Kid's Show Hosts (was: WMUR)

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 24 Mar 2008 at 11:25, Maureen Carney wrote:

> Most of the TV kid's hosts didn't set out to do that. It's what they
> had to do to stay employed. Some were clowns or children's
> entertainers but many were station announcers assigned to that
> particular show in the course of their duties. The fact that so many
> are so fondly remembered 40-50 years later is testiment to the fact
> they were professionals. The good ones leared to live with it and like
> it to some degree, or to create charaters that didn't rely on a studio
> audience.

There are some interesting stories about some of the people who have 
gone into children's TV.  Buffalo Bob Smith originally did the 
morning show on a Buffalo radio station, where he did so well that 
NBC brought him to New York to do the morning show on WNBC.  While 
working there, he was offered an additional spot on Saturday morning 
doing a kids show.  There, he developed a country-bumpkin named 
Elmer, who came along, greeting him with "Well, Howdy Doody!" and 
doing a "Hee-Haw" type routine.  The kids in the studio audience 
called the character "Howdy Doody" and complained that they couldn't 
see Howdy, since he didn't use a puppet on radio.  This gave him the 
idea for doing television, and the rest is history.

Bob Smith actually continued to do radio for grownups.  He kept his 
morning shift on WNBC for a couple of years after the Howdy Doody 
Show started.  Later, NBC radio put the Bob Smith Show on weekday 
mornings opposite Arthur Godfrey, with portions of the show repeated 
on NBC television at noon.  That was a grueling schedule, and it 
didn't last long before he had a heart attack.  The morning radio and 
noon TV shows were cancelled, and Howdy Doody had guest hosts until 
he was able to return.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
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