Fu Manchu - Silence
Airdate:
Tuesday - January 16, 1973 (Airdate Confirmed)
WOR Show Original Airing
(NOTE ABOUT TIME REFERENCES: Since there are many different copies of shows out there from different sources, all time references are from the beginning of one single recorded copy, since various copies, depending on when the recordee started recording, had news at the beginning or shortened themes. The times would vary from copy to copy.)
First Spoken Line After Theme Ends
The thing that's never mentioned about Dr Fu Man Chu. . .
Show Description
[ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ]
**Fu Manchu and the mustache**
The host opens by noting his growing mustache and its debt to Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu. He recalls the classic "long, thin, draping" Fu Manchu mustache and digresses into the character's lesser-mentioned traits: reptilian eyes (vertical slit pupils, a film-like covering instead of lids), parchment-like skin that made him look both ancient and ageless, and extremely long fingernails (a mark of the Mandarin class). He contrasts this with ordinary "piercing eyes" and reflects on how Fu Manchu's intellect was applied to evil.
**The talking bird "Charlie"**
He reads a Philadelphia Bulletin item about a large talking blackbird in Levittown (Bucks County) that was terrorizing children by yelling "bug off" (rendered in the transcript as "bung off"). This leads to a digression on Philadelphia's culture of booing and a childhood memory of a talking crow named John that lived on a neighbor's garage and shouted "damn Tony Hollard" (or similar).
**Commercials**
- A short Life Savers spot (Andy sneaking one before kissing Betsy).
- A longer plug for the House of Chan Chinese restaurant (52nd Street and Seventh Avenue), praised for its long tenure, competition in a tough food neighborhood, and ability to serve quickly if you "have to make a show." He playfully etymologizes "WOR" as sounding like Chinese for "soft and gooey noodles" (war mein).
**Andy Capp, overheard dialogue, and silence in relationships**
He discusses the comic strip *Andy Capp* (noting the name as a Cockney play on "handicap"), its willingness to show bitterness and silence between Andy and his wife Flo (unlike sunnier strips), and the common "wall of impenetrable silence" between partners.
This connects to an overheard Greenwich Village exchange in which a woman tells her companion he must "expand the creative aspect of your interpersonal relationships"; he replies that his relationships *are* creative and asks what "Sally's" are like. The host treats the exchange as pure pretentious New School / Jules Feiffer-style language that has little to do with reality.
**The central anecdote: George and Peggy**
The longest section is a story about a college friend, George (a former swinging bachelor with a cold basement pad full of posters, wine bottles, and a bearskin rug). George casually announces one day that he "got married" to Peggy over a weekend. Weeks later he invites the host to their new furnished apartment on Vine Street for dinner.
The host arrives to find a neat, warm, doily-filled place completely unlike George's old life. Peggy serves meatloaf and mashed potatoes, then reads the paper in silence. George and Peggy have not spoken to each other for roughly two weeks; they communicate only through the guest (e.g., "Would you tell him I'd appreciate it if he would go to the store and get some ice cream?" / "Would you tell her okay…?"). The host presents this as a perfect, if extreme, illustration of non-creative interpersonal silence.
**Broader reflections**
He criticizes the common fallacy that technological successes (landing men on the Moon) should make "simple" human problems (race relations, the common cold, poverty) equally solvable by money or willpower. He notes that the common cold is one of the most complex afflictions known, and that problems of the human spirit are not solved by spending. Book knowledge of reality (sharks, storms, Indians, etc.) is contrasted with actually living it.
Comments
• The show originally listed as 1/16/73 "Silence Might Be The Solutuion" is the same show as this show "Fu Manchu"
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