Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Gary gibbons
Date: 01 Mar 24 - 06:40 PM

My age 83, dad is Charles Gibbons , my family stayed at his home around 1949 swam in pool had coffee with lots of toast. Went ktla to watch TV show
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,GUEST, Rod T.
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 06:27 PM

I remember listening to Jimmy Scribner on WAIM radio, Anderson, SC, in the 1950's. He read Uncle Remus stories about Brer Rabbit, and Brer Fox, etc. I also remember living near his home, and visiting it a few times as a kid, with some other kids, where we met this girl about our age or a bit younger, and she was his daughter. She showed us his studio, in a separate building. I remember a lot of graphics, drawings, and such. A drafting table, and a microphone. That was in Anderson, SC. I will not list the address, because I don't want to dox anybody. I will say that it was near the Singer Sewing Machine factory which was on the Pearman Dairy Road.

I don't ever remember an adult being there. This little girl was always home alone when we went over there. We were just kids, maybe 10-12 years old. There was a lot of woods near the home, and it was a fun place for kids to play and explore. My memory could be faulty, but that is what I remember. I would love to find out more about this, if that was in fact the Scribner home, and is my memory correct.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,GUEST, Rod T.
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 06:27 PM

I remember listening to Jimmy Scribner on WAIM radio, Anderson, SC, in the 1950's. He read Uncle Remus stories about Brer Rabbit, and Brer Fox, etc. I also remember living near his home, and visiting it a few times as a kid, with some other kids, where we met this girl about our age or a bit younger, and she was his daughter. She showed us his studio, in a separate building. I remember a lot of graphics, drawings, and such. A drafting table, and a microphone. That was in Anderson, SC. I will not list the address, because I don't want to dox anybody. I will say that it was near the Singer Sewing Machine factory which was on the Pearman Dairy Road.

I don't ever remember an adult being there. This little girl was always home alone when we went over there. We were just kids, maybe 10-12 years old. There was a lot of woods near the home, and it was a fun place for kids to play and explore. My memory could be faulty, but that is what I remember. I would love to find out more about this, if that was in fact the Scribner home, and is my memory correct.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Sean D.
Date: 19 Apr 23 - 07:07 PM

Greetings doing research on a photograph I came across this thread. Thank you for all the great information. I currently have a Jimmy Scribner signed photograph on my eBay store. Please click on the link below if you are interested I'm entertaining offers and have this photo listed at $250 thank you

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145043582827?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=esd5bzictg6&sssrc=2524149&ssuid=esd5bzictg6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: cnd
Date: 19 Jan 22 - 09:38 AM

Doug, there is much that can be found on him! Just not always free or easy. I have a newspapers.com subscription and a search of "Sleepy Joe" "Jimmy Scribner" gets hits from 1949-1953, while searches without Sleepy Joe mention the Johnson Family show Gail mentioned above. Searching is just made more difficult for a different reason: any interesting information is buried under mountains of hits for his radio show!

The Sleepy Joe TV show, done in blackface, ran in the late 1940s, and was home to what was, at the time, the world's largest permanent TV set. Here is a good writeup on his early life, alongside a widely circulated headshot of Jimmy in character: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/92956044/profile-on-jimmy-scribner/

As others have mentioned, he passed in 1975; his obit is available online: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/92955875/obituary-for-jimmy-l-scribner-aged-66/

Shortly before his passing, in 1972, Jimmy seems to have gotten wrapped up in some questionable medical devices under the name of "Solarama". According to the Kansas Historical Society Scribner founded the company, which used two large blue boards to send electrons through the body; the claim was that since "all health is due to an abundant supply of electrons to the body," the device could cure "asthma, peptic ulcers, neurosis, acute colitis, cataracts, arthritis, and aging," among a panoply of other ailments (FDA Consumer February 1977, p. 37). According to widely circulated newspaper reports at the time, "Mr. Scribner made the first board for his wife who had undergone back surgery twice and was scheduled for surgery the third time. After she had slept on the heat board for only seven days, it was time for Mrs. Scribner to enter the hospital. Her physician, after examining her, sent her back home with the instruction to continue what she had been doing."

If you'd like more, I can try and dig up more, time permitting, but I think this gives a pretty good summary of his life.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Doug in Redding
Date: 18 Jan 22 - 01:04 PM

Hello to anyone reading this post. Is the internet not a marvelous tool?
I'm posting because I deal in transcription discs. I own several of them at the moment and was just playing one as I came upon this great forum and read that Mr Scribner's relatives have posted here. I would love to know more of Mr Scribner's life and work. I am not a professional or anything. I'm just a private collector and researcher and part-time pro bono journalist. I can also furnish audio cds of the programs of Sleepy Joe that I have collected over the years. These would all be from the original discs that were played to be broadcast at the various radio stations.
There is very little information on Mr Scribner and now that popular culture has applied the same nickname to our President here in the U.S., you will never find the real Sleepy Joe on google.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 07:00 PM

Did Jimmy ScribnerHe ever live in anderson south carolina

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 20 - 02:46 AM

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 May 20 - 12:14 PM

We stayed at his family home overnite. Swim. Had toast and coffee for breakfast

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Margaret Harris Wells.
Date: 31 Jul 17 - 12:01 AM

Jimmy was my grandmother's (Margaret Scribner Hitchings) brother. My mother, (Nancy Hitching Hall) was telling stories of Uncle Jimmy tonight. He is buried next to my grandparents (Milton & Margaret Hitchings) & I went to visit their grave sites last evening. It's great to see the links & the names of some family members I haven't seen in many years.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,David R. Nevill, Sr
Date: 02 Jul 17 - 03:47 PM

