Your kiddie show host

[Ukulele Ike]

In other words, the guy who introduced the cartoons on your local teevee stations when you were a kid. What was his persona? Did he wear a copstume? (Zyada mentioned her personal kiddy host on the "Stuff the Youngsters Will Scratch Their Heads Over" thread, and it got me curious about everyone's experiences.)

Me, I was a kid in Cleveland, Ohio, in the mid-1960s. We had two (they occasionally appeared on each others' programs, and it was a big deal, like Ally McBeal and that other lawyer show).

The first was Barnaby, who wore a red-and-white striped blazer and straw boater, like zyada's guy. However, he included the classic touch of Cleveland surreality by being some sort of giant elf. He wore big phoney pointed ears, like an early Mister Spock. No other attributes of the supernormal, just the rubber ears. And his voice was a kind of "Mr. Rogers" takeoff...Barnaby spoke softly and sweetly and referred to his viewers as his "little neighbors." I believe the guy who played him was the owner of the station, or something.

The second host dressed in Lincoln green tights, like a cast-off Merry Man. He went under the name of Woodrow the Woodsman, and wore a Prince Valiant haircut and a weirdly incongruous Teddy Roosevelt-style moustache. I remember that he had big saggy bags under his eyes, and a drinker's nose. I also remember that he showed much cooler cartoons...things like the old Hercules series, and Felix the Cat, and the nightmarish vintage classics like Candyland.

[pldennison]

Uke, were you still in Cleveland when Superhost was hosting monster movies and Three Stooges episodes on Saturday mornings on WUAB-43?

Barnaby . . . man, that brings back memories. Scary memories.

[Sunshine]

We had Blinky the Clown, who wore white face paint and a red nose, etc. plus a derby hat and a red plaid jacket. He hosted "Blinky's Fun Club" on channel 2.

I loved him as a child but one day when I was about 16 he came in to the department store where I worked (not in full Blinky costume) and as I helped him, he said, "Do you know who I am?" After looking at him a minute I igured it out and exclaimed, "Blinky! You're Blinky the Clown!" After which, he proceeded to give me a lecherous wink and ask me in a very cheesy voice what time I got off work.

Ick.

[Ukulele Ike]

Phil: I'm a little vague on Superhost. Was he a short, dark-haired, and phenomenally ugly guy who wore a Superman outfit? I am impressed that you recall Barnaby; I coulda sworn he was off the air by the time you were out of diapers.

I may have to start an alternate thread on regional horror-movie hosts. As Clevelanders, we were singularly blessed to have the immortal Ghoulardi...and by the late '60s, the politically incorrect Big Chuck and Houlihan.

Sunshine: What part of the country was this? (Folks don't have to post years if they're shy about giving away their ages, but let us know just what municipalities foisted these eccentrics on their children.)

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

WJBF Channel 6 Augusta, GA: Trooper Terry
Terry Sams was his name, I think. He dressed up like a (surprise, surprise) State Trooper. He showed cartoons like Bat Fink and Little Rascals. Don't recall if he was the Channel 6 weather guy or not, but it does seem familiar. (Kids don't watch news much.)

WBT Channel 3, Charlotte, NC Fred Kirby
Fred Kirby dressed up like a cowboy. He had a sidekick, Uncle Jim (aka Jim Mahaffie sp?), who dressed sorta derelictly. Fred Kirby showed Little Rascals mainly. Jim Mahaffie did other work for Channel 3, but I don't recall what, other than commercials.

WFBC Channel 4, Greenville, SC Monty & Doohickey
Both were weather guys for Channel, Monty Dupuy (sp?) and Stowe Hoyle. Monty was always nattily attired in a coat and tie. Doohickey wore a hat (the kind you wear when you're driving an MG), a grey shortish beard, and a blue smock padded to make him look stouter than he really was. He also talked with an old geezer voice. They showed the silent Little Rascals (called "Mischief Makers"). I also remember the cartoon "Cool McCool."

WLOS Channel 13, Asheville, NC Mr Bill
Bill Norwood was the weather guy for Channel 13. He showed all kinds of old comedy shorts. I specifically remember Andy Clyde, but there were tons of others that I didn't know back then, but probably would now. One series was called "Mr Funny Man." His only "dress" was a pretty plain (bluish?) smock.

