THEACCIDENT

Time: Saturday the 4th of October, 1952. Place: The San Jacinto Valley, California. Incident: A car accident involving two persons, Carl Barks and Margaret Carroll Williams.
Margaret, whom we all got to know as Garé, was on her second date with Carl when the car crashed and she injured her back. The incident cost her several months as a convalescent, much of the time in a hospital bed. Carl was, of course, devastated, but somehow it turned out to be somewhat of a blessing after all. From the bed Garé was unable to pursue her career as a painter and Carl suggested that she could help him with his work instead. So she did for the next 14 years!

Later, they could both laugh about the accident, and Carl made two satirical sketches in his special, amusing way. Here they are with a few comments added for enlightenment. It is important to underline that some of the comments are based entirely on educated guesswork.

'BODYCAST'
Have any of you other folks ridden with Carl Barks lately?

Garé was certainly not in full bodycast at any point of her convalescence, but Carl was a cartoonist! The main idea gave him an excuse for introducing several well-known persons' get-well-wishes on the cast, just as it is common today for acquaintances and friends to write their autographs on the cast, when someone has broken a limb.

The names are as follows (from head to feet):

Adlai Stevenson (Good luck)
Democratic politician who was a presidential candidate in the 1952 election campaign against Dwight D. Eisenhower, who won a month later.

Johnny Ray (Sobbing for you)
Ray was a very popular American singer and songwriter at the time.

Winston Churchill (Cheerio Garé)
Charismatic British prime minister during the second World War and again from 1951 to 1955.

Gutzon Borglum (You tempt me)
Danish immigrant sculptor whose greatest - and largest - work is the monumental, gigantic heads of 4 American presidents carved out of Mount Rushmore.

PEERLESS CAST...
Might be a paraphrase on the many Peerless Cast companies producing boilers and ovens in cast iron. This would also account for Garé's slightly oven-like bodycast.

Houdini (Ah me!)
Harry Houdini was a Hungarian immigrant who rose to world fame as a magician and, especially, as an escapologist, i.e. escape artist.

'Ike'
Dwight D. Eisenhower, top ranking general during the second World War and General of the Army from 1944. He became the USAs 34th president in January, 1953.

H.S.T. (The S.O.B. should be horsewhipped)
Probably the initials for former president Harry S Truman, who was superseded by 'Ike'.

King Tut (I know how you feel)
The jovial reference to one of Egypt's most famous pharaohs, Tutankhamon.

Christian Dior (How chic!)
World famous and very influential French fashion designer.

Joy Nicols (Haven't seen you lately)
Probably a reference to an actress who played in the film A Yank in Australia about a reporter team who, from an American ocean liner, manages to get hopelessly lost in the Australian outback!!! Hence the text Haven't seen you lately! It can be speculated that Garé and Carl saw the film on their first date...

TEARS

Carl also drew this 'after-rationalising' sketch displaying an apparent mish-mash of different ideas. Still, when you read the plausible explanations to the individual texts, you might agree, that Carl could back up most of them.

The texts are as follows (from left to right):

Some secluded rendez vous:
Presumably taken from the lyrics of one of the USAs strangest musical orchestras, Spike Jones and His City Slickers, who wrote these lyrics for the orchestra's probably greatest hit, Cocktails For Two:
In some secluded rendez-vous
That overlooks the avenue
With someone sharing a delightful chat
Of this and that with cocktails for two.

Imported Vin de el Diablo:
The Spanish name of the wine and the fact that it is imported suggests that it may have come from Mexico. Carl actually visited the nearby Mexico on occasional pleasure trips, and he might have 'imported' a few bottles himself that were to the couple's liking.

OCT 4 SAT:
Here we get to know the exact date of the accident.

Potted Bosoms of Caledonian Chickadees:
There is no such species as a Caledonian Chickadee. It was just a figment of Carl's imagination, but he had just the same year used a similar expression, Broiled Bosom Of Caledonian Chickadees, in a story when Donald ordered it in a restaurant (WDCS144 'Billion Dollar Spree').
Later on, beginning with WDCS181 'Bridge Building Contest', Carl introduced the name Chickadees for his girl scout organisation. After having named the boy scout organisation Junior Woodchucks after the lively woodchuck he probably might have felt that a quiet bird would be perfect for the girls.

Souffle of Apples of Paradise:
Again, Carl invented a non-existing dish. Normally, the term Apples of Paradise stands for Tomatoes. Could it be that Garé was very fond of tomatoes?

Johnny Ray
Ray was a very popular American singer and songwriter at the time.

The Little White Cloud That Cried
One of Ray's greatest hits that made it to second place on the hit lists that year. Incidentally, the record's flip side, Cry, made it to the top. This might be a contributing reason why Carl is seen sitting in a sea of tears...