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Cliff Carpenter (March 2, 1915 – January 9, 2014) voices our Rhyming Rabbit. He has a very small role in this, but is a lively enough character! He did radio, theater, and television. Cliff did lots of radio, including voicing Terry on Terry and the Pirates until he enlisted in the army in 1937 where he become a rifleman in the 101st airborne. On television, he had a recurring role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in his later years, and appeared on The Patty Duke Show as well as some other television series.

Download all of Cinnamon Bear’s episodes at Radio Echoes. You can also listen to each episode there without downloading. Here is the link to today’s episode: Cinnamon Bear Episode 12

The Cinnamon Bear Episode 12 – Trapped in a Forest
Opening: Cinnamon Bear Theme
Cinnamon Bear: And here’s the Cinnamon Bear!

Announcer: Now let’s see about Judy and Jimmy and the Cinnamon Bear. We left them in the Magic Forest which they got into by walking through a big picture in the Wintergreen Witch’s house. Remember how frightened they were when they met Fee Fo the giant? And remember how nice he turned out to be? And how he took them to the Goody Goody Grove for an elegant banquet? But they still had to overtake the Crazy Quilt Dragon who had stolen the silver star again. So they left Fee Fo and plunged into the forest, and then, all of a sudden-like, it got pitch dark, and they saw two yellow lights like eyes flashing in the inky blackness.

