Classic old time radio family serial (1932-
46)
"An island of delight in the sea
of tears..."
Vic and Sade were a married couple, Mr. and Mrs.
Victor Gook, who lived a quiet life in a mid-western town.
Sounds like Fibber McGee and Molly?
No. Vic and Sade were much quieter. For the entire
run of this wonderful show, Art Van Harvey played Vic,
and Bernadine Flynn was Sade. One man was creator and
writer, Paul Rhymer. He was likened to Norman Rockewell
in the way he created a magically simple, perfect and
heartwarming image of a typical American day-to-day life.
The oddest normal things seem to happen all the time.
And the names of everybody are like W.C. Fields not to
mention what everybody says. The talk is golden.
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2010 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited.
 Their adopted son, Rush, played by Bill Idelson and Vic
and Sade were the only voices on the show for years. The
action, what there was of it, always took place in their
house. The sounds in the house, especially the phone,
were the only things heard other than their conversations.
In 1940, a new character, Uncle Fletcher, was forced
on the scene, as Art Van Harvey had a heart attack, so
Vic was unavailable. He is an odd-duck, and his conversations
are unlike any other in modern fiction. For Vic and
Sade was considered by some of the finest writers
of the time as classic literature so said Ray Bradbury,
James Thurber, and Ogden Nash. Nash compared the writer,
Paul Rhymer with Mark Twain. The show was a favorite of
the Jordans, who did Fibber McGee
and Molly, and Carlton E. Morse and his team who
did I Love a Mystery.
In fact, One Man's Family
is probably the great classic of family serial drama,
and Carlton Morse created that show.
Billy Idelson, Art Van Harvey,
Bernadine Flynn (broadcasting) John Dunning, in his On
the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, gives
a wonderfully in-depth study of Vic and Sade's characters
and their proclivities. Many wondrous ideas are bound
up in such normal neighbors.
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2010 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited. Dunning writes, "Vic and Sade, "radio's home
folks," was (though its scheduling would suggest
otherwise) in no way a soap opera. It was not even a serial
in the usual definition of the word. Its story was told
in thousands of 12-minute sketches without dramatic continuity,
the best of them standing alone like fine short stories.
Each was a little slice of life, an American original,
in a category of its own making, as inimitable as its
author's fingerprint. In the words of announcer Bob Brown
(and with a passing nod at the daytime competition) Vic
and Sade immediately became "an island of delight
in the sea of tears."
(Please
note that many of the rare recordings in this collection may be of inferior sound quality.)
For other excellent Carlton E Morse productions, see also:
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