Greetings folks,
I’ve had a thought going through my mind for some time now. Does anyone model the fictitious railroad, the Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga? Mel Blanc (who voices almost all of the Warner Brothers cartoon characters) made the line famous on the old Jack Benny show.
I’ve looked, but I can’t find a .wav or .mp3 file of him, as the public announcer in the train station, saying his famous line. Does anyone in here know where I can find it?
Blaine
IIRC, those were just destinations called out rather than a railroad. OTOH, I’m old enough to know what a Maxwell is, so my memory may be faulty.
In any case, you can’t get to all 3 destinations from a single location. Azusa and Cucamonga were along the Santa Fe passenger line to San Bernardino, while Anaheim was was on the primary freight line in Orange County. I don’t recall the relevant district/subdivision names. Maybe some knowledgeable Santa Fe guy like Andy Sperandeo could help.
Andre
Andre
If you can, get a copy of the Winter 2000 edition of Classic Trains magazine. On page 78 is great story about this whole comedy routine vs. the real-life AT&SF.
Part of the whole “Anaheim, Azuza and Cucomonga” skit came about because of the Bugs Bunny cartoons that Mel Blanc voiced for Warner Brothers. Bugs would always be popping out of the ground into strange places like a bullring in Mexico, or a South Seas island or Ali Baba’s cave in Arabia and saying, “I knew I should have taken a left turn at–(fill in: Anaheim, Azuza or Cucomonga)”. Then, on Jack Benny’s radio show, Mel would always be a station master announcing the trains for all three destinations. For years, I thought that the same Santa Fe train stopped at all three stations, LOL! So we can all thank Bugs for this (among a lot of other things).
Tom [:P]
Just as soon as I saw the thread title, I started ROFLMAO!!!
Didn’t Jack Benny usually end up leaving on a cattle train? Or was that Phil (ham hock) Harris?
Chuck (who has just dated himself terribly! modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Blaine … The Anaheim, Azuza & Cucamonga bit by Mel Blanc made its appearance on Episode 534 of the Jack Benny Program which aired January 7, 1945. To listen to the program go to http://benny.crispy.com/audio/season_16/1945-01-07_534.mp3. The bit comes up about 18 minutes into the program. I’m sure this is what you are looking for. … Regards, Al
"TRAIN LEAVING ON TRACK FIVE for Anaheim, Azusa, and ‘Coo-ca- mun-ga’".
At the time of the show, only ‘Anaheim’ remained an scheduled stop.
Mel did many voices, including Jacj’s tortured Violin teacher, and the ‘Maxwell’ auto. Another ‘regular’ was Frank Nelson, playing an overly eager deparment store floor Walker**. “Yess?”**
Many thanks to Al (newusername) for coming up with the .mp3 file that had Mel Blanc as the public address announcer calling out “Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga on Track 5” from the old Jack Benny radio show.
I’m going to cut out the announcement, and when I get my train station finished, i’m putting in a computer chip with the .mp3 file on it, and a speaker, so all I have to do is press a button, and I can hear the announcement whenever I want. I might even make up a train called the A,A&C RR.
Blaine
And, of course, there was the Beach Boys song about “The Ahaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review, and Timing Association.”
Sorry paul_r, but that was Jan & Dean. I didn’t ask my question at the start of this topic without doing some of my own homework.
Blaine
Newusername,
Thanks so much for the link to the Jack Benny program. I wanted to get a copy of Mel Blanc’s announcement too! I now have a 5 second 55KB sound bite of the first announcement that sounds great in my Digitrax combo decoder.
Don
That routine was in the same vein as the song “Pico and Sepulveda” by Freddie Martin, which quoted the names of various odd L.A. area streets and towns (like the LaBrea tarpits, where ‘nobody’s dreams come true’).
Some folks will know the song as the theme song of the Dr.Demento radio show.