setting the record straight

[kip_w]

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With the media scrutiny Christine O'Donnell's dad is getting as the result of her claim that he was Bozo on a Philadelphia TV station (which was not included in the Wikipedia article on Bozo or Bozos, possibly because O'Donnell Senior was a fill-in Bozo when the regular clown was away), I've noticed an omission in the Wikipedia entry that should be fixed.

Based on information from the book Hi There, Boys and Girls! America's Local Childrens TV Shows by Tim Hollis, the Bozo of Richmond, Virginia up until the show went off the air in 1974 was Jerry Harrell.

My friends back in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia should recognize Mr. Harrell more quickly as Dr. Madblood, beloved local horror movie host whose mad persona operates from Pungo, former home of illustrator Kelly Freas. Harrell started that gig in 1975, originally as a one-shot Halloween special (which means his 35th anniversary is coming right up).

I was lucky enough to view a museum show of Madblood props and memorabilia while living in Virginia. Oddly enough, you never see Madblood exhibitions in Massachusetts or New York. Some of his original props were made by Dave Merriman, a peerless crafter of miniatures for the movies.

But I'm wandering off the track. I have the book that mentions Harrell's Bozo stint, and as fortune would have it, the excerpt that mentions is is viewable at Google Books (see link above). So just now I went to Wikipedia and entered Harrell's name in their list of local Bozos, and inserted a mention of it in the entry for Dr. Madblood as well.

Of course, maybe the man is modest and didn't want this mentioned. But if I'd been a local TV Bozo, I would think I'd at least mention it. (As Harrell does on the bio at his own web page.)

Just doing my job. So to speak.
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Comments

[carbonel]

You closed your italic tag with a bold tag, so there's a mismatch, leaving the rest of your post italicized.

It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned there was more than one Bozo. I grew up in Chicago, home of the Bozo, and even got to attend a show when I was seven or eight. It was rather an anticlimax; everything looked so much larger on TV, even (or especially) on the small screen.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I didn't look this time.

I was on KFBC's Sammy Skimmer show (Cheyenne, WY) when I was four or five. Yeah, I was really excited that I was going to see Felix the Cat. Finally, Sammy announced the cartoon, and they rolled a black and white TV set out. It was one of many opportunities to wise up that I let go by.

I sometimes watched WGN's Bozo. I was somewhat surprised that they still showed BUGS BUNNY NIPS THE NIPS to an audience which probably included many Asian kids. Late in the show's run, they brought in a new sideclown who did magic tricks. I noticed in the credits that this was apparently Marshall Brodien, who used to shill TV Magic Cards in oft-repeated adverts. ("Hi, I'm Marshall Brodien, professional magician. You know, most magic tricks are easy, once You get the Hang of it!")

I taped Bozo's last show. Sorry to see him go. I have a couple of the original Bozo albums (literally albums of 78s or 45s) with Pinto Colvig voicing the Capitol Clown on my iPod, thanks to a friend. I remember having the actual albums, but Mom threw them out. I remember watching the pages burn in our incinerator.

[(Anonymous)]

I had the same experience with the Sammy Skimmer show in Cheyenne! I was SO disappointed when they rolled out the black and white tv. I thought for sure we'd see the cartoons on a big screen, in color, just like at the movies. Oh well...

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

It's a wonderful internet, where I can run into someone else who was on Sammy Skimmer. My memories are fragmentary — I must have been four or five. I remember a big silvery cigarette machine (or maybe candy) in the lobby, with a big mirror on it. I guess you go look at the mirror and then buy something.

I should add, though, that I didn't think I was going to see a cartoon. I thought maybe I'd see Felix. So let's say "four" instead of five, there.

Timmy O'tool

[(Anonymous)]

Anyone remember sammy successor Timmy O;tool.
I actually one the prize in the box. A pair of Keds shoes

Re: Timmy O'tool

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I don't remember Timmy! I do have a book around here somewhere on local kid-show hosts. I'll have to dig it up and see if it mentions him.

Reception of Cheyenne's station was spotty. Once in a while, it came in fairly well. According to my folks, they would've needed to re-aim the aerial (which was inside the attic for some reason), and then the five Denver stations would have been sacrificed. We checked many times, since 5 was right between stations we got, and since they often repeated programs from ABC and CBS at different times, we had reason to wish it would come in.

