History and Memories of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio Television and Radio from the 1940's-1980's..Dedicated to preserving the Broadcast Heritage of Northeast Ohio..
Cover of "The Christmas TV Companion" By Joanna Wilson-Cover Image courtesy 1701 Press
TV Guide Ad for The Infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special" from November 1978-Courtesy Star Wars Collectors' Archive
One of my own favorite Pastimes is the traditional Holiday Christmas TV Special..Since the dawn of TV Broadcasting, the Holidays have been a time for local stations and National TV Networks to bring out "Holiday Chestnuts" Whether they be movies, specials or Holiday episodes of regular series..
Ms. Joanna Wilson has taken her own love of "The Christmas Special" and has produced a very well writen paperback book on the subject..
The full book title is "The Christmas TV Companion..A Guide to Cult Classics, Strange Specials and Outrageous Oddities"..Publisher is startup company 1701 Press of Akron, Ohio..
What is unique about this book is while Ms. Wilson mentions in passing many of our favorites, she dwells here more on the "Strange and Weird" In Christmas Programming, Whether it is about Homicidal Santas, evil elves, shows/movies that seem to be deliberate "downers" or the Grandaddy of all strange Holiday Specials, The 1978 "Star Wars Holiday Special"
Ms. Wilson appears to have a real affection for All Holiday programming, not just the "strange"..And it does come through in her writing..She has seen most, if not all of the shows she writes about...She has really done a lot of good research here..I believe she is planning, if she hasnt done so already, to write a larger encyclopedic-type book on Holiday programming, which I am looking forward to seeing..
The only criticism I might have, and it depends on the reader..That if one reads too much about the perceived "negative" Holiday Specials, one could become a bit depressed..
In spite of that, Ms. Wilson has the making of an excellent author and I highly recommend this book for the information she presents..She also suggests "Make Your Own Marathons" for watching certain shows throughout the book, which is a nice touch..
Here is the Publishers' Website for more information..
Full Page ad in the Cleveland Press Monday,June 21, 1965 just after WKYC arrived in Cleveland. This ad has been featured in TV 3 anniversary programs..Courtesy Cleveland Press Microfilm archive, Cleveland State University
TV Guide WKYC-TV 3"Early Show" ad from February 1968..TV 3 had movies in the early evening time slot as early as 1959..
Hello: Anyone who has read Cleveland Classic Media from the beginning (March 2007) knows I have written a lot about NBC affiliate WNBK/KYW/WKYC-TV, especially detailing "The Swap" of WNBK to Philadelphia (as WRCV)and WPTZ/KYW-AM Westinghouse to Cleveland (As KYW-AM-FM-TV) in 1956 and the subsequent reversal of the swap in June 1965..The "Hello Cleveland" ad above was featured in local newspapers upon NBC's return to Cleveland. Several months ago, a reader wanted to see the full page ad, which was shown partially in WKYC anniversary specials. I found this at CSU, In their Cleveland Press Microfilm Collection, while in Cleveland Monday for other research..I thought also we would feature three random schedules from the early years of WKYC-TV..
WKYC-TV 3-From TV Guide:
Friday, September 10, 1965
6:20 News 6:25 Farm Fare 6:30 Educational Exchange 7AM Today 9AM Woodrow 9:30 Love That Bob! 10AM Truth Of Consequences-COLOR 10:30 What's This Song?-COLOR "Win" Martindale Kaye Stevens, Gene Pitney guests
11AM Concentration-Hugh Downs 11:30 Jeopardy-COLOR-Art Fleming Noon News 12:30 Mike Douglas-Corbett Monica Co Host 2PM Moment Of Truth 2:30 Doctors 3PM Another World 3:30 You Dont Say-COLOR-Tom Kennedy Ruta Lee, John Gavin guests
4PM Match Game-COLOR Gene Rayburn Whitey Ford, Joe Garagiola guests
4:25 NBC News-Nancy Dickerson 4:30 Phil Silvers 5PM Movie-Phantom From Space-1953 6:30 Huntley/Brinkley 7PM Seventh Hour News-Carl Stern, Bud Dancy, Wally Kinnan, Jim Graner 7:30 International Showtime-Dom Ameche (Camp Runamuck and Hank take over the time slot the following week)
8:30 Bob Hope Chrysler Theater (Convoy premieres at this time the next week) 9:30 Jack Benny-Last Show after 15 years on TV and 33 years on regular radio and TV-He would do specials after this (Mr. Roberts premieres the next week)
10PM Jack Paar-His last show (replaced by the Man From UNCLE) 11PM News-Pat Murray 11:10 Weather-Wally Kinnan 11:15 Sports-Jim Graner 11:20 Merv Griffin (Johnny Carson's Tonight Show would move here November 1, 1965) 12:50 Movie-California Passage-1950
Thursday, December 15, 1966 BW=Black and White
6:20 Farm Fare-BW
6:25 Education Exchange
6:55 What's Doing?
