The Genius of Paul Rhymer

The following short essay (the last of three) about Paul Rhymer's classic radio program "Vic and Sade," was written to promote a talk I gave titled Writing Humorous Dialogue at the Institute for Language, Technology, and Publications Design, University of Baltimore, on April 20, 1995. The program featured local actors reading from Vic and Sade scripts. If you want to know more about the work of Paul Rhymer, or listen to one of the taped shows, click on the "Paul Rhymer" and "Vic and Sade" links in the sidebar. (For a start I recommend the show "A Letter From Aunt Bess.")

Paul Rhymer's knack for writing dialogue is nowhere more evident than when he has one of his characters deliver a telephone monologue. Sometimes it's Vic on the phone curtly dealing with a salesperson or a wrong number, or Rush gabbing with Bluetooth Johnson, Nicer Scott, or another of his buddies from school or the neighborhood. Most often, though, the telephone monologue falls to Sade, usually when she's home alone taking a break from her domestic duties. The monologue I've chosen as representative is from an undated script, most likely from the early 1940s, since Sade's amiable Uncle Fletcher is featured. Uncle Fletcher joined the show as an on-mike character around that time and here makes one of his slapstick entrances. When he enters, in the company of Rush, Sade's telephone monologue, or "solo," is transformed into a trio. Actually it's a quartet if you count "Ruthie," on the other end of the line.

ANNOUNCER: Well, sir, it's early afternoon as we enter the small house half-way up in the next block now, and here in the living room we find Mr. Victor Gook all by herself. Mrs. Gook is at the telephone conversing with her close friend and confidante Mrs. Frederick Stembottom. Listen:

SADE (to phone): I didn't take you away from anything, did I, lady? Well, ish, I haven't really got anything to say now that I've called you. (giggles) Yes . . . well, what happened I went like a house a-fire all morning long and done nine million jobs around the house and then got dinner and pitched in on my upstairs the minute the boys left for the office an' school, and finally did quit and wash and put on a clean apron and then discovered I'd been on the go so much I couldn't settle down. (laughs) You know how that is lady. Person gets theirself all keyed up and they hafta slow down gradual or the boiler explodes. (laughs) Yes . . . so I telephoned you. Hey, maybe that's not very complimentary. (loud lady laugh) No, but you appreciate how I mean, Ruthie. Sure. Yes, isn't it a quiet afternoon. One of them hushedy-hushedy afternoons where a person sits and listens to pins dropping. Little bit ago I was out on the back porch shaking my mop and 'way off in the distance somewhere I heard some fella say giddap to his horse and I bet twenty-five cents he was clear away over on Chestnut Street and that's eight hundred miles from here if it's an inch. Yeah . . . you run inta real still afternoons every so often. Like Sunday kinda. I was sayin' to . . . say, lady, hang on a second, I think I heard my kitchen door. (calls) Hello? Groceries? You, Irving?

RUSH (off): Hi, Mom.

FLETCHER (off): Afternoon, Sadie honey.

SADE (calls, in some surprise): Well—hello. (to phone) Uncle Fletcher and Rush just walked in, Ruthie. I can't imagine what Rush's doing home from school. (crash in the kitchen) Oh, my goodness. (calls) What happened?

FLETCHER (cheerfully, off) Fell down.

SADE (calls sharply) Who fell down?

RUSH (off, cheerfully): We both fell down.

SADE (not loud): Oh, for mercy's sake. (to phone) What, Ruthie? No, we don't need to hang up. There's no reason why we hafta cut our conversation short just because . . . huh?

RUSH (approaching): Uncle Fletcher tripped on his shoelace, Mom.

FLETCHER (approaching, cheerfully): No broken bones, Sadie, Honey, no broken bones.

SADE (to phone): Well whatever you say, lady. Seems like a shame though. I take you away from whatever you're doing and just because my family busts in we hafta cut short our . . . (giggles) . . . well, ish.

RUSH (coming up): Principal called a special teachers' meeting, Mom.

FLETCHER (coming up): Using the telephone, are you, Sadie?

SADE (to phone) No, you needn't bother to call back, Ruthie.

