Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:58 — 17.4MB)
As provided by the Jot ’em Down Journal of February, 1999:
Lum’s romance with Ezra Seestrunk’s cousin Rowena (Isabel Randolph) cranks back up again after having been dormant for the past couple of weeks. Squire Skimp is building a new subdivision (defined by Abner as “a cow pasture with utilities”), and Lum is eager to buy a lot and build a new house for himself and his sweet intended.
The homes Squire intends to build in “beautiful Scrub Oak Flats” appear to Lum to all look the same, but Squire wisely points out that some houses have the front door knob on the left. while others have the door knob on the right. “You’re getting a house as good as the ones they built 30 years ago,” says Squire. “In fact, some of the building materials we’re using ARE 30 years old.” Lum is all set to trade a worthless piece of property
Luke Spears himself, played by Dink Trout, a busy (but today obscure) radio character actor who had joined the L&A cast on an irregular basis as far back as 1945. In fact, we are told that during the first three months of 1948, when Tuffy Goff had to be off the show for a serious cancer operation. Trout joined Chet Lauck and Clarence Hartzel to help carry the show… According to writer Roswell Rogers. the storyline involved a murder mystery and Trout’s character was actually killed off on the show! Unfortunately, only a couple of recordings from this period have been located, and neither of them sheds any light on this plot.) At any rate, Trout’s portrayal of the eternally cantankerous Luke Spears is perhaps the most consistently funny of any of the new characters created especially for the 30-minute L&A shows.
Ben Withers is enlisted to help, but Abner has a hard time getting Ben off the subject of his courtship with Myrtle Traverts of Mt. Ida. (“After sharing a cone of cotton candy with her, I realized I was stuck on her.”)
However, everyone makes it down to the restaurant, and between Lum. Abner, Ben. and Luke. Herbert’s nerves are soon worn out and he loudly voices his intention to leave town.
In the payoff, Lum Finds out that Herbert was Squire’s potential buyer for the worthless property.
Learn more about the world of Lum and Abner from the pages of the National Lum and Abner Society.
