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Join this channel to get access to perks: Want to learn more about Periscope Film and get access to exclusive swag? Join us on Patreon. Visit Visit our website This film is one of the many episodes of Jim Hawthorne’s Funny World, a short comedy series from 1960 that served as “filler“ in between broadcast scheduled shows and live TV. “Funny World“ featured vintage stock footage with hilarious, and often completely incongruous, voice-over by Hawthorne. This one features footage of a rickshaw race in China, footage of a boy who can write on a chalkboard upside down and perform upside down mathematical operations, footage of German pretzels being folded and twisted by hand in a German factory, a regatta with a floating barge equipped with a miniature beach resort, and a man being pulled aloft by a blimp -- with a noose around his neck. Short TV programs of this sort were a “thing“ back in the early days of television, when scheduled live programs sometimes ended up short by a few minutes of time, or when advertisers failed to purchase a “block“ of time at a commercial break. Jim Hawthorne (November 20, 1918 – November 6, 2007) was an American radio personality and comic actor. He was a disc jockey who was a pioneer of “free form“ radio. Hawthorne was born in Victor, Colorado and began his career at a Denver radio station. He eventually landed in Los Angeles, California where he worked not only in radio, but also in early television and short films. In 1950, he created, produced and starred in the Saturday night coast-to-coast radio program, The Hawthorne Thing, which was the final network radio show to originate in NBC's Hollywood Radio City. At KLAC/Channel 13 in the early 1950s, he created the first late evening talk show on television, This Is Hawthorne. An article in the LA Times reflecting on early TV described the show as “predecessor of NBC's Saturday Night Live.“ On KNBH/Channel 4, beginning in 1952, he did a daily five-minute weather show. In 1958, Jim traveled to KYA-San Francisco and created Voice Your Choice, which he brought to KDAY. In the early 1960s, while doing Instant Weather on KTTV/Channel 11, Hawthorne joined KFWB as assistant PD and morning DJ, and eventually became VP, National Program Manager for Crowell-Collier Broadcasting. While still at KFWB he joined Sherman Grinberg Productions as a writer, producer, narrator. He produced Jim Hawthorne's Funny World and Quicky Quiz television comedy shorts. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