FLETCHER (gently): Mama's using the telephone, Rush. I'd stop my titters, whimpers, and guffaws.

RUSH (amused): O. K.

FLETCHER (sententiously) When the older folks is using the telephone it's always best to let up on the titters, whimpers and guffaws.

RUSH (chuckling): I'm letting up on 'em.

FLETCHER: You're a good boy.

SADE (to phone): Well, all righty, Ruthie, whatever you say. Dandy. Fine.

FLETCHER (to Rush, sententiously) There was a little boy in Detroit Michigan neglected to let up on his titters, whimpers and guffaws while Momma was using the telephone and he disappeared and all they ever found was one of his tiny patent leather booties, the tassel singed at the bottom.

RUSH (chuckles): I'll remember that.

FLETCHER (gently): Yes—it teaches us a lesson.

SADE (to phone): All righty then, Ruthie lady, we'll leave it like that. You bet. All righty, Ruthie. You betty, lady. Goodbye. (hangs up)

The Last Word
Even before Uncle Fletcher and Rush enter, Sade's monologue—through Rhymer's word choices and emphasis, including pauses, giggles and laughs—becomes a dialogue. It really is a solo, of course, but written so skillfully that we can almost hear her duet with Ruthie on the other end of the line. Rhymer, by his example—assuming we're interested enough to pay attention—is teaching up how to write humorous dialogue even when what he is presenting appears, at first, to be a monologue. As with the example above, all his lessons are subtle. If we want what he has to teach us we have to dig it out. After all, Rhymer's purpose in "Vic and Sade" is not to conduct a writing craft class, he simply want's to entertain us. But sometimes it does seem that he also intends to instruct us directly, as in the following excerpt from a 1939 script. As we join the Gook family in the little house halfway up in the next block this time, Sade is explaining to Vic that she has been asked by Mr. Gumpox, the garbage man, to circulate a petition in the neighborhood. Seems he's unhappy with his rate of pay and will consider staying on the job only if Sade can get six hundred signatures, which he assumes will influence the city to give him a raise. (Click on image above to read the caption.)

SADE: Let's see. I think I can remember most of that petition. "We, the undersigned, being in sane mind an' sound body, do hereby command, request, an' implore that Francis Gumpox be retained by the city. As homeowners with a passionate love for a beautiful town in which to live we feel that this community could never stand to lose the services of Francis Gumpox, who knows and loves garbage like no other man on earth."

VIC (laughs): Oh, for gosh sakes, does that guy . . .

SADE: Wait a second, I left out a word. "Who knows and loves garbage disposal like no other man on earth."

VIC (chuckles): Thunder.

SADE (giggles): The other word sounds funny . . . "knows an' loves garbage like no other man on earth."

VIC (chuckles): It all sounds funny.

END

[caption id="attachment_7" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Josh Brolin Booking Photo"][/caption]

Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright, who are in Shreveport LA filming the Oliver Stone directed bio-pic "W", were arrested early on July 12th after a drunken bar fight. Five others who are part of the film crew were arrested for interfering with police and public intoxication.

Brolin is playing George Bush in "W", while Jeffrey Wright is playing Colin Powell. The movie will chronicle George Bush's life as he rises from alcoholic bum to one of the most powerful men in the world.

[caption id="attachment_8" align="alignnone" width="283" caption="Jeffrey Wright and the rest of crew."][/caption]

Amid the town's growing consensus that the Screen Actors Guild is not going to strike, SAG is staying in stall mode. The guild offered no response to the congloms' latest effort to dial up the pressure by warning that they may have to scale back their final offer if the economy worsens.

SAG has remained unswayed by such moves. Guild leaders haven't moved toward a strike authorization amid signs they would probably not be able to achieve the required 75% support level to stage a walkout.

SAG's leaders are expected to reiterate today their insistence that they still want to negotiate further on the majors' final offer -- even though the companies pulled the plug June 30 when SAG's feature-primetime contract expired.

The stalemate's likely to persist for several more weeks at least. The two sides can't even agree on how to characterize the current situation.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers has told SAG explicitly the final offer is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that won't be revised. SAG continues to insist that its refusal to accept the AMPTP deal does not amount to a rejection; furthermore, it contends that its presentation of counterproposals constitutes bargaining despite the AMPTP's denials.

