Monday, October 21, 2013

Was this really an occupation?

I know there were a lot of occupations back in olden days that no longer exist, but when I saw "I Scream" starring Gus Shy, a short on Disc 2 of Warner Archive's Vitaphone Comedy Collection, I had to question this oneL




He's holding an ice cream cone! In fact, he has a whole little basket of ice cream cones, and he apparently has cold-called (sorry) this business meeting to try to hawk them. This despite no visible means of refrigeration. He makes his way over to the table later and starts handing them out.

I mean, we've all seen ice salesmen go around with those gigantic chunks of ice (that profession was responsible for approximately 43% of all screen comedy before 1935), but at least they went around with a big wagon and some form of  refrigeration. A door-to-door ice cream cone salesman doesn't seem like a practical vocation.

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