Judy: Ooooh! Do you suppose it’s the witch?
Cinnamon Bear: Maybe it’s some terrible monster.
Judy: Oh, it’s so dark. And those awful yellow eyes.
Jimmy: Aww…. Don’t be s-scared, Judy. I’ll t-take care of you.
Cinnamon Bear: What was that?
Jimmy: Gee, I wish I knew.
Judy: It’s so creepy.
Cinnamon Bear: It’s some awful monster. That’s his breathing.
Judy: Look! It’s getting light again.
Jimmy: Sure enough! It must have been magic.
Cinnamon Bear: Haha! And there’s my monster.
Judy: Why, it’s the Crazy Quilt Dragon!
Jimmy: Can you beat that? And here we were scared like everything.
Cinnamon Bear: Looks like he’s fainted or something. He’s all in a heap.
Judy: Yes, but his eyes are wide open. That’s what we saw in the dark!
Jimmy: Hey, Crazy Quilt! Wake up and hear the birdies.
Cinnamon Bear: Here. Let me try. I’ll tweak his nose for him.
Crazy Quilt: Whoa! Oh, where… Where am I?
Jimmy: Never mind where you are! Where’s our silver star?
Cinnamon Bear: Up to your old tricks again, huh, Crazy Quilt?
Crazy Quilt: Is this a dream? Ohhh.
Cinnamon Bear: Now don’t try and pull that stuff. Come on. Talk fast. Where’s the star?
Crazy Quilt: Star? Star? Oh, I’m so bewildered I… Oh! Now it all comes back to me. Judy, Jimmy, and Paddy O’Cinnamon, at long last! An end to this nightmare! Is it really you, my friends, or am I still dreaming?
Judy: ‘Course it’s us. Who else would it be?
Crazy Quilt: I didn’t know. I thought it might be more of the Wintergreen Witch’s magic.
Jimmy: Magic?
Crazy Quilt: Yes. Oh, you’ll never know what I’ve been through. Oh, the shame of it all! Oh, agony!
Cinnamon Bear: Why don’t you stop your infernal moaning and tell us what happened.
Crazy Quilt: Well, to make a short story long, after those pirates sailed away with you, I dashed hither and thither like a mad thing in search of enough corks to make me water tight so I could swim after you.
Judy: Did you find them?
Crazy Quilt: Luckily, yes. I stumbled on the requisite four barrels of corks, swallowed them hastily, and in I plunged.
Jimmy: And you swam after us all the way?
Crazy Quilt: All the way. A mere nothing, though. By the by, I was backstroke champion last year, you know, and I also hold medals for freestyle swimming, The Root Beer Crawl…
Cinnamon Bear: Aw, quit bragging, Crazy Quilt, and get on with your story.
Crazy Quilt: Far be it for me to enumerate my aquatic achievements to an unappreciative audience. Uh, well, anyway, I swam like ten thousand dragons, and arrived at the Island of Obee in remarkably good time. But when I attempted to land, I was stopped by a wave which I couldn’t get through.
Judy: Sure, that was the magic wave.
Crazy Quilt: Decidedly! It occupied a great deal of my time, but finally, I managed to dive under it and proceeded to the shore. There, to my delight, I saw the silver star reposing on the bosom of a Roly-Poly Policeman.
Cinnamon Bear: And then you talked him into giving it to you.
Crazy Quilt: I didn’t, either. I was just about to engage him in casual conversation, when WHAM! Something indescribable overcame me.
Cinnamon Bear: Yeah! You just couldn’t resist the star. It was so bright and shiny.
Crazy Quilt: Oh, it was terrible. I wasn’t myself at all. Some powerful and evil influence seemed to guide me. A voice kept repeating and repeating in my left ear. That’s the blue and orange one, you know, “Get the star. Come this way.” And so, although I wanted to wait for you, in agony I fought to wait for you! This diabolical force kept pulling me.
Cinnamon Bear: Sure. Just itchy claws, that’s all. Itchy claws.
Judy: Don’t interrupt him, Cinnamon Bear.
Crazy Quilt: And to my utter shame, I succumbed to the voice, got the star by pretending you’d sent me after it, and was drawn like steel to a magnet up the beach into a house through the picture frame into this Magic Forest right to the spot where you found me just now. And then… Ohhh.. Oh.. I shudder to think of it.
Jimmy: What happened?
Crazy Quilt: The Wintergreen Witch appeared.
Cinnamon Bear: Applesauce! The Educated Owl said she went to the Witch’s Convention.
Crazy Quilt: A trick! A hoax! This ominous weird thing stood before me, and then I realized it was she who had exorcised this horrible power over me. Made me steal the star.
Cinnamon Bear: Oh, come now, Crazy Quilt. Don’t blame it on a lady.
Crazy Quilt: She’s no lady! And she made me hand over the precious star. And then I think she must have put me in a short trance, because that’s all I remember. Oh agony!
Jimmy: Jiminy Crickets!
Judy: Poor old Crazy Quilt.
Cinnamon Bear: Sounds fishy to me, that’s what it does.
Crazy Quilt: Well, you believe me, don’t you, Judy?
Judy: ‘Course I do. Didn’t you save us from the Inkaboos?
Jimmy: Sure he did! Say, what did the witch look like, Crazy Quilt?
Crazy Quilt: Hideous! Horrible! Terrifying. She changed colors all the time. Ugly green, then purple, then blood red. And that nightmare of a face! Great rolling eyes, three fangs peering through an ugly slit of a mouth and…
Judy: Stop. I don’t think I want to hear anymore.
Jimmy: Aw, Judy. If you get scared just by hearing Crazy Quilt talk about that old witch, how are you going to be when we meet her face to face?
Judy: I don’t want to meet her face to face at all.
Jimmy: Well, that’s just what we’re gonna have to do if we want to get our silver star back.
Cinnamon Bear: Sure. Gotta meet her f-face to face. Gotta be very brave.
Crazy Quilt: That’s what I say, though somewhat reluctantly.
Judy: I guess I can be as brave as the rest of you, but how are we going to find our way back to the place where we came through the picture frame?
Jimmy: Gee Willikers. I hadn’t thought about that. These woods all look the same. Do you know which way to go, Crazy Quilt?
Crazy Quilt: Oh, I’m dreadfully sorry, or maybe dreadfully happy, that I haven’t the slightest idea which way to reach the Wintergreen Witch’s house. Remember, I’ve been in a trance or something.
Cinnamon Bear: Huh! I wish you would go back into your trance and shut the door after you! Well, children, I, I guess there’s nothing left to do but follow our noses. Hope we’ll find the place where we came in. Come on, let’s go.
Judy: Lookee! Look what just popped up on the other side of that bush.
Jimmy: Why, it’s a yellow rabbit, and he’s grinning from ear to ear.
Crazy Quilt: Very friendly looking, too. Perhaps he can direct us. I shall accost him in my best dragonian manner. Greetings, my little woodland wayfarer, my little relative of the blessed Easter Bunnikin. Won’t you join us?
Judy: Oh! Look at him hop right over to us.
Crazy Quilt: And now! Who might you be?
Rabbit: I’m called the Rhyming Rabbit, ‘cause rhyming is my habit.
Judy: Listen to him, Jimmy. He talks just like a poem sounds.
Crazy Quilt: Intriguing no end. Tell me, Rhyming Rabbit, what makes you talk in poetry?
Rhyming Rabbit: I ate a rhyming dictionary which made me very literary. I rhyme from break of day till sunset, because of all the rhymes I once et.
Cinnamon Bear: This is all very interesting, but it doesn’t help us find our way out of here. If you’re so good at rhyming, Mr. Rabbit, perhaps you can tell us how to get to the Wintergreen Witch’s?
Rhyming Rabbit: You want to know which way’s the witch is? It’s hard to tell just way which is.
Crazy Quilt: Oh, come, come, my little poet laureate, you either know, or you don’t.
Jimmy: That’s what I say. Can you show us how to get back through the picture frame?
Rhyming Rabbit: I’d be most happy to oblige you. Just follow me, and I will guide you.
Judy: That’s grand, Mr. Rabbit. Come on everybody!
Cinnamon Bear: Yeah, one moment please. Is that a beautiful beehive over there, or am I dreaming?
Crazy Quilt: It’s a beehive alright. Why?
Cinnamon Bear: Hmmm… Next to cinnamon buns, there’s nothing like honey.
Jimmy: Aw, Come on, Paddy O’Cinnamon. I thought you were in a hurry.
Cinnamon Bear: Oh, it won’t take a minute for a snack. Mmmm! What’s that?
Crazy Quilt: If I’m not mistaken, it’s a bumble bee, and he’s guarding the hive.
Cinnamon Bear: Ho! What’s a bumble bee? Out of my way, ruffian!
Bee: Bzzzz… youbettermindyourownbusiness Bzzz…
Cinnamon Bear: I am! Honey is my business.
Rhyming Rabbit: Excuse me for the slight intrusion. You’d better mind your p’s and q’s and stay away from bumble bees and listen to a bit of reason.
Cinnamon Bear: No mere bee’s going to stop me! Honey, here I come! Oh! Ow! He got me! That’s right, laugh. Ohh! Somebody get me a mud puddle, quick. And as for you, you rhyming rabbit, don’t stand there grinnin’ . I suppose you’re gonna say ‘I told you so’. Well, what do you got to say for yourself, smarty?
Rhyming Rabbit:

