Anybody from Chicago remember watching the Stooges on TV?
myxpy...@xoommail.com
Channel 9 WGN. They had a "host" and the show started off where the
camera went around to the side door of a movie theater and this guy
played the part of a janitor and opened a side door and acted like he
was sneaking you in the theater where he introduced the shorts and
they started out on a movie screen. Does anybody remember that, or
have any videotapes of that? While on the subject do you recall
Frazier Thomas and Bozo's Circus and Family Classics or Garfield
Goose? Oh to be a kid again.....!!!
Kay Lhota
WGN while growing up in the early 60's. The Host of the Stooges was "Andy
Starr" (Bob Bell, who also played Bozo). He was backstage of the Odeon Theater,
I believe.The would begin the show with a Mr. Magoo cartoon, then the Stooges
comedy short.The theme music was a really honky tonk jolly silent movie
piano-type song. The camera would roll around to where Andy was dozing in a
chair. Or was he sweeping up? It was almost 40 years ago. It is hard to
remember...
I had certain favorite Stooge comedies, and a few ones that were less
favorites. I remember running and hiding when Curly was covered in plaster in
"A Gem of a Jam," and was walking around stiffly like a mummy.
I loved the Shemp comedies the best, especially one like "Fiddler's Three"
which was perfect for a little girl like me who hadn't outgrown Mother Goose
yet in 1962. I prefered "Bedlam in Paradise" to its original, "Heavenly Daze"
and found it fascinating that there were two movies so much alike, yet with
differences. Even back then I noticed originals and remakes. I loved the
opening harmony "Hello's" of the Joe Besser comedies. The Stooges seemed so
open, warm and friendly.
I remember seeing "The Three Stooges go around the World in a Daze" at the
Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge IL. in 1965, and observing that Curly-Joe (who I
knew wasn't the same Curly or Joe that I was familiar with!) did the same going
nuts over the song, 'Pop Goes the Weasel' that Curly had in one of the comedies
(Punch Drunks) that I had seen on WGN a while back, and which to this day is
one of my all-time favorite Stooge comedies. Curly Joe was mildly funny
fighting the Tokyo Sumo wrestler, but he couldn't compare with Curly. Even at 8
years old, I saw the difference.
Among my earliest memories of seeing the show on WGN was that they occasionally
showed other Columbia shorts than the Stooges. I remember two that I have since
identified as Andy Clyde shorts, and also the Buster Keaton's short, "Nothing
But Pleasure." The Keaton film stood out most vividly for me because I thought
he was a handsome man, and didn't look at all like the Three Stooges, and also
because of the violence of the comedy. This would have been about 1962, so I
was five years old. Seeing "Nothing But Pleasure" years later in 1980, I was
astounded at how well I remembered it. Familiar Stooge actors Dorothy Appleby
plays Mrs. Keaton, and Bud Jamison plays a cop.
As I remember it, if the Cubs weren't on, The Three Stooges were on at 3:30 in
the afternoon, "Dick Tracy" with Ray Rayner as Sgt. Henry Pettibone and his
trusty (puppet) dog Tracer was on at 4:00. From 1963 on, "The Mickey Mouse
Club" was at 4:30, and Garfield Goose" from 5:00 to 5:45. Then there was a
short news program, with Jack Brickhouse (You don't forget names like that!).
At 6:00, WGN used to show cartoons: Huckleberry Hound on Mondays, Yogi Bear on
Tuesdays, Rocky and his Friends on Wednesdays and Fridays, and Quick Draw
McGraw on Thursdays, which was replaced in 1964 by Woody Woodpecker.
I am sure there are plenty of folks around with better memories of those years,
but these are mine.
--Kay
Gail
best friend of mine who throughout junior high and college never had to study
because of her photographic memory (which irritated me to no end!). You must
be blessed with a memory like Shemp and Moe!
Gail
Student at Mildew College: "Is it true that the time and space are calculated
by the interplanetary magnetism to solar radiation?"
Moe: "SIT DOWN!!"
James L. Neibaur
-----
I am from Racine, WI so I watched these same programs on WGN. Andy Starr was
the host (played by the late Bob Bell who was also Bozo and, before that, Uncle
Bob on the Luncheon at Twelve show in the early sixties). Starr also showed
Andy Clyde comedies and many of us believed Starr and Clyde were the same
person. He would occasionally play music on a wind up victrola.
The late Frazier Thomas hosted Garfield Goose and Family Classics. Garfield
was a puppet who snapped his beak rapidly, offering no voice, but Frazier
understood every word he said. Same for another puppet, Romberg Rabbit, who
moved his mouth, but no words came out. The camera would close in a the
"little theater screen" and we would see those surreal Clutch Cargo and Space
Angel cartoons which featured immobile drawings with real mouths. Or the
semi-live-action Diver Dan, which feature fish as the good and bad guys, as
well as the title character and a mermaid.
