‘Father Goose’ was a delightful cinematic comedy from 1964

Then there was “Father Goose,” a comedic Hollywood film distributed by Universal Pictures in 1964.

 

Actor Cary Grant, at age 60, played the lead character Walter Eckland, who was assigned the military code name “Father Goose” during World War II.

Eckland, a former college history professor-gone-rogue, was basically minding his own business and enjoying his new life as a South Pacific Ocean beach bum in 1942…until he gets bamboozled into serving on a secluded island as a “coast watcher” for the Royal Australian Navy.

Commander Frank Houghton (played by Trevor Howard) sweetened the pot for Eckland by having his sailors hide bottles of Scotch whisky in strategic locations on Matalava, one of the Banks Islands, located off the northeast coast of Australia.

For every confirmed sighting of Japanese fleet and aircraft movements that the ever-thirsty Eckland reported, Cmdr. Houghton revealed the location of another liquor bottle.

As “insurance,” Cmdr. Houghton “accidentally disabled” Eckland’s primary vessel, a customized 1929 Chris-Craft Commuter cabin cruiser named Catherine. 

Eckland was essentially marooned. His only viable “transportation” was a seven-foot dinghy with a putt-putt motor.

The action heats up when Eckland is forced to share his primitive island hut with a stranded party of eight – French school headmistress Catherine Frenau (played by Leslie Caron) and seven schoolgirls in her charge. 

 

One film critic remarked: “The proper Freneau and the disheveled Eckland fight like cats and dogs and, naturally, get married in the end. In other words, it’s the plot of a perfect Cary Grant movie.”

 

Eckland also evolves as a father figure for the seven girls, taking them under his wing, to protect them and care for them.

The comedic peak of “Father Goose” comes when Catherine is foraging for berries with one of the girls when she slips off a log and falls into some shallow water. She exclaims that something has bitten her, and they misidentify a partially submerged tree branch as a snake.

Upon returning to the hut, Catherine tells Walter what has happened. In turn, Walter contacts Cmdr. Houghton, who tells him there are three species of snake native to Matalava, and they are all lethal. 

Since nothing can be done, Frank advises Walter to keep Catherine “comfortable” until “the end comes.”

As such, Walter plies Catherine with the one thing of which he has plenty…booze. It also takes no time for the alcohol to loosen Catherine’s tongue and demeanor.

 

Catherine finally passes out, and they all believe she has died. One of the girls sets out to exact revenge on the supposed snake. 

She brings what was mistaken for a snake back to the hut. Now that they all know the “snake” is just a stick, Walter whips the blanket back he had placed over Catherine…to discover she is quite alive.

Entertainment beat writer Larry Fahey of Boston, Mass., a frequent contributor to The Rumpus, an online literary magazine based in Asheville, N.C., said: “Eckland was a slovenly, drunken misanthrope, but to Grant, it was the perfect role.”

In “Father Goose,” Grant thought he found the part that would enable him to earn the “ultimate badge of Hollywood club membership, an Academy Award (as best actor),” Fahey said.

For most of his acting career, Grant typically played the role of a handsome, sophisticated, suave, debonair leading man. He said: “After dressing so carefully for my films for so many years, I wanted to do the opposite” – stepping away from iconic suits and silk ties and relaxing, growing a scruffy beard and wearing jeans and rumpled shirts.

 

Grant was born as Archibald Alec Leach in Bristol, located on the River Avon in South West England. His parents were impoverished. He became attracted to the theater at a young age.

At 16, Archibald Leach was a stage performer with a troupe that toured the United States. He decided to put down roots in New York City. He was a trained stilt-walker and also made waves as a vaudeville performer.  

He arrived in Hollywood in the early 1930s, and Paramount Studios officials said Archibald Leach sounded too British.

The young actor selected the name of Cary Grant, because the initials “C.G.” had already proved very fortunate for a fellow named Clark Gable. 

During this 30-plus year career in film, Cary Grant appeared in 72 movies.

Grant was nominated twice for a “Best Actor” Oscar, in 1942 in “Penny Serenade” (shown above) and in 1945 in “None but the Lonely Heart” (shown below), but he came up short both times.

 

“Father Goose” did win an Academy Award in 1964, in the category of “Best Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen.” 

In his acceptance speech, screenwriter Peter Stone remarked: “Thank you to Cary Grant, who keeps winning these things for other people.” 

Now, we open the search to find ‘Father Goose’

Naturally, as a follow-up to the recent column about Mother Goose, inquiring minds want to know: “Was there a Father Goose?”

A Google search on the internet revealed three “Father Goose” matches. 

One is L. Frank Baum of Chittenango, N.Y. (near Syracuse), who lived from 1856-1919. He is best known as the author of the children’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in 1900.

 

As a youth, Baum’s parents sent him to Peekskill (N.Y.) Military Academy, where he was “severely disciplined” as a teenager “for daydreaming.” His early interests were writing and performing in the theater.

