On any given night in Summerfield—in a room above Floyd Munson’s barbershop—you just might hear that song from five men collectively known as “The Jolly Boys”: Floyd (Arthur Q. Bryan), druggist Richard Q. Peavey (Richard LeGrand), police chief Tom Gates (Ken Christy), Judge Horace Hooker (Earle Ross) and Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve (Hal Peary)—better known to OTR fans as The Great Gildersleeve. This musical aggregation—or “aggravation,” as Floyd once humorously described it—often figured in the plots of the popular situation comedy, and the December 31, 1947 broadcast I listened to this morning is a prime example.
It’s New Year’s Eve in Summerfield’s water department, and our favorite water commissioner is having his secretary Bessie (Gloria Holliday, who later on in real-life became Mrs. Hal Peary) tidy up 1947’s “unfinished business” before the new year rolls in. Bessie muses that since the paperwork from 1947 fills up two cabinet drawers compared to only one from last year business must be improving:
GILDY: …but it’s all over for this year and now we can relax…uh…what time is it?
BESSIE: Only …should I get my pad and pencil?
GILDY: Bessie…it’s December 31st…doesn’t that mean anything to you?
BESSIE: Oh…yes, sir…
GILDY: What?
BESSIE: Um…gosh, I don’t know…I guess you caught me in a fib, Mr. Gildersleeve…
GILDY: It means that it’s the last day of the year, Bessie…let’s close up the office! Besides, I have some arrangements to make for New Year’s Eve…
BESSIE: Oh, you mean all those parties, Mr. Gildersleeve? You certainly were invited to a lot of them…
GILDY: Well…yes, I was (chuckles)…
BESSIE: New Year’s parties are such fun…when it’s you say “Happy New Year” and then…kiss everybody!
GILDY (laughing): Yes, that’s the general idea, Bessie…let’s see, I’ll stop in at Doris ’ at nine…Eve’s at nine-thirty…pay a call on the Bagley sisters at ten…and be back at Doris ’ by eleven…she invited me twice (Gildy laugh)…
Gildersleeve stops by Peavey’s drugstore and can’t resist the urge to lord it over the druggist and barber Floyd about his grand New Year’s plans. Peavey, it seems, will be ringing in the new year with Mrs. Peavey, and Floyd has found himself playing nursemaid to wife Lovey, who is suffering from a cold:
FLOYD: Hey, the Judge was in…mentioned somethin’ about gettin’ together at the Jolly Boys tonight but I told him to count me out…you fellas, too, huh?
GILDY: The Jolly Boys? That would be Judge Hooker’s idea…what a dull place to spend New Year’s Eve…
PEAVEY: Well now, I wouldn’t say that…I can think of duller places…and perhaps the Judge doesn’t have any other place to go…
FLOYD: Yeah, he’s kinda alone in the world at that…I’d ask him over to our house but I can’t with Lovey on the blink…
PEAVEY: Well, he could come over and celebrate with Mrs. Peavey and me…course I’d have to put out some feelers first…
FLOYD: Hey! Why don’t you take him around with you tonight, Commish?
GILDY: Floyd!
FLOYD: He don’t have a happy home to stick to like the Peave and me…just a housekeeper and four walls…
GILDY: Well, that’s his concern…
FLOYD: Well, you wouldn’t want to be all alone on New Year’s Eve, would ya?
GILDY: Well…now Floyd…
PEAVEY: He’s really very fond of you, Mr. Gildersleeve…
FLOYD: Yeah, you’ve known him longer than any of us…
GILDY: It’s up to the Judge to get invited to his own parties…he has to make his little contacts throughout the year like I do…
FLOYD (coldly): Okay, Commissioner…it that’s the way you feel about it…on New Year’s Eve…I guess I’ll get back to the shop…
GILDY: I’ll be right over for that shave, Floyd…
FLOYD (with a slight edge in his voice): I may be busy…Happy New Year, Peavey…
PEAVEY: Happy New Year, Floyd…
GILDY: Happy New Year, Floyd! (stony silence) Floyd! Happy New Year! (more silence) Look, fellas…I’m not responsible for Hooker…
FLOYD: The Judge is a Jolly Boy, ain’t he?
GILDY: But…
FLOYD: All for one and one for all…like the song goes, should old acquaintance be forgot…
GILDY (resignedly): All right, Floyd, all right…I’ll take him along with me…ye Gods…
FLOYD: That’s the spirit, Commish! Happy New Year!
PEAVEY: It’s a very nice thing you’re doing, Mr. Gildersleeve… (Breaking out into song) “Should old acquaintance…”
GILDY (cutting him off) All right, Peavey…Happy New Year…
Gildersleeve goes out looking for the Judge, and finds him walking in the park. He plans to extend his New Year’s parties invitation to his friendly nemesis, but the Judge apparently has other ideas:
HOOKER: You see, I’ve been thinking about you, too, Gilder…
GILDY: You have?