 

Miley Cyrus enjoys some motion in the ocean with shirtless costar Lucas Till while on break from filming Hannah Montana: The Movie in Malibu, Calif., on Friday afternoon.

Miley, 15, and Lucas, 17, were also accompanied by another female friend.

In the film, Mr. Till plays the kinda-sorta-maybe boyfriend Travis Brody to Miley’s character, Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana.

DO YOU THINK Miley and Lucas make a cute couple?

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Shia LaBeouf takes his cafe-racer style ‘Triumph Thruxton 900′ motorcycle for a spin around Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon.

Earlier this month, Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, the writers of Eagle Eye and Transformers talked to ComingSoon.net about the 22-year-old actor’s role in Eagle Eye. Here’s one question answered by Kurtzman:

This is your second movie writing for Shia, so were you able to tailor the dialogue more to what he could do as a character or did you want him to do something different than he has in other movies? Yeah, certainly we had a great experience with him on Transformers and his voice is very very specific. It actually helped us quite a bit in conceiving his character in Eagle Eye and that in turn helped us in the conceiving of his character in Transformers 2 so we’re now on Movie #3 with Shia, so I think more than any other actor out there, we have his voice in our heads…. The other thing that’s exciting about it, too, is that this is really Shia’s first adult role. Transformers and Disturbia were both playing seventeen to let’s say nineteen years old, and this is first truly adult role. With that comes a whole new set of requirements, and I think people are going to be really happily, I wouldn’t say surprised, but it’s funny, especially with D.J. He created a breakthrough role for Shia when he did Disturbia but I think this is the next evolution of that. It just shows how much range Shia has.

Jack O'Connell and Merveille Lukeba have been cast as Cook and Thomas on the third series of Skins. Jack previous credits include This is England and Waterloo Road and Merveille include The Bill and Ezra.

Filming is currently underway for the 3rd Series.

British actress Emily Blunt — known for role as an icy assistant in the The Devil Wears Prada — has split with Canadian singer Michael Bublé, her rep confirms to Usmagazine.com.

"Sadly, after three years, they have parted ways," his rep told celeb blogger Perez Hilton, who first reported the news. "They are both extraordinary people with huge talent. Let's wish them well."
Blunt, 25, and Bublé, 32, met backstage at one of his concerts in 2005.

"It was kind of love at first sight, but for a long time I thought it was infatuation," he told Australia's Sunday Mail in May. "But it wasn't. It was love.

"I had no clue she was an actor and now to think that I am sitting alone in a hotel room talking to you and she is making out with Benicio Del Toro [her co-star in her upcoming movie The Wolf Man], I got absolutely screwed in the deal," he added.

In 2007, Blunt told W their relationship worked because she considered him to be more famous.

"It's harder when you're the one emasculating [your boyfriend]. I've done that, and it doesn't work," she said. "If someone is not fulfilled in what they do and you're a successful girl, it will work against you."

 

Jake Gyllenhaal continues to grow out his long hair for his role as Prince Dastan in Prince of Persia: Sands Of Time, out 2009.

The 27-year-old actor led his family onto the Eurail (formerly Eurorail) in Paris, France on Friday morning — Reese Witherspoon and her two kids, Ava, 8, and Deacon, 4. Looks like the Gyllenhaal-Witherspoons are headed out for a weekend trip somewhere else in Europe!

Jake has been busy in London filming Prince of Persia with the support of Reese and the kids.

WHAT DO YOU THINK of Jake Gyllenhaal’s long hair?

 

New photos of Miley Cyrus have leaked out onto the web, supposedly from someone hacking into one of her email accounts.

One photo shows Miley, then 14, dressed in a wet t-shirt in what appears to be a public shower stall. Another photo shows Miley taking a picture of herself with her iPhone, blowing a kiss into the camera. She also has her t-shirt rolled up, showing off her stomach.

But wait, there’s more!

Below is the last photo that shows the Disney tween star wearing a “Nick J” necklace. Is this proof enough that she dated Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers?

Balding, fattening,

an Australian gangster

wants peace ’round the world.