Ham Mock?

Ole Nielsen ole2001 at gmail.com
Sun Apr 8 13:53:21 CEST 2012


Olivier wrote:

>I would have thought such a thing to be hard to find on the Net or simply
>imdb, buried among millions of results pertaining solely to Hickok; were you
>aware of  this actor, or did you do a much better research job than I?

Google's helpful completion suggestion when typing in searches was
somewhat helpful, if I remember correctly, but I was around "Wild
Bill's Ham Sticks" too. Unfortunately Wild Bill's Foods were founded a
decade later.
Otherwise my knowledge of Elliott was limited to the aforementioned
comic books, published by Dell.
Which was a pointer in the direction, as you probably figured the
reference to Dell founder George Delacorte with the videophone
bellydancer Rita Delacorte a few strips earlier.

>Thank you very much, Ole!
>I am correcting this right after sending my e-mail; I can still make a new
>photocopy of  the sheet containing this strip (all the strips and panels I
>have selected are on separate sheets, so 8 copies only need to be replaced).

Are you doing an expo of some kind, or a very limited print run fan
publication?

Gary wrote:

>I refer to the term "ham hock", an item with which Barks would have been very familiar from his earliest years. As a play on words, Wild Bill Ham Hock >would have been a natural for Wild Bill Hickok, had Barks been dealing in historical figures rather than actors. Still, Elliott's close association with Hickok--as >your info says, he played him a dozen times--was no doubt known to Barks, and between that and Elliott also no doubt being seen as a bit of a "ham" might >very well have been what cemented the use of that appellation.
>
> Merest speculation, I know, but that's what contemplating the creative impulse is all about!

Good point. I found my own suggestion a little far fetched myself.
Even if this is not a Barks story, the pun would be in his spirit, and
like you say, the two Wild Bills would be almost interchangable at
that time. If anything, the double M in Hamm could be intended to
point to Elliott, spelled with both double L and T.

But with Barks and today's ancient Egyptian holidays in mind, let's
take a look at Barks' W WDC 151 story, The Easter Parade Marshall. One
of several stories where an editor decided to change the dialogue.
After Gladstone has poured kerosene over Donalds candy, and the
children are understandably angry with him, on page 4, panel 4, Donald
says "Well, I'll show him that CLEAN play can beat dirty play,
anytime!"
Not really funny, is it? Now, to me, it looks as if the word "play" on
both occasions have substituted slightly longer words, probably by
Barks' own hand.
What would be a funny pun here, and one which needed to be edited?
I'm thinking that maybe the line should read: "...clean sweets can
beat dirty treats..."!
Two idiomatic expressions, clean sheet, and dirty linen, are implied -
which might be considered inappropriate in a children's book.
Also dirty tricks are jumping to mind (trick or treat), and sweets and
treats rhyme...
But perhaps first language English speakers can puzzle out the
original funny better?

- ole



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