"The Club Car Special is based on the march of events and city life section of the Hearst Sunday newspapers throughout the country. This section is devoted to the cartoons and writings of America's foremost humorists: O. O. McIntyre, Will Rogers, George Ade, Sam Hellman, Arthur 'Bugs' Baer, Milt Gross, Damon Runyon and many others. So let's climb on board the Club Car Special right now just for a lark and a laugh!"
Okay, here's a real oddity. The Club Car Special was a 15-minute syndicated program heard on NBC in 1934. It was produced by Hearst syndication and drew from content in Hearst's newspapers. It's just one of many Hearst radio programs designed to promote its publications (ie, Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Front Page Drama) but this one is different because it relayed comedic segments from Hearst's publications. This included some really talented creators - Milt Gross, Will Rogers, Damon Runyon - which means this series merits a look if you're a fan of those names.
Each episode features several comedy routines with a variety of performers. Even single-panel cartoons are dramatized, which require a bit of padding, naturally. They also dramatize Milt Gross's comics, which is a rare and unusual experience.
Each sketch is introduced by a train porter calling out the next creative person's name ("All aboard, Club Car Special! Next stop, Will Rogers! All aboard!") although the creators themselves were impersonated. Each sketch ends with a 'wah-wah' trombone and a small chorus of voices fake-laughing which, frankly, does a lot to make this series sound unfunny. Just to further impede your enjoyment, the fake laughter is always immediately followed by the porter calling out the next sketch. Even if you do find something amusing in the sketch, the show refuses to give you time to pause and enjoy it.
I did find the humourous boxing stories written by Arthur 'Bugs' Baer were pretty amusing but it looks as though very little of his work was ever anthologized-- shy of digging up the original newspapers, I don't think he can be read now.
Ultimately, I cannot recommend the Club Car Special unless you're a fan of the creators whose works were being read on the air. Even then, I think you'll find that these very funny jokes were told with the least funny delivery that was possible for 1934.
You can hear the 10 surviving episodes of Club Car Special on this YouTube playlist created by the Old Time Radio Researchers.
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