Just as we have entertained ourselves during the Corona Pandemic the people of 1941 were very good at entertaining themselves. In that January 75 people of Farmer City put on a show for their friends that must have been a really raucous time!
Cleo Reeser was channeling Sophie Tucker, a beloved radio singer and comedienne who sang comical and risqué songs. Did Cleo go for the comedy or the bawdy??
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0bd80_244f5d62e2834df9a17dcfbc97ee0b86~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_109,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/e0bd80_244f5d62e2834df9a17dcfbc97ee0b86~mv2.jpg)
Dr. C.M. Duff and Marshall Jones danced a fine fandango in the follies -- perhaps their stage names were Fontella and Felipe? I wonder if Mrs. Duff consented to her piano scarf being draped over her husband??
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0bd80_f6f78e4898a54360b4864e712e45cf2c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_108,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/e0bd80_f6f78e4898a54360b4864e712e45cf2c~mv2.jpg)
The Hill Billy Kollege was a quartet of mustachioed men and two hooded babies in suits? (Ray Smith, Ray Meliza, Ray Roberson and George Turner)
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0bd80_7a9d3d7ceeb2499699b7a71556901a71~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_109,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/e0bd80_7a9d3d7ceeb2499699b7a71556901a71~mv2.jpg)
The Oomph Girls! A farmer, lumberman, barber and high school teacher. You could put the men into women's clothing, but they invariably wore their own shoes! Don Rueger, Carl Glardon, Jake Young, and Homer Hendricks.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0bd80_e88a52af6f114e6ebf1753e68e59951f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_109,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/e0bd80_e88a52af6f114e6ebf1753e68e59951f~mv2.jpg)
These lovely ladies wanted to just be themselves and put on their very best dresses: Madeline Trenkle, Evelyn Hurley, Margaret Ropp, and Parolee Meyers. (And you thought "Apple" was a strange name for a child."
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0bd80_7db7e8c6827d467c9f52b29db14f540b~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_109,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/e0bd80_7db7e8c6827d467c9f52b29db14f540b~mv2.jpg)
The High School Principal got into the act with two ventriloquist's dummies. Raymond Wells, Oscar Wisthuff and Tom Tucker. (He NEVER got teased for his name!!!)
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0bd80_aec82e00fcf24192b56b1729ce4e5926~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_109,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/e0bd80_aec82e00fcf24192b56b1729ce4e5926~mv2.jpg)
Baby Snooks was a popular radio personality first played by Fanny Brice. Only Elaine Thomassen was identified in the paper, but I suspect that the spanker is none other than Oscar Wisthuff???
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0bd80_48e2d815863b4501b9ba0bc2d96c2fe0~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_109,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/e0bd80_48e2d815863b4501b9ba0bc2d96c2fe0~mv2.jpg)
The show was organized by the Modern Crusaders of the Methodist Church in Farmer City, and it was the first production of its kind there.