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 June 1903 – Clellan Covey Card is born, the only child of Ina and William Card.
June 1906 – William, Ina, and Clellan Card move to 2640 Humboldt Avenue South, Minneapolis (near Lake of the Isles) where they live for many years.
July 1906 – The Card family takes a trip to California, visiting Ocean Beach, Catalina, and Hollywood.
circa 1908 – Clellan begins attending Douglas grade school in Minneapolis.
5 May 1916 Clellan plays the lead in the play Master Will of Stratford, heading an all-star cast of students from the grade schools of the West district, presented at West High School.
Spring 1917 – Clellan graduates from Douglas grade school in Minneapolis.
Autumn 1917 – Spring 1918 – Clellan attends West High School in Minneapolis.
September 1918 – Clellan enters Blake High School in Hopkins as a Sophomore. Clellan tries out for the Blake football team and makes the first team squad.
8 October 1918 – Blake High School is closed indefinitely due to the worldwide influenza epidemic. It reopens on November 18, 1918.
February 1919 – Clellan is elected Secretary of the Sophomore class in the mid-year elections at Blake.
27 September 1919 – Clellan, now a Junior, plays in Blake’s first football game of the year, against the Blake alumni. Blake loses 0-27.
October 1919 At Blake, Clellan is elected the President of the Junior class and a Junior member of the Fall Senior Council. He also becomes the Assistant Advertising Manager of The Callopan, the school yearbook.
4 October 1919 – Clellan is injured in the first quarter of a football game against River Falls and is out for the rest of the game. Blake loses 0-25.
10 October 1919 – Clellan plays in the football game against the West Seconds. Blake loses the third straight game, 7-18.
18 October 1919 – Clellan scores all three touchdowns against Wayzata, including one on his very first play of the game. Blake wins 18-0.
24 October 1919 – Clellan is Blake’s most consistent ground gainer to little avail in a game against Johnson High; Blake loses 0-6.
31 October 1919 – Despite an injury, Clellan plays a strong game of football against St Paul Academy. Blake wins 6-0.
December 1919 – Clellan is awarded a school letter for his performance on the Blake football team.
January 1920 – Clellan is chosen Vice-President of the Junior class in the mid-year elections at Blake.
10 April 1920 – Clellan appears as “The Friend” in the play “Fame and the Poet” at Blake School. His performance is called “excellent.”
Autumn 1920 – Spring 1921 – Clellan is a Junior at Blake for the second year in a row; this was not uncommon at the notoriously tough Blake School.
6 – 16 September 1920 – Clellan attends Football Camp with eleven teammates at Blake Camp on Lake Hubert, Minnesota (about 150 miles north of Minneapolis).
30 September 1920 – At Blake, Clellan is elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Junior class. At about this time, he also is made the Art and Photo Editor of the 1921 Callopan.
12 October 1920 – Clellan plays in the football game against the West Seconds. Blake wins 28-0.
15 October 1920 – Clellan plays in the football game against Hopkins. Blake wins 8-0.
22? October 1920 – Clellan plays in the football game against St. Thomas High. Blake wins 14-7.
29? October 1920 – Clellan plays in the football game against Wayzata. Blake crushes them 70-0.
5 November 1920 – Clellan plays in the football game against U High. Blake wins 28-0.
12 November 1920 – Clellan plays in the final football game of the season, against Saint Paul Academy. Blake wins 8-0. Clellan scores the only touchdown and his playing was later called “unexcelled.” In the first undefeated season in the school’s history, Blake scored a total of 216 points against their opponents’ combined total of 7.
November 1920 – Clellan is elected captain of the Blake High School football team for the 1921 season. – Captain-elect Clellan speaks on next season’s football prospects at the Annual Football Banquet at Blake School.
January 1921 – Clellan’s verse “Among the Rosebuds and Cactus” is printed in the January issue of the school paper, The Blake Torch.
9 April 1921 – Clellan plays a Northern Soldier in the play “The Clod” at Blake.
May 1921 – “The Change,” an essay by Clellan, is printed in The Blake Torch.
June 1921 – Clellan is on the committee in charge of the Junior-Senior Dance.
Summer 1921 – Clellan works on two ranches in Montana, spending his time “cowpunching, raking, and staking hay, and cussing.”
circa September 1921 – Clellan is elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Senior class, and appointed the Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook The Callopan.
4 October 1921 – Clellan, now the team captain, leads the Blake football team to victory against Wayzata. Blake wins 33-0.