HOOKER: Yes…and those two sweet children…how you must look forward to the joy of each New Year’s Eve…Marjorie, curled at your feet…and little Leroy in your lap…
GILDY: Yeah, but Judge…when did you see Leroy last?
HOOKER: Oh, that’s right…I was carried back, I guess…to the time when, as probate judge, I turned those little children over to you…my, but you were proud…
GILDY: Well, yes I was…
HOOKER: …and although you’ve been fatheaded and stubborn at times…a little negligent…I’ve never regretted doing it…
GILDY: Well…thanks, Judge…
HOOKER: …with each passing year, what a thrill it must be for you…a man whose life was once empty…like mine is…to hear them recite their accomplishments and plan the course of the future and…welcome the new year all together…one family, all for one and one for all…now then, what is it you wanted to ask me, Gilder?
GILDY: Well…Floyd and Peavey told me that you were at loose ends tonight…and I was wondering…
HOOKER: Yeah?
GILDY: …if you care to spend New Year’s Eve with me…
HOOKER: Where, Gilder? At home? With you and the children?
GILDY: At home? Uh…well…yes…in the bosom of my little family…
HOOKER: Gildy, old friend…I’d be honored and delighted!
GILDY (muttering to himself): I was afraid you would…you old goat…
So Gildersleeve’s big heart traps him into spending New Year’s Eve at home—an idea that is most assuredly not popular with the family, particularly niece Marjorie (Louise Erickson), who had planned to imitate her uncle’s plans by going out and getting down with her bad self. The evening with Hooker is as exciting as watching paint dry, and when the Judge mentions that he’s glad he turned down the same party invitations in order to spend New Year’s with Gildy, Gildersleeve explodes and storms out of the house, intending to forge on with his party-attending plans:
(SFX: town clock tolling, footsteps in snow)
GILDY: Well…quarter of twelve…still time to wish Doris Dalrymple a Happy New Year…maybe Eve, too (chuckling)…(SFX: piano playing off in distance) hey…somebody’s having a party over at Floyd’s barbershop…the Jolly Boys Club! Now, who’d be up there? Well, it’ll only take a minute to find out…
(SFX: door opens and closes, footsteps walking upstairs…a group of voices singing “Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet” can be heard, and as Gildersleeve goes up the stairs he joins in, singing)
GILDY: Well! Floyd! Chief! What goes on here?
GATES: If it isn’t Commissioner Gildersleeve…
FLOYD: Hiya, Commish…you’re just in time…
GILDY: Floyd… I thought Lovey was sick…
FLOYD: Well, I had to step out and get her some cough syrup…ha ha ha ha…
GILDY: I thought you Jolly Boys were all staying home tonight…you’re a fine bunch of hypocrites…
PEAVEY: Well now, I wouldn’t say that…
GILDY: Peavey, you old rascal…how did you get away from Mrs. Peavey?
PEAVEY: Well, it seems Mrs. Peavey is a little behind the times…
GILDY: Huh?
PEAVEY (with barely concealed glee) She thinks New Year’s Eve is tomorrow night…
GILDY (laughing) Oh my goodness…how long have you guys been here? Chief! You always spend New Year’s with your mother, in Salinas
GATES: I do, Mr. Gildersleeve…but tonight, the blizzard blocked the road…(sadly) first New Year’s I’ve missed spending with my mother in twenty years…
FLOYD: That’s tough, Chief…hey, Commish…come on over in the corner and have a Coke…
GILDY: Coke? Well, just one…
PEAVEY: Maybe I’ll have another one with you…(explaining to Gildy) New Year’s Eve…
GILDY: Oh…???
HOOKER (entering) Well, good evening, gentlemen!
FLOYD: Hey gang, it’s the Judge!
GILDY: Judge, you’re like a bad penny…how did you find me?
HOOKER: That was easy, Gilder…after I put Leroy to bed I followed some peculiar tracks in the snow…nobody else walks like a steamroller…(laughs)
GILDY: Why, you old goat…
HOOKER: I’m glad you left so I could…I was never so bored in all my life…
GILDY: Now see here, Hooker…
GATES: Fellas, fellas…it’s New Year’s Eve…and we’re all Jolly Boys…
(SFX: town clock tolls twelve)
FLOYD: Yeah! Hey, listen…it’s …let’s have a song…”Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot…”
(SFX: piano begins to play)
HOOKER: Well, not a bad idea…huh, Gildy old friend?
GILDY: Great idea, Judge…old friend…
FLOYD: Catch it as it comes by…
(The five of them sing “Auld Lang Syne”, as the orchestra plays out…)
At the episode’s end, Hal Peary “breaks the fourth wall” (although this being radio that might not be the correct term) and wishes the listening audience a Happy New Year from him and the Gildersleeve cast and crew. You may call me a sentimental ol’ slob, but I have to agree with the sentiment expressed in this episode that there is no better time spent on New Year’s than with your family and/or friends. By the way, I noticed that this is the second post in two days to use the word “bosom”—I think I will resolve not to use that word anymore when blogging in 2004.
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