"Roy-allllll Puuuuuuddddiiiing..."

I grabbed some of the CDs from my recent FGRA Round Robin purchase to take with me to work last night. There were a couple of discs featuring episodes of The Charlie McCarthy Show, which is always a crowd-pleaser. (Of course, it's usually just myself listening, so perhaps I should amend that to a me-pleaser.)

First up, a broadcast from September 14, 1947 with guest star "Prince" Michael Romanoff. Romanoff was a real Hollywood character; he claimed to be of Russian nobility, and appeared in bit parts in many films including Arch of Triumph (1948) and In a Lonely Place (1950). He's probably best known, however, as a restaurateur, opening up in 1939 the popular Romanoff's restaurant in Beverly Hills, where the stars came to meet and greet and eat (the eatery closed in 1962).

The program deals with Edgar Bergen's recent inheritance of a three-story office building from his late uncle, but it's this exchange between Edgar and Charlie that made me laugh:

EDGAR: Well, Charlie...

CHARLIE: Yeah...?

EDGAR: I think it's school that starts tomorrow...

CHARLIE: Uh...yeah, yeah...that oughta take a little of the pep outta me...

EDGAR: School tomorrow...

CHARLIE: Yes, that's it, yes...back to Hoosegow Number 28...

EDGAR: Now, let me see...if I remember correctly...you were in the eighth grade last year...

CHARLIE: Yeah...

EDGAR: What grade will you be in this year, Charlie?

CHARLIE: Oh, you don't have to be so darn cute...you know darn well I'm doing an encore...

In this sketch, character actor Eddie Mayehoff plays the lawyer who's handling the estate—Mayehoff made a number of appearances in some Martin & Lewis films, including That's My Boy (1951) and Artists and Models (1955) (he's hilarious as a comic-book publisher in that one).  The tenants of Bergen's building barge onto the program to meet their new landlord, and one of them is, of course, the "Prince" himself:

EDGAR: Are you Prince Michael Romanoff?

ROMANOFF: I have been...and very successfully, too...

EDGAR: I see...

ROMANOFF: But I abdicated...

EDGAR: Why did you abdicate?

ROMANOFF: I like to be thought of as a common man...of course, not too common...

CHARLIE: A prince...gee, I should have won my ermine snuggies...

EDGAR: Why did you leave Russia?

ROMANOFF: I couldn't stand the weather...

EDGAR: The weather?

ROMANOFF: Yes, it...got a little too hot for me...

EDGAR: I think I understand, yes...pardon me, but I can't help but admire the beautiful gems on your cuff links there...

ROMANOFF: Yes...they're from the Royal Crown...

EDGAR: Ah...

ROMANOFF: ...and this ring has the Royal Seal...

CHARLIE: What's that on your vest?

ROMANOFF: That's Royal Pudding.

The McCarthy show was sponsored by Standard Brands--manufacturers of the aforementioned pudding, and, of course, Chase and Sanborn coffee. Romanoff was a guest on many old-time radio shows, including The Jack Benny Program, Suspense, and Duffy's Tavern. (I can only speculate that maybe they were trying to get a good table.)

The second program I listened to is a program from the week after (September 21, 1947), in which the featured guests are Walt Disney and Donald Duck. There had been a preview of the 1947 Disney feature Fun & Fancy Free before the broadcast, and there's a great essay on both that show and the movie on Bill Griffiths' Started By a Mouse website. Clarence Nash doesn't receive credit, of course, but it is he who provides the Donald voice--he was also no stranger to radio, playing the part of Gracie Allen's pet duck Herman on Burns & Allen's 1941-45 CBS series for Swan Soap.