I am so excited to read the comments by relatives of Jimmy Scribner. I have had the 'Johnson Family' promotional dart game for 40+ years. I have been curious about Jimmy and his career ever since. Today I came across this page and couldn't be happier to know that his descendants are willing to share his life. Thank you, Gail, Pauline and Karen. PS: The dart game is complete and only slightly used. I have it on permanent display in my home.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,karen
Date: 02 Sep 15 - 06:53 PM

Apparently, I am his great granddaughter. My grandmother's name is Frances.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 15 - 01:11 PM

gail, Pauline did mr scribner live in Anderson, s.c. at one time. I seem to remember my parents taking us to see him at the rose hill museum. I always thought he worked at waim here in Anderson, but I can see by this article that he was a national celebrity. I do remember him and his work with fond memories.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Gail Scribner
Date: 19 Mar 15 - 02:17 AM

I am Jimmy Scribner's daughter. Jimmy Scribner not only did the Uncle Remus stories he also did a radio show called The Johnson family in the 1930s, he did all the voices, (he had 27 different natural voice) and wrote all the scripts. We came to California because he was going to play Uncle Remus in "The Song of the South". Disney getting pressure the NAACP decided to use a black actor. They brought a black actor from England and my dad was dialog coach on the movie. After that we did The Sleepy Joe show. He also did Uncle Remus records (not the Disney version). He was a wonderful father and a very nice man.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,#
Date: 09 Dec 14 - 11:55 AM

http://www.myoldradio.com/old-radio-episodes/sleepy-joe-brer-fox-and-brer-rabbit-s-lesson-ep-10/1

Sleepy Joe stories on the internet.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Pauline Scribner
Date: 08 Dec 14 - 06:11 PM

I am his daughter, and every once in a while I listen to and search for his material on line. He died in 1975 at age of 69.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,kim r.
Date: 17 Jun 14 - 08:58 PM

my name is kim and my mom is gail scribner

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 13 - 04:08 PM

I can't believe I am unable to find these Sleepy Joe stories on the internet. The site said due to content could not play them....SAD SAD...When we were young , all of us loved UNCLE REMUS.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: Sanjay Sircar
Date: 26 Mar 13 - 08:43 PM

Thank you for this important information.

Does this last piece of information mean that Mr Scribner RETOLD the Uncle Remus stories as he went, rather than using them as memorised scripts? If so, this is important for folklore, and these variations warrant/require transcription.

Sanjay Sircar

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Chipret
Date: 26 Mar 13 - 12:27 AM

I knew Jimmy Scribner well, dated his daughter Gayle for some time in the early 50s. Both good people, especially Gayle (!)At that time Scribner was producing his radio program in the basement of his house.I assume he mailed the work to someone, but I didn't think much about it at the time.He would allow us to sit and watch him work, but we had to be quiet.As I recall, he used no notes nor script, so apparently he did adlib his stuff.

Subject: RE: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Passerby
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 01:49 PM

Found this on a page about early television programming in Los Angeles, California. Seems Jimmy Scribner worked for radio and then moved to television:

Anyone remember Sleepy Joe?

Sleepy Joe was developed by Jimmy Scribner for the Mutual Radio Network in 1948, and in September a televised version debuted at 6:30-6:45pm, every day but Sunday and Wednesday on KTSL in Los Angeles. It was the pioneer local children's show on the Don Lee station, moving to KECA one year later, he continued the series at 6:45-7:00 pm Saturday and Sunday until December of 1949, when it was kinescoped for the network in October. In 1951, scribner syndicated a 15 minute film version of Sleepy Joe with puppets dramatizing his stories, supplying all the voices for the characters.

Scribner, a master of Afro-American dialect and a radio veteran was born in Norfolk, Virginia. After working in various radio stations in the east and mid-west, in 1945 he moved to Los Angeles to be on KHJ. Literally a one-man show, the versatile actor played an entire community of blacks in Chicazola, "way down south", eventually playing twenty-two different parts. "Uncle Remus" storytelling was just enjoying a resurgence due to Disney's success with "Song of the South".

Sleepy Joe premiered October 3, 1949. The last program aired October 28 1949.

This show was produced by Jimmy Scribner, who also acted in blackface as a rural spinner of yarns who also tended his corn patch and assorted small animals, including a dog, two ducks and a pair of de-skunked civets (!) Located supposedly in the deep south, he would spin his tales to a young girl named Gayle, played by Scribner's daughter Gayle Scribner. Telling tales, fables and legends about animals, he would sometimes ad-lib the entire story. Aimed at youngsters four to fourteen, Scribner cleverly interwove little maxims in the yarns, such as how brains can beat brawn.

Distributed by Aurora Films from 1951-1960 in syndication.

http://partigirl.www1.50megs.com/MoreHosts/Lostfound3.htm

Performing in blackface would be considered politically incorrect today, in America, at least. I still wonder about the musicianship in the program I listened to.

Subject: Review: Jimmy Scribner - who is he?
From: GUEST,Passerby
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 02:21 AM

Not sure which category this fits. Please relocate it if necessary.

I searched the site and didn't find the name of Jimmy Scribner. Just ran across his work him myself:

http://www.archive.org/details/SleepyJoeOTRKIBM

I've only listened to a couple of these old radio shows. The first one (with the pumpkin) is about 25 minutes long, with silences between the blocks of audio (for commercial placement, most likely). I listened to the second recording too, but it sounds like it has some strange compression problems.

The first one has distortion problems, but it comes through all right, and the performing is excellent. Apparently Jimmy Scribner told these Uncle Remus stories and accompanied himself with what sounds to me like a mandolin. I was particularly impressed by the way in which he made the instrument mimic the voices. From what I could find on the internet he did all the voices for these shows.

Don't know if those of you outside the US are familiar with the Uncle Remus stories, but they were like Aesop's fables, set in the deep South of the US.