And, last, but not least. . . .

WIS Channel 10 Columbia, SC Mr Knozit
Joe Pinner, a Columbia institution for many, many years--and, the WIS (all together, now) weather guy. His uniform was just another bluish smock. He showed Little Rascals and all sorts of cartoons over the years. Columbia is not exactly snow country in the winter, but Joe is ever optimistic about the chance of our seeing some of the white stuff. I've been in restaurants where he was also a customer, and I've walked by him on the street. In all cases, even when the person he's speaking to is right beside him, he uses his incredibly booming "announcer voice" that you can hear thru a soundproof room.

(And although you didn't ask for this, Uke. . .)
The B-movies (Horror, Sci-Fi, etc) that I used to watch in Hick Country, SC, late on Friday and Saturday nights were hosted by a the weather guy for WRDW Channel 12, Augusta, GA. He dressed up in a "Grim Reaper" sort of outfit, and his name was "Count Justin Sane." I don't remember the real guy's name.


(Purists might go apoplectic over my use of "Little Rascals" instead of their original name "Our Gang," but, hey, that's the way they were presented.)

[Sunshine]

Uke:
This was in Denver, in the mid-70's.

From what I recall, Blinky was on until sometime in the 90's, I think. I was also on his show once when I was about 3, as part of the "peanut gallery". He probably saw my ruffled undies.

[JoeyHemlock]

The TV station in Traverse City, Michigan, had Deputy Don and Friends. He once displayed some artwork that I had sent in.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say (again) that I have a crush on the girl who plays Loonette on The Big Comfy Couch, a series for preschoolers. Girl clowns are hot.

[Padeye]

I posted this on the "Stuff the Youngsters Will Scratch Their Heads Over" thread as well but...

Tucson's Bob Love started out hosting Marshall KGUN's Western Circus on KGUN channel 9, the ABC affiliate, starting in the very late fifties or early sixties. I was on that show for my fifth birthday in May '66. My, the world has changed since a children's show host could wear a gun on his hip, albeit a toy one.

Bob moved to the independant KZAZ channel 11 in the late sixties to host the Uncle Bob Show, which took on a space motif around the time of the Apollo moon landings. There were contests, prize giveaways and the ubiqutous, second string Hannah-Barbera cartoons like Lippy the Lion and Touché Turtle.

[pluto]

In Spokane, in the 60s, the favorite host was Cap'n Cy, with (surprise!) a nautical theme. Maybe that's why I recall Popeye as being the predominant cartoon that was shown.

It was a very exciting thing at the time to get to be a part of the studio audience. I never was, but friends would occasionally show up at school and casually mention that they were going to be on the show. They got a little camera time and there were prizes, as well as the privilege of meeting Cap'n Cy in person.

The Cap'n, in his offscreen persona, was a member of our church, although he was in a different congregation than mine. We would have occasional conferences, however, and I would see him there. By that time I was too old and sophisticated to feel the need to go up and meet him but he was always surrounded by a group of kids. I don't think he got much out of the conference, but I suppose if he didn't like kids IRL he wouldn't be working where he was (Krusty the Klown notwithstanding).

There was also Wallaby and Jack, Wallaby being an actual kangaroo who was kept on a leash, with Jack as the sidekick. I don't know if these shows were competitors or not. Cap'n Cy was definitely earlier. Mrs. Pluto, as a wee urchin, got to be on the Wallaby and Jack show and won the big prize (a bunch of candy, IIRC). Her happiness was somewhat moderated, however, by her being allergic to the kangaroo and having an asthma attack.

p.s. I now live in Seattle and I understand the local personality here was a clown named J. P. Patches.

[cygnus]

pldennison/Uke - I'm pretty sure I remember Super Host, although it certainly has not crossed my mind in many a year. As soon as I read the name, though, I got a flash image of a kinda short, dumpy (and needless to say, rather creepy) guy in a striped red and white suit wearing a bowler hat and big round glasses. Am I thinking of the right person? (I think it was on his show that I saw "The Man with the X-Ray Eyes", which I found totally freaky.) Though not a Cleveland resident, I was a big fan of WUAB as a child, as they were the station that ran my then-favorite show of all time, "Hogan's Heroes." Every night from 7 to 8 I religiously planted myself in front of the tv to watch - but not, of course, until I had finished marching to the theme song. Was Fritz the Night Owl on the same channel?