13 October 1921 – Clellan leads the Blake football team to victory against the North High seconds. Blake wins 26-0.
21 October 1921 – The Blake football team plays the Blake alumni.
28 October 1921 – The Blake team is defeated by St. Thomas. Blake loses 0-19.
3 November 1921 – Clellan leads the Blake football team to victory against U High. Blake wins 19-0.
11 November 1921 – The Blake football team battles St. Paul Academy to a 0-0 tie. Afterwards, the players attend the Football Dance.
12 November 1921 – The football team is feted at a dinner at the Athletic Club.
29 November 1921 – The Athletic Association throws a banquet for the Blake football team.
January 1922 – The Blake Senior-Junior Party is held, after which Clellan’s car collides with a taxicab. He wakes up in Hillcrest Hospital, badly bruised but otherwise fine.
April 1922 – By this time it is apparent that, due to poor grades, Clellan will not be able to graduate at the end of this school year.
8 April 1922 – Clellan appears as Mr.Jack Jones, a Strategist, in the play “Bills” at Blake. This time, a reviewer criticizes his performance.
1 May 1922 – The Fifth Form Dance is held at Blake School, with music furnished by Chad’s Orchestra. Clellan goes stag.
Spring 1922 – Clellan flunks out of Blake School.
Autumn 1922 – Spring 1923 – Clellan attends West High School in Minneapolis.
circa Autumn 1922 – Clellan meets Marion Satterlee, his future wife.
20 November? 1922 – Clellan performs in the play “The Loving Cup” at West High School.
14 June 1923 – Clellan graduates from West High School, ten days before his 20th birthday.
17 September 1923 – Clellan arrives at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
15 October 1923 – Clellan loses the election for captain of the Rutgers freshman football team in an 8-7 vote.
6-8 December 1923 – Clellan is initiated into the Zeta Psi fraternity at Rutgers.
8 February 1924 – Clellan is the toastmaster of Rutgers’ Freshman Banquet.
14 March 1924? – Clellan takes part in his first radio broadcast, as a member of the Rutgers Glee Club, from the Waldorf Astoria in New York on station WEAF.
Summer 1924 – Clellan attends a few classes at the University of Minnesota. Clellan is given a Ford automobile by his father.
Friday, 20 March 1925 – Clellan takes part in a radio broadcast as a member of the Rutgers Glee Club at 8:15 p.m., from the Waldorf Astoria in New York on station WEAF.
30 January 1926 – Clellan officially withdraws from Rutgers University “…to enter the School of Business at the University of Minnesota.” (But he never enrolls.)
circa February 1926 – Autumn? 1928 – Clellan lives at 2640 Humboldt Avenue South in Minneapolis with his parents.
circa January? 1926 – October? 1926 – Clellan works as an insurance salesman for the White & Odell Agency of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company at West 15th Street and Oak Grove, Minneapolis.
circa October? 1926 – Autumn? 1927 – Clellan works as a service station attendant and salesman for the Standard Oil Company.
circa Autumn? 1927 – Autumn? 1928 – Clellan works as a bond salesman for the First Minneapolis Trust Company at 115 South 5th Street in Minneapolis.
10 October 1928 – Clellan Card and Marion Satterlee are married.
Autumn? 1928 – Summer? 1929 – Cellan and Marion reside at 2728 Humboldt Avenue South for a time, and in Meadville in Lake Minnetonka.
Autumn? 1928 – Autumn? 1929 – Clellan works as a bond salesman for George M. Forman & Company at 612 2nd Avenue South in Minneapolis (until the firm goes out of business?).
10 July 1929 – Clellan and Marion’s first son, Clellan Peter Card, is born.
Summer? 1929 – Summer? 1930 – Clellan, Marion, & Peter live at 434 Franklin Avenue West in Minneapolis.
Autumn? 1929 – Summer? 1930 – Clellan works as a bond salesman for Mann Securities Company in suite 620 of the Rand Tower, 527 Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis.
Summer? 1930 – Spring? 1931 – Clellan, Marion, & Peter live at 2647 Irving Avenue South in Minneapolis.
Summer? 1930 – Clellan’s first professional radio work: a bit part as Izaak Walton on WCCO radio, for which he is paid $4.50.
Summer? 1930 – Spring? 1931 – Clellan works as a bond salesman for G. E. Barrett & Company in suite 830 of the Rand Tower, Minneapolis (until the firm goes out of business?).
circa Summer? 1931? – Clellan works as a door-to-door salesman.
