I recently asked Donnie Pitchford, President of the National Lum and Abner Society, for his remembrances of Clarence Hartzell (Uncle Fletcher on Vic and Sade, Ben Withers on Lum and Abner).
He graciously recorded a five minute-plus piece for us to enjoy:
(((HEAR)))
Check out Donnie's work as the cartoonist for the WONDERFUL Lum and Abner comic strip!
First of all, as a long-time fan and collector of Vic & Sade, I'm thrilled to have found this blog and thank you for all the work you've done. About 13 years back, I saw Hal Holbrook performing "Mark Twain Tonight." One of the items Holbrook used that night was "The Story of the Old Ram," and his performance sounded almost exactly like an Uncle Fletcher story. After the show, I reread the story, and the resemblance is uncanny. I guess we'll never know for sure if Rhymer drew from this story, but I think there's strong circumstantial evidence that Jim Blaine is Uncle Fletcher's prototype.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt that Rhymer was a Twain fan.
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