This film is a collection of several partial episodes of Jim Hawthorne’s Funny World, a short comedy series that dates to 1960. Some of these shorts were used as interstitials in early television, when live shows might not be long enough to cover an hour. The show relied on amusing stock footage clips and Hawthorne’s patented droll, gag-laced, dry narration. Segments include: elephants in the surf in 1930s Atlantic City taking a bath (:10), a Pelican receiving aid from a veteraniarian who retrieves dozens of items from its stomach, polar bears performing for a crowd (1:40) and drinking from a Coke bottle, dog sled race (2:30), competition barrel jumping by ice skaters (3:00), ridiculous early aircraft tries to take off (3:40), ostrich farm hijinks (4:00), early bicycles on parade including penny farthing type (5:00) , group wrestling match by soldiers or Marines (5:30), dentist works on a lion with a toothache (6:35), bizarre stunts with people gargling water or some sort of chemical (6:50), modern chicken farm (7:30), ridiculous parachute type umbrellas in use (8:00), big cat or lion licks its trainer (8:18), praying mantis battle for supremacy (9:00), chimpanzee eating dinner, leather helmet era football coach at work (9:35), at (9:54) is famous footage of two locomotives colliding, at (10:12) bicycles on parade, at (10:21) a miniature pony is shown, at (10:50) a man and his pet duck navigate a city, at (11:15 a pilot wrecks his plane, at (11:46) dogs are shown on parade, at (12:05) a trained seal plays the flute. At (12:20) a chimp wears goggles, at (12:50) an experimental helicopter tears itself apart, at (13:10) chimps perform at a zoo, at (13:30) elephant are shown in India, at (14:18) a house is floated down a river, at (14:30) a picnic table is shown underwater, at (14:49) golf antics including hitting a ball off a man’s head, at (15:19) a glider / body suit similar to a modern wing suit is shown, at (15:50) women operate a switchboard on roller skates, at (16:60) another early, ridiculous test aircraft that cannot fly, at (16:20) birds and cows walk backwards in a barnyard, through trick photography, at (17:30) a man is driven over by a steam roller but survives, at (17:30) a woman skis in a bikini swim suit,at (17:50) an African American street performer dances on broken glass, at (18:30) a blindfolded man walks across a skyscraper beam, at (19:06) men point pistols at the camera and show trick shooting, including shooting off the end of a cigarette. At (19:30) another shot of two locomotives colliding head on, at (19:20) a man breaks wood on his head while on top of an unfinished skyscraper. The show ends with footage of a man in a jet powered suit that fails, and (19:44) the destruction of an old bridge.

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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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com