Today in Comics History, November 27: Happy birthday, Ted Husing!

Born on this day in 1901: sportscaster and radio/movie announcer Ted Husing!

Say, where'd ya get the green suit, Ted?


from "Ace Sportscaster" in Real Fact Comics #6 (DC, January 1947), pencils and inks by Jack Lehti



Ted Husing: star of radio, movies, comic books and second-class-postage necessitating text pages!



"Paging Mr. Husing!" from Juke Box Comics #1 (Eastern Color, March 1948), writer unredited and unknown
Ted Husing: the man who pioneering doing radio broadcasts half-naked. Geez, Ted, put a shirt on, ya load!


from "Radio Progress" in Marvels of Science #4 (Charlton, June 1946), pencils and inks by Bob Sanders
'Round about now you are probably sayin' "Who?" You say "Who, Bully, who, is Ted Husing and why are you highlighting him?"




Real Fact Comics #6
That's a very good question, but you wouldn’t ask it if you're a fan, like I am, of TV's Mystery Science Theater 3000, which featured Ted Husing in one of its most infamous shorts: "Catching Trouble."

"Catching Trouble" (Paramount Pictures, 1936), directed by Jack Eaton, narrated by Ted Husing, starring Ross Allen; riffed by Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and Kevin Murphy on Mystery Science Theater 3000 series 3, episode 15 "Teenage Caveman" (Best Brains, November 9, 1991)
Husing ("in the booth") narrates a short about bring-'em-back-alive animal catcher Ross Allen, who did a lot of serious research/conservation work for Everglades reptiles...


from "Ross Allen: Alligator Man" in Real Life Comics #44 (Pines, May 1948), creators unccredited and unknown
...but who in this film spends a lot of time, as Joel Hodgson says, "raping the land." In "Catching Trouble," watch Allen (Husing refers to him repeatedly as "my boyfriend") terrorize and kidnap baby bears and a wildcat, among others.

Joel: "I am deeply ashamed of my race right now."



That's why no viewing of "Catching Trouble" is complete without watching the follow-up MST3K sketch "Catching Ross," where Joel and the 'bots treat Ross to exactly the treatment he dishes out to the animals.


Happy birthday, Ted Husing, but stop encouraging animal-napping for fun and profit. And get yourself a new boyfriend.


from Real Fact Comics #6