Fibber McGee’s closet, to be specific. Didn’t have to look it up. Never saw the basis for the phrase in the original, but have seen clips.
Would that be like Felix the Cat’s magic bag?
That sounds like a better metaphor to me. “Fibber McGee’s closet” usually refers to a storage space that’s so overstuffed that you can’t open it without things falling all over the place. It doesn’t imply that it’s stuffed with anything useful.
Often on the radio show (though not in every episode), McGee would be talking about an incident in his past, and remembers a souvenir he has in his closet. Molly would yell, “No, McGee, don’t!” and the sound effects and audience laughter indicate that McGee opened the door and got buried under a ton of old junk.
Captain Kirk in The Trouble With Tribbles comes to mind.
Nope.
I was a teen when my older brother bought Mom a mail order collection of old radio programs on LP. So I’m familiar with Fibber McGee’s Closet, The Great Gildersleeve, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, The Day of Infamy speech, and the Hindenburg exploding.
Never heard the term before today…but I’m only 47 
I was born in 1959, long after the demise of McGee and his compatriots, but I was always a fan of old-time radio programs and listened to a lot of them. I think my parents explained it to me when I was little, but I know I’ve listened to a number of episodes since then.
And yeah, it’s always been referred to as Fibber McGee’s closet.
“Don’t open that door, McGee!”
I forget exactly what Henry had in his duffel bag on that occasion, but the Mad Scientists were always using things like Army surplus gear and ham radio equipment to pull pranks in their small town. The actual quote was something like
“Henry’s duffel bag is a regular McGee’s closet. He can reach into it and pull out something you never would have dreamed was in there.”
Could have been anything from a gastroscope to a dinosaur’s egg; sorry, but I don’t remember right offhand.
The book is definitely aimed at young readers, but I would still recommend it to anyone today. It is really, really good!
I know the reference to the closet, but it’s the first I heard of Felix the cat’s magic bag. So off to YouTube.
The magic bag appears to be a '50s invention. Sacrilege! Felix is supposed to be in black-and-white silents, with question marks and exclaimers appearing over his head
!
Never heard of a Fibber McGee or the closet, even after reading the explanation it’s not something I have any relation to.
Felix the cat on the other hand,
{sings really badly} “Felix the cat, the wonderful wonderful cat, whenever he gets in a fix he reaches into his bag of trick…”
:o
62 year old American. Familiar with the term from parental talk. Was not familiar with the term “Hammerspace”, wonder if it somehow relates to “Hammertime”.
American, born 1951. Never heard it.