setting the record straight
Oct. 5th, 2010 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kip_w.
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.
.
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.
.
Timmy O'tool
Date: 2015-04-18 06:20 am (UTC)I actually one the prize in the box. A pair of Keds shoes
Re: Timmy O'tool
Date: 2015-04-18 02:20 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2015-04-18 02:29 pm (UTC)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!