You should always let the bumble bee be.
You’ll never win his friendship, no, Sirree.
You may hobnob with a gadfly,
Though he’s more or less a bad fly,
But you’d better let the bumble bee be.

You can dawdle with a doodlebug for tea.
A katydid is charming company.
You can visit with a cricket
Or a cockroach in a thicket,
But you’d better let the bumble bee be.

Just take a bit of sound advice from me,
And keep away from his vicinity.
You may think you’d have a keen time,
But he’d sting you in the meantime.
So you’d better let the bumble bee be.
Ouch! You’d better let the bumble bee be.

Judy: What a shame! That bumble bee stung the rabbit, and he wasn’t doing a thing, either.
Rhyming Rabbit: Water! Water! Pour on water! He got me where he hadn’t oughtter. Never trust a bumble bee, ‘cause he’ll sting you like he stung me!
Jimmy: He’s running away!
Cinnamon Bear: It serves him right! He laughed when I got stung, didn’t he?
Crazy Quilt: But he was going to show us how to get back through the picture frame. What to do now? What to do?
Jimmy: I know! The whistle! The one the giant gave me.
Crazy Quilt: Giant! Oh, I don’t like that one bit. Sounds bad.
Judy: Oh, but Fee Fo’s a gentle giant, and he was very nice to us.
Jimmy: Sure! And he gave me this little whistle, and said if we ever needed help, just to blow on it three times, and he’d come a-running.
Judy: I’m sure Fee Fo can help us. Blow the whistle quick, Jimmy.
Jimmy: Okay!
Crazy Quilt: Oh, goodness, Jimmy, that’s not loud enough for anyone to hear. Better let me try it. I’m good at wood instruments, you know. Played the tuba in college.
Jimmy: Alright, Crazy Quilt. Here it is!
Crazy Quilt: Ah! Now watch the old maestro. I place the instrument thus, inhale, and….
Judy: What happened?
Jimmy: Gee Willikers! He swallowed the whistle.

Announcer: Out of the frying pan, into the fire. It seems that our friends will never quite get out of trouble. And what’s more important, how will they ever get out of the Magic Forest now that Crazy Quilt has swallowed the whistle? Well, maybe we’ll find out next time, so be sure to listen, won’ t you?

Sources:

https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/actors/cliff-carpenter

https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/cliff-carpenter-old-time-radio-performer-dead-98-article-1.1578643

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Donnie
8 years ago

Hmm…I’m with C.B, the dragon’s story sounds pretty fishy to me. This episode has some clever and funny writing in it.”Bzzzz… youbettermindyourownbusiness Bzzz…”— I like the way you transcribed that line as a part of the buzz. 🙂

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