[Athena]

Wow. We just had, um, shows and stuff. Cartoons. No host. I guess we hick kids don't rate hosts.

[plnnr]

Capt. 20 was the kiddie show host on Channel 20 out of Washington DC. The same guy played the horror movie host: Sir Graves Ghastly on Channel 9 at 11:30 on Friday nights.

[pldennison]

Phil: I'm a little vague on Superhost. Was he a short, dark-haired, and phenomenally ugly guy who wore a Superman outfit?

That's the guy--I can't for the life of me remember his real name, but he also filled in on weekend newscasts on 43 once they got a news operation going. He retired about five years ago, IIRC.

I am impressed that you recall Barnaby; I coulda sworn he was off the air by the time you were out of diapers.

No, I seem to recall him being on for quite some time, at least through grade school.

[Inky-]

ON KTVU in San Francisco we had this guy named Pat McCormic who, apart from being the local weatherman and the host of the "Dialing for Dollars" afternoon movie, also hosted a kids show called "TV POW!" and did this really weird puppet show (took me years to realize it was Pat's voice even though he didn't even try to change it, even for different characters). I don't think he ever went home.

Along with the au'rigeur Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker cartoons, TV POW! featured a game where kids could win prizes. Pat would sit in front of a bluescreen with some spaceship shoot'em up videogame (Intellivision I think) on it. Kids could call in, scream "POW!" into the phone, offscreen some hapless stagehand would press the controller and, hopefully, hit a spaceship or two.

My friend was on it once, Got a Orbit Pen ("The pen that went to the moon") and tickets to Frontier Village.

[Ukulele Ike]

Yuck. I found a picture of Marty Sullivan, Cleveland's Super Host, and I wish I hadn't. I remember now that if you were cool in the early '70s you watched The Ghoul, the logical successor to Ghoulardi...if you weren't, you watched Super Host.

(Cool Ghoulardi links here, though...I'm using one as my wallpaper now.)

http://www.geocities.com/ghoulardi.geo/superhost.html

[dropzone]

In order of my life:

1954-1958 St Paul: Pretty sure we had a TV but I didn't watch it.

1958-1961 Chicago: "Lunchtime Little Theatre," but I don't remember the host. "Garfield Goose," hosted by Frazier Thomas.

1961-1964 Virginia: Sailor Bob was our cartoon guy out of Richmond. Played a lot of "Space Angel," which was like "Clutch Cargo Goes to Outer Space."

1964-1965 Cleveland: I remember Barnaby and think I might remember that Woodrow guy. And Ghoulardi, for sure.

1965-1968: Mornings was Ray Raynor, who was one of the diggers for the RL Great Escape. Afternoons we still had "Garfield Goose," still hosted by Frazier Thomas. Or we could watch "BJ & Dirty Dragon," hosted by Bill Jackson, who was a rude neighbor of my junior high. Didn't like it when he'd be washing his car (Model A Ford) and kids would ride by yelling, "Hey, BJ!" If he didn't want to be recognized he shouldn't have painted the show's logo on the car.

Ghoulardi hijack: Jerry G was a DJ in Cleveland when I was there. He moved to Chicago at about the same time as I, becoming [b]Jerry G Bishop[/]. This made for some disorienting radio listening. He got into parttime TV announcing, including late-night horror movies. Ripped off Ghoulardi's act (with permission, I've heard) and became Svengouli. Ghoulardi went to H'wood and became the primetime voice of ABC, as in "Tonight on the 'Love Boat"..."

[cygnus]

Hey Uke, that's who I was thinking of, the Cool Ghoul! Though I'm sure I got some of the details wrong, it's the white-face makeup I remember best. Um, I didn't click on the link; there isn't an actual picture of him there, is there?

