Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for July 13, 2012

I wouldn’t buy a used teabag from that guy!

Of course I’m old enough to remember this from the Jack Benny radio programs.

here’s the guy with the Rolex DVD players in his jacket…

Sheldon Leonard! What a great Jack Benny flashback.

Skeezix, please wake up!!

Could this all just be a dream sequence from falling asleep watching “The Horn Blows at Midnight”?

We’ve had Frank Nelson (the “Yeeeeesss?” man) who played every snooty store clerk/waiter/doorman etc. and now the Track Tout, who as rsketch noted was played by Sheldon Leonard (and before that, Benny Rubin).

Who’s next? Mr. Kitzel? Gertrude Gearshift? Rochester Van Jones?

As an old radio fan that was born too late, I’m loving this almost as much as those trips to the Comic Strip Retirement Home.

IGoPogo4 , also as an old radio fan that was born too late, I agree!

Skeezix, wake up! Walk out the door and across the street to the competition and make sure Needlenose knows where you’re going!

Skeezix must be going senile to buy anything from that jerk.

Jose Jimenez (Bill Dana) should be up next.

Saturday afternoons WDCB (a public radio station) streams old time radio over the web. The program has been on for decades. Great program and great fun.

UncaJim, you are right about the routine’s pacing. Lot’s of beats between lines.

I’m fortunate to live near Washington DC where Sundays Nights starting at 7:00pm on WAMU FM 88.5 Ed Walker hosts “The Big Broadcast.” 4 hours of vintage radio, also available in streaming audio.

Ed Walker was one half of a.m. radio’s fabulous (or infamous) “Joy Boys” team here in town. The other half being Willard Scott.

Hm…could you be thinking of Digger O’Dell, the Friendly Undertaker from Life of Riley?

Please, let’s stick with Jack Benny characters. We’ve got Frank Nelson, and Sheldon Leonard’s race track tout (who never offered tips on the horse races). Pierreandnicole Jose Jiminez was never a Benny character – in fact he was never a radio character; you may be thinking of Mel Blanc’s Sy, who has a sister Sue who sews. Then again in this store you could have Blanc’s harried and nearly suicidal store clerk from the Christmas episodes. And Night-Gaunt Digby O’Dell was on “The Life of Riley,” both the radio series with William Bendix and the first TV series which starred Jackie Gleason. (He was dropped from the second TV series which starred Bendix because the actor who played “Digger”, John Brown, was unjustly blacklisted for being named in “Red Channels.”)

While you are at it, this guy looks more like early movie character actor Franklyn Pangborn, than he did.