This film (which actually starts around 1:24, after a U.S. Marine Corps promo) is a collection of five episodes of Jim Hawthorne’s Funny World, a short comedy series from 1960. The first episode starts with footage of a locomotive crashing head-on into another locomotive (1:41). A dentist taps on the teeth of a male lion in a zoo as the lion is restrained by ropes and a piece of wood is used to hold its mouth open. Chickens roost at a “chicken hotel.” Japanese women disembark from a passenger ship. A man tries to climb over a fence while an ostrich pecks at him and tries to kick him; the man then tries to wrestle the ostrich (04:11).
In the second episode, a plane takes off with a man hanging onto the side of the aircraft. Footage shows new cars driving down a road lined with people (05:04). A woman swims in what the narrator says is the English Channel, and a phonograph is on a boat that is being towed alongside the swimmer. Men use sledgehammers to break a concrete slab resting on a man’s torso (05:48). A “human fly” climbs up the side of a building; another daredevil climbs a building while blindfolded. One man does a handstand on a building’s top. Another man sits on a chair that is balanced on another chair atop a tall building. At an apparent spaghetti eating competition in Italy, men quickly eat piles of spaghetti.
In the third episode of this collection, a car drives up a ramp and over a small shed before crashing. A man walks on stilts across a board between two tall buildings (08:40). A man races down a track in a small pedal car. A woman demonstrates how to tie ground meat into sausage links. A waiter serves food to a table of dogs at a restaurant. A young girl stands on the top of a hot air balloon; the balloon carries the girl over a city. People demonstrate over-the-top cigarette holders.
In the fourth episode, a man attempts to “fly” on ice-skates with a homemade rocket pack strapped to his back. Chimps eat at a table, imitating a human family of three. A man is dragged along a road by a rope while trying to get out of chains (similar to a Houdini act). A man eats a bowl of wrapped crackers at a café; he then he eats a book of matches.
In the final episode of this collection, a plane begins to take off with a man clinging to the landing gear (14:44). Men and women try to operate floating wheels in a pool; some people do acrobatics in the wheels. A man practices riding a horse for a circus; a cameraman is suspended from a rope and follows the horse running in a circle while filming the animal. An elephant attempts to hit golf balls with a club it is holding in its trunk. A new test aircraft falls apart during a demonstration. A man climbs into a casket on a makeshift funeral pyre, which is set afire (17:09); the man climbs out unhurt after the fire is put out.
Jim Hawthorne (November 20, 1918 – November 6, 2007) was an American radio personality and comic actor. He was a disc jockey who was a pioneer of “free form” radio. Hawthorne was born in Victor, Colorado and began his career at a Denver radio station. He eventually landed in Los Angeles, California where he worked not only in radio, but also in early television and short films. In 1950, he created, produced and starred in the Saturday night coast-to-coast radio program, The Hawthorne Thing, which was the final network radio show to originate in NBC’s Hollywood Radio City. At KLAC/Channel 13 in the early 1950s, he created the first late evening talk show on television, This Is Hawthorne. An article in the LA Times reflecting on early TV described the show as “predecessor of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.” On KNBH/Channel 4, beginning in 1952, he did a daily five-minute weather show. In 1958, Jim traveled to KYA-San Francisco and created Voice Your Choice, which he brought to KDAY. In the early 1960s, while doing Instant Weather on KTTV/Channel 11, Hawthorne joined KFWB as assistant PD and morning DJ, and eventually became VP, National Program Manager for Crowell-Collier Broadcasting. While still at KFWB he joined Sherman Grinberg Productions as a writer, producer, narrator. He produced Jim Hawthorne’s Funny World and Quicky Quiz television comedy shorts.
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