[Gr8Kat]

We got KPTV 12 out of Portland, OR, which featured "Ramblin' Rod". His real name is Rod Anderson, and from the time I was a tot (born 1973) until just a couple years ago, he hosted morning cartoons (mostly Warner Bros. and b/w Fleischer Popeyes). His schtick was a brown sweater covered in buttons; not button-buttons, but the laminated ones that feature slogans, cartoons, etc., etc. Kids in the "peanut gallery" (I don't think he used that term) brought them for his collection. From what I hear, he's really a jerk off-camera. My sister met him at the muscular dystrophy summer camp a few years ago and said when the camera was off, he'd go into "get these darn kids out of my face" mode. Classmates that appeared on his show told similar stories. All in all, he was pretty mundane; no creepy make-up or goofy gimmicks (button sweater notwithstanding).

[kawliga]

In Los Angeles, the most popular host was Sherrif John, who hosted the midday "Lunch Brigade" on channel 11 from the beginning of time until the early to mid 70s. Since he was on at noon, I only got to watch him during summer or when I was sick. He showed the "Powwow, the Indian Boy" cartoons.

Some others I remember:

Chuck Jones, the Magic Man

The Pancake Man, starring Hal Smith - aka "Otis", the town drunk of Mayberry - and sponsored by the International House of Pancakes.

Beachcomber Bill
Baby Daphne
Hobo Kelly
Dick Clayton, with his puppets Mickey and Michelle Mudturtle
Mr. Wishbone
Skip and Woofer

I watched entirely too much television when I was a lad.

[wring]

we had (De-troit) Soupy Sales. Yes, he really did open a door to find a naked lady behind......(pun intended)

[DAVEW0071]

For a NYC area kid in the 60s it was Officer Joe Bolton on WPIX, Channel 11. I don't know if Joe was a local news or weather guy or what, but weekday afternoons he hosted a kid show. He was dressed as a cop (duh!) and introduced the segments. I think mainly he showed Three Stooges shorts, but he may have also had Popeye or Felix the Cat or some other animated stuff.

I don't know why his persona was a cop, either. Maybe a sort of Officer Friendly type. Hey, it's better than Heroin Dealer Joe Bolton.

He's still remembered in the NYC area, Ike. Have you heard his name at all?

[obfusciatrist]

Originally posted by Gr8Kat
We got KPTV 12 out of Portland, OR, which featured "Ramblin' Rod".

Ramblin' Rod! Grew up with him and was on the show in 1982 or so (I was a bit old for it but it was my sister's birthday).

At some point in the show he would line up all the birthday kids and everyone would sing happy birthday to him. Additionally, all the kids in the seats (probably 50 per show) would get a chance to say their name on camera.

Did he retire or get cancelled?

As for him being grumpy all I can say is "wouldn't you be?" 30 years surrounded by 4- to 8-year-olds.

[teela brown]

kawliga, I've posted one or two references to Sheriff John in the past. Only people 35+ will remember him. Try entering Sheriff John on a search engine and find the lyrics to his songs. You won't be able to get the tunes out of your heads for weeks.

I thought I was the only one who remembered Skip and Woofer! I was a little old for the show, but I thought Skip was funny! I remember his last show saying he was cancelled, and how sad it was.

In L.A., didn't we also have Engineer Bill, who tried to make us start and stop drinking our milk when he shouted out "red light! green light!" Didn't work with me. I poured my milk behind the sofa when my mom wasn't looking. He showed Gumby cartoons, I believe. I think those Gumbies were just the preamble for people to start taking hallucinogenics a few years later . . .

It wasn't a cartoon show, but I remember a horror show called "Creature Feature." Its intro before the movie featured a panning shot of little rubber monsters wiggling in a miniature torture chamber. This is where we kept current with Godzilla, giant ant movies and bad science fiction movies.

[beagledave]

Davenport, Iowa => Captain Ernies Showboat...when I was in the Cub Scouts, we got to be part of the show..got some free Twinkies (they used to make them here) and Mountain Dew ,,,mmmmmmmm sugar AND caffeine

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Growing up in Pittsburgh we had a couple of different show hosts...The first I remember was the Knish and Rodney Show..but I'll be damned if I can remember the host...I know he left Pittsburgh and went to California and that was the last I heard of him

We also had a show on Public Television called the Childrens Corner...There was a young lady for a host and puppets that she talked to...Daniel Striped tiger, Henrietta Owl, King Friday the 13th, Grampere...sound familiar? Yes it was Fred Rogers behind the scenes of his show before he went national with Mr Rogers Neighborhood.. The young lady who hosted it was Josie Carey

Last but not least was Paul Shannon who introduced us to the Three Stooges... He sometimes put on the fake glasses-nose-mustache combination and was his alter ego Nosmo King. Man we really loved the Stooges in those days.

