If you watched Lunch with Casey at noon, you knew that Mel Jass’s Mattinee Movie would follow at 1. Mel would introduce whatever movie was coming up, and more importantly, he would promote local businesses, such as 10,000 Auto Parts, or Uncle John’s Pancake House. I vividly recall watching some movies that are burned into […]
I’ve been posting a lot of material about Axel over the last few months. I never saw Axel when I was a kid as I was only 3 when he passed away. The first time I had ever head of Axel was when I saw this TV special on WCCO, Channel 4 back in the […]
February 1953 Clellan rejoins WCCO Radio, and he soon begins as the host of Pop the Question, Card’s Corral, and Spinner Sanctum. This time around, however, he only hosts Spinner Sanctum on Saturday nights. 4 April 1953 Clellan begins as the announcer of the Whoopee John Polka Party on WCCO Radio every Saturday night from […]
I am always looking for bits and pieces of Twin Cities television history. This pinback button popped up on ebay recently and I snagged it. Of course, we know Willie Ketchem was the sidekick for Clancy the Cop throughout the 1960s and well into the 1970’s. Willie Ketchem was portrayed by Allan Lotsberg on the […]
1 April 1939 – Clellan hosts the “Second Annual Doughnut Dunking Jamboree” on Almanac of the Air. 2,000 people attend the radio show at 7:00 a.m. in the ballroom of the Nicollet Hotel. 13 May 1939 – The musical variety program Saturday Open House premieres on WCCO Radio from 9:15 to 10:00 a.m., with Clellan […]
Julian West put together this timeline chronicling Clellan Card’s life back in the early days of the internet. Part 1 covers Clellan Card’s school days as a football player through his early years in broadcasting and the birth of Axel 29 May 1901 – Dr. William H. Card, a dentist, and Ina Covey are married.24 […]
An almost complete episode of The Grandpa Ken Show has been posted on YouTube on the TCMediaNow channel! The program features artwork by Grandpa Ken, a musical recording with artwork by Ken, a Vidcraft Wizard of Oz cartoon, price giveaways, and appearances by Ken’s puppets. This may be the only existing episode of the program […]
Axel launched on August 5, 1954 on WCCO. The photo above is from this very first show. On August 4, the following blurb appeared in the Minneapolis paper. Here is one of the earliest ads to mention the show, from August 12, 1954. And he was soon joined by Mary Davies as Carmen the Nurse […]
In December 1971, Kent Zoya and his brother appeared on The Happy Hour on WTCN-11. Kent’s mother had her camera and snapped these photos. Kent remembers: “My brother and I were in the group of kids. I remember the lights were very hot. Each of us kids got a gift bag (you can see them […]
Jack Kennelly brings us another archive ad. This shows the WCCO kids show line up in 1958. This comes from the Rochester Post Bulletin newspaper on Feb 4, 1958. At this time, WCCO was dominating afternoons with Axel and his Dog at 5PM, followed by Popeye’s Clubhouse with Dale Woodley at 5:30. But the afternoon […]
