Ad Hoc Touring Company to present old-time radio skits Feb. 14

The Possum Point Players’ Ad Hoc Touring Company will bring a Valentine’s Day performance of old-time radio comedies, including the old favorite “Our Miss Brooks,” to Possum Hall at 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 14.

The show will also include the classic “Who’s on First” comedy routine of Abbott and Costello, and an original sketch, “Shirley You Jest,” written by Ad Hoc’s Nita Gary will complete the program. Admission will be $6 and will be collected at the door before the performance.

The “Our Miss Brooks” radio show began in 1948 and continued until 1957. The show was adapted for television from 1952-56. Many audience members will remember the situation comedy star Eve Arden as Connie Brooks, a sardonic English high school teacher at the fictional Madison High School. Gale Gordon portrayed the blustery Prinicipal Osgood Conklin. Others in the original cast included Richard Crenna, Jeff Chandler and Jane Morgan. The show received acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

Sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, commercials featured Lustre Crème Shampoo and Toni hair products. “Our Miss Brooks” was considered groundbreaking for the time, showing a woman who was neither a scatterbrained klutz nor a homebody, but a working woman in an underpaid profession who showed women could be competent and efficient outside their homes without losing their femininity.

Abbott and Costello’s routine, “Who’s on First?” originated in turn-of-the-century vaudeville in England and was famous on America’s stages by the 1930s. National audiences first heard the duo’s performance on “The Kate Smith Hour” radio program in 1938.

The long-standing baseball-based joke ended up in two of the team’s movies, and in 1999, Time magazine named the routine the best comedy sketch of the 20th century.

“Shirley You Jest” is both a comedic and melancholy drama taking place as a group of old friends look back on their lives and memories. Written by Ad Hoc’s sound effects director and longtime Possum Point Player, Nita Gary, the cast features veteran Ad Hoc performers.

The Ad Hoc Touring Company is composed of local actors who have been presenting old-time radio shows in the area for the past 12 years.