:FROM
OUR VIEWERS:
Gene London was on CBS
in Philadelphia, Pa. I think he started out on Saturdays and then went
through some shifting between Sat. & Sun. and sometimes both. Maybe
repeating Sun's. show the following Sat. I had forgotten all about him
until I saw it mentioned here.
Sally
Starr and Chief Halftown were part of the WFIL ABC lineup.
I remember getting to see Chief Halftown after bugging my folks to take
me to the Buster Brown Shoe Store where he was making an appearance.
That was also a major learning experience for me - when it was time
to go to see Chief Halftown, I was watching something on TV that I didn't
want to miss. I thought that when I turned off the TV to go see the
Chief, that the show would be on where I left it when I got back. Man,
was I ticked off!! :)
I
heard Sally Starr had been a Burlesque dancer in her prime (not true),
and then moved into the Kiddee show TV market. I always watched that
show to see the Three Stooges and Popeye. I remember seeing lots of
Cocoa Marsh commercials on that show.
There was Bertie the Bunyip - I liked that show even though most
of my friends had outgrown it. It was a friendly show, I like the storyline
of the characters. The cartoon fare was the older stuff that most of
the other shows had given up on.
Another show in the Philly area that I haven't seen mentioned is the
Lorenzo Show. Lorenzo was a Hobo. It started out as an early
evening kid's program (right before prime-time). The introduction show
was unique, the fella who played Lorenzo came on without makeup, introduced
the show to the parents as well as the kids and explained what he hoped
to accomplish with the program. As the introduction continued he would
slowly get into makeup and transformed himself into Lorenzo.
-
Ed Justice
When
Sally Starr was ill her place
was taken by Rex Morgan, whose gimmick was a bassett hound. Happy
the Clown gave special children rides on Chippy the Chipmunk - and
does anybody remember watching Bill Webber (WFIL weather) in the morning
before school, where he received mail from Elmo - a small toy that rode
a tightrope?
- VW Rizzo
Bertie
the Bunyip's playmates included Fussy and Gussy and Sir Guy
de Guy. The show was interspersed with NTA cartoons. The showed aired
on Sundays (WRCV-Channel 3 / NBC). There was also a weekday version
starring Humphrey the Rabbit
Pete's
Gang's set was much like the
Our Gang playhouse, and Peter Boyle would draw pictures for the kiddie
audience between the Our Gang shorts. (WRCV-Channel 3 / NBC)
Pixanne
was every 8 year old boy's heartthrob. Dressed in a very short pixie
costume she would converse with a puppet owl. She came on at about 7
am just before Gene London. (WCAU-Channel 10 / CBS)
Gene
London's show was originally called Cartoon Corners General Store.
The scenario had London working in this store which was next to a confetti
factory. He was paid 8 1/2 cents a week by Mr. Quigley. He would draw
pictures that were too hard for Pete Boyle. There were Deputy Dawg cartoons
and often sneak peeks at the latest Disney offering. (WCAU-Channel 10
/ CBS)
- Dennis Bingham
I
remember a Philadelphia WCAU-TV kid show staple named Carny C. Carny.
Anyone have any stories about him? The thing I recall is that at Christmas
he'd recite the "Night Before Christmas", and he'd say "He went to the
window, and threw up!" He'd pause while the crew cackled, then would
add "...the sash."
Also,
going way back to the early '50's, does anyone remember a local bible
puppet show that was on Sunday mornings? Gimme a break... no cable and
three channels back then, for cryin' out loud!
-
Lou Brooks
Who
could forget Pixanne and her magic pixie dust? If I remember correctly,
her show was on around the same time as Gene London's show, because she
& Gene were my absolute favorite TV personalities. I still remember the
green tights she wore (ala Peter Pan).
As
a kid, I got to go see the taping of Gene London on a few occasions
(once I even got a one-liner on the show) and I can still remember how
disapointed I was to realize that Quigley Mansion was no more than a
portrait!
I have moved away from the Philadelphia area, but recently met a woman
at my job who also grew up in Philly. You should see the looks we get
as we challenge each other to remember the theme songs from these shows!