[DAVEW0071]

My wife grew up in Rochester, NY. She says, in the mid-60s, they had The Skipper Sam Show, weekday afternoons. He stood at the ship's wheel and introduced cartoons.

He also featured talents. Kids would come on and display their talents. A lot of tap dancing, basically.

Also, there was a rumor that Sam had a wooden arm. She says you would spend most of the show trying to figure out which arm it was.

There was also The Chiller, on Saturday afternoons. The host wore some kind of pageboy wig. They must have blue-screened his face out, because she says he had no features. And he had a spooky voice.

Also, on Sunday mornings, at about 6:30 to 8:30, there was The Shh Show. It was designed to entertain kids with old cartoons like Betty Boop and Popeye, but the host always admonished his audience, "Shh, be quiet, let your parents sleep another hour."

The electronic babysitter strikes again.

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Gadzooks, I remember the host of the Knish and Rodney Show..His name was Hank Stohl...Any other old farts from Pittsburgh remember him?

[Rich G7subs]

Anybody remember Bob Mc callister's WONDERAMA? ::wocka doo,wocko doo...Kids are people,too...::

[Scribe]

p.s. I now live in Seattle and I understand the local personality here was a clown named J. P. Patches. [/b]

Yes! J.P. Patches was on the CBS station in Seattle until the 1970s, and I fondly remember watching him every day before I went to elementary school. (I lived right next to my school and could watch the entire show.) Before he was dropped by the channel, he was reduced to just a Saturday show. A friend tells me that on his very last show, the irate J.P. took an axe to his set.
IIRC, J.P., a clown, was the mayor of Seattle's city dump. His viewer friends were Patches Pals, and he had a special two way TV in which he could see kids to wish them happy birthday.
There were only two people on the show...this other guy played all the other characters, including the show villain, Boris R. Wart, the second meanest man in the world.
Do any Dopers know anything about JP and his actor friend in real life?

[brachyrhynchos]

Originally posted by pugluvr
kawliga, I've posted one or two references to Sheriff John in the past. Only people 35+ will remember him. Try entering Sheriff John on a search engine and find the lyrics to his songs. You won't be able to get the tunes out of your heads for weeks.

Ohhh no! Put another candle on my birthday cake, we're gonna bake a birthday caa-aake! Put another candle on my birthday cake, I'm another year old today! (done as a polka tune.) You're right, pugluvr, this tune's with me for the duration.

What memories. Engineer Bill and Red Light Green Light milk drinking. Crusader Rabbit. Felix the Cat. Gumby and Pokey!

Creature Feature strikes a chord, but I mostly remember Chiller (Theater).

[KneadToKnow]

[quote]Originally posted by Mjollnir
WIS Channel 10 Columbia, SC Mr Knozit
Joe Pinner, a Columbia institution for many, many years--and, the WIS (all together, now) weather guy. His uniform was just another bluish smock. He showed Little Rascals and all sorts of cartoons over the years. Columbia is not exactly snow country in the winter, but Joe is ever optimistic about the chance of our seeing some of the white stuff. I've been in restaurants where he was also a customer, and I've walked by him on the street. In all cases, even when the person he's speaking to is right beside him, he uses his incredibly booming "announcer voice" that you can hear thru a soundproof room.[quote]

Damn! I can't believe somebody beat me to this. I guess Columbia's got another child on the SDMB.

And Mjollnir ain't bullsh*ttin' about that voice. Joe Pinner could get Helen Keller's attention. Today. From where he is right now.

[kawliga]

Originally posted by pugluvr
kawliga, I've posted one or two references to Sheriff John in the past. Only people 35+ will remember him. Try entering Sheriff John on a search engine and find the lyrics to his songs. You won't be able to get the tunes out of your heads for weeks.

I don't need to do that. "Laugh and Be Happy" and "Put Another Candle On My Birthday Cake" are already permanently etched in my memory.

