We have a nice Fibber McGee and Molly Christmas program from 1942 for you in the middle of a over-baking summer to help cool you off. Click the link at the end of this article to start the program right now, then you can read the rest of Norm's Ramblins while you listen... or finishing those emails you intended to get out yesterday.

Fibber McGee and Molly, one of the most popular radio programs of all time, first premiered in 1935, but its origins can be traced farther back into the lives of the show’s two lead actors. The program was the creation of the husband and wife comedy team of Jim and Marian Jordan. The singing and comedy duo hailed from Peoria, Illinois, where the two grew up, met, and married in 1918.

From an early age both had dreams of a life in entertainment, but before becoming one of America’s best known celebrity couples the two would spend decades paying their “showbiz dues” -with seven years fruitless effort traveling the vaudeville circuit and another ten singing and acting in numerous small-time radio shows in the Chicago area.

It was in Chicago in 1929 that the pair became friends with a Don Quinn, who began writing an occasional joke or humor sketch for the Jordans to use in their act on The Farmer Rusk Hour. The material that Quinn wrote was superior to anything the “Farmer Rusk” writers were producing, and thus began a partnership between the three that would carry them to fame and fortune on Fibber McGee and Molly.

In the early 1930’s the trio from Farmer Rusk to a comedy show of their own creation called Smackout, named after a well stocked country store which somehow was “smack out” of anything you wished to buy. It was on this program that many character ideas were created which would be continued on Fibber McGee and Molly. At the time, the Jordans also remained active on many other radio shows including various musical dramas, quiz shows, variety shows, other comedies, and children’s programs.

When Fibber McGee and Molly began in 1935 under sponsorship of Johnson Wax, the program was a simple continuation of the vaudeville style format that the duo had practiced for years. The pair were cast as traveling vagabonds who stopped in to towns along “route 42” for gas and conversation. Fibber was the happily inept braggart whose vivid imagination leads him to telling the most outlandish stories about himself. Molly was cast as his constant companion and severest critic, whose shrill “McGee!” would bring him back to earth in an instant.

In the next several months Quinn’s scriptwriting began to really excel, which was reflected in turn by the Jordans’ seamless performances and impeccable comedic timing. The show’s character also began taking on more of a connected storyline rather than a series of distended vaudeville skits.

The McGees moved into a home in the town of “Wistful Vista” where the show now revolved around Fibber bungling his chores around the house, or his various occupations at the public library, post office, and antique store. Molly became more of a sympathetic, tolerant, easy-going character and audiences responded immediately to the changes. In 1940 it became the top show in the nation and throughout the 1940’s remained a tight contender for the honor with Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Edgar Bergen.

Throughout the run of the show a whole series of guest characters came and went. Among these included Fibber’s feuding neighbor Gildersleeves, who went on to be the star character in the spin-off The Great Gildersleeves. It was Gildersleeves who had the patent line “You’re a haaaa-hard man, McGee!” Other famous lines from the show came from Fibber’s wife Molly including “T’aint funny McGee!” and “Heavenly Days!” Also on the show was the ever-timid Wallace Whimple, who was terrified of his wife, the ferocious, often discussed, but never present “Sweetie Face.” Fibber gave Wallace the nickname “wimp” –and thus coined the meaning for the word to this day.

Perhaps the most well remembered “character” from the show was Fibber McGee’s cluttered closet. Whenever Fibber, or someone else, made the mistake of opening the closed door, a tremendous mountain of junk would come crashing down. The closet was the work of sound effects engineers who would assemble the assorted closet pieces (which sometimes included golf clubs, guitars, pith helmets, roller skates, a sword, a spear-gun, shoes, a suitcase and a broken clock) perching them precariously atop a short stairway during the half-hour live broadcasts until it was time for the closet to “open.”

On the 128 occasions the closet gag was used, not once did the props tumble down off cue. Fibber McGee and Molly is still quite popular among old time radio fans to this day, with over 700 episodes still existing in their entirety. After the death of Jim Jordan in 1988, members of his family donated the bound volumes of Fibber McGee and Molly scripts to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, where there is also a “Fibber McGee’s Closet” exhibit. –CP

For today’s featured Sound From the Past we’ve selected a Christmas episode which first aired on December 15th 1942.

The Kraft Music Hall began its 15-year broadcast life under bandleader Paul Whiteman and singer/actor Al Jolson, but it’s Bing Crosby for whom the show is best known. Crosby took over as program-host late in 1935, and it was during his decade-long reign on the show that Bing enjoyed the peak of his film, radio, and popular music fame.

Bing was born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington in 1903. In the 1920’s he abandoned law school at Gonzaga University to become a singing-drummer on the vaudeville circuit! By 1925 he’d moved to Los Angeles and began performing in theaters and nightclubs with old college pal Al Rinker. Both friends would sing while Rinker played piano and Crosby accompanied on drums.

In 1927 Paul Whiteman saw them perform and immediately signed them up to tour with his band. Later Crosby left the orchestra to work with Gus Arnaheim back in Los Angeles. In 1931 Crosby signed a recording contract with CBS and the following year began his acting career with Paramount Pictures.

