Monday, August 25, 2008

Before the Pause button existed

This is from a new post over at Shorpy.com:

* tee hee! *

"I was watching an episode from the second season(1958-59) of "Leave It to Beaver" tonight when I got to the part where Ward reads a note from Beaver's principal, Mrs. Rayburn. If you freeze-frame the note it says:

Mr. Ward Cleaver
485 Mapleton Drive
Mayfield, State

My Dear Mr. Cleaver:

This paragraph has absolutely nothing to do with anything. It is here merely to fill up space. Still, it is words, rather than repeated letters, since the latter might not give the proper appearance, namely, that of an actual note.

For that matter, all of this is nonsense, and the only part of this that is to be read is the last paragraph, which part is the inspired creation of the producers of this very fine series.

Another paragraph of stuff. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. My typing is lousy, but the typewriter isn’t so hot either. After all, why should I take the blame for these mechanical imperfections, with which all of us must contend. Lew Burdette just hit a home run and Milwaukee leads seven to one in the series. This is the last line of the filler material of the note. No, my mistake, that was only the next to last. This is last.

I hope you can find a suitable explanation for Theodore’s unusual conduct.

Yours truly,
Cornelia Rayburn

To judge by the contents (here's the last line, whoops, no, HERE's the last line) whoever did this folded the note first, to mark the middle third of the paper, then put it in the typewriter, started the body of the letter at the first crease and banged away until he had enough to fill out the middle section.

The Lew Burdette reference would put the date at October 2, 1958 — Game 2 of the World Series between the Braves and the Yankees, and a month before this episode ("Her Idol") aired. I see where this has been referenced elsewhere on the Web but as far as I can tell no one has transcribed the entire letter. Until now!"

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

6 comments:

Pod said...

you might like
http://annalisabacklund.blogspot.com/

Lexi:: PottyMouthMama said...

That is so, so funny!!

Anonymous said...

ahahaha... That is awesome. I love that you pulled a freeze-frame and dissected it. You're a modern day Nancy Drew, how does that make you feel?! :) For my part, I love that they included the line "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." I practice calligraphy and, as you might know, this sentence is commonly chosen for practice because it uses each letter of the English alphabet! Fun times.

ps) "Ward" is such a funny name, for some reason...
:)

Anonymous said...

Sorry -- I just re-read the beginning of your post and saw that you were pulling it from another blog! My bad! But you're still awesome for posting such an awesome piece of investigation. :)

Juddie said...

Thanks Pod,
I haven't visited Annelisa's site for quite a while - will go and check it out again. She does some great stuff!

Potty Mouth Mama,
yes indeed!

Lesley,
I feel bad bacause I'm not a clever Nancy Drew as you first imagined, but I do like sleuthing for great stuff on the Net!

Cheers,
Juddie

Anonymous said...

Exactly! And, therefore, you still merit Nancy Drew status in my eyes. :)

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