I remember Engineer Bill and the red light, green light routine. I think the object was to drink your milk as fast as possible without choking to death.

Have you been to TVparty.com? They have an entire section devoted to lost L.A. kids shows. Check it out. They've got New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia sections as well.

[aseymayo]

Well, Uke covered Barnaby and his woodland pal, Woodrow pretty well - but they were on in the morning and generally aimed at the Romper Room crowd. (In Cleveland, the RR school teacher was Miss Barbara - "I'm a Romper Room Do-Bee, a Do-Bee All Day Long." Not that I ever watched it. Much. Where was I? Oh, yes.)

For the more sophisticated set, after school was the time for Captain Penny! He was supposed to be a jolly railroad man - he had the striped outfit, a bandana around his neck and carried a lantern - but he looked a lot like Raymond Massey, so he was actually a little scary. (And now that I think back on it, a "railroad captain" doesn't seem to make much sense - but it sounded completely reasonable when I was 9.) He showed the usual extremely shortened Stooges and Little Rascals as well as cartoons. Jungle Larry would occasionally make a guest appearance with an alligator, or something, under his arm. (JL was an early Jim Fowler type. I think "Jungle Larry Land" still exists at Cedar Point, an amusement park near Toledo.)

I still remember the Capt.'s sign-off - most of it stolen from Abe Lincoln (who was played by Raymond Massey in a movie - ooooh).
"You can fool some of the people all of the time
and all of the people some of the time - but you can't fool Mom!"

[TroubleAgain]

We didn't have a host for the kiddie shows locally. However, we did have "Dr. Paul Bearer" who hosted Creature Feature (B-grade horror movies, usually) on Saturday afternoons on WTOG Channel 44 in Tampa/St. Pete. He was very funny. He used to make the most awful puns and jokes and sight-gags--you didn't know whether to groan out loud or laugh. He was very much a local celebrity and very well liked. He made public appearances in costume to host pageants, judge contests, etc. and drove a hearse. We miss him. We lost him a few years ago...

[Louie]

KTTV Ch. 11 - Los Angeles , middle 80's
My memory is a little fuzzy on this one, I remember a "cool" grey shaggy puppet hosting. It even had his own show on Saturday mornings of him walking around and playing with the kids in the city. Anyone know what I'm talking about here?

KTTV Ch. 11 - Los Angeles , late 80's
The kid show host was none other than Bowser from Super Mario Bros.! I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. It was this guy in a foam King Koopa suit and green makeup blabbing on about how he'll recruit "Little Koopalings" to take over the world. And if you sent in a SASE to them, you get a shirt with a turtle shell on the back and the word "KOOPA" on front. This alone made me ashamed of playing Nintendo.

After this, at around 1990, all the FOX stations replaced their local hosts with that annoying "Fox Kids Club" and had overhyped pre-teens hosting the shows. *bleh*

[CalMeacham]

New York City stations, early 1960's:

A rich panoply of hosts on the independent stations:

Sonny Fox hosted Wonderama, a four-hour extravaganza of guests, contests, and cartoons on Sunday mornings on Metromedia WNEW Channel 5. (James Randi, the debunker and magician, was a frequent guest. He was more an escape artist, then.) They also showed episodes of Flash Gordon serials. The theme music was the overture from "The Unsinakable Molly Brown", although I didn't learn that until years later. I also didn't learn until years later that Sonny Fox was involved i the Quiz how scandals of the 1950's. In the late 1960s Bob McAllister took over as host of Wonderama, and the theme song changed to his rendition of "Kid are People, too" (Wack-a-doo,, wack-a doo).Sonny Fox also hosted "Just for Fun", a kid's game show on Saturdays. The key image I remember from this was the winners being given a huge stack of games -- when they held them in their arms the stack rose well over their heads.

Sandy Becker had a show called "Sandy's Hour" weekdays on Channel 5. He had a host of characters -- Norman Nork, Hambone, etc. He did commercials during the show for a brand of CARROTS! (And I ate them on account of this. T Commercials as a force for Good!)

Claude Kirshner had a cartoon show in which he was the ringmaster, with a puppet sidekick named "Clowny". They showed really old cartoons and some odd cartoons that seemed to come from another country, with dubbed voices. I suspect that they were Japanese proto-anime. (This was well before Astro-Boy, by the way.)

