Lost Philadelphia kids’ shows
I pity the kids of the era of Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and Boomerang and Fox. They’ve got too much choice. For them, every day is a smorgasbord of animated wonderfulness.
For those of us who came of age in the late 1960’s, network cartoons were reserved for Saturday morning, the rest of the day and week were strictly off-limits but for “The Flintstones,” and Sunday was a wasteland unless you settled for the claymation Lutheranism of “Davy and Goliath.” (As I did.)
However.
We did have local kids’ shows, which featured a host and whatever old cartoons he or she could lay hands on. My kids have no idea what a friend my Philadelphia-area generation had in people like Captain Noah, Sally Starr, Wee Willie Webber (that’s him above), Pixanne, and Gene London.
Captain Noah showed terrific cartoons like “Popeye” and sang his own theme song in a thick Philadelphia accent I associated even then with police chief (and then mayor) Frank Rizzo. Gene London drew beautiful sketches (something I envied). Wee Willie Webber showed “Spider-Man” (!). Sally Starr, now an octogenarian, is still doing a regular three-hour radio show from my old stomping area of Vineland, NJ.
This delightful site logs information about the great Philadelphia kids’ shows of the 1960s. An email exchange between friends just now got me thinking about those old TV shows, and led me here.
And now I’m off to the tech rehearsal for my play.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Sally Starr ran the Three Stooges shorts endlessly. I remember once when she very slowly and clearly explained to the kids that you shouldn’t try to duplicate the Stooges eye-jabbing, nose-twisting antics with your little friends and siblings in the roles of Larry and Curley.
Later came the fateful day when the Stooges were replaced by the minimalist animation of Clutch Cargo. And the characters’ mouths were just filmed lips speaking out of motionless faces. What a step down!
September 7th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I guess it’s Sally whom I owe for my undying love of the Three Stooges.
My late father gets credit for Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, though. As well as Laurel and Hardy.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Here in L.A., we had Billy Barty and Hobo Kelly, both of whom had shows that were shot at or near the Sunset Gower Studios. Both my sisters were big prize winners on these shows! One sister won a truckload of toys and a trip to Santa’s Village (which, sadly, like the shows, is also gone).
Ah, progress.
September 9th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Sally had Larry on her show once, it was a bubble bursting disappointment to see what he looked like in 1967, I.E. like he had gone completely to shit. 20 years can do that to a violinist, which is what Larry was…My mind has frozen ALL STOOGES permanently at around 1947 – I guess. HIS biography on Wikipedia includes an EXCELLENT photograph, per this memory freezing that I do for myself. Fun no?
Sally Starr was the GRAND MARSHAL to the Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade some years back, the cheers that rose from the crowd as she passed by still ring in my ears – it was BEDLAM! The Pope herself would not receive such an accolade. Sally’s biography on Wikipedia.org is much too short, Paul Crist is too young to be her biographer, so it devolves to me, I suppose. For Sally I’ll foray into WIKI.
Nobody has mentioned Bertie the Bunyip. So sad.
And the Hollywood Christmas Parade is also a thing of the past, too too sad.
People used to win contests to go to ‘Hollywood’ and meet Bugs Bunny, they
ALL CAME HOME as basket cases fit for restraining when they found out that they couldn’t. I know it would have fucked me up bigtime.
I love America so much that I’d like to Civilly Disobey IT for the rest
of my natural life!!!!! In the words of ‘The Grinch’….though….”But HOW?”
Anyone else?
September 9th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I don’t believe the Sally Starr on wikipedia is the Sally from my youth (who, rumor had it when I was about 10, got drunk and accidentally ran over her own foot with a lawnmower; but I suspect that was the hearsay of pranksterish boys). This latter Sally is still alive and broadcasting. Perhaps the Friends of Dorothy can clear this up for me.
September 9th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Several monthes ago the Philly public broadcasting TV station did a fund raiser built around a video they were selling, all about the kid show hosts from their city. Sally was there and chipper as ever.
On the other hand, I did see her on her show once, appearing drunk. She was rambling on about a male schoolteacher she had in her youth, and how hairy his arms were. They got the camera off her, but not soon enough. Talk about childhood trauma for me.
And of course I fondly remember Bertie the Bunyip. Fondly, though not clearly.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
RELEASE THE FLYING MONKEYS!