 

In the early 1890s, he and his wife, Maud Gage Baum, were raising a family of four sons in Chicago, where Baum was toiling as a reporter at the Chicago Evening Post.

Prior to publishing his inaugural children’s book in 1897, Baum commented: “When I was young, I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now…my first book is written to amuse children…I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one’s heart and brings its own reward.”

 

That first book was titled “Mother Goose in Prose,” a collection of 22 Mother Goose nursery rhymes accompanied by short stories about the characters.

 

“Many of these nursery rhymes are complete tales in themselves, telling their story tersely but completely; there are others that are but bare suggestions, leaving the imagination to weave in the details of the story.”

One online educator commented: “Through Baum’s lens we learn: What was it with that horn in Little Boy Blue? How was it that Black Sheep’s wool made three bags full? Why did Mary’s contrariness make her garden grow…or otherwise? Why was Jack Horner sitting in his corner gouging himself on that pie?”

 In 1899, Baum partnered with illustrator W.W. Denslow of Philadelphia, Pa., to publish “Father Goose: His Book,” a collection of nonsense poetry. The book was a commercial success, becoming the best-selling children’s book of the year.

 

One literary critic said: “‘Father Goose: His Book” is a collection of humorous and whimsical poems. Father Goose is a jolly old man with a white beard and a love of wordplay. The poems are written in a playful and lighthearted style, with a focus on puns, nonsense words and silly rhymes. The illustrations by Denslow add to the whimsy of the book. Overall, ‘Father Goose…’ is a charming and entertaining collection of poetry that is sure to delight readers of all ages.”

 Here’s a bit of it:

 Did you ever see a rabbit climb a tree?

Did you ever see a lobster ride a flea?

Did you ever? No, you never!

For they simply couldn’t do it, don’t you see?

 

Have you seen little Sally

Dance the Ostrich Dance?

The dainty way she does it

Will surely you entrance.

 

With the left foot here

And the right foot there

And the ostrich feathers waving

In her golden hair.

Baum used some of his royalties from his “Father Goose” book to buy a vacation retreat on eastern shore of Lake Michigan in Macatawa, Mich. (near Holland). He named the multi-story Victorian as “The Sign of the Goose" cottage and decorated it with goose motifs.

 

For 11 summers, the Baum family took the steamship about 85 nautical miles from Chicago to Macatawa and reveled in the beauty of Lake Michigan shores, woods and dunes. Baum considered this area just “an Oz-like magical fairyland.”

FYI: Other “Father Goose” citations include a legendary film actor and a wildlife conservationist in Colorado.

Origin of Mother Goose baffles researchers

For centuries, the origin of Mother Goose has been an unsolved mystery. Much of the research by literary scholars suggests that a “French connection” is likely.

 

Perhaps the first Mother Goose was Bertha of Burgundy, who lived from 964-1010 and was the second wife of France’s King Robert II. She was acclaimed to be an exceptionally talented storyteller with a deformed foot. Her subjects lovingly referred to her as “Goose-footed Bertha.”

There is a possibility, though, that Mother Goose came along much later and was of English descent…a woman by the name of Elizabeth Foster Goose.

Born in 1665 in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Mass., Elizabeth Foster became the second wife of Isaac Goose, a wealthy Boston landowner. He was a widower with 10 children. The couple had six more children together.

Legend has it that Elizabeth relied heavily on her memory’s store of old nursery rhymes, fairy tales, stories and fables to keep her brood quiet and entertained. Bless her heart, dear thing.

A children’s book titled “Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose’s Melodies for Children” was reportedly published in 1719 by Thomas Fleet, a Boston printer and Elizabeth’s son-in-law. Unfortunately, no copy of the publication is known to have survived.

The pendulum of intrigue, however, swings back toward France with the revelation that French poet and storyteller Charles Perrault of Paris, published “Tales of My Mother Goose” in 1697, predating Fleet’s work by 22 years.

 

Perrault recited fairy tales to amuse his four children. Among his collection were versions of “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” “Puss in Boots” and “Bluebeard.” Perrault’s writings were translated into English in 1729 by British writer Robert Samber.

Another contributor to the legend of Mother Goose is John Newbery of Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire, England. He was the first to make children’s literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He is best known for the book “Mother Goose’s Melody; or, Sonnets for the Cradle,” published in 1765.

 

This publication solidified Mother Goose’s association with children’s poetry and nursery rhymes and solidified Newbery’s reputation as “The Father of Children’s Literature.”

(In 1922, the John Newbery Medal was created by the American Library Association in his honor; it is awarded annually to an author who makes the “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”)

 

Efforts to pin down the identity of Mother Goose amount to a “wild goose chase,” commented Dr. Lorna Wallace of Stirling, Scotland, who is a regular contributor to Mental Floss.

