Though I’m sure Ralph Edwards might have raised a few strenuous
objections over those words, it was nevertheless the way Art Linkletter was
introduced week after week as the host of People Are Funny—which competed with Edwards’ Truth or Consequences as radio’s
best-known audience stunt show. Created by producer-director John Guedel, the
series premiered over NBC Radio on April 10, 1942, and enjoyed a lengthy run of nearly twenty
years before bowing out June
10, 1960.
Entrepreneur Guedel had a definite Midas touch when it came to
creating hit radio shows; in addition to Funny,
he was also responsible for launching House
Party (a popular daytime program also hosted by Linkletter) and You Bet Your Life, the comedy-quiz
starring the one…the only…Groucho Marx. Funny’s
origins date back to 1938—with an audition record that cost him thirty dollars,
Guedel would give birth to a program that would net him millions. In its
earliest incarnation, it was known as Pull
Over, Neighbor, heard over NBC and CBS stations in Los Angeles in 1939 and later revamped as All Aboard. The story goes that the
show’s eventual title stemmed from Guedel’s attendance at a dull after-dinner
speech; while observing that the fidgety audience was just as bored as he was,
Guedel jotted down on a napkin—“People are funny, aren’t they?”
Not long after, Guedel was browsing through a magazine while at the
doctor’s, and came across a blurb that mentioned the recent cancellation of a
current radio show—so he telephoned the agency that produced the show, and sold
them People Are Funny. The
concept of the show would be a concentration on the humorous facets of human
nature—a subject that Guedel, a self-proclaimed “jack of all trades,” knew a
little something about. (Before getting into radio, Guedel’s colorful career
included jobs as a ditch-digger, traveling salesman, and writer for motion
picture comedy producer Hal Roach.) His first choice for the show’s host was a
young announcer named Art Linkletter, whose tremendous talent for ad-libbing
appealed to Guedel. Linkletter, however, was already employed in San
Francisco—but it didn’t really matter to NBC anyway; the network wanted top
emcee Art Baker for the host’s position, though Guedel brought in Linkletter as
co-host in the program’s early weeks so that he could compare and contrast the
two Arts in action on the same soundstage.
People Are Funny became an immediate Friday night smash for NBC, a
popular quiz program that technically wasn’t a quiz program, but a show
in which audience members participated in offbeat, unusual stunts for prizes of
cash and merchandise. To illustrate with an example of how the show worked, a
broadcast (undated, though believed to be from either 1955 or 1956) I previewed
last night begins with an eight-year-old child actress who is sent out of the
studio to a nearby grocery market. She has a grocery list—buttermilk, a ¼ lb.
of butter, a loaf of bread and a bottle of catsup—and she has been given a
dollar by her “father” to procure said groceries. (I’ll wait for the incredulous
laughter to subside as we marvel at the low cost of comestibles back then.)
Now, the premise dictates that she’s "lost" the dollar, and she must
try to convince a passerby to loan her another—whereupon that individual will
be brought back to the studio so that they can retrieve the amount loaned; it
has been placed under the windshield wiper of a new Plymouth convertible,
which is also theirs to keep. (The kid comes back later, and not one
person has given the little moppet the necessary dollar—demonstrating that
not only are people funny, they’re notoriously tight with a buck to boot.)
People Are Funny made a small change on October 1, 1943—the show gave Art Baker his
walking papers and announced that Linkletter would now be the emcee. Baker did
not go gently into that good night, however; he sued both Guedel and the show’s
sponsor for breach of contract, stating that according to its terms he could be
released only if the sponsor had cancelled the show. Baker accused them
of conspiring to axe the program, and then quickly re-signing Linkletter
(at a lower salary). Alas, Baker was not restored to his proper place on
People’s throne (he lost the lawsuit, but would later resurface on television
as host of You Asked For It)—and
it wasn’t long before people were saying: “Baker…Baker…can’t say as I recollect
the name…” Linkletter rode the program to national prominence, and he earned
the respect and admiration from notables like Eddie Cantor and Bing Crosby for
his ad-libbing prowess. (The radio show even went to the movies, in a 1946 film that showcased
Linkletter and old-time radio stars like Jack Haley, Rudy Vallee, Ozzie Nelson
and Frances Langford.)
Listening to People Are Funny
today, one becomes keenly aware that while it’s a teensy bit dated, it
still holds up fairly well. In addition to the little grocery guttersnipe, the
first show has a single man who is extremely boastful regarding his culinary
talents—so Linkletter has several women in the audience test him with
cooking-related questions. If he’s able to answer five out of seven correctly,
a motor scooter awaits him for his efforts; but for every one he misses,
ingredients are added to a mixing bowl by Prudence Penny (the home economics
editor of the Los Angeles Examiner), which he must sample generously if
he loses. (Ms. Penny also serves as the arbiter as to whether or not the
questions have been answered correctly.) Needless to say, our Galloping Gourmet
isn’t quite as clever as he believes himself to be, and before he goes home
with a stove as a consolation prize, he has a heaping helping of raw oysters,
chocolate syrup, soft strawberry ice cream, sauerkraut, horseradish and raw egg
(a concoction endorsed by both the salmonella industry and World O’Crap, in its early Regrettable Food
Recipe days). Linkletter cracks (after also sampling this “goop mélange,” to
show he’s a good sport): “This dish is the dish that you serve your relatives
just before you want them to go back home.”
The second show has an interesting stunt in which a “bride” and
“groom” are assigned to bring people back to the studio in order to prove that
“all the world loves a lover.” The bride is assigned to return with “something
old” (a person over the age of 60) and “something new” (someone under the age
of 6), while the groom must nab “something borrowed” (a wife or girlfriend) and
“something blue” (a sad or melancholy person). “You know, he’s the one really
taking the chance—because if he borrows somebody’s wife [and] brings her back
here he may find the guy doesn’t want her back and he’ll be stuck with two,”
Linkletter remarks. Under the guise of needing witnesses for a wedding, the
first one to return to the studio will be awarded “a 21-inch Stromberg-Carlson
console model television” (on a show sponsored by RCA Victor, no less).
The “bride” wins the TV, but the “groom” gets a nice camera and the guests get
wristwatches (except for a little four-year-old girl, who nets a new bicycle
out of the whole deal).
For most of its run, People
Are Funny was an NBC staple, sponsored by Wings Cigarettes from 1942-45
and then by Kool/Raleigh Cigarettes and Sir Walter Raleigh Tobacco (1945-51).
It then moved over to CBS for three seasons for Mars Candy, and then returned
to NBC for a year sponsored by Toni, and multiple sponsorship after that. (The
show also made the successful leap to television, from 1954-61.) The radio
version (of which there are approximately fifty episodes extant) hasn’t lost
its power to entertain audiences today, demonstrating that—to borrow the raison d’être of Candid Camera’s Allen Funt—that people are
funny when caught in the simple act of being themselves.