7AM Today
9AM Mike Douglas-BW
10AM Eye Guess-Bill Cullen
10:25 NBC News-Sander Vanocur
10:30 Concentration
11AM Pat Boone-Guest Dennis Day
11:30 Hollywood Squares-Peter Marshall
Noon Jeopardy-Art Fleming
12:30 Swingin' Country-Roy Clark
12:55 NBC News
1PM Three On The Town
1:30 Let's Make A Deal-Monty Hall
2PM Days Of Our Lives
2:30 Doctors
3PM Another World
3:30 You Dont Say-Tom Kennedy
Mel Torme, Keely Smith, guests
4PM Match Game-Gene Rayburn
Vivian Vance, Henry Morgan, guests
4:25 NBC News-Floyd Kalber
4:30 Sea Hunt
5PM Movie-Canyon Passage-1946
6:30 Huntley/Brinkley Report
7PM News-Virgil Dominic,. Wally Kinnan, Jim Graner
7:30 Daniel Boone
8:30 Star Trek
9:30 The Hero
10PM Dean Martin
11PM News-Dominic
11:15 Weather-Kinnan
11:20 Sports-Graner
11:30 Johnny Carson
1AM Star Performance-BW
1:30 What's In it For You?
2AM News-BW
Saturday, September 28, 1968
6:30 Farm Front
7AM Popeye Theater
9AM Super 6
9:30 Top Cat
10AM Flintstones
10:30 Banana Splits
11:30 Underdog
Noon Birdman
12:30 Super President
1PM Panorama-Jack Hicks
1:30 Between The Lines
2PM Baseball-Houston/St. Louis and Washington/Detroit
5PM Campaign and The Candidates
5:30 College Bowl-RETURN-Robert Earle
6PM Montage
6:30 Frank McGee Report
7PM News
7:30 Adam-12
8PM Get Smart
8:30 Ghost and Mrs. Muir
9PM NBC Movie-The Train (1964)-BW
11:45 News
12:05 Movie-Double Feature
1. Once More, With Feeling! (1960)
2. The Old Man And The Sea (1958)
Brief clip on NBC's return to Cleveland..From WKYC's 50th anniversary special..The above ad (Hello Cleveland) is briefly seen..Dick Goddard relates how he came back to Cleveland within months of joining Westinghouse In Philadelphia..
Some more footage of Channel 3's 50th anniversary in 1998..Including a Tribute to the late Jim Graner, Sports anchor at Channel 3 from 1957-75 and radio voice for the Browns..
Comment:Considering the current state of this year's Cleveland Browns, one hopes that eventually the people put in the place to run the Browns show the class and dignity expressed by Mr. Graner in his lifetime covering the team..
"Big Chuck" Schodowski..Had a nice 75th birthday party for him Saturday Night..another classy individual..really appreciates the fans.
Bob "Hoolihan" Wells..He seems to have a blast coming up here each year..and is a very nice man..
"Lil John" Rinaldi..He IS a bundle of energy..He participated in a talk with the "Midnight Movie" guys about Carmella Gianpollo, one of the fine costars of Hoolihan/Big Chuck/Lil John skits over the years..She was scheduled to attend but unfortunately couldnt make it..
WJW-TV 8 Weather Icon Dick Goddard with yours truly..Promoting his animal causes.. Mark Hale, 2-time "Ghoulardi" Lookalike contest winner
Poster showing the Fest Itinerary
Business Card for bigchuckand liljohn.com..I've been privileged to be part of this website the last 3 years or so...The leading source for all things Big Chuck/Lil John/Hoolihan/Ghoulardi..They have a store, messageboard and Museum/soundboard to keep the Northeast Ohio Movie Host Legacy alive..
Hello: The Ghoulardifest 5 was very good again this year..The Hotel was a bit smaller, so it seemed to be a bit more crowded ..The Highlights of the Fest were Big Chuck's book in paperback and The preview of the long awaited PBS Ghoulardi Documentary, which I will review in a separate post..Other interesting parts of the Ghoulardifest were Mary Ann Winkowski, whose ghost stories provided the basis of CBS's "Ghost Whisperer" series..Cesare as Elvis was quite good as well..The "Midnight Movie" hosts, Dave Shurmer and Ritch Yarber, hosted DVD showings of skits..One such set featured commentary from "Big Stosh", which was a highlight..Art Lofredo also participated throughout the weekend..
