Retro: Indianapolis, Tues. May 16, 1961

[Gregg.]

Indianapolis on Tuesday, May 16, 1961 from TV Guide

4 WTTV Independent (A rare VHF independent station in this early era of TV development. Interesting that the station had a line up of TV
shows in the evening without relying on movies. I guess by 1961 there were enough recent network shows on film. However, the station
doesn't sign on till noon.)

Noon Lunchtime Theater
12:30 Ding Dong School. Dr. Frances Horwich has a lesson on rice, barley and noodles. (Wasn't this an NBC show? Maybe she syndicated it after leaving NBC? My parents told me I watched it as a kid but I was too young to remember.)
1pm Movie--Drama. "Back to Bataan" (1945) John Wayne
2:30 Classroom '60's--Indiana University
3pm Movie--Western. "The Lawless Clan" (1938) Kirby Grant
4pm Chatter 'n' Bugs--Children (Looks like a local kiddie show.)
4:30 Popeye--Cartoon (90 min. of Popeye?)
6pm Ruffles' Party--Children (Another local kiddie show?)
6:30 Ramar of The Jungle--Jon Hall. Criminals try to trick Ramar into revealing the site of a mineral deposit.
7pm Navy Log--Drama. A pilot has engine problems on a flight from Hawaii.
7:30 Bold Journey--Travel. A look at the Colorados and Hebdos, two Indian tribes.
8pm Mike Hammer--Mystery. Mike gets a mysterious letter which leads him into a murder trap. Darren McGavin
8:30 Official Detective. A sniper terrorizes the residents of a mid-western city. Howard Dayton
9pm New York Confidential. A fish merchant planning to expand his business meets opposition from mobsters. Lee Tracy
9:30 Harbor Command. Alan and Janet Hurley murder their wealthy uncle and report his disappearance. Wendell Corey
10pm Navy Log (Repeat of 7pm show)
10:30 Frank Edwards (Nightly 45 min. local variety show)
11:15 Tightrope! An undercover agent wants to expose a gambling syndicate. Michael Connors, James Westerfield
11:45 Official Detective (Repeat of 8:30 show)
----------------

6 WFRM-TV (NBC)

6am Continental Classroom (Color) Chemistry
6:30 Continental Classroom (Color) Probability and Statistics
7am Dave Garroway. John Daly talks to C.P. Snow, author of "Science and Government." (Notice they don't call it "Today." I suppose Daly
is subbing for Garroway.)
9am Three Stooges. "Goofs and Saddles."
9:30 Jack LaLanne--Health
10am Highway Patrol. Rival gambling czars try to eliminate each other. Broderick Crawford (WFRM skips the NBC show "Say When"
here.)
10:30 Play Your Hunch--Merv Griffin (Color) Which child told the best joke?
11am Price Is Right (Color)
11:30 Concentration
Noon Truth or Consequences
12:30 It Could Be You--Bill Leyden (Color)
1pm News, Farm Report--Harry Martin
1:10 Greatest Headlines. "League of Nations Dissolved."
1:15 Movie--Comedy. "Two Señoritas from Chicago." Joan Davis (WFRM skips the NBC show "Jan Murray" here.)
2:30 Loretta Young. Dan O'Herlihy and Vanessa Brown in "Incident in Kawi."
3pm Young Doctor Malone
3:30 From These Roots
4pm Make Room for Daddy. Rusty wants decides to grow up and get a job. Danny Thomas
4:30 Here's Hollywood. Carolyn Jones and husband Aaron Spelling discuss their marriage.
5pm Movie--Mystery. "The Scar" (1948) Paul Henreid
6:30 Trackside--Indianapolis (Is this a 15 min. weeknight show about auto racing, since this is Indianapolis?)
6:45 NBC News--Huntley, Brinkley
7pm News, Weather
7:25 Greatest Headlines. "League of Nations Dissolved."
7:30 Laramie--Western. Jess is shot and beaten when bandits hold up the stagecoach he's on. Robert Fuller
8:30 Alfred Hitchcock. Young Susan Harper craves attention and comes up with a story about a masked man attacking her.
9pm Thriller. A concert pianist pays a late night visit to a mausoleum containing the remains of a rival. Boris Karloff hosts.
10pm Emmy Awards--Special. Dick Powell in Hollywood and Joey Bishop in New York are the hosts.
11:30 News, Weather, Sports (Usually seen at 11pm but delayed due to the Emmy Awards.)
12am Jack Paar (Color) (Usually seen at 11:30)
1:30 Night Court (Usually seen at 1am)
----------