- Robynne Jacoby
When
I was a little living in the Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy sections of
Philadelphia, I remember how the street would clear out come 3 PM to
watch the Wee Willie Weber show on Channel 17.
I
remember watching as the camera zoomed over the peanut gallery, as Bill
would come out to play the games with the kids, like musical cars or
the shell game. On the wall of the set would be "cutouts" of the cartoon
charecters of the cartoons that would be shown (Spider-man, Rocket Robin
Hood, Marine Boy.)
Another
show on Channel 17 was the Doc Shock Show, where classic and
mostly B horror movies were shown. I remember how envious I was of Doc's
daughter Bubbles as she would pound on his "coffin" with a plastic hammer
to wake him up.
Philly
kids had the best: Gene London, Sally Starr, Capt. Noah and of course
the aforementioned.
-
Marty
Thank you for all your great memories of our local children's programming. I love them all. I also remember Willie the Worm who I believe was part of Wee Willie's show, but I definitely remember the Worm with the glasses. I grew up in Allentown and of course we needed our antenna on the roof to get those 'foreign' channels from Philly.
My mother took my two brothers to a Chief Halftown show and they banged those darn marching sticks all the way on the ride back home!!! There was a red side and a blue side, but I don't think there was really any difference in the sound. Both sides were equally annoying!
Happy Trails to you, Ardda Hersh (now of AZ)
I remember
Bill "Wee Willie" Webber, on weekday afternoons on Channel 17.
I'd like to tell your readers though - for those who don't know (or don't
remember), in the '70s he moved to another local station, channel 48,
where he was an announcer for a short time. Then, in the 80s, he was on
a local radio station on Saturday mornings (by that time, no one called
him "Wee Willie" anymore). I think I read or heard that he's
still alive, and now he's retired.
By the way; he got the nickname "Wee Willie" when he bumped
his head once while going through a station doorway.
Joe Kienlen
Both my sister
and I used to watch the Willie the Worm show more than any other
that you have listed, on weekdays during the same time period (around
1951-54). I'm surprised it wasn't listed along with the others. I believe
it came on (at one point in time) just after the Kate Smith show (after
the Moon Came Over Kate's Mountain).
Willie
the Worm, a hand-type puppet, would chat with us in-between showing
us cartoons. Down below his stage was his sidekick "Newton the mouse."
We didn't generally get to see Newton (I think I saw him appear once.
. . it was a great occasion). Newton was in charge of putting on and
running the cartoons, you see. Willie would turn his head and call down
to Newton, asking him if he was ready to run the next cartoon.
A
little related/more personal information: For approx. one year, "TV
Time Popcorn" sponsored a name-the-dog contest, both on Willie's show
AND on the "Patches" Saturday morning show (another show I didn't see
mentioned in your list; I think Patches would sometimes have Chief Halftown
on his show too). Anyway, those who won the weekly contest would appear
on TV and would receive a dog as their prize.
In
the fall of 1953 (I think) my father, sick in bed with a heart-attack
at the time, had the TV in his room. He (patiently, I guess) would watch
"Willie the Worm" along with us. He got interested in the contest and,
while at bedrest, worked on a name for my sister and I to submit. That
name won: "Kernel Poppinpup." We hoped to go on the Willie the Worm
show and meet Willie, but instead (I guess because Willie was a puppet)
we appeared as winners on the "Patches" TV show, had a little TV Time
Popcorn (on camera) as a snack, and had our dog Kernel delivered to
us at a later date.
Meanwhile,
my dad recovered, and got to enjoy Kernel along with us. As it turned
out, the dog outlived my father by about 3 years. And so, Willie the
Worm brings back lots of memories to my family.
- Sincerely, Rob B
How
can I ever thank you for such an uplifting and enjoyable website! I have
been following it for the first time since 11:30 a.m. (it's now 1:45 p.m.)
and cannot get enough of it.
I
wanted to respond to your question about the gentleman who used to fill
in for Sally Starr. It was Sawdust Sam a.k.a. Howard Ennis, a
guy from Delaware who used to fill in regularly for Sally.