The Highlight of Saturday, October 24 was a 75th birthday bash for Big Chuck...Despite the economy, the fest was a rousing success compared with other similar gatherings..There is talk of Ghoulardifest 6..we'll keep you posted..Thanks to The Cleveland Marriott Airport Hotel for their hospitality..
Plain Dealer TV Week Listings Tuesday, January 30, 1973..This was probably the best time for Local TV as you had two full-power Indys (WKBF-61, WUAB-43)fighting it out for audience..Cavaliers Basketball and Crusaders Hockey were both on Channel 43 with Frank Sweeney and Ted Patterson doing the announcing..Hadnt heard of them before or since..Paul Dixon aired on WKBF weekdays at 1..probably the first time his show aired in Cleveland since the DuMont Days..(1953-54). The note about the "Magician" movie is interesting in that it led to a series (1973-74) with Bill Bixby, as well as a lifelong interest in Magic for Bixby..
Plain Dealer TV Week Highlites Tuesday January 30, 1973..WJW-AM 850 Ed Fisher Ad..As always,Click the picture to read..
Good morning..
From Videoholic 1980's..Just under 10 minutes of TV News Bloopers, mostly from Cleveland but also from other TV markets..This would be from around 1980-81..
Within the next week or two, once I get my pictures developed, I'll give a report on the recent Ghoulardifest. At the same time I will review the "Turn Blue" Documentary..Near the end of November I will do a review on a new Christmas TV book written by a local author..
Soupy on a 1970's Match Game appearance-courtesy born-today.com
Soupy in Detroit-Courtesy TVParty.com
Sorry to be a bit late on this, but we were away over the weekend and have been under the weather since..
Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian who made pie throwing into an art form, passed away last Thursday at the age of 83 after a long illness..
Born Milton Supman in Franklinton, North Carolina, Sales' family moved to Huntington, West Virginia..After graduating from Marshall College, he worked at WHTN radio in Huntington, then moved to Cincinnati in 1949 hosting one of the nation's earliest dance shows on WKRC-TV..
After being fired from WKRC, Sales headed to Cleveland, where about 1952-53 he worked at WXEL-9 hosting an afternoon show, Soupy's On..The following are some remembrances from former historic FOX 8 web pages, which are no longer on their website..The complete archive is in our links..
"Bob Soinski: Soupy Sales also started here, only back then he was known as Soupy Hines. He wound up changing his name because he didn't want to be linked to Hines ketchup.
Soupy Sales [Host]: I had been hosting a dance show on a station in Cincinnati for a couple of months when they came up to me and said, "Who wants to watch a bunch of teenagers dancing on television?" Rod Serling and I got fired from the same station on the same day. The day I came up for the interview at WXEL, someone robbed my car. When I discovered it had happened, I just sat down and cried. They hired me to do a show every afternoon called "Soup's On" where we pantomimed records and had guests like the Hilltoppers and the Four Aces. Johnny Ray made his TV debut on my show. That was also the show where my "pie in the face" routine started. We did a bit about an Indian and a cowboy; this was when the movie "Broken Arrow" was popular. A farmer who lived next door to the station let us use his horse for the skit — it was a wild horse — and the skit wound up that the Indian threw a pie in my face.
Helen Celke: Soupy was doing a show with this girl singer, and together they did comedy.
Soupy Sales: Her name was Patty Rowe. She was a piano player. We did "Soup's On" for about a year and won the Plain Dealer Award for best new TV show. The station took it off the air the next day, and I headed to Detroit."
(Patty Rowe later would appear in the Gunsmoke Parody "The Stranger" for the Ghoulardi Show)
Soupy became a hit at WXYZ-7 hosting "Lunch With Soupy Sales" and an 11PM show..
Soupy later appeared on ABC Network and Local Shows in Los Angeles and by 1964 moved to New York to host local shows.By the 1970's he was appearing on the syndicated "What's My Line?" and other Game Shows...After a 1978 syndicated TV effort, Sales was host of WNBC Radio's afternoon show (1985-87)..One of his later TV appearances was in 1997 on the "Woodrow The Woodsman" revival series aired over WJW-TV Fox 8..Sort of coming full circle from his early Cleveland days..
Our prayers are with the family..Soupy had a rich, full career and was much loved by his fans..
Hello...A full plate today.. I thought this morning we would feature a couple of videos from my YouTube page with classic WEWS-TV 5 local programs..
