Topper

Here is a meeting with George and Marion Kerby, a couple of free-wheeling ghosts, who meet up with respectable banker Cosmo Topper. This was noted by the New York Times, claiming:

“Thorne Smith created the modern American ghost story, ghosts with style and wit; ghosts that haunt us still.”

Others pointed out, “Smith was a master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee.”

The overall mood has a touch of silliness, but it provides lighthearted reading and listening, a matter of nonsensical escapism. For Topper it meant relief from a nagging wife with ongoing indigestion.

Smith himself was a heavy drinker and died of a heart attack at a youthful forty-two. Once, after an unexplained week-long disappearance, he was asked why he hadn’t called in sick. He replied, “The telephone was in the hall and there was a draft.”

Shall we listen to the escapades? Well, why not?