8 WISH-TV (CBS)

7:45 Cartoons
8am CBS News--Richard C. Hottelet
8:10 Weather
8:15 Captain Kangaroo. Films of our 50th state, Hawaii.
9am My Little Margie--Comedy
9:30 Debbie Drake--Exercise
9:45 Gateway to Glamour
10am I Love Lucy. Lucy tests Ricky by putting on a black wig and acting like a temptress. Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz
10:30 Video Village--Monte Hall.
11am Double Exposure
11:30 Your Surprise Package--George Fennerman
Noon Love of Life (First of seven CBS soap operas each weekday)
12:30 Search for Tomorrow
12:45 Guiding Light
1pm News, Weather
1:15 Farm & Home
1:30 As The World Turns
2pm Face The Facts
2:30 Art Linkletter's House Party
3pm Millionaire. Bill and Claire Franklin go on a vacation in an attempt to recapture the joy of their youth. Kent Smith
3:30 The Verdict Is Yours
4pm Brighter Day
4:15 Secret Storm
4:30 Edge of Night
5pm Movie--Adventure. "Tarzan's Magic Fountain" (1948) Les Barker
6:30 News, Weather
6:45 CBS News--Douglas Edwards
7pm Assignment: Underwater. The yacht of a dignitary anchors in Pelican Bay. Bill Williams, Diane Mountford
7:30 Jim Backus--Comedy. Jim is refused an interview with a famous actess. Nita Talbot
8pm Father Knows Best. Kathy and her classmates are assigned to write biographies of their dads. Robert Young, Jane Wyatt.
8:30 Dobie Gillis. Private Gillis wants to date a girl who only goes out with officers. Dwayne Hickman, Bob Denver. (I don't remember
episodes where Dobie is in the service. I wonder if they only distributed reruns of him as a high school kid?)
9pm Tom Ewell--Comedy. Everyone had different ideas about a vacation, so Tom suggests a travel agent decide. Marilyn Erskine
9:30 Red Skelton. Freddie and Muggsy try to stow away on an ocean liner. Guest: Sebastian Cabot.
10pm Garry Moore--Variety. Ancient Rome is revisited with Alan King as Ben-Hur and Carol Burnett as Princess Flavia.
11pm News, Weather
11:15 Movie--Drama. "The End of The Affair" (1955) Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson
------------

13 WLWI (ABC) (Sister station to WLW-TV Cincinnati, along with stations in Columbus and Dayton)

8:15 Five Minutes to Live by
8:20 News, Weather
8:30 Bengal Lancers--Adventure
9am Kindergarten College (A one hour local kiddie show.)
10am Camouflage--Don Morrow
10:30 About Faces--Ben Alexander
11am Gale Storm. Susanna comes to the aid of a young man with no romance. Guest: Chuck Connors
11:30 Love That Bob! Bob tries to find an assistant for Schultzy while avoiding a client's obese niece. Bob Cummings.
Noon Ruth Lyons--Variety. (I believe this was a WLW show also seen on the other WLW co-owned stations.)
1:30 Number Please--Bud Collyer
2pm Day in Court. A woman sues over a stolen mink coat. Edgar Allan Jones, Jr. presides.
2:30 Seven Keys--Jack Narz
3pm Queen for A Day--Jack Bailey
3:30 Who Do You Trust?
4pm American Bandstand--Dick Clark. Guest Gene McDaniels
5:30 Rin Tin Tin--Adventure
6pm News, Weather, Sports (Looks like WLWI doesn't carry ABC Evening News)
6:30 Huckleberry Hound
7pm Expedition! An Aboriginal tribe in Australia have not changed their living habits since the Stone Age.
7:30 Bugs Bunny--Cartoon (Yes, Bugs was in prime time on ABC.)
8pm Rifleman. Wang Chi has come to North Fork to start a laundry business. But some in the town don't like it. Chuck Connors
8:30 Close-Up--Documentary. "Kenya--Land of the Black Ghost"
9pm Stagecoach West. Della Bell's former suitor threatens to kill her and her new husband. Wayne Rogers
10pm Alcoa Presents. A quiet professor, teaching for the summer in South America, becomes involved in revolutionary politics. Larry Gates
10:30 Miami Undercover. Jeff uses a gangster's girlfriend to lure him to a trap. Lee Bowman
11pm News, Weather, Sports
11:20 Today at The Track (Color) (Another 15 min. local show about car racing.)
11:35 Movie--Comedy. "Third Finger, Left Hand" (1940) Myrna Loy

 

[Ccook55]

Ding Dong School did run on NBC up until the end of 1956. It's a good bet it was syndicated. Not surprised about a 90-minute block of Popeye cartoons...KCOP in Los Angeles had a 90-minute block of Felix the Cat cartoons (mixed in with other cartoons--not sure which since it's been over 50 years since I saw it).

 

[KeithE4]

A few fading recollections from an old geezer that was close to his 6th birthday on the date indicated. I lived in Bloomington IN at the time.

Channel 4
Ruffles' Party was a local kids show, sponsored by Chesty potato chips, who owned the Ruffles brand name at the time. Ruffles the Clown was similar to Bozo in that each market had its own Ruffles, but it was strictly a midwestern and southern franchise, IIRC, not national.

