Topper, Turnabout, TCM, and ... Thorne Smith

"Mom," I said when I was 10 or thereabouts, "what's 'ribald' mean?" Because I had just pulled from the bookcase a Pocket Book edition of Topper - and the cover told me it was "a ribald adventure" by Thorne Smith. However she explained it (and I don't recall: ah, the challenges of parenthood), I read the book and was delighted - and went in pursuit of other novels by Smith. We had a few: Topper Takes a Trip, Turnabout, The Stray Lamb, and Rain in the Doorway, as I recall. Eventually, thanks to perseverance and used book stores, I added to the collection: The Glorious Pool, The Bishop's Jaegers, Did She Fall?, The Passionate Witch, Skin and Bones, and The Night Life of the Gods. They were deliciously "naughty" (and I didn't understand all the implications of all the "naughtiness," I think it only fair to point out here), and at some point I even made a list of how many times I'd read each one so's not to favor one over another in the course of many re-readings. Two of the novels (The Bishop's Jaegers and Did She Fall?) were not fantasies. Each of the rest had a supernatural gimmick. Topper involved ghosts. The Stray Lamb involved being turned into animals. The Night Life of the Gods featured an invention that turned people to stone and brought statues to life. And so on.

So when Glen Weldon on National Public Radio's Pop Culture Happy Hour discussed the upcoming film The Change-Up, he went on to suggest that "body-swapping comedies" were a genre and rattled off references to a number of films in that genre without even going back to Disney's two versions of Freaky Friday. And that discussion suddenly reminded me of Turnabout - and made me wonder whether Smith had, indeed, created a genre in 1931 (with a sort of subgenre in The Stray Lamb in 1929 - with who knows how many resultant Disney projects in that grouping). I think Smith did - and that, in turn, led me to grab a copy of Topper again to revisit his fiction to see whether I liked his writing as much now as I had decades ago. I did. At random from the set-up of Topper:

Mr. Topper and his neighbors were quietly proud of his street, and had born their assessments as a tolerant father bears the extras of an extravagant son at college. One could bring one's friends from the city to this street and let it speak for itself, which one seldom did. Sewerage, real estate and the cost of building were subjects far too fascinating to be left to the imagination, so the visitors from the city heard all about these things, and were not amused.

At any rate, my guess is that few today have read many of Smith's works - and the film adaptations some of them achieved hardly conveyed all that could have been translated from his novels. But, on the trail of the Turnabout genre, I discovered that January is apparently Turner Classic Movies' month to celebrate Thorne Smith movies (or, as Peter Sanderson commented, maybe it's just that TCM is paying tribute to Hal Roach). In any case, I've had that channel tuned so as to watch (January 23) I Married a Witch (based, albeit with changed ending, on The Passionate Witch), (January 25) Topper, and (January 26) Turnabout, Topper Takes a Trip, and Topper Returns. And, with Turnabout, I may be watching the beginning of a genre.

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Pop Culture Happy Hour #PCHH Follow-Up: Gifts

In the first of National Public Radio's "Pop Culture Happy Hour" podcasts of 2011, there was something of a catch-up on gifts from the end of 2010. Listeners may have yearned for (to pretend to coin a phrase) outward and visible signs of inward and emotional delights. There was, for example, a question regarding the success of Stephen's gift of an arcade-size game of Frogger, ostensibly for his kids. Here for all to see is a photo of that success (and, fear not, all three had a chance to play). (You may also be canny enough to see that, while Frogger was A Main Attraction, other games were included in the device.)

I also had the opportunity to capture an image of the reaction of "Monkey See" blogger Linda Holmes to another gift. Let me put on the record here and now The Tale of the Sampler: Several months ago, an annoyed comment was posted regarding something or other on "Monkey See": "This is beneath NPR's dignity." I wrote to Linda that that was the sort of remark that cried out to be immortalized via a cross-stitched sampler. She responded that, if such a thing were to be created, she would be pleased to hang it. So I asked a craft-skilled friend - Kim Frankenhoff, wife of Comics Buyer's Guide Editor Brent Frankenhoff - whether she could provide such a sampler. She tackled the project with a will, coming up with a variety of fabrics, sizes, threads, font choices, and the like. We plotted it out together, she did all the work (including her own design of the fleur-de-lis ornaments), and I took the completed project to a wonderful local shop where the folks know how to frame such things. I must say that, judging from Linda's reaction, the project was unexpected. I love it when things work out!

