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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Jack Kennelly has shared more clippings featuring Clellan Card as Axel. This article promoted Axel’s appearance at Crazy Day in Rosemount on August 18, 1961. “It will be a Crazy Day in Rosemount,” the article starts. “Axel will be in Rosemount with his usual attractions and entertainment Friday evening.” Other highlights of the day would […]
This is a pinback button promoting Foley Fun Days and Axel’s appearance at the annual summer celebration. Does anyone have any further information? Photo courtesy of Jack Kennelly
These postcards were apparently given out at a special Easter event at Dayton’s department store. I don’t have details, but two cards refer to “Bunny Breakfast” and the third mentions “Bunny Parties.” I believe that is Mary Davies dressed as Bunny, along with Allan Lotsberg as The Magician. Of course, Allan also played Willie Ketchem […]
And here is another classic Christmas bit, performed by Clellan Card as Axel. This is an audio recording of classic Christmas poem that Axel would read on the air every year. It also features Mary Davies as Carmen the Nurse. Unfortunately no actual video survives. This recording was sold for many years on a 45 […]
Here is a very rare home movie from 1964 of the Minneapolis Aquatennial Parade. At about the 6:30 mark there are a few seconds featuring WCCO’s Axel.