He
wore a big cardboard handlebar mustache, had his hair parted in the
middle with two curlycues going in opposite directions on his forehead,
and wore a loud, plaid, Gay Nineties-style suit. His trademark was being
able to make his eyes as wide as saucers (Jackie Gleason, eat your heart
out) and roll them around uncontrollably while strains of Mel Blanc's
Porky Pig character played in the background ("th-th-th-that's all,
folks!")
I
remember him moving to his own show on Channel 29 when it was WIBF-TV
in the early days of UHF and the studio was in a little gazebo-like
building behind the old Benson East Apartments in Jenkintown. I remember
in 1966 that I was 16 years old and I took my two nieces on the show
twice, the oldest (age 5) performing a go-go dance (complete with white
boots and psychedelic pantsuit) to "I Like it Like That," which was
such a big hit that they chose to run it again on the taped Saturday
morning show. The original show aired at 6:00 p.m. on weeknights.
For
the life of me, I don't remember the name of the show, only that it
was hosted by Sawdust Sam and in the tradition of the old Chief Halftown/Sally
Starr cartoon shows, complete with special guests from time-to-time.
Recently,
an article appeared in our local newspaper, the Bucks County Intelligencer,
where the columnist ran an article on Sally Starr, Gene London and Pixanne.
It was great.
Wee
Willie Webber is still around, as are Pixanne, Gene London, Sally
Starr and Chief Halftown. Happy the Clown died some years ago.
My mother took me on that show once, too, and I remember getting a ride
on the little tractor around the studio and seeing the birthday cake
with the candles that would come back on when you blew them out.
The
guy that played Happy the Clown unfortunately, was a miserable s.o.b.
He was not very nice to us at all, but I still had a good time and I
relive that day as if it were yesterday. It's a shame that there are
no clips of those shows available so that we can show our kids.
Keep
up the great writing, Bill, and thanks again! If I think of any more
I'll be sure to let you know!
- Yvonne Taylor
'The Candy Apple Newsletter' was a successful and popular kids
TV newsmagazine with Philadelphia, Pa. kids, airing on WCAU TV Ch. 10
in Philly. That was when WCAU Ch. l0 was still an affilliate of the
CBS TV network (WCAU is now an affilliate of The NBC TV Network).
Mat
Robinson was the show's host/ narrator/ educator/ producer and scriptwriter.
This was before Mr. Robinson moved to NYC and to WNET TV Ch. 13, where
he went onto greater kids TV fame as the first performer to play Gordon
on PBS TV's Sesame Street.
-
Kevin S. Butler
Could you
please provide some information on "The Candy Apple News Company" (1979)
and "Starstuff" (1980)? Both were produced by Channel 10, the local
CBS affiliate (nowadays channel 10 is NBC). They were both great.
Candy Apple
News Company starred Sesame Street's Matt Robinson. The show is set
in the office of the Candy Apple News, a children's newspaper. The two
human regulars are Matt and a pretty young woman named C.B. The rest
of the cast are puppets: Sparks, Boris Bat, Morgan Mole, and Radio (literally
a sentient, old fashioned wooden radio, who served as the show's announcer).
Boris was
the book reviewer and would recommend a different children's book each
week. There was a regular routine in which Matt donned a Canadian Mountie's
uniform as "Rick of the Mounties and his pal, Yukon Thing!" the latter
being a genial yeti.
Each episode
also included a segment lifted from the children's news show, "Kidsworld."
Larry Kane of the channel 10 news made a cameo in the first episode.
Candy Apple News was fun, but Starstuff is one of my favorite TV memories
from childhood: Chris is a 10 year old boy with his own homemade computer,
which he discovers through some fluke of physics can communicate with
a computer which will exist thirty years in the future on a space station,
that computer being owned by a 10 year old girl named Ingrid.
They treat
it as their secret and develop a close friendship even though they can
never meet face to face. We meet both their families, with Chris's more
"down to Earth" problems and Ingrid's exciting futuristic world.
It's all
very educational, full of astronomy information as well as ideas of
how space stations might realistically be run. In the last episode,
Chris's family prepares to move, and he knows the link between their
computers won't work in a new location.
