April 17 Arthur Lake

Happy Birthday William Holden and Arthur Lake.

For Arthur Lake’s birthday I watched my favorite Blondie movie Blondie In The Dough. Penny Singleton stars as Blondie and Arthur is Dagwood Bumstead. Dagwood is a good draftsman but lacks something that always gets him fired and Blondie to get his job back. This is a later film in the series, where Larry Simms is a teenager and Marjorie Kemp is about 6 and Daisy is surrounded by her puppies.

Things are going well for the Bumsteads. Dagwood is promised a $50 raise by Mr. Radcliffe. They are going to play golf with a client. Dagwood ends up being the caddy. While chasing a ball he lands in a pond. When the client has had enough of Dagwood’s antics he leaves. Dagwood ends up tipping water from his golf bag all over the client. Radcliff does not give Dagwood the raise. The house needs a new stove and Blondie decides to bake cookies and Dagwood will work in his spare time as a radio engineer. Dagwood gets his equipment and starts to set it up. When he puts the antenna on the roof he falls onto the mailman. The mailman comes over on a Sunday to talk with Dagwood to put a stop to his being run over every day. The mailman is literally pushed into the ground spread eagled.

During the fiasco of the golf game with the client, Dagwood put the plans for the new radio station in the clients golf bag. The client looked at them and he liked them giving Radcliffe the job of building his new station. Radcliffe and Dagwood go to the clients to discuss the plans. The client requests a small change while Dagwood makes the changes on the plans Radcliffe is touring the studio. Dagwood goes to the clients radio (which is the size of a dresser) and turns it on. It is a little staticy and Dagwood starts to “fix” the radio. When the client comes back there are pieces all over the floor. The client tells Radcliffe that if he wants the project he has to fire Dagwood. Dagwood lost his job again. They have the classic routine where Dagwood shakes his head no and Radcliffe nods his head yes.

Hugh Herbert plays the President of Premier Biscuit Company. The company will not allow him in the kitchen because it makes the head baker angry. Hugh and Blondie meet in a grocery store. He helps her home with her items and helps her create her batter. Dagwood comes home and is jealous that there is a man in the house. Hugh gives her advice on how to get started. One of the first things is advertising. She creates a flyer “Blondie’s cookies hit the spot”. Dagwood has the radio finally hooked up and shows it to Hugh. During the Premier commercial Blondie’s voice comes through the radio reading her flyer. Hugh has accidentally hit the transmit button. The authorities track Blondie down and is taken to the radio station, she has the children with her. She calls Dagwood and Radcliffe go down to the company. Hugh then shows up with all the dogs. Of course the company can’t press charges against it’s president in this matter. Premier wants to buy Blondie’s cookie receipt. Blondie works it out that if Premier hires the radio station and the radio station hires Radcliffe and Radcliffe hires Dagwood back with a raise.

When the radio station owner has to listen to a new announcer and turns on the radio. It is a new radio that he replaced after Dagwood worked on his other one and it is staticy. Dagwood offers to fix it and Blondie ushers her family, including the dogs out of the room.

When I watched these films on TBS on weekend mornings I never imagined I would work for a construction company like Dagwood. I am an accounting clerk, but in watching the films now I see how slow construction really is compared to how short it is done in a film.