Part of it may have been the set we were using. I remember, years after that, making fun of their news announcers with my sister. Anchor Gus Gezzie (sp?) sometimes giggled, and there were amusing technical difficulties and slip-ups that a local operation might commit as well.

Re: Timmy O'Tool

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Keds. We must have been poor, because I remember making trips to the shoe store when Grandma was visiting us, and when we visited her in Chicago*. It didn't occur to me that she was subsidizing footwear for us.

There were ads, which I must have seen on someone else's TV, for "PF Flyers: THE MAGIC SHOE!" They "help you run your fastest, and jump your highest!" Ads showed a kid hanging from a church steeple, and her brother would lace up the PFs, dash down the street, and leap to save her! I don't know if I whined and whined or not, but I probably did, and came the day we went to the shop and I submitted to the foot-measuring device and came away with the sacred cardboard box with PFs in it. Subsequent experiments showed conclusively that when I wore these, I was still a lumpy little clod. Worse, I didn't even learn much from the experience until a lot later.


*A shoe department at a Chicagoland department store (Kreske's?) had an actual Fluoroscope in it, and I yearned to put my foot in and see the bones move. Sorry, kid, there's an OUT OF ORDER sign on it. No cancer for you today!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

No, no, it's all a huge mistake. He didn't play Bozo; he played Bonzo, as in Bedtime for.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Something like that, he'd be sure to put on his resumé.

[geckoman.livejournal.com]

I got to see Dr. Madblood this past weekend at MonsterFest at the Chesapeake Library where they did a retrospect for the 35th anniversary of the good Doctor. Of course, I wasn't around for most of his hey-day in the Tidewater area, but it was obvious that he was loved by most, if not all, of the attending audience.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I forget if the museum I saw the stuff at was in Chesapeake or Portsmouth. It was a small one, I remember that. He should have a TV special for the occasion.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Among other Madblood memorabilia, there were some of the surprisingly good (for a local monster show) miniatures they used for process shots and establishing shots of the castle and whatever. Less surprising when you realize they were made by Dave Merriman, substituting mechanical ingenuity and craftsmanship for expensive props before going on to his (unbilled, because he wouldn't join a union) career making intricate devices for major features. One year at Sci-Con, he showed his work for HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. A quick search on one form of his name shows that he has a good rep among makers, some of whom use his methods. (It's kind of like finding that Dad is known to a certain set of boat builders, who discuss his output and talk about how they built one of "his" boats, only they did something different right There, and what do you fellas think?)

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The O'Donnell Clown Legacy: The jokes just write themselves. Really.

There was so much other good kids' TV on in NYC that I never paid much attention to Bozo (I was raised on Jay Ward cartoons, on Captain Kangaroo, and on Wonderama, among other late great shows).

I don't think we had Dr. Madblood. We did have Chiller Theater (on which I will never forget seeing Donovan's Brain at far too young an age), and several other horror movie specialty programs, but I don't remember him at all.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Dr. Madblood was definitely local to Hampton Roads, though not to any one station. He's been on at least three of them, if my calculations are good.

I mostly grew up seeing KWGN's "Creature Features" out of Denver. There was nominally a host, Mr. First Nighter, but he only seemed to exist in a taped intro and an outro that were the same every week. I looked forward keenly to those movies, and then I'd fall asleep in a chair and wake up for the station signoff or dead air. One time I went into some kind of demi-dream state and seemed to see everything go by in fast motion in a couple of seconds.

[meggins.livejournal.com]

I used to watch something called "Shock Theatre" that way predates Dr. Madblood. Don't know if it was local or syndicated. The host was called Ronald, I believe, and he was something between a crypt keeper and a ghoul. Anyways, it started at 11:30 p.m. (Friday nights), which was late for me way back then. I usually made it through Ronald's opening but somewhere in the early stages of the movied, like you (though sprawled out on the floor), I fell asleep. I'd generally wake up at the very end of the movie or shortly thereafter.

[pgranzeau.livejournal.com]

I only watched a few Madbloods. I remember lots of local mentions, and I assumed he was strictly local to Hampton Road (specifically, the south side).

I don't know anything about his props, but I remember one thing where he showed a film of him (I think) running around Pungo in a Morgan three wheeler, and I always wondered where he foud that particular classic.