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..
Picture Postcard of Hopalong Cassidy, distributed by Bond Bread..The other side had "Tune In Hopalong Cassidy on WNBK-4"..Hoppy was starting his Radio Show Jan. 1, 1950 on Mutual-WHK..The Hopalong movies and TV shows started being shown later in 1950 on NBC..
Football Bowl Games on WGAR-1220, Including the OSU-California Rose Bowl Game from Pasadena..
January 2, 1950 from the Plain Dealer.."Folksinger" (not Country Music Singer) Eddy Arnold had his own weekday morning show on NBC-WTAM
WXEL-9 Test Pattern-Very nice copy..
WXEL-TV 9 Dedication plaque-Cleveland's Third TV Station had been on the air less than two weeks..
Looking some at New Years Eve Radio-TV 1949.
George Condon wrote in his Plain Dealer Column on December 31, 1949 about the possibility of The Cleveland Orchestra making it's debut on Television January 8, 1950 on WNBK-4..Radio broadcasts on WTAM and several other stations were to commence then, and it was planned to have an experimental TV relay during an Orchestra rehearsal from Severance Hall to the NBC Building on Superior Avenue using a Microwave reflector on top of Severance Hall, hoping to get the signal to a dish at WNBK/WTAM..Sohio was to sponsor the Radio/TV Broadcasts beginning 1/8/1950..
A Narrative Review of the last 50 years in Cleveland was to be aired by WGAR December 31 at 1PM, hosted by Reg Merridew and Sid Andorn..
Talk about going through Material..It was figured out that Cooking Hostess Alice Weston of WEWS had gone through 1, 068 of her own recipies and 168 others from viewers since starting her program February 14, 1949..
Hopalong Cassidy was to begin his own Radio Show January 1, 1950 at 4PM on WHK. Cassidy (William Boyd) was already a huge Movie Star and would soon gain many more fans as his films hit Television..
Robert Kintner, who joined ABC (Blue Network) in 1944, was announced as President of ABC-Radio/TV, where he served until 1956..
More Program Highlights
TV:(Dec. 31) Jack Carter hosts Cavalcade of Stars on DuMont-WXEL at 9PM Meet The Press with Senator Scott Lucas (D-Illinois) NBC-WNBK at 9:30 Morey Amsterdam hosts a New Years Eve Party on NBC-WNBK at 10
CBS New Years Party with Ed Sullivan, Robert Q. Lewis and others on WEWS at 10PM
Radio (Dec. 31)
Blue-Gray Football WHK 2:30 East-West Shrine Football-WHK 5:30
Forecast 1950-WTAM 3:30 Dallas Symphony-WTAM 4PM
AHL Hockey Cleveland Barons/Cincinnati Mohawks-WJW 9:45 (Third Period only) (Barons win 5-1 before 6891 at the Arena)
TV (Jan. 1, 1950) Movie-Little Men WEWS 3PM
Movie-That Uncertain Feeling WXEL 3PM
Super Circus-WXEL (ABC) 5PM Exit 1949-News Films WNBK 5PM
Perry Como WNBK-NBC 8PM Toast Of The Town WEWS-CBS 8PM with Charles Laughton and Mary McCarty
Radio Listings in The Plain Dealer Saturday, December 31, 1949 (Open link for better reading)
TV Listings Saturday December 31, 1949
Later Today, Tomorrow or Monday we'll have a brief Classic TV "Year In Review" Post..Want to wish all our readers a Happy and safe New Year..
December 25, 1947:WSRS radio ad in the Plain Dealer
WAKR-TV 23 Test Pattern from the 1970's
Just wanted to wish everybody on the blog a safe and Happy Christmas and thank you all for all the contributions made, whether it be by asking questions, providing media clips , or just commenting..Its really been an interesting year..And judging by recent Radio/TV changes in the Cleveland area, it promises to be more interesting in the year ahead..I will do a year end review sometime late next week..Again, have a very Merry Christmas everybody..
In the last few months I've become aware of a portion of the newsnet5.com (WEWS-TV 5) website known as "Video Vault"..TV 5's Tom Livingston digs out old film footage to share with everyone and he has found some real gems..The one drawback is that much of the earlier films are missing the soundtrack, but the memories are there..I want to share on the page today two of the recent Video Vault entries..