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Viewing Audio: Pop Culture Happy Hour #PCHH

Trey Graham, Mike Katzif, Glen Weldon, Linda Holmes



Stephen Thompson, Trey Graham



Have you followed National Public Radio's Pop Culture Happy Hour weekly podcast? It began in midsummer and continues weekly with (so far) only a one-week break (on December 31). All the shows so far are available for download, and my view is that it's fun to start with the first and savor your way through to the most recent episode, not only because there are occasional references to earlier podcasts in the course of things but also because there's something not to be missed in every show. The event is usually recorded on Monday or Tuesday and then polished to a fare-the-well for the Friday posting. Usual featured folks are "Monkey See" Editor Linda Holmes, Digital Media Editor and Producer Trey Graham, freelance commentator on comics and books Glen Weldon, and NPR Music Editor Stephen Thompson. (The podcast is produced by Mike Katzif.) It should astonish no one that I would listen compulsively due to son Stephen's presence in any case, but even on the one episode without him the show rewarded listening (and by "rewarded," I mean it was packed with insights and laughs enough to lead me to listen to it repeatedly).

In any case, it was a treat to sit in on (and actually provide a brief interlude for) the podcast that was made available for Christmas Eve listening. And I thought it might entertain some to see what I saw in what was, of course, an audio-only event. I have more photos, should folks want to view them - especially considering the fact that the Fancy NPR Microphones block some of the view in one of these photos. (It was only as I prepared to post this that I discovered I hadn't managed to get all the commentators in one shot. So it goes.)

What you hear in the podcast is pretty much what was said, with only occasional pauses to restart a comment that needed restarting. They could do this in front of a live audience. Hey, wait. Come to think of it, they did!

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NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour Brings Comics to "Normals" - and Comics Can Learn from It

As an enthusiastic fan of National Public Radio and its "Monkey See" blog, I am, of course, devoted to its "Pop Culture Happy Hour" (for references to which, you can filter Twitter for #PCHH). Begun during the summer, the weekly podcast has become a treat to end the work week for many - and I should say before I go further that (full disclosure) two of the four participants are well known to me. Linda Holmes is a friend, and Stephen Thompson is a son. My son. So. In any case, it was of particular interest when I finally had a chance (following the delights of Black Friday) to settle down to listen to the November 26 event. While, as ever, there were a variety of pop-culture topics under discussion, a longer than usual chunk of the podcast was devoted to comic books. Comics commentator Glen Weldon, addressing the "non-comics folks" in the group, announced his plan to "dunk you into the turbid waters ... of the comics mainstream." (He also called them "three normals," which took them aback - with reason.) His initial plan had been to present each with a copy of Marvel's Spider-Girl #1 and Osborne #1, but both had been sold out at his local comics shop. (Collectors, take note.) Still in search of current iconic characters for the experiment, he purchased DC's one-shot Batman: The Return #1 and Batgirl #15 (each dated January 2011).

The discussion was revealing. The three "normals" are intelligent folks, deeply into popular culture and eager to find things to like in these issues. (In fact, there were gripes amid the ensuing posted comments from listeners that the participants had been too polite and eager to find things to like.) But the remarks included comments that it'd be handy for pros, as well as fans, to consider. The "normals" found, for example, that Batgirl was "easier to follow" than the "Done in One" one-shot. Stephen remarked that it would have been helpful to have had, say, a "60-second introduction" to what was going on. Among the barriers to entry was confusion over who was talking. (Weldon commented that thought balloons were a thing of the past - which, for some reason, I'd not internalized.) "These comics need to do more work," was another remark. Commenting on the difference from Silver Age comics, it was noted that these were "not as welcoming." "You need things to be clear."

Linda noted the distraction of ads for the newcomer, pointing out how confusing it would be, if - when reading a novel - a page of text advertising were occasionally inserted between story pages.

There's more - and it'd be great, if people (including pros) who are trying to increase the audience for mainstream comics would listen to what these adult "normals" have to say. "These comics need to do more work."

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