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 […]
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 […]
The popularity of local kids TV hosts was enhanced by their personal appearances around the Twin Cities and throughout Minnesota. This clipping from December 1970 promotes appearances by Clancy, Willie, and Carman from WCCO, Grandpa Ken and Romper Room’s Miss Karen from KMSP, and Casey and Roundhouse from WTCN. Thanks to Jack Kennelly for his […]
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 are some wonderful clips posted by the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting. I believe these date to 1974 or 75. Bob Keeshan, known to kids everywhere as Captain Kangaroo, was in the Twin Cities, probably on a promotional tour. He spent some time at the CBS affiliate, WCCO and filmed some promos for the morning […]
It was hard to grow up in Minnesota and not know Carmen the Nurse. As Carmen, Mary Davies was costar to Clellan Card’s Axel from 1954 until Card passed away in 1966. After that, Mary Davies hosted her own program, Carmen’s Cottage which was paired up with Clancy and Willie on weekday mornings until 1977. […]