Before becoming household names, Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster were busy cracking up U of T students.

Shuster, who died Sunday at Mount Sinai Hospital, graduated with his bachelor of arts degree in 1939. He, and his partner in crime were frequent contributors to the Varsity and and regular performers in UC Follies.

“What I think was unique about their comedy was that it was literary. They wrote and performed parodies on such topics as the Trojan War, Julius Caesar and Shakespeare, which, I believe, came out of their background as students at U of T and through their work at the Varsity,” said former U of T drama professor David Gardner, who knew them both professionally and personally.

The two were wooed by CFRB during their graduate studies, appearing on a 15-minute morning comedy show, and they both eventually abandoned their academic career to join the Canadian Army Training Corps in WWII.

Below is one example of a regular column of happenings and oddities Shuster wrote in the Varsity.

January 10th, 1939
Hither and Yon
With Frank Shuster

ALMA MATER HITHERANYON welcomes back its devoted readers (all three of them—myself and two guys in Pass Arts who don’t know any better)… Once again this colyum will endeavour to bring you news and views from different campi here and across the border… During the interim many event have taken place… A gift of a quarter of a million dollars has been provided by the Rockerfeller Foundation towards the endowment of a school of nursing …Richard Humber has been signed up to play for the men of the little red school house… Willard Thompson is working hard putting the cast of Holiday through the paces… We have a new bursar by the name Higgenbottom… and still life goes on…

HERE IS AN INTERESTING TALE… It concerns the case of a University of Kansas student… It seems that while painting some sort of wooden model, he spilled some ink on a sheet of brown wrapping paper. The professor noticed the queer blot, and was so impressed by the unusual design that he had it entered in a national competition sponsored by an are fraternity… The design was entitled Trees; An Abstraction… The judges of the competition were very much impressed and awarded it an honourable mention… Ahhhh FATE!

FROM THE RICE OWLS we read the quip…”I really don’t see what the Ten Commandments are for…They don’t really tell you what to do…They just put ideas into your head…Hmmmm-mmm…

ONCE AGAIN we find the Varsity Symphony Orchestra hard at work for their big concert of the year… However, this year they travel to Guelph and give the lads and lassies down there a taste of the classics first before we hear them… The orchestra under the direction of Brock McElheran is reputed to be better than ever… This year the symphony is going to play an original selection by Lou Applebaum, a Varsity reporter who is also in the Faculty of music…