Spring? 1931 – Clellan, Marion, & Peter are forced by financial necessity to move into Clellan’s parents’ home at 2640 Humboldt Avenue South.
1930 – 1931 – Clellan works occasionally at WCCO Radio.
1931? – Clellan is the announcer for Whoopee John performances at the German House (later the American House).
Autumn? 1931 – Autumn? 1933 – Clellan works as announcer, and eventually as station manager, at WDGY Radio.
circa Summer?? 1933? – Clellan participates in the first Twin Cities telecast, an experimental broadcast by Dr. George Young, owner of radio station WDGY. A picture of Clellan and Minneapolis mayor Willian F. Kunze shaking hands is transmitted to a receiver at the Minneapolis court house.
Autumn? 1933 – Summer? 1934 – Clellan works as an advertising man at the McCord Company, an ad agency in 1630 Rand Tower in Minneapolis.
24 March 1934 – Clellan and Marion’s second son, John Brooke Card, is born.
Summer? 1934 – Clellan returns to WCCO Radio and begins working as an early morning announcer.
Autumn? 1934 – September 1939 – Clellan and his family live at 1922 Emerson Avenue South in Minneapolis.
Friday, 27 December 1935 – Clellan gets his first (?) notice in the paper: one line in a list of “Town Superlatives” in the “Off a Reporter’s Cuff” column of the Minneapolis Journal which says, “Worst Job: Clelland Card’s (He has to be funny at 6:30 a.m. on WCCO’s time signal program).”
13 January 1936 – 20 April 1936 – Clellan is the announcer on the WCCO radio show The Hormel Chili Beaners.
Monday, 21 September 1936 – Clellan begins as the host of the morning program (7:00 – 7:15 a.m.) Almanac of the Air on WCCO Radio, sponsored by Northrup, King & Co. “Pop Goes the Weasel” is its theme song. During the first few months, an old codger dubbed “Pop” is his main character. The program runs for almost eight years.
3 February 1937 – Clellan begins providing comedy relief on the afternoon program Ladies First, which also features Toby Prin playing swing tunes.
Thursday, 18 February 1937 – Clellan’s “Swedish” character Axel is introduced to the WCCO radio audience by announcer Max Karl on the morning program Axel the Newscaster — almost certainly the very first public appearance of Axel. During this early period, Axel’s last name is Swenson. The fifteen-minute show (probably a spoof of the news) is sponsored by Red Owl Stores and airs four times a week.
1 April 1937 – Clellan becomes the master-of-ceremonies of the new program Meet the Missus, originating from Miller’s Cafeteria each weekday afternoon. The show features Clellan’s interviews with Minneapolis women.
Friday, 28 May 1937 – The final Axel the Newscaster show (as well as the final Meet the Missus show) are broadcast, but Clellan continues to use the Axel character on Almanac of the Air.
24 December 1937 – Clellan hosts the “First Annual Christmas Serenade” on Almanac of the Air. There is no evidence that he performed his parody of “The Night Before Christmas” on this occasion.
circa February 1938 – Clellan begins as the host of Sportsmen’s Special, a sports and music variety show, and In the Bag, a quiz show.
1 April 1938 – The WCCO Radio studio is jammed with 523 people at 7 a.m. as Clellan hosts the “First Annual Doughnut Dunking Jamboree” on Almanac of the Air.
Thursday, 7 April 1938 – The new WCCO Radio studios at Second Avenue South and Seventh Street are opened with huge fanfare. (The studios are still there to this day.)
16 April 1938 – Clellan and Morgan Sexton begin announcing Minneapolis Millers baseball games.
Sunday, 17 April 1938 – At 4:30 p.m., Clellan hosts the first show broadcast live from the new WCCO Radio studios, the quiz show In the Bag.
25 April 1938 – Clellan and Morgan Sexton begin hosting a sports show called The Extra Inning (soon retitled Baseball Resume).
May 1938 – The first poster advertising Clellan Card and Almanac of the Air is printed.
circa Autumn 1938 – Surveys show that Clellan is WCCO Radio’s most popular personality.
23 December 1938 – Clellan hosts the “Second Annual Christmas Serenade” on Almanac of the Air. The program is recorded onto a transcription disc, and a printed transcript of Clellan’s Swedish parody of “The Night Before Christmas” is later published. This is the earliest certain date for Clellan’s performance of his parody.