October 15, 1959 preparations for Downtown Cleveland Christmas Decorating, then we see shoppers mingling about on November 27, 1959 and then the later Cleveland Christmas Parade..
Christmas 1960:Santa In A Spaceship..One viewer thinks this is from Bailey's Department Store. We also get a look at the Sterling-Lindner Christmas Tree and a brief glimpse of Johnny Mathis, who sang for the City Tree-lighting ceremony November 25, 1960..
Portion of a May Company ad announcing the appearance of Johnny Mathis in Cleveland..
Wednesday, December 23, 1964:The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet:"Busy Christmas"..This was actually a repeat of the December 19, 1956 episode, with a newly-done opening by the Nelsons, with Ricky Nelson singing "The Christmas Song" at the end..Aired on WEWS-TV 5 and sponsored by The Gas Industry..
Christmas Comedy and Music Special produced by KYW-TV Tuesday, December 22, 1964..Looks like a good time was had by all..
Thursday, December 24, 1964:Cleveland Orchestra Concert with Robert Shaw Conducting..This was the fifth annual presentation..
December 23, 1964 Plain Dealer TV Listings..
December 24, 1964:Extensive plans for KYW-AM 1100 for 6PM-Midnight using most of the On-Air Radio Crew as well as KYW-TV 3's Barnaby and Woodrow..
A little bit of Christmas 1964 is featured, with KYW Radio and Television leading the way during Christmas week with a couple of special programs and a 6-hour extravaganza on radio. When TV and radio were creative and really wanted to make holidays special..I only wish that either the radio or TV special might be out there somewhere..Also featuring Ozzie and Harriet in a repeat of a 1956 episode with 1964 vintage commercials for the Gas Industry..
The features on the Facebook page today about Mr. Jingeling really took off..Lots of people responded..Just goes to show that some folks really like Christmas the way they remember it..Appreciate the response..
Images courtsy the Plain Dealer Archive and TV Guide..Video from the Internet Archive..
Plain Dealer ad for "Morning Surprise" with Tom Haley and "Mr. Rivitz" on KYW-TV 3
Ad for "Toyland Express" presented by something called the "Toy Guidance Council"
"Brod" Crawford stars in Highway Partol sponsored by Kroger on WKBN-27 Youngstown Tuesdays at 9:30, Preempting Red Skelton..
Ad for "Merry Christmas Mr. Baxter" on the Alcoa Hour Sunday, December 2 at 9:00 on NBC (3-21)
November 16, 1957..The first mention I could find in Halles advertising for Mr. Jingeling(Max Ellis), who may have begun playing the Character on TV in 1957
For our first holiday posting, I thought we'd look at December 1956, partly through the pages of Cleveland TV Guide, December 1-8, 1956..
WEWS was well into the "Holiday Spirit" with shows like Toyland Express(15 minutes) with Jimmy Nelson and his Dummies, shown Saturday at 10:45 and 11:30 and Sunday at 9:45 and 11:45 AM..
Santa Claus Monday, Thursday and Friday at 4:45..
There was also"Toy Preview" weekdays at 12:40 and 6:25 PM..My guess here is that Halles sponsored this, though it's not said so in the listings and no host is mentioned. While Mr. Jingeling was created for Halles in 1956, it appears he only made store appearances and possible other personal appearances.."Mr. Jingeling" as noted above was not mentioned by name in Halles ads till November 1957..
WJW-TV 8 featured Nelson Olmstead's "Ohio Story" weeknights at 6:30 with stories including Medina, Ohio as "Bee Captital" of the world..(To this day, Medina High School Sports Teams are nicknamed "The Bees") Toledo Zoo in Wintertime, and"Darling Nellie Gray" writer Ben Hamby..
Ron Penfound was doing WEWS sign-on news Saturdays at 8:55 and possibly hosting Fun Farm, as Mary Ellen Sussex had left for Florida a month earlier..
Romper Room was carried on WJW-TV 8 weekdays at 9AM with "Miss Pat" (Pat Ryan Dopp)The franchise moved to Channel 5 in 1958 with Barbara Plummer until 1971..
