friends of Vic & Sade" have made notable progress in collecting, cataloguing, and publicizing the show, which survives mostly in script form after the sponsor destroyed the majority of the recordings.

Bill Idelson played the role of Rush Meadows Gook, adopted son of Vic & Sade Gook. "Inhabited the role" would be more appropriate. Like the three other actors who voiced the scripts daily (Art Van Harvey, Bernardine Flynn, and later, Clarence Hartzell), Idelson's delivery was almost eerily natural and earnest, lending a surreal air to the bizarre goings-on described daily by one or more members of the Gook household. Of all the principles connected with the program, Idelson had the most active "afterlife," moving into scriptwriting (including "The Andy Griffith Show" and "MASH") and teaching of the same.

The gold of this book, acknowledged by Idelson, are the complete and excerpted scripts from the mid-1930s episodes of "Vic & Sade," which illustrate the gamut of Rhymer's humor, from trenchant satire to human comedy, all with an uncanny familiarity with the bizarre side of day-to-day familial and small-town politics.

Unfortunately, the book is not always well organized. Correspondence from Rhymer, much of it salty if not obscene, sits cheek-by-jowl with the scripts. It should be said this is not a book for the faint-hearted nostalgist, nor for children. It might also puzzle fans of the show who enjoy Clarence Hartzell's "Uncle Fletcher" character. Hartzell/Fletcher appears only on the cover and is mentioned only in passing. He is conspicuous by his absence. Idelson obviously prefers the cast in its original 3-person incarnation, but Hartzell was hardly as intrusive or out of place as the multitude of characters who invaded the program in its brief 1945 and '46 runs.

But at least we have a little more insight into the mind of Paul Rhymer, the history of his quirky and often hilarious series, and best of all, a few more conversations overheard from that small house halfway up in the next block.

I finally tracked this book down at a used book site (for much less than listed here at present) and I'm so glad I did. I'm a huge Vic & Sade fan, and Bill Idelson's recollections of the production from behind the scenes is fascinating and delightful. The glimpses into the personality and work habits of Paul Rhymer, the writer and certifiable genius behind the series, were warm, insightful, and invaluable owing to the rarity of material about Rhymer. You should understand that 90% of the book consists of scripts selected by Idelson, usually with some added comments. But with the voices of the cast members in your head, you'll definitely enjoy this unique visit to that little house halfway up the next block.

To answer the question of the previous reviewer, the obituary of Bill Idelson (who passed away 12/31/07) states that he joined the Navy in World War II. Clarence Hartzell, who played Uncle Fletcher on the show, was interviewed for a retrospective program in 1974, and said that he was the organist who played the theme song on the show, and that when "Vic" was hospitalized with a heart condition in 1941, Hartzell was pressed into service to play an old man (though he was only 30 at the time). There was probably little or no overlap between Idelson and Hartzell, or at least that's an educated guess. I began listening to the program in 1943 at the age of nine, and have never forgotten it. The book naturally accentuates Idelson's early years on the show, when he was a teenager.