What I watched: An episode of the early children’s show Kukla, Fran and Ollie. The series starred the titular Fran Allison, with all other roles being played by series creator and puppeteer Burr Tillstrom. “Concert Day” aired on Monday, October 16, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel. This episode also features credits sequence, which identifies the director as Lewis Gomavitz.
What happened: Fletcher Rabbit opens the show, and is quickly joined by Fran. They get into a dispute over their recent musical practice, where Fletcher threw Fran off the beat. Fletch tries to make up with her by launching into a song about keeping the sunny side up. This, and some extreme flattery, seems to charm Fran and she does a song as well.
Kukla joins the conversation, and Fletcher quickly departs, but not before hitting his head on the stage the way out. Kukla also wants to talk about their musical performance, and brings a metronome to demonstrate how Fran has been off-time. It turns out that they’re all been playing together in a kind of classical orchestra, which I would really like to see. Beulah Witch is the star cellist, and she pops off as well to complain about Fran’s violin playing.
The women head out, and Kukla practices playing the oboe (that’s not a euphemism.) Ollie pops up, and discusses proper oboe technique. Kukla then tries his hands at the clarinet, trying to keep with the metronome’s time. Dolores Dragon appears to bother him a little bit. After hearing some of Dolores’ non-verbal words, Kukla is excited to learn that Dolores has perfect pitch, and tries to introduce her to the slide trombone, but she bites off the mouthpiece. That was me in middle school music class.
Kukla calls Fran in to witness Dolores’ natural talents. Fran turns out to be more interested in Dolores’ ability to spin her head completely around. Dolores drops down and her brother Ollie appears to tell everyone that she’s not a natural musician, but rather is just teething. He has a very fancy album he wants them to play today, which is a natural segue into the greatness of RCA 45 record players. They listen to the music for a little bit, and are inspired. Ollie even sings a little, inspired by our old friend Toscanini.
Fran brings out sheet music, and it’s time for the big performance. Kukla sets up the percussion section. Fran only plays the triangle for three pages of the song, and Fletcher bangs on the drum. Jack’s piano playing really carries the piece, if you don’t mind me saying. Things get more chaotic later, as Kukla joins in on the drumming, Fran plays the slide whistle, and Kukla and Fletcher both switch to the xylophone. It’s a cacophony, but they seem to enjoy themselves.
What I thought: In past episodes, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie has been great at encouraging and recapturing the creative play of childhood. As a kid, art and music aren’t just something you consume but something you do, as easy as grabbing a piece of paper and crayon or strapping some rubber bands around a shoebox. Nobody really cares if it isn’t good as professionally-produced media – after all, you’re just a kid.
But when you get a little older, you realize how inadequate your skills are, and how much actual work is involved in improving them. Making art that other adults actually want to see involves doing the same thing hundreds of times, and doing it badly every time in hopes you’ll do it slightly less badly the hundredth time. Most people will hit a wall where they can’t make the thing that’s in their head, and give up, or pursue the things they have more of a natural talent for instead. That was me with art and music as a teenager. I was lucky enough that writing is an art where mediocre craft isn’t as immediately visible to observers.
“Concert Day” is exactly about these kinds of menial tasks that make up an artist’s working life. The group wants to perform a concert, but they can’t get on the same rhythm. The use of classical instruments here helps to drive home the hard work involved in music. Only Dolores, the most childish character, has the natural genius of perfect pitch, and ultimately the group has to perform without her.
The final concert, of course, is complete pandemonium. The limitation of only being able to have two puppets on stage at once, which the show usually works round pretty deftly, is a bit of a hindrance here as we can’t actually see Ollie and Madame Oglepuss joining in the cacophony. But Kukla and Ollie make enough chaos on their own, switching back and forth between instruments, to make it clear that the band isn’t going to record a RCA Classical Record any time soon.
But that’s okay. “Concert Day” may focus a little more on the exacting craft of music than previous episodes of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, but ultimately it’s still about encouraging creativity and having a fun time with your friends. Getting better at any skill is a serious and often tedious business, but it helps to have a little fun along the way.
Coming up next: Beulah & Dolores take a trip on another Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
The Eternal Couch Potato 