"Mr. Rivitz" was a character played by Jay Miltner in the Saturday morning "Nuts and Bolts" series on KYW-TV 3 and as part of Tom Haley's "Morning Surprise" weekdays at 9AM..A similar character, Mr. Rivets, was played by a different actor at WPTZ/WRCV-3 in Philadelphia from 1954-56..
Saturday, December 1, 1956:
3 KYW-NBC
7:30 This Land Is Ours 8:30 Nuts and Bolts-Mr. Rivitz 9:30 Teachers Meeting-Cleveland Schools 10AM Howdy Doody 10:30 Sheena of the Jungle 11AM Fury 11:30 Buffalo Bill Jr. Noon Roy Rogers 12:30 Duke Jenkins-Music 1PM Football Preview 1:15 Army/Navy College Football-Lindsey Nelson/Red Grange 4:45 Football Scoreboard 5PM 77th Bengal Lancers 5:30 Ramar of the Jungle 6PM Bowling-Chicago 7PM Racket Squad 7:30 People Are Funny-Art Linkletter 8PM Perry Como-COLOR Carol Channing, Nat King Cole 9PM Caesar's Hour 10PM George Gobel-Guest Angela Lansbury 10:30 Your Hit Parade 11PM News-Tom Field 11:05 Movie-Johnny Come Lately-1943 12:30 News-Tom Field
5 WEWS-ABC
8:55 News-Ron Penfound 9AM Fun Farm 10AM Story of TV 10:30 Friendly Giant 10:45 Toyland Express 11AM Mr. Lollipops-Joe Berg 11:30 Toyland Express 11:45 Learn To Draw-Jon Gnagy Noon Double Feature Western Movie 2PM Bandstand-Phil McLean Patty Rowe 4PM Movie-Kansas Terrors-1939 5PM Movie-Call of the Mesquiteers-1938 6PM Kit Carson 6:30 Gene Autry 7PM Old Dutch Revue-Johnny Andrews 7:30 Famous Film Festival-Hamlet Part One (Sir Laurence Olivier) 9PM Lawrence Welk 10PM Masquerade Party 10:30 Police Call 11PM I Spy-Anthology about spying and espionage 11:30 Conrad Nagel Theater Midnight Movie-A Matter of Murder 1AM News-Randy Culver
8 WJW CBS
8:30 Movie-Six-Gun Man 9:30 Captain Kangaroo 10:30 Mighty Mouse 11AM Looney Tunes 11:30 Texas Rangers Noon Big Top 1PM Lone Ranger 1:30 Humbard Family 2PM Science Sermons-Likely from Moody Bible Institute 2:30 Animal Fair 3PM Teen Press-Maggie Wulff 3:30 Salute-Documentary 4PM Movie-Six-Gun Man (Repeat from 8:30) 5PM Sky King 5:30 Captain Midnight 6PM Hopalong Cassidy 6:30 Annie Oakley 7PM Beat The Clock-Bud Collyer 7:30 Buccaneers 8PM Jackie Gleason 9AM Oh Susanna 9:30 Hey, Jeannie 10PM Gunsmoke 10:30 Frontier 11PM News-Warren Guthrie 11:10 Sports-John Fitzgerald 11:15 Movie-I Am The Law-1938 12:45 Movie-Love From A Stranger-1947
21 WFMJ-Youngstown NBC
10AM Howdy Doody 10:30 I Married Joan 11AM Fury 11:30 Cowboy Theater-Monty Hall 1PM To Be Announced 1:15 Army-Navy Football 5PM Funhouse Gang 6:15 Jungle Jim 6:45 Hollywood Backstage 7PM Rumpus Room 7:30 People Are Funny-Art Linkletter 8PM Perry Como-COLOR Carol Channing, Nat King Cole 9PM Caesar;s Hour 10PM George Gobel-Guest Angela Lansbury 10:30 Your Hit Parade 11PM News 11:15 Movie-The Secret People-1952
27 WKBN-Youngstown CBS/ABC
9:30 Captain Kangaroo 10:15 Toyland Express 10:30 Cartoon Classics 11AM Western Movie Noon Big Top 1PM Movie-The Old Barn Dance 2PM Movie-Fighting Pioneers 3PM Movie-The Quitter-1934 4PM Western Movie 5PM Bowling Champs 6PM Uncovered 6:30 News 7PM Ozzie And Harriet-ABC 7:30 Buccaneers 8PM Jackie Gleason 9AM Lawrence Welk-ABC 10PM Gunsmoke 10:30 Ford Theater 11PM Polka Party Midnight Wrestling Time
