Cleveland TV Guide Ad from August 24, 1957 announcing the debut of "Popeye" Cartoons on KYW-TV 3 Cleveland September 2, 1957. There had been no host announced for this show..Linn Sheldon may have still been at WJW at this time. He was definitely hosting the Popeye Cartoons as "Barnaby" before the end of 1957. TV 3 had the right to all the incarnations of theatrical and TV Popeyes till well into the 1970's..
I'd like to share a very nice YouTube tribute to Barnaby (Linn Sheldon)..done by boppcleve, using some nice stills and film clips of Sheldon, along with "Barnaby's Theme"..Thanks to bobpcleve for uploading this originally. Very well done..
I had come to appreciate my childhood and my childhood TV stars of the past locally, including Linn Sheldon as Barnaby, Ron Penfound as Captain Penny, Walt Kay as Kousin Kay, and Davey Herbert as Mr. Banjo just to name a few. By the time I finished grade school, I graduated from kid shows to Ghoulardi (Cool it ova dey!!)
ReplyDeleteI wonder: Up to the 1970's, did Channel 3 air any of the Famous Studios Popeyes from 1942-57 (in color from 1943 onwards)?
ReplyDeleteThat was a wonderful clip, Tim. Thanks for finding that little gem. As a side note, after watching this, my wife said, "If there's one thing I know as I get older, it's that I wanted to be greeted with, "Hey there, old codger!"
ReplyDeleteBarnaby started 09/02/1957, my 5th birthday and I was convinced that Barnaby was my birthday present. Watched well the age aimed at, Ghoulardi on weekends Barnaby before supper....
ReplyDeleteCleveland ROCKS!!!
Sandi Kovarbasic Lilly
I just played bobpcleve's YouTube of Barnaby's theme song. Like so many others, it almost drove me to tears -- on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Cleveland at this time, I watched Barnaby and the rest of that TV crowd. I eventually decided to work in the industry.
In 1980, while working at the medical TV facility at The Ohio State University, Linn came in to do a taping. We talked about those days and I told him how much I liked the theme song. He told me the name of it and said he'd have somebody 'burn off a copy' for me. (It never came.)
Today, I am one week away from ending my career in television. After 28 years at the same TV station, my job is being eliminated. I had hoped to work in the industry that gave us "Barnaby," "Captain Penny," and even "Ghoulardi." But 33 years after I entered the field, it's dominated by local news and the mind-numbing "American Idol."
Regrets that I couldn't have been part of it? Definitely. But I will always have the memories.
What a treasure. Growing up in Cleveland with Barnaby, Superhost, Houlihan and Big Chuck, and all the rest was a time I will forever cherish. Having left Cleveland over 20 years ago, it's rare that I can share my memories with anyone. The local TV characters were an escape for me and I'm sure other children as well that may have not had a good home life.
ReplyDeleteMy heart yearns to be taken back to that time. If only we could....
Thanks for sharing this. I grew up in Sandusky and remember watching Barnaby on summer afternoons.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall that Barnaby played different music to close out the show and he used to talk to the camera in a way that made you feel like he was talking to you. It makes me feel good now just thinking about that.
Thank you Linn, you are a special person.
Wow that is a great clip, and that theme song is such a strong sense memory for me that fills me with inchoate melancholia and longing for that simpler time when the world didn't seem so cruel and ugly and easily bought by the most well heeled special interest. It may have been, but at least from my innocent and naive perspective it didn't look that way. Culture was less crass, especially television. I also found safe haven, if you will, in that idiot box as one of the original latchkey kids in a "broken" home, and Barnaby with his magical music and personal address at the end of each show was able to reach through that Muntz TV and touch the heart of a hurt child and at least temporarily make him feel special, and that he was acknowledged and appreciated. I also have a real personal experience of Linn because he kept his horse at the same stables in Strongsville where my sister boarded her horse for the short time she had her. Luckily, that was a little later in life and didn't diminish his image or importance as Barnaby.
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