Music programming on Channel 5..Featuring Upbeat, The Gene Carroll Show and Polka Varieties..
The Kids' Shows on Channel 5..Captain Penny, Mr. Jingeling and Romper Room (Miss Barbara Plummer). This is by far the most popular video of the ones I've uploaded, with over 13,000 views and 41 comments...
These are taken from the WEWS 50th anniversary program December 17, 1997..Recently retired TV 5 News Anchor Ted Henry is the narrator..
I'd like to at some point find some more to upload soon..Though it does take a lot of time and effort..I will start working on some more as soon as I can..
JUST IN: Two new clips from "Turn Blue" The PBS special about the Ghoulardi Legacy to air next week..
Chuck Schodowski talks about his start in TV..
Outtake:Big Chuck talks about his first skit with Ernie Anderson-"The Batting Coach" Courtesy Phil Hoffman
Some updates:
My wife and I will be at the Ghoulardifest this Friday Night and all day Saturday ...We'll try to bring pictures and a report next week or in early November..Also, with the holidays coming up,as is our tradition..we will try to find Thankgiving/Christmas TV schedules, ads and video, etc..To feature..Also this year..We have 2 new Christmas TV-Themed books that we will be reviewing..As always, I appreciate all who stop by..Thanks..
Hello: Here is a Cleveland Classic Media encore post from May 25, 2007..Big Chuck and Lil John were about to retire their show from Fox 8:My thoughts at the time about their retirement and my memories about the 44 year Movie host tradition at WJW-TV.
As I type this, "The Big Chuck and Little John" Show will have taped its last regular program at WJW-TV Fox 8 (Thursday, May 24). "Big Chuck" Schodowski has announced his retirement from the Station in June 2007, after 46 years on Channel 8..47 in Cleveland TV (He was at KYW-3 for a short time in 1960). While Chuck and John will be busy with personal appearances and preparing DVD's of the BC&LJ/Hoolihan/Ghoulardi skits, It will effectively be the end of an era in Local TV. The last classic entertainment show in Cleveland Televison. The Friday/Saturday Horror Host movie has been a staple of TV 8 through 4 station ownerships for an astounding 44 years!
In 1968 a TV 8 station manager was going to cancel Hoolihan and Big Chuck, but the resulting furor changed his mind...My first experiences with Ghoulardi as a 5 or 6 year old..When we went to visit relatives in East Canton, Ohio On Friday nights. They wanted to watch Ghoulardi but I was scared of him..LOL..He sort of spooked me out..As I grew older, Like many in Northeast Ohio, I watched (with pizza, pop and chips) Hoolihan and Big Chuck-More for the skits than the movies most weeks..spoofs of current and long forgotten movies, tv and commercials..Some worked better than others, but Chuck, Hooli and John would. within the bounds of good taste, try almost anything at least once. The great Characters, Stosh, (Certain ethnic), SoulMan, Ben Crazy, Kielbasy Kid. Batguy and Rinaldi, Readings By Robert..And those were just the most well known skits..not to mention other one-shot skits..most a laugh riot..I think of supporting players..Art Lafredo, Jim Syzmanski, Mary Allen, Tom Bush, Bill Ward..and how much they added to the show, Not to mention other TV 8 personalities such as Robin Swoboda and Dick Goddard, who didnt mind hamming it up in occasional skits..I have been watching the "Skits" shows the last several weeks and Big Chuck many times refers to the show as a "Family". I'd like to think that Chuck and John thinks of the viewers as an "extended family" ..That would be invited into their house every Friday or Saturday night for the last 4o years (or more)..Guys..thanks for letting us in..Its been a great ride..Thanks for the memories..
The show taped Thursday will be shown Saturday morning at 10AM on Fox 8. There will also be a prime-time special on Fox 8 Friday June 22, 2007 at 8PM..
Thanks to bigchuckandliljohn.com for the title picture..Doktor Goulfinger for the Cleveland Press Ghoulardi Picture..clevelandseniors.com for the Bob Wells Picture and the TV 8 Logo from Wikipedia..
A lot has happened since 2007..Big Chuck and Lil John have hardly "retired"..They still do personal appearances..And headline the "Ghoulardifest", which is coming up a week from today..Several new DVD collections have come out with more on the way..Big Chuck , with Tom Feran released his biography last year with a Paperback version (including a new chapter) being released shortly..The legacy does continue..
Personal note:One of my dear friends online WIXYGrad74, is featuring yours truly and Cleveland Classic Media on his blog today..Thanks WIXY!!..You're one of the good ones..