Channel 11 WPIX had Officer Joe Bolton hosting caroons and the Three Stooges. He also had a liv kids gallery and live guest stars (like the guy who used to play Jimmy Olsen on "Superman")When the Three Stooges made their comeback in the early sixties one of their movies featured cameos by their TV hosts, like Officer Joe and Sally Starr (from Philadelphia kid's TV)

[Ukulele Ike]

Aseymayo: Yipe! I think we should organize a special SDMB meeting of the Cleveland Diaspora...we'd be reminiscing until dawn.

Captain Penny popped into my head at some point yesterday, but I didn't have time to post anything about him; I remember the big engineer's cap and the bandana and striped overalls, but I don't associate a terifying Raymond Masseyish look with him...wasn't he less tall and less gaunt? And HE had some executive affiliation with the channel, too. Perhaps this is why Cleveland TV was so rich in local kiddie personalities in the 1960s...lots of vice-presidential pederasts.

Jungle Larry! Boy, do I remember HIM! AND his special attraction area at Cedar Point...right between the African boat ride and the slot-car racing. I never noticed before just how ludicrous his name is...Jungle Larry...{snicker}.

All this Northeast Ohio chat sent me over to Amazon.com yesterday, where I ordered a copy of CLEVELAND TV MEMORIES, and of the GHOULARDI book that was published in 1997 just after Ernie Anderson died. I'll post a book report when they show up.

(And I'll bet when you were just a little tiny aseymayo, and it was Christmastime, after you'd been to see Santa and the HUGE Christmas tree at Sterling Linder, you headed over to Halle's seventh floor to visit Mr. Jingaling, right?)

[pldennison]

Oh, man, you guys are going to send me completely in Cleveland TV childhood toxic shock . . . I myself am too young to remember Mr. Jingaling, but my mother sure remembered him a lot. She was constantly regaling us as kids with the little song about him and his magic keys. (OK, she grew up in Painesville, not Cleveland, but close enought.) Jungle Larry, though . . . I worked at Cedar Point between my freshman and sophomore college years, and remember the entire Larry family. I think his son pretty much runs the attraction there now.

[Ukulele Ike]

The original Jungle Larry (Lawrence Tetzlaff) has gotta be six feet under by now, no? Some interesting info here:

http://www.caribbeangardens.com/history.htm

Phew! Larry worked for Frank Buck and did stuntwork for Johnny Weismuller in the 1930s Tarzan movies! I would have been a LOT more impressed as a kid if I'd known that...I'd assumed he was some bozo from Ashtabula who'd decide to make a buck off the chimps...

[wireless]

In the Philadelphia area (AKA the Delaware Valley) in the 60's and 70's (am I really that old?!) there was The Gene London Show on Saturday mornings. I watched it all the time.

I don't remember much about it (it was a long time ago now), except that there was a lot of emphasis on artistic creativity and expression.

Now that I look back, I think Gene must have been my first crush. Of course I was only 6-7 at the time. I think it later came out that he was/is gay. They'd probably never let him have a kiddie show today. Too bad...

For more info: http://www.tvparty.com/lostlondon.html

[tomndebb]

I can remember Soupy Sales on WXYZ-TV, 7 Detroit, but he was not there a very long time.

The staple, for years, was Toby David (I think) doing Captain Jolly from "Up Dock" at CKLW-TV, 9 Windsor, Ontario. The stage was an old "dock" with a shack at the end and there was an (offstage) fish (pelican?) that used to hurl water at the Captain, periodically. On weekends, Captain Jolly's substitute was Poopdeck Paul. I don't remember whether Poopdeck Paul was played by Jerry Booth, but Jerry Booth developed the lead character for the next kids show, Jingles the Clown in [i]Boofland[/b], with a couple of puppet buddies, one of which was a dragon that ended most sentences "cha, cha, cha!" (Detroiters of a certain age can still be incited with enough alcoholic lubrication to sing the lyrics to Boofland, My Boofland.)

While Jingles the Clown was still running, UHF came to Detroit and channel 50 (no memory of the call letters) brought in a licensed Ghoul clone from Cleveland. By then I wasn't watching those shows, so much.

