Lum and Abner
Lum and Abner was an American network radio comedy program created by
Synopsis
The series was created by co-stars Chester Lauck (who played Columbus "Lum" Edwards) and Norris Goff (Abner Peabody). Lum always pronounced his own name as Ed'erds and was very annoyed if Abner or anyone brought up his full first name. The two characters performed as a
In addition to the title characters, Lauck also played Grandpappy Spears and Cedric Weehunt while Goff played Abner, Squire Skimp, Llewelyn "Mousey" Grey, Dick Huddleston, and most of the other characters.
Lum and Abner, like most sitcoms of the era, had a live house band, in this case a string band in keeping with the show's hillbilly humor. Marshall Jones, before his adoption of the "Grandpa" persona that made him famous years later, was among the band's first members.[2]
Show history
Lauck and Goff had known each other since childhood and attended the
When the Quaker contract expired, Lauck and Goff continued to broadcast on two Texas stations,
In 1948, the show changed from a 15-minute "comedic soap opera" to a 30-minute self-contained show. New writers were added, including Flying Tiger ace Robert T. Smith, along with an orchestra and a live audience. The new format was unpopular and the series came off the air in 1950. Lauck and Goff experimented with other formats during the hiatus, finally changing back to a 15-minute, Monday-Friday show on ABC in 1953,[6] but the revived show was discontinued the following year due to competition from television and Goff's failing health (Goff would eventually recover and continue making media appearances well into the 1960s). The duo twice made attempts to transition to television, but neither effort was picked up by a television network.
Episode status
The team broadcast more than 5,000 shows, of which over 1,630 episodes exist today. The archive is extensive between 1935 and 1948, a rarity for 15-minute shows that were typically never recorded (most of its contemporary daytime programs have fewer than 100 episodes remaining). As with most old-time radio shows, very little pre-1935 content (in this case, two episodes) survive. Only a handful of post-1948 programs, and some of the 1953–54 revival, have survived; most recordings of those shows are believed to have been destroyed.
Films
Like several of their contemporaries, Lauck and Goff had the opportunity to bring their characters to life in movies. The Lum & Abner radio show of March 29, 1940, "The Store Closes to Shoot a Movie," announced a break in the radio series in order to make the first film of the series, Dreaming Out Loud, which was released the same year. At a rate of roughly one per year, another five films would be produced in the series.
- Dreaming Out Loud (1940)
- The Bashful Bachelor (1942)
- Two Weeks to Live (1943)
- So This Is Washington (1943)
- Goin' to Town(1944)
- Partners in Time (1946)
Ten years after the film series ended, by which point Lum and Abner had long left radio, a seventh film was released. 1956's
- Lum and Abner Abroad (1956)
Legacy
As well as inspiring the program and its characters,
The National Lum and Abner Society
The National Lum and Abner Society, formed in 1984, published a bimonthly newsletter, The Jot 'Em Down Journal, until 2007. Between 1985 and 2005 the organization held 20 annual conventions (skipping 2004) in Pine Ridge and Mena, Arkansas, playing host to numerous veterans of the Lum and Abner radio programs and motion pictures. Since 2007, the NLAS has existed as an organization with free membership with its Jot 'Em Down Journal transferred to the NLAS website. Founding officers Sam Brown, Tim Hollis, and Donnie Pitchford have remained connected to the organization since the beginning.
NLAS Convention guest stars included radio-television-cinema veterans Roswell Rogers, Clarence Hartzell, Jerry Hausner, Elmore Vincent, Wendell Niles, Bobs Watson, Les Tremayne, Louise Currie, Willard Waterman, Parley Baer, Cathy Lee Crosby, Forrest Owen, Mary Lee Robb, Kay Linaker, Frank Bresee, Fred Foy, Barbara Fuller, Sam Edwards, Dick Beals, Rhoda Williams, Robie Lester, Ginny Tyler, Nancy Wible, and Dallas McKennon. Additionally, various family members and personal friends of Chester Lauck and Norris Goff were present.
The first NLAS "Reunion" took place in June 2011 as part of the annual Lum and Abner Festival in Mena, Arkansas to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Lum and Abner show as well as the 75th anniversary of the changing of the name of Waters, Arkansas to Pine Ridge. All 23 years of the NLAS publication The Jot 'Em Down Journal are now available free of charge (see External Links below for the National Lum and Abner Society) in PDF format as well as audio for the blind (or anyone who chooses to listen).