49 WAKR-Akron ABC
12:30 Movie-Cowboy Holiday-1934 1:30 Humbard Family 2PM Mr. and Mrs. North 2:30 Akron University 3PM Movie-I Met My Love Again-1938 4PM Movie-Gentleman From Texas-1946 6PM Movie-Musical 7PM Grand Ole Opry 7:30 Famous Film Festival-Hamlet Part One (Sir Laurence Olivier) 9PM Lawrence Welk 10PM Movie-More Than A Secretary-1936 11:30 Movie-Fall Guy-1947
Thursday, December 6, 1956
3 KYW NBC
7AM Today 9AM Morning Surprise-Tom Haley 10AM Ding Dong School 10:30 Price Is Right-Bill Cullen 11AM Home-Arlene Francis 11:25 Window-Women 11:30 Home-Continues Noon Tic Tac Dough 12:30 It Could Be You 1PM Movie-The Flying Irishman-1939 2:30 Tennessee Ernie 3PM Matinee Theater-COLOR "The Refugee" 4PM Queen For A Day 4:45 Modern Romances 5PM I Married Joan 5:30 Mr. District Attorney 6PM Six O'Clock-Adventure-My Hero (Robert Cummings) 6:30 Six O'Clock Adventure-Colonel March (Boris Karloff) 6:55 News-Tom Field 7PM Soldiers Of Fortune 7:30 Dinah Shore 7:45 Huntley/Brinkley Report 8PM You Bet Your Life-Groucho Marx 8:30 Dragnet 9PM People's Choice-Jackie Cooper, Pat Breslin 9:30 Ford Show-Tennessee Ernie Ford-Guest Ken Murray 10PM Project 20-"The Jazz Age" with host Fred Allen (Lux Video Theatre is off tonight) 11PM News-Tom Field 11:10 Weather-Joe Finan 11:15 Sports-Joe Mulvihill 11:20 Big Wilson-Music 11:30 Steve Allen Tonight Show 12:30 My Little Margie 1AM News-Tom Field
5 WEWS ABC
8:55 News-Bill Prentice 9AM Fun Farm 9:45 Paige Palmer 10AM Western Reserve University Telecourse 10:30 Movie-Blonde Ice-1948 11:55 News-Ron Penfound-Probably a voiceover with a slide, as Penfound was likely already in his "Captain Penny" train outfit for his show at Noon
Noon Captain Penny 12:40 Toy Preview 12:45 Beulah-The Play 1:15 Stu Erwin-Yvette 1:45 Susie-Too Much Spring 2:15 Liberace 2:45 Music Masters-Songs 3PM Afternoon Film Festival-It Started In Paradise (English:1953) 4:30 Little Rascals 4:45 Toyland Santa 5PM Mickey Mouse Club 6PM Three Musketeers-The Marshal and Milady 6:25 Toy Preview 6:30 Dorothy Fuldheim 6:45 Weather-Bill Prentice 6:50 News-Paul Wilcox, Ron Penfound 7PM Stories Of The Century-Kate Bender 7:30 Lone Ranger-Decision For Chris McKeever 8PM Circus Time-Paul Winchell 9PM Wire Service-The Avengers 10PM Ozark Jubilee-Red Foley 10:30 Public Defender-The Hitchhiker 11PM Weather-Paul Wilcox 11:05 Movie-The Groom Wore Spurs-1951 (IMDB) 12:30 News-Court Stanton
8 WJW CBS
