Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:26 — 16.2MB)
Show description is taken from the Jot ‘Em Down Journal, the official publication of the National Lum and Abner Society:
Lum serves as substitute postmaster of Pine Ridge while regular postmaster Ed Stoddard is laid up in bed. Absolutely no reference is made to Dick Huddleston’s longstanding position as postmaster, with the post office in his store… in fact, as of yet no references to Dick turn up at all in the 30 minute episodes.
We witness the return of Vivian Lasswell as Sister Simpson. This time she does not keep blowing her lines, so the three weeks she has had to study since her debut performance must have done her good. Ben Withers wants to send a letter by registered mail, because it contains the cash he is sending for a can of Captain Sproog’s Quick Caulk. He relates in excruciating detail the story of how Mt. Ida resident Captain Sproog demonstrated his wonderful substance, which could repair boat leaks under water: “45 minutes later, they had all the water pumped out of Captain Sproog, and were making plans to dredge for the canoe.”
Ben returns for the middle commercial, in which Wendell Niles tries to sell Mrs Bates a Frigidaire electric range because her cakes keep falling. Ben explains that the only reason they keep falling is because Mr. Bates built the shelf for them, and he is a very poor carpenter.
Another returnee from an earlier show is Gloria Blondell, this time cast as Mamie the telephone operator. This gives her the opportunity to recreate the same whining phone routine she was doing on the Bob Sweeney/Hal March show that brought her to L&A’s attention.
The post office department gets wind of the little improvements Lum is making in their system (two money orders for the price of one, postage stamps for half price), and Inspector Burton shows up to investigate. Burton has a voice that should be very familiar to radio listeners: he is Ken Christy, the bass-voiced actor who was heard for years as Chief Gates un The Great Gildersleeve. He had been heard on Lum and Abner as far back as 1945. when he played one half of the father-and-sun Talbert team that robbed the Jot ‘Em Down Store (Howard McNear was the other crook). From this point on. Ken Christy would be making many, many appearances on the half-hour L&A programs.