[h_thur]

Buckskin Bill hosted a morning show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the mid 70s. I'm humming the theme song now...

[Scribe]

Originally posted by CalMeacham


[b]Sonny Fox hosted Wonderama...I also didn't learn until years later that Sonny Fox was involved i the Quiz how scandals of the 1950's.

[b]

(slight hijack)

How was he involved?

(I've read two books on the quiz show scandals, and I can't recall Fox's name in connection with them.)

Thanks

[Commander Fortune]

I grew up in Phoenix. We had Wallace and Ladmo. Just a couple of guys, maybe slightly modeled on Laurel and Hardy. They also had another guy who played at least two characters I can remember on the show, Gerald, who was a sort of poncy Li'l Lord Fautleroy type come to taunt them in a red velvet scchoolboy outfit, and Boffo the Clown, who was really dry, sarcastic, grim, and definately a child hater, never smiled. I was afraid of him. I still don't like clowns.

The thing I wanted most in the whole world when I was five was a Ladmo Bag. He would give audience members a brown sack with twinkies, and a t-shirt, and other nifty cool cool things that I was sure couldn't be obtained anywhere else.

[Milossarian]

I got Bozo from WJRT TV-12 out of Flint, Mich.

I also got Soupy Sales from a Detroit affiliate that we received in northern Michigan at the time. I don't remember it, but Sales apparently got reprimanded one time when he encouraged all the little kiddies to go into their parent's dresser drawers and send him the pieces of paper with the funny looking old men on them. (He was talking about money.)

JoeyHemlock: I live in the TC area, too! You still up here? Check out my reference to Count Zappula in the "Scary Movie Host" thread. He and Deputy Don were the same guy, and the little dog ("Igor" on the horror movies) was also the same.

[Ukulele Ike]

Bozo was Chicagocentric, wasn't he? Any Chicagoans chime in yet?

[ultress]

On Channel 5, WRAL, Raleigh, North Carolina, we also had a Bozo the Clown. It was a 30 minute kid's show. Later it turned into Time for Uncle Paul, I think that Uncle Paul played Bozo but got tired of the costume so he just went with the Circus Master type outfit. Top hat and split tail coat like a ring master wears. The show lasted many years, it ended when Uncle Paul took ill. He passed away several years later. Never had anyone to take the spot.

[JoeyHemlock]

Originally posted by Milossarian
JoeyHemlock: I live in the TC area, too! You still up here? Check out my reference to Count Zappula in the "Scary Movie Host" thread. He and Deputy Don were the same guy, and the little dog ("Igor" on the horror movies) was also the same.

No, Milo, I live in the north Chicago burbs now, but I was born and raised in Mid-Michigan. A little town called Evart that's kind of in the middle of Cadillac, Clare, and Big Rapids. But Traverse City is a beautiful city, at least it was in the late 80's. I've heard that it's grown a bit too much since...

[CalMeacham]

Bozo was franchised by Larry Harmon, and a lot of citis had him. We had a Bozo on one of the independent stations in NYC. There were special Bozo cartoons.

There was an interesting story about Bozo on the ABC News site, I think. Larry Harmon did NOT invent the character, nor was he the first to play him on TV. Bozo was invented by Capitol Records as a kids record. I have a few of these at home, myself. He was first voiced by Pinto Colvig, a former circus clown himself (not to mention the original voice of Disney's Goofy, and other cartoon characters). There's a picture of a clown in the first Bozo album that is, I suspect, Colvig himself, in makeup that looks sort of proto-Bozo. If true, that means Colvig is the original source for Bozo's appearance.

[The Man Who]

"CAP-TAIN E-LEV-EN! Today's Man!

"One man in each century is given the power to control time. The man chosen to receive this power must be carefully selected. He must be kind. He must be fair. He. Must. Be. BRAVE! You have fulfilled these requirements and we the outer galaxy designate to you the Wisdom of Solomon and the Strength of Atlas.

"You! are Captain 11!"

KELO-TV. Channel 11. Sioux Falls, SD.
For more info, read "It Ain't All Cartoons, by Dave Dedrick.

Cordially,

Myron M. Meyer
The Man Who