 

She suggests we just accept that Mother Goose is a legendary figure who either resembles a grandmotherly character riding on a flying gander…or a big, cuddly goose wearing a bonnet.

 

(Mother Goose is not to be confused with “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs,” one of the most famous fables in the collection of about 700 writings attributed to the ancient Greek storyteller Aesop.)

 

Robert Ellis and James Coplestone of South Somerset in South West England are the sculptors.

 The classic fable is about a countryman and his wife who owned a magical goose that laid a glittering golden egg every day. Aside from considering themselves very fortunate to own such a rare bird, they also began to wonder just how much gold the goose might have stored inside it. 

In their greed, they ended up killing the poor bird and depriving themselves of their fortune.

The City of El Cajon, Calif., near San Diego, began celebrating the Christmas holidays with a Mother Goose Parade on the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 1947, featuring big balloons of prominent nursery rhyme characters.  

 

National Mother Goose Day was created in 1987 by the late Gloria T. Delamar of Pittsburgh, Pa., a Mother Goose scholar. She established the holiday on May 1 to coincide with the publication of her book, “Mother Goose; From Nursery to Literature,” and to encourage a deeper appreciation for classic nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

At least one Mother Goose entry has coastal relevance:

The man in the wilderness

Asked this of me,

How many strawberries

Grow in the sea?

I answered him

As I thought good,

As many red herrings

As swim in the wood. 

Arcade game Skee-Ball approaches 120-year anniversary

Skee-Ball was invented as an arcade game in 1907 by Joseph Fourestier Simpson of Vineland, N.J., located in the southern part of the state.

Simpson had tried his hand at lots of jobs, including working as a real estate agent, cash register salesman and railroad clerk, according to Jake Rossen, senior staff writer at Mental Floss.

 

He also dabbled as an inventor. Simpson “perfected an egg crate that could protect shells during bumpy transportation routes, and he created a new kind of trunk clasp that kept luggage tightly shut,” Rossen wrote.

Simpson thought he might “strike it rich,” though, with his invention of Skee-Ball, which was a form of bowling without gutters. 

He added a “ski jump-like hump” in the middle of a 32-foot lane, causing the wooden ball (3 1/8” in diameter), to go airborne.

 

There were no pins. Instead, the target area contained a series of holes of various sizes and point values. Simpson cleverly named his new game “Skee-Ball.”

The first commercial Skee-Ball alleys were installed in 1908 on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J. The game became quite popular, but Simpson wasn’t a very good money manager. The company was rescued in 1914 by Jonathan Dickinson (J.D.) Este of Philadelphia, Pa., an aggressive marketer.

 

Ownership of the company would change hands several more times over the years. Skee-Ball alleys were first shortened to 14 feet in 1928 “to be more friendly to women, children and the elderly.”

Today, a ski jump-like ramp is at the very end of the alley just before the targets, and the alley has been standardized at a 10-foot length. Players are referred to as “rollers.”

 

At one time, Skee-Ball was owned by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Wurlitzer saw the game pairing well with its jukeboxes in taverns and saloons and cranked out enough games in 1937 to keep the pipeline full for nearly a decade.

 

In 1960, Frank D. Johns, a Daytona Beach, Fla., amusement park owner, received a patent that truly made Skee-Ball a “no attendant required redemption game,” with the automatic ticket dispenser. Players received tickets proportional to their score, which they would “cash in” for prizes at a central arcade station or kiosk.

 

In the 1990s, Skee-Ball updated its alleys by adding sophisticated lighting and sound effects, musical selections and other new electronic components.

 

For the past 10 years, Skee-Ball has been owned by Bay Tek Entertainment, based in Pulaski, Wis. The community has a population of about 4,075 and is located about 25 miles northwest of Green Bay.

 The family-owned business employs several hundred people. The company’s slogan is: “It’s all fun and games here,” which creates a positive workforce climate at Bay Tek and its parent organization, The Village Companies.

In 2023, Skee-Ball was selected as a charter member of the Amusement Industry Hall of Fame, sponsored by the American Amusement Machine Association in Cary, Ill.

To celebrate that accolade, Bay Tek worked with the Pulaski Area Chamber of Commerce and Pulaski village officials to change the name of the community for just one day – to “Pulaskee.”

 

Holly Hampton, Bay Tek’s vice president of amusement products and services, said it was all in fun, of course.

 

Hampton’s next project may be to campaign for Skee-Ball to be voted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Currently, the only true arcade game that has been inducted is pinball. Surely, Skee-Ball deserves consideration.

Originally designed and patented in 1908 by Joseph Fourestier Simpson, the game only featured five center targets (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 points).

Skee-Ball first added two small 100-point pockets to the upper corners of the target area during the 1980s to increase the game's maximum possible score and add an element of risk.

Most Skee-Ball strategists advise novice players to aim for the 40-hole to maximize their success.