Frazier also hosted Family Classics on Sundays at 5pm. It is where I first saw
classic old movies like Boys Town and Captains Courageous.
aahhh memories.....
as the late Tommy "Pops" Richards used to say on WISN TV -12 in Milwaukee:
"Roll 'em Lester!"
JN
Please visit the most poorly designed web pages online:
my Favorite Movies web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/movies.html
and my Favorite Performers web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/rant.html
barbara turner/ moonwolf
back in 1989, when the show still ran a few hours long in the AM every
day,and Cookie and Wizzo were there....Bozo, alas, is but a shadow of
it's former self....only an hour on Sunday AM, no sidekicks except
Professor Andy and Rusty (OK but have nothing on Cookie or Wizzo or the
dear late Frazier Thomas) and much of the great humor eliminated to make
the show PC and "educational".
Barb T.
myxpy...@xoommail.com
On Thu, 10 Aug 2000 16:04:10 -0500, "R." <r7777*@cdmnet.com> wrote:
Thank you for sharing your memories! It brought back many memories and
made me feel like a kid again!! I did not realize that was Bob Bell as
the janitor. I would love to somehow get some videotapes of that show
if it exists. There were so many GREAT kid shows on WGN at that time.
I sent an email to you at "r7...@cdmnet.com" because I wanted to
reminisce with you further.....thanks!
>x-no-archive: yes
>
>x-no-archive: yes
>
># 69 "Spook Louder" (1943)
>
>Moe: (to Curly) "I'll unload your brains, if you got any!"
>Moe: (to Curly) "I'll knock your head right through your socks!"
>
>#5 "Pardon My Scotch" (1935)
>
>Moe: (to Curly) "Now listen, grapehead. I'll explain it so that even
>YOU can understand it."
>
>
>Remove " * " to reply to me.
>
>Kay Lhota wrote in message
><20000809095214...@ng-md1.aol.com>...
> Ah, the Golden Age of Cartoons: Quick Draw McGraw and Pepe LePeu
>["Arriba, arriba"] and Woody and Yogi, Ruff 'n' Ready, Heckle 'n' Jeckle
>[my all-time favorite cartoon with the crazy magpies], Pixie and Dixie
>[mice] and Mr. Jinx cat ["I hate those mises to pieces!"], the Road
>Runner and Coyote, Rocky & Bullwinkle with: Natasha and Boris, The
>Wayback Machine with Sherman and Mr. Peabody, Fractured Fairy Tales
>narrated by the late actor Edward Everett Horton, Dudley Do-Right and
>Nell with that great villian (and name!) Snidely Whiplash, and I
>remember the last couple of years of "Howdy Doody" (1947-1960).
> As an interesting trivia note on cartoons: In 1960, "Huckleberry
>Hound" was the first cartoon series to win an Emmy Award! Not "The
>Flintstones"!
>
James L. Neibaur
>Ah, the Golden Age of Cartoons: Quick Draw McGraw and Pepe LePeu
["Arriba, arriba"]
-----
Yikes! You are confusing the French skunk from the Warner cartoons and the
mexican burro Baba Louie from the Quick Draw cartoons! And Baba Louie never
said "Arriba!" That was Speedy Gonzalez. Baba would refer to his mentor as
"Quicks Draw" however.
musicm...@gmail.com
ury...@att.net
> When I was a kid I would run home from school and watch the stooges on
> Channel 9 WGN. They had a "host" and the show started off where the
> camera went around to the side door of a movie theater and this guy
> played the part of a janitor and opened a side door and acted like he
> was sneaking you in the theater where he introduced the shorts and
> they started out on a movie screen. Does anybody remember that, or
> have any videotapes of that? While on the subject do you recall
> Frazier Thomas and Bozo's Circus and Family Classics or Garfield
> Goose? Oh to be a kid again.....!!!
ury...@att.net
> Actually, it was hosted by Andy Clyde.
deancur...@gmail.com
tjra...@gmail.com
> When I was a kid I would run home from school and watch the stooges on
> Channel 9 WGN. They had a "host" and the show started off where the
> camera went around to the side door of a movie theater and this guy
> played the part of a janitor and opened a side door and acted like he
> was sneaking you in the theater where he introduced the shorts and
> they started out on a movie screen. Does anybody remember that, or
> have any videotapes of that? While on the subject do you recall
> Frazier Thomas and Bozo's Circus and Family Classics or Garfield
> Goose? Oh to be a kid again.....!!!
tjra...@gmail.com
> When I was a kid I would run home from school and watch the stooges on
> Channel 9 WGN. They had a "host" and the show started off where the
> camera went around to the side door of a movie theater and this guy
> played the part of a janitor and opened a side door and acted like he
> was sneaking you in the theater where he introduced the shorts and
> they started out on a movie screen. Does anybody remember that, or
> have any videotapes of that? While on the subject do you recall
> Frazier Thomas and Bozo's Circus and Family Classics or Garfield
> Goose? Oh to be a kid again.....!!!
