1935/Women's National Radio Commitee/Vic's Sore Knee

According to the book, The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio, the Women's National Radio Committee (in 1935) named Vic and Sade, "One of the few daytime radio shows worth listening to."

This date is in fact two years removed from the episode Vic Has a Sore Knee, an episode that seems to be anything but worth endorsing by a Women's Committee of any size or shape.

Yet another look at the "sore knee" script

The Vic and Sade episode, Vic Has a Sore Knee, was actually one of the first 25 or so Vic and Sade episodes to ever be on the radio.  It was first done in 1932 and (somewhat miraculously) re-done the next year.

The script is one the strangest you will find in the whole of old-time radio.  This is far beyond the famous "Adam and Eve" skit that somehow banned Mae West from radio for a good 10 years or more.  It is way beyond "The War of the Worlds" or any of that ilk.  I do not consider myself an expert of old-time radio as there are just far too many episodes to hear out there but of the 10,000 or shows I have heard, nothing comes close to this particular Vic and Sade episode.

Was it funny?  I'm not really sure if it was funny or not.  It does not read "funny."  As a matter of fact, it reads several different ways.

In the play's beginning, it must have been quite somber.  A two year child has died.  Not even in the soapiest of soap operas did  authors dare take a two year old baby and "kill" it, even or especially in 1932.  Yet, this is what happens in this episode.

Then we have Rush joking with his mother about how good she looks as she is about to go to the baby's funeral.  I'm not suggesting in any way, shape or form there is anything wrong with this but a look at the script when this happens shows clearly that Rush is prodding his mother almost to a blushing point with compliments about her beauty as she is about to step out the door for the baby's funeral.  If nothing else, it's quite odd.

The oddities continue as Rush prods his father with questions about the afterlife.  Vic is quite uncomfortable with these questions.

Then there is the whole racial matter.  I'm not sure how to approach it or even how I see it.  It all boils down to 1932 being a far different time than 2013.  Rush wants to help his less-fortunate neighbors, but even the most open-hearted person can see that he simply does it the wrong way in the script.  He doesn't ask ahead of time, he's got people sleeping in the bed behind the backs of his mother and father and most importantly, his mother is going to be shocked when she comes home to find them there (Sade is not the easiest person to trick or appease.  Sade will be a bear when she finds out and Vic KNOWS this.)

So while this script doesn't really seem to be funny, it probably was very, very funny - so funny in fact that writer Paul Rhymer chose to have the cast do it again less than a year after the first run on the air.

There's no doubt that this script wouldn't fly today and might even cause a controversy.  But it shows you just how far ahead of his time that Rhymer was and always has been.

Vic Has a Sore Knee - now on audio - sort of!

The all-time most curious (if not best) episode, Vic Has a Sore Knee (originally done in 1932 and then again in 1933), is without audio.  We will probably never hear the cast of Vic and Sade ever do this show.

But we have this... PQ Ribber, a huge friend of the blog and an even bigger Vic and Sade friend, recently read the script on his podcast and broke his back to allow me to use that part of the podcast so that I may attach it to the Crazy World of Vic and Sade website, at the post for Vic Has a Sore Knee.

Barbara Schwarz's notes about "Vic Has a Sore Knee"

For some reason, Barbara Schwarz's notes about the episode, Vic Has a Sore Knee are very brief.  As a matter of fact, they were so brief that in fact I didn't include them when I came across them.  She wrote:

Tuesday, 7-26-32: (program # 22) Sade asks Vic how his knee feels.  Kinda stiff, but he expects if he rests all day and tonight he'll be all right by tomorrow.

As you probably know, I have since found a script of this episode (actually, the script was re-used and that's the one that was found) and I feel this is one of the most-important Vic and Sade episodes of all.  I think it rivals any radio script I have seen, actually.

She fails to mention anything about this episode that makes it great.  The fact that Vic is a prisoner in his own bed is just the beginning.

I wonder why Mis' Schwarz wrote so little about this episode?