A final NLAS Convention was held in 2015 featuring guest stars John Rose (cartoonist of Barney Google and Snuffy Smith) and Mike Curtis (writer of Dick Tracy).
Plans are underway for a series of radio programs containing the audio contents of all 1985-2025 NLAS Conventions.
Lum and Abner comic strip
Early in 2011, negotiations between Ethan C. Nobles of firstarkansasnews.net, the Chester Lauck family and cartoonist Donnie Pitchford resulted in a new comic strip series based on the classic radio programs and its characters. Beginning June 5, 2011, Lum and Abner officially began appearing in a "Sunday strip" format with a new installment each Sunday. The comic strip made its newspaper debut in The Mena Star of Mena, Arkansas on Thursday, July 28, 2011. It has since been signed by The Standard of Amity, Arkansas, and the nationally distributed Today's Grocer.
Each strip is accompanied by an audio dramatization with voices, sound effects and music, a feature designed with blind fans of "old time radio" in mind, but one that any reader may access.
In April 2013, radio producer Joe Bevilacqua entered into an agreement with Donnie Pitchford to broadcast the Lum and Abner comics as part of his weekly radio show The Comedy-O-Rama Hour. The first two Lum and Abner radio comics premiered April 13, 2013.
The success of these broadcasts prompted the release of 100 All New “Lum & Abner” Comic Strips, an audiobook written and directed by Donnie Pitchford featuring a full cast. The three-hour-long audio theater is available from Waterlogg Productions and Blackstone Audio.
On Sunday, July 20, 2014, the characters of Lum and Abner were awarded a cameo appearance in the Harvey Award-winning Dick Tracy comic strip, written by Mike Curtis and illustrated by Joe Staton. Lum and Abner were introduced during the crossover in which Tracy rescues Annie, whose own comic strip ended in 2010.
In 2021, the comic strip celebrated the 90th anniversary of the first Lum and Abner radio broadcast as well as the 85th anniversary of the naming of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, along with the 10th anniversary of the strip.
Gallery
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Shamrock Hotel Program/Menu featuring Lum and Abner – cover (cZ 1950, Houston, Texas)
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Shamrock Hotel Program/Menu featuring Lum and Abner – biography and photo (c. 1950, Houston, Texas)
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Chester and Mrs. Lauck with Norris and Mrs. Goff, 1941.
References
- ^ "Pine Ridge". Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. Archived from the original on 2011-05-01. Retrieved 2011-02-04.
- ^ "Full List of Inductees » Country Music Hall of Fame". Mar 14, 2011. Archived from the original on March 14, 2011. Retrieved Mar 30, 2020.
- ^ "Lum and Abner Still at It" (PDF). Broadcast Weekly. July 14, 1935. p. 7. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ For argument that Mutual was primarily a vehicle for The Lone Ranger, see, e.g., Olson (2000), p. 173; Head (1976), p. 142; Schwoch (1994). For counterargument and popularity of Lum and Abner, see, e.g., Hilmes (1997), pp. 107–108; Hollis (2001), p. 41; McLeod, Elizabeth (1999-04-12). "Some History of the Mutual Broadcasting System/Correspondence: 'Mon, 12 APR 99'". History of American Broadcasting (Jeff Miller). Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ^ "Lum and Abner Now Have Real "Pine Ridge," Arkansas » The Arkansas News". Archived from the original on October 28, 2007. Retrieved Mar 30, 2020.
- ^ Warren, Jill (May 1953). "What's New from Coast to Coast" (PDF). Radio-TV Mirror. 39 (6): 20. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
- ^ "Arkansas.com". Archived from the original on February 13, 2010. Retrieved Mar 30, 2020.
External links
- "A Hindu Miracle Man Will Cure Lum (1941)" in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
- 1979 interview with Chester Lauck
- National Lum and Abner Society
- Lum and Abner Comic Strip
- Pine Ridge News (November, 1933)
- The All New “Lum & Abner” Comic Strips
- Lum and Abner on Old Time Radio Outlaws
Video