7AM Good Morning-Will Rogers Jr. with Norman Vincent Peale, Mitch Miller 8AM Captain Kangaroo 9AM Romper Room-Miss Pat 9:30 Heart Of The City 10AM Garry Moore 10:30 Arthur Godfrey 11:30 Strike It Rich-Warren Hull Noon Valiant Lady 12:15 Love Of Life 12:30 Search For Tomorrow 12:45 Guiding Light 1PM Our Miss Brooks-Thanksgiving 1:30 As The World Turns 2PM Alice Weston 2:30 House Party-Linkletter 3PM Blackboard-Maggie Wulff (Pre-empted Big Payoff today only) 3:30 Bob Crosby-Bob sings brother Bing's holiday hit, "White Christmas" 4PM Brighter Day 4:15 Secret Storm 4:30 Edge Of Night 5PM Movie-Blind Alley-1939 (IMDB) 6:15 News-Roger Kennedy 6:30 Ohio Story-segment on Cleveland Police's Bureau of Scientific Investigation-Nelson Olmstead narrates
6:40 News-Roger Kennedy 6:45 CBS News-Douglas Edwards 7PM Dr. Christian 7:30 Sergeant Preston 8PM Bob Cummings (Love That Bob)-Chuck Buys A Hot Rod 8:30 Climax! Savage Portrait 9:30 Playhouse 90-Made In Heaven with Imogene Coca and Robert Preston 11PM News-Warren Guthrie 11:10 Sports-John Fitzgerald 11:15 Weather-Ken Armstrong 11:20 Les Paul/Mary Ford 11:25 Movie-Parole Racket-1937
21 WFMJ NBC Youngstown
7AM Today 9AM Adelaide Snyder 10AM Ding Dong School 10:30 Price Is Right-Bill Cullen 11AM Home-Arlene Francis Noon Tic Tac Dough 12:30 It Could Be You 1PM Local News 1:15 Kitchen Corner-Mariner 1:45 Hal's A-Poppin-Hal Fryar 2:30 Tennessee Ernie 3PM Matinee Theater-COLOR "The Refugee" 4PM Queen For A Day 4:45 Modern Romances 5PM Funhouse Gang 6PM Popeye 7PM Dr. Christian 7:30 Dinah Shore 7:45 Huntley/Brinkley Report 8PM You Bet Your Life-Groucho Marx 8:30 Dragnet 9PM People's Choice-Jackie Cooper, Pat Breslin 9:30 Ford Show-Tennessee Ernie Ford-Guest Ken Murray 10PM Project 20-"The Jazz Age" with host Fred Allen (Lux Video Theatre is off tonight) 11PM News/Weather/Sports 11:20 Living Word 11:30 Steve Allen Tonight Show
27 WKBN CBS/ABC Youngstown
7AM Good Morning-Will Rogers Jr. with Norman Vincent Peale, Mitch Miller 8AM Captain Kangaroo 9AM To Be Announced-(Nothing listed-On occasion 27 would run Captain Kangaroo Twice-this may be the case here)
10AM Fashions-Esther Sonntag 10:15 Movie-Charlie Chan In Rio-1941 11:30 Strike It Rich-Warren Hull Noon Cartoon Carnival 12:30 Playhouse 1PM CBS News-Charles Colligwood 1:10 Stand Up-Women 1:30 Movie-Pearl Of Death-1944 2:45 Casteel's Carousel 3PM Big Payoff 3:30 Western Movie 4:45 Clancy's Clubhouse 5PM Mickey Mouse Club-ABC 6PM Annie Oakley 6:30 Sports/News 6:45 CBS News-Douglas Edwards 7PM Crunch and Des 7:30 Sergeant Preston 8PM Bob Cummings (Love That Bob)-Chuck Buys A Hot Rod 8:30 Climax! Savage Portrait 9:30 Playhouse 90-Made In Heaven with Imogene Coca and Robert Preston 11PM News-Warren Guthrie 11:10 Local News 11:15 Movie-Conflict Of Wings-1955
49 WAKR ABC Akron
1PM Movie-Johnny In The Clouds-1945 2:30 Chef Lorenzo 3PM Afternoon Film Festival-It Started In Paradise (English:1953) 4:30 Adventure 5PM Movie-Paradise Canyon-1935 6PM Local News 6:30 Dinner Spinner-Music 7PM News 7:15 ABC News-John Daly 7:30 Chef Lorenzo 8PM Movie-Four Days Leave-1950 (IMDB) 9:30 Movie-Guest Wife-1945 11PM Movie-Shadow On The Range-1946
Some movie dates courtesy IMDB Movie Database
1956 episode of the 15 minute NBC Dinah Shore Show.