As a part of Crosby’s deal with CBS, he was given his own daily radio program, Fifteen Minutes with Bing Crosby, which showcased the crooner’s musical talents. From 1931-35 Bing worked several other variety programs on CBS, for sponsors such as Chesterfield cigarettes and Woodbury soap. By this time Crosby had become a major star and late in 1935 he decided to switch over to NBC and host The Kraft Music Hall.

The Music Hall’s hour-long format was a perfect match for Crosby’s warm and relaxed stage presence. The show featured a mixture of music, jokes, and casual conversation.

One of the regular cast members included Bob Burns, “the Arkansas Traveler,” teller of tall-tales, and player of a comical bass-instrument of his own invention that he called a “bazooka.” This glorified whisky jug of a bass consisted of two pieces of pipe that were slid one over the other in a trombone-like manner when played. The “bazooka” moniker would soon be adopted by our troops in the coming war, who affectionately referred to their anti-tank rocket guns by the same name as Burns’ crude pipe instrument.

Other Music Hall cast-members featured over the years included: bandleader Jimmy Dorsey, drummer Spike Jones, trombonist Jerry Colonna, vocalist Mary Martin, and pianist-comedian Victor Borge.

The Music Hall had a low-key distinctive sound that Crosby carefully cultivated. Oddly enough, he discouraged applause between performances, feeling this slowed the pace of the program. Numerous big-name musicians, artists, and entertainers became regular guests. It was said they appreciated Crosby’s charm and “gracious informality,” which Bing masterfully employed to make them feel as if they were stars of the show. The long list of illustrious guests included the likes of: Duke Ellington, Jack Teagarten, Lionel Barrymore, Humphery Bogart, Robert Benchley, Pat OÂ’Brien, and Bob Hope.

Late in 1945 a disagreement arose between Crosby and NBC. Bing had heard of a new method of sound recording developed in Germany which used plastic-backed tape that could reproduce sounds of superior quality. Crosby immediately saw the advantages of using these tapes to pre-record his radio programs –producing four shows in a week and then taking the rest of the month off. The network and sponsors had long opposed pre-recorded programs, fearing the public’s reaction to a “canned” show. Crosby insisted on taping and in the end, walked out on Kraft and NBC. The Music Hall continued broadcasts until 1949, first under the leadership of Edward Horton and later by the show’s old host and singing star, Al Jolson.

In 1946 Crosby started “Philco Radio-Time” on ABC and made history with radio’s first taped program. The show had a very similar format to Kraft Music Hall and pulled respectable ratings in its three years on the air. By doing this Crosby demonstrated to everyone the high quality of audiotape recordings and the fact that the public could accept non-live broadcasts. These discoveries would soon have a tremendous influence on both the music industry and the infant medium of television. -CP

Today’s featured Sound from the Past is a Kraft Music Hall "Christmas Episode" with Bing and the gang that first aired on December 14, 1944. Listening to this broadcast will give you a genuine flavor of the War Years, as references are made to our troops overseas.

I heard this very program with my brother David and his then girlfriend Thelma driving down 35th Street and Wells after picking up Thelma. We were on our way to Schusters on Vilet Street in Dave's 1926 Chevrolet convertible with side mounts, wooden spoke wheels and a rumble seat. If I remember right, we had to give the car a running push at three stoplights. David had a bad battery that year that didn't hold a charge and didn't have the money to buy a new one. In the second half of the program Bing sings for us his patent rendition of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas." It's a wonderful program.

At one time, let's say 40 years ago, you could only find a Claxton Fruitcake in Georgia. Today, you can find them in your supermarket... almost anywhere. The "Claxtons" are delicious, mainly because they are jammed full of Georgia pecans. If you can't find one and want to taste one, let me know. Chris writes about another really good fruit cake -- the Collin Street Bakery premium fruitcake that has been made in Corsicana, Texas since 1989. I just came across a nostalia website that listed the tim for a Collin Street Bakery fruitcake -- they wanted $15.00 for the empty 15 year old tin. Remember that when you purchase one.

Last year the FAA made a decision to not permit the "Carry-On" of any fruitcake. It seems like the density of the product resembles gunpowder. Is that why most fruitcakes are stored? Now there's something to think about and pass on as one of your Christmas reality jokes. Now here's Chris Plunkett's classic essay on Fruitcake. Chris is now the Hydrologist for the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Unita Wilderness of Northeast Utah.

Ah yes, ‘tis the season for yet another holiday tradition! Just like good ole Saint Nick himself it’s time for that long-lived and oft-maligned gastronomic wonder, the noble fruitcake, to rise from it’s darkened celestial cupboard and set out on its holiday “gift given” rounds, spreading joy and good cheer the wide world over.

And to serve as a yuletide warning for all the headstrong and precocious children of the planet to behave themselves, ere the firm hands of justice should force them in punishment to actually eat a piece!