Their farewell
is so terribly sad. They promise to meet again, but of course Chris
will have to wait for decades. I remember the moment when he pulls the
plug out of the wall with tears in his eyes and the connection is lost
forever. The show also had a puppet segment called "The Edge of Space,"
about a pair of aliens (Commanders Krickles and Zornad from the twin
planets of Corg-Vanok, and their robot Giz), who have come to explore
Earth.
Commander
Krickles's panic when he winds up in the middle of the Mummers Parade
with no idea what's going on is priceless. There were also segments
of old Laurel and Hardy film shorts, the rationale being that Chris
was a big fan and had all the films on tape, and he liked to share them
with Ingrid. The show's theme was Gustav Holst's "The Planets," which
remains one of my favorite pieces of music.
The whole
series was clearly produced for very little money (Ingrid's futuristic
computer disks were obviously 45 LP's), but it was brilliantly done.
Could you please post some info about these shows? (I certainly don't
mind if you reproduce this letter or portions of it, although please
give my name if you do.) I've looked on the web, and there seems to
be no record of them at all.
I wish
tapes of them were commercially available for my nephews. The shows
originally aired in 1979 and 1980, but were rerun on Saturday mornings
one season several years later (1986-87, I think).
Thank you,
-- Jim Cleaveland
Joseph E.
Bresnan asked for information about a local Philly kid show that featured,
"a family of rabbits that were puppets and we would follow them
down some steps to their rabbit den. Any idea?" Kevin
S. Butler has the answer: "The show he's thinking of featured a
group of animal puppets that were not rabbits but some fanciful creatures
known as "Tottles."
Tottle
was the creation of a talented,versatile and sweet gentleman named Marshall
Izen. Marsh was the creator, host/performer and instructor of a show
that dealt with the problems all kids have in their lives. Unlike Mr.
Rogers, Marsh didn't make the show pabulum, he genuinely recreated the
problems of children and made it all honest, warm and funny.
He
was also a talented singer, musician, songwriter, cartoonist, scriptwriter,
puppeteer and storyteller and appeared at the start and end of the show
with the puppets.
Tottle
was seen on WCAU TV 10 (then a CBS affiliate) in Philadelphia during
the early 1960s. The series was also seen Sunday and Saturday mornings
on WCBS TV 2 in NYC from 1962 to 1963.
I
was lucky enough to meet and to interview Marsh Izen and he was the
nicest and most engaging person that I was lucky enough to deal with.
Tottle was briefly revived on WBBM (the PBS affiliate) in Chicago
during the 1970's as The Adventures of Coslo. Sadly, there
are no surviving episodes of Tottle or The Adventures of
Coslo.
:PHILLY
LOCAL KID SHOWS:
Bertie
the Bunyip / Fabulous
Sally Starr
Dickery Doc and Adam Android
Happy
the Clown /
Chief
Halftown / Joe Early
Gene London /
A
Letter From Gene London
Rex
Morgan / Magic
Garden /
Captain
Noah
Pete Boyle / Tottle /
More
Philly Shows
Philadelphia
Local TV Memories |
Local
shows: Gene London, Chief Halftown, The Pete Boyle Show, Happy The
Clown, Bertie the Bunyip, Willie the Worm, Tottles and more.
The
Magic Garden is NOW on DVD! Order here!
Actors working in the South / Southern Actors
TV
on DVD / / Holiday
Specials on DVD
TV
Commercials on DVD
TV Shows on BLU-RAY
TNBeth47 writes:
"I grew up in the 50's in Audubon, right across the bridge from
Philly. I remember spreading this green oilcloth on the TV screen and
a show would come on, a cartoon, and we would have to draw a door to help
them escape, or a window. Everybody says I am nuts... got an ideas?"
I
can't imagine what she's talking about. An interactive cartoon from
the 1950s? No wonder her friends think she's nuts. It's a bit far-fetched.
Except it's real - Winky-Dink and You. Read
about it and watch it here. The series was seen, not just
in Philly, but all over the USA.
Chief
Halftown until recently was on Channel 6, Saturday mornings from
6:30-7:00. He is in his 80s and performs in Lancaster at Dutch Wonderland
on week-ends during the summer. Gene London has moved to New York, where
he owns a costume shop in Gramercy Park.
