by Johnny Meah
As long ago as the early days of motion pictures, cars and the idiosyncratic behavior of both them and their drivers have been grist for the comedy mill.
Most everyone has had a couple of screwball car problems in their lifetime, the bulk of which don’t seem very funny when they occur. But when they happen to someone else in a comedy sketch our laughing apparatus kicks in. Since the invention of the automobile, movie makers, vaudevillians, and circus clowns have taken advantage of this fact.
The funny bone factor with all comedy cars breaks into three categories: capacity, mechanical dilemmas, and the car with a mind of its own. In some cases, all three are involved.
Since many reading this are too young to remember when Model A or Model T Fords were in vogue, I’ll suggest watching the opening of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” the long running TV comedy. The car that actor Buddy Ebsen (aka Jed Clampett) and family head to California in is the same type car used in the classic “Funny Ford” acts.
The theatrical side of these acts revolved around the frustration of the driver with mechanical malfunctions. Most of the drivers were “Tramp Clowns” but there were a couple of “Rube” comics as well. The car would make a noisy popping, sputtering entrance and then conk out, leaving the driver to try repairing a seemingly endless series of problems– a squirting radiator, a flat tire, a couple of explosions and of course the car taking off on its own– courtesy of the hidden driver in the trunk.
The first of these acts that I recall seeing was that of Earl Roscoe Armstrong. His car not only incorporated all of the aforementioned nonsense but it was a bucking Ford, simply meaning that it was built to rear up on its back wheels and move forward in that position!
Bobo Barnett. Photo credit: ClownAlley.net
The next in this cavalcade of cantankerous clunkers was owned by Ernie and Frieda Wiswell. As an interesting sidebar, when the Wiswells retired, they sold they car to the man who’d been Cornell Wild’s stunt double in Cecil B. DeMilles’ film “The Greatest Show On Earth,” a marvelous aerialist named Fry Alexander, who performed with the old Tin Lizzie until his own retirement.
Maintaining these cars was a formidable task. Due to their vintage nature, parts aren’t readily available, so the owners have to either machine or cobble up replacement parts, or go to the couple of suppliers who deal in antique auto parts. Since these dealers mainly supply wealthy car enthusiasts, the parts cost a fortune. It stands to reason that when these car acts were sold, or in the case of Merle Cook, handed down to a family member, baskets of parts went with them. (Merle’s son, Jack Cook is still performing with his Dad’s car.)
Roy “Deboxcar” Young’s car is currently owned by Jeffery Plunket, and as far as I know, is still performing with it. Likewise, the car owned by Bud “Doc” Heinz resides with his family and was previously owned by Al Piltz who with his brother Red, performed with it on the rodeo circuit.
To the best of my recollection, the music used to play these acts on and play these acts off was either “California Here I Come,” or “In My Merry Oldsmobile”. Interesting since all the cars were Fords. There were a couple of acts that used Crosleys but since no one wrote songs like “I’m Cross About My Crosley,” the play on music still rested with the first two numbers.
Moving right along (pun intended), we come to the tiny car acts– i.e. where a surprisingly big person gets of of a surprisingly small car.
Most of the performers who presented these claustrophobic caravans were “front bender” contortionists, but not all of them. Hip Raymond and his wife were fairly short people but the act was still amazingly funny because Hip would proceed to remove a cleverly spring-loaded roomful of furniture from the car, followed by his wife and dog!
Probably most notable of these acts in recent time is Lou Jacobs who graced the center ring of the Ringling show for decades. He used the erupting radiator gag also seen in the Ford acts but added a wrinkle also done by the Fratelini’s in Europe. Failing to stop the squirting water with his hat, he’d sit on the radiator and the water would continue to squirt out of the top of his head!