As far back as the gilded Christmas age of Charles Dickens’ England, the fruitcake has suffered the “slings and arrows of outrageous” culinary reviews. It was Dickens himself who once referred to it as “a geological homemade cake,” but it was under Johnny Carson’s watch on "The Tonight Show" that fruitcakedom witnessed its public relations low-point with a series of “vicious and slanderous” chucklers, the best of which was… “There’s only one fruitcake in the entire U.S. and it’s passed around year after year, from family to family!”

Not laughing? Well I suppose we lack Ed McMahon’s “Ho-Ho’ing” shotgun-backup for the full “Carson effect.”

There are a few among fruitcake’s myriad fans (and those who just pretend to be for “image’s sake”) that trace its beginnings back to Egyptian times when cakes of dried fruit (in a tasteful dusting of natron) were prepared for the Pharaoh to take with him into the afterlife.

Still others cite the first fruitcakes occurring in Roman times, when a sumptuous mélange of raisins, pine nuts, and pomegranate were set in a barley mash and baked to produce a dense, durable food stuff that could easily travel on long campaigns with the conquering legions.

During the Middle Ages in Europe honey became an essential ingredient of the cakes, as a flavoring and a preservative. With the advent of cheap sugar, brought by the colonial trade of the 1600’s, fruitcake’s shelf-life steadily increased as the nuts and fruity bits were soaked in greater and greater concentrations of sugar.

By the 1700’s these cakes were used in various religious festivals, harvest celebrations, and weddings. In rural communities the harvest was marked by the baking of special cakes, which were stored until the following year to bring luck to the New Year’s crop. Along a similar vein, in some parts of England the upper layer of wedding cakes (the bride’s cake) is still made of fruitcake, which the newly wed couple keeps for the coming year(s).

No one seems to be certain why fruitcakes became associated with Christmas time, but one imaginative story involves a late 1700’s English custom of handing out slices of cake to impoverished women who traveled door to door at Christmas, singing carols. Another possibility involves another English law from the 1700’s, which restricts the use of plum cake (i.e. fruitcake) to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings and funerals. In any case most fruitcakes are eaten (or I should say, “sold”) at holiday time.

Here in America, the modern Christmas fruitcake comes in two basic varieties, typically formed into a dense ring-shaped loaf, often topped in pecans. One variety is the “light fruitcake;” this uses sugar or corn syrup and a mixture of walnuts, almonds, pecans, golden raisins, pineapple, lemon rind, apricot, and cherry, bound in a sweet heavy dough.

"Dark fruitcakes" employ brown sugar or molasses as the main sweetener, and often use additional fruits such as dark raisins, prunes, and dates. Both varieties are often available with bourbon, brandy, or some other eau de vie as an added flavoring.

Despite all the jokes and their bad image, fruitcakes can be big business. The two largest fruitcake companies hail from the rural South, where traditionally fruit and nutmeats were available at bargain prices. The top-selling fruitcake company is the Claxton Bakery out of Claxton, Georgia -- you've seen it with it's two inch square loaf that is about eight inches long and chucked full of Georgia pecans. The rival to Claxton is the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. The Claxton Bakery does not readily disclose exactly how many of their unusual brick shaped “beauties” are foisted upon humanity each year, but in one article they mention that a single government commissary once placed an order for 65,000 cakes. Oddly enough, a surprisingly large portion of all fruitcakes produced go to Japan!

For those brave few souls who feel inspired to actually do some fruitcake nibbling this holiday season, I can offer but a scant few tips. Sadly –perhaps I mean “happily”- my experience has been limited to only a few mass-produced examples of the fruitcake baker’s art. I suppose I should also warn you that my opinion is further handicapped by a hatred of maraschino cherries!

Most of the fruitcakes I’ve eaten have struck me as quite dry and bland, but find that the Claxton fruitcakes (while still bland compared to fruit breads like German stollen, Italian panetone, and French kougelhof) …the Claxton cakes have a wet dense texture that I find a bit more palatable than other options I’ve sampled -including the fruit-flavored CLIF and Powerbars that mountainbikers and "outdoorsy types" so often rave about. I've never had a Collin Street fruitcake, but know those who swear by them. (Or was it "at them?") I hear that the dark variety of fruitcake has a bolder flavor and that all of them are much improved if they’ve been baked with a little bourbon or some other liqueur.

Fruitcakes also improve with time; a good three months are required for the flavors from the fruits to fully blend and meld into the sweet doughy binder. Carefully stored, a fruitcake can last for years! The first thing to "go" on them will be the nuts.

Though I’ve never tried them, I hear that Trappist monks can make some pretty good fruitcakes! Two “orders” renowned for their bourbon-laced cakes are the Abbey of Gethsemane near Louisville, Kentucky (www.monks.org) and the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia. (www.monasteryfruitcake.org).

For those curious to have a look at the operations of the top-producing Claxton Bakery their web address is www.claxtonfruitcake.com. And in the interest of granting equal billing for our "Texas friends" the Collin Street Bakery's site is www.collinstreetbakery.com.

Norman Plunkett

God is good -- ALWAYS!

And especially as He floods you with all the grace you need no matter what the situation. As you trust Him, God's grace is always just enough and always on time.