Another
network show that originated from Philadelphia in 1953-54, was a western
seen Monday through Friday on CBS- Action In The Afternoon. The
theme music was from Aaron Copland's "Billy The Kid". This live show
was done outdoors (maybe someone remembers the town where the show originated)
and supposedly took place in Montana in the 1800s.
- Jim Douglass
I
grew up in Philadelphia in the 50s and 60s watching all of the shows
you featured in Philadelphia Kid shows.
One
show that isn't mentioned is Pick Temple. It was the only show
I was actually on (I think about 1962). He was a singing cowboy type
who played the guitar, sang western songs, and introduced cartoons (what
this format was doing in Philadelphia I have no idea). I think it was
on saturday mornings on WFIL.
For
offbeat shows you might mention the Larry Ferrari show from Philadelphia.
It featured a half hour every sunday of this fellow playing selections
on a huge concert organ. It ran for many years and my mother, who still
lives in the ares said it only went off with the death of the host.
- Ralph F
1970's
TV shows on DVD
1960's
TV Shows on DVD
:VIDEO
CLIPS:
Another well-known Philly personality over the years was WPVI's
weatherman Jim O'Brien. Jim O'Brien's daughter is Peri Gilpin,
who played Roz on FRASIER.
Dialing
For Dollars ran for many years on Channel 6. Bob McLean was
the host, seen here from the early 70's. Before Dialing, Bob had a talk
show on Ch. 3 - with the theme from the Who's TOMMY.
(Audio clip) - Joe
Early starred as a popular kid show host, Mr.
Rivets. This audio clip comes from a 1982 Channel 3 (Philadelphia)
tribute to local personalities.
"Thanks for
the Jim O'Brien clip from WPVI-TV in Philly. What bittersweet memory of
a truly great on-air personality.
"The
day Jim was killed (September, 1968) in an skydiving accident is etched
in a lot of Philly viewers minds. The sadness on Action News that day
was palpable -- I'll never forget seeing anchor Jim Gardner trying to
contain his tears as he gave the news about his friend and co-worker."
- Tad R, Bronxville, NY
"Right
off the bat, a missing host is Carol Corbett, who hosted Gumby
middays on WPIX New York- the lineup included, as noted elsewhere, Captain
Jack McCarthy (lame) with Popeye and Officer Joe Bolton' s Three Stooges
show.
"McCarthy
also hosted WPIX' coverage of local parades, as when my town's Little
League team- Wayne, NJ won the Little League World Series in 1970, and
Corbett had a syndicated Saturday morning show for very little kids
that ran on CBS O&Os in the '70s.
"There
was also Wee Willie Webber on Philadelphia's channel 17, WPHL-
he was a local DJ on WIP- and Captain Philadelphia on channel 48-WKBS,
now defunct, played by later-to-be-sort-of-well-known L.A. sportscaster
Stu Nahan.
"And
then there was the long-running Captain Chesapeake on Baltimore's
WBFF-45, a cheapjack show indelibly etched on the minds of kids from
there- ask one and see.
"And
there are whole tribute pages and even a very nice hardcover book chronicling
KPHO Phoenix' legendary Wallace and Ladmo, which briefly also
ran in New York (WPIX) and Los Angeles (KTLA).
And
Boston's Rex Trailer and the Boston version of Bozo, which
ran in New York as well for some reason, and the ultra-cool Uncle
Floyd on Newark's channel 68. Now you've gotten me started. Damn!"
- Perry Michael Simon
:MIKE
PENTZ' PHILLY
KID SHOWS HOME MOVIES:
Here's
a rare opportunity to see
your favorite stars from the past - and present!
Sally
Starr at Hershey Park, 1970
Happy
The Clown Live at Doney Park 1960'S
Rex
Morgan Live at Doney Park 1960'S
Bertie
The Bunyip show
opening recorded live off T.V. in 1963
Sally
Starr's Message To You
Pixanne
opening
Gene
London opening
Wild
Retro T-Shirts on Sale!
Greensboro Carpet Cleaning
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