Somewhere on the schedule, WTTV sportscaster Chuck Marlowe was involved in a kids show at the time. Could that have been Chatter 'n Bugs? I really don't remember that show.

The Popeye show, IIRC, was an hour, not 90 minutes. In 1961 it starred Happy Herb (Herb Isaacs), and if you sent your picture in to the station, he'd put it on his wall. I forget what came on at 5:30, but I was probably eating dinner then anyway.

The WTTV-produced kids shows also aired on then-sister station WFAM-TV 18 Lafayette and, beginning in 1962, flea-powered independent WTAF-TV 31 in Marion, which was not owned by Sarkes Tarzian.

Ding Dong School was a rerun from the 1950s. In my house, we were required to watch it, because my grandmother was a kindergarten teacher in Gary, and knew Frances Horwich professionally.

Indiana University programs were among the few shows still being produced in Bloomington. The station had moved most of its operations to Indy in the mid '50s, while it was still an NBC affiliate.

Channel 6
Channel 6 was WFBM-TV, not WFRM.

The Three Stooges show was either hosted by Hoosier Hank (Hank Beidenger) or Harlow Hickenlooper (Hal Fryar) on this date. IIRC, this was about when the changeover occurred.

I didn't remember the daily Indy 500 show being on any station other than Channel 13.

Channel 8
WISH-TV didn't run a whole lot of programming other than local news and CBS network fare in those days. They did have Selwin on Saturday nights, a horror host that was popular, but not anywhere near as much as the later Sammy Terry on WTTV.

Channel 13
WLW-I was a sister station to the Crosley/ABCO stations in Ohio, but all of them were NBC. Channel 13 became the first home of David Letterman by the end of the decade.

KIndergarten College was a very well done educational show aimed at pre-schoolers (obviously). It remained on Channel 13 until the market got PBS and Sesame Street became popular. WLWI also aired Sesame Street during its first season.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

What other channels were in that Indiana edition of TVG at that time? (e.g., Lafayette & Terre Haute stations, maybe even WCIA-3 Champaign, IL)?

 

[KeithE4]

What other channels were in that Indiana edition of TVG at that time? (e.g., Lafayette & Terre Haute stations, maybe even WCIA-3 Champaign, IL)?

In 1961, the "Indiana Edition" included the following:

Bloomington/Indianapolis: WTTV 4 (Ind.), WFBM-TV 6 (NBC), WISH-TV 8 (CBS), and WLW-I 13 (ABC)
Ft. Wayne: WANE-TV 15 (CBS), WPTA 21 (ABC), and WKJG-TV 33 (NBC)
Lafayette: WFAM-TV 18 (CBS)
Muncie: WLBC-TV 49 (NBC, ABC)
Terre Haute: WTHI-TV 10 (CBS, ABC, NBC)
Champaign: WCIA-TV 3 (CBS)

Although they were within the market area, WCHU 33 (NBC) Champaign and satellite WICD 24 Danville (both semi-satellites of WICS 20 Springfield) were not listed. Both were flea-powered stations that barely covered their respective cities of license, and had little to no coverage into Indiana. They would be shut down in 1967 and replaced by WICD 15 Champaign with a much larger transmitter and antenna.

A good reference on Indianapolis TV in the early '60s is here: http://www.historiccolumbusindiana.org/whatwewatched/whatwewatched.asp

 

[Ccook55]

Crosley also owned WLW-A in Atlanta (channel 11) which then was ABC. Today it's NBC's WXIA (owned Tegna).

 

[KeithE4]

The Crosley / AVCO WLW-A Atlanta mention brings into play that 1961 was a time of uncertainty for WLW-I Indianapolis. Long standing legal wrangling had resulted in a 1961 FCC decision that ownership of WLW-I should transfer to Fairbanks Broadcasting, owner of Indpls radio station WIBC. Crosley appealed and a year later finalized a deal with Fairbanks to swap ownership of WLW-I and WLW-A.

Yes, the ownership flap was settled in 1962. But WLW-I was still the red-headed stepchild of the Crosley group, and would remain a 3rd-rate operation (by their own admission!) until the station was sold to Dispatch in the late '70s and became WTHR.

WLW-I's signal was so bad that ABC's converage of JFK's assassination also aired on WTTV, the previous ABC affiliate, in order for the network to be seen on the south side of the market. Channel 13 was all but unviewable in Bloomington and Columbus much of the time. IIRC, WTTV maintained a secondary affiliation with ABC after they lost the primary affiliation in '57, but I don't recall them airing any ABC programming other than this.

Other questions and tidbits.

WFBM: Wasn't Larry Vincent as "Captain Starr" also a one time host of Three Stooges on WFBM? Or was "Starr" just a sidekick, much the same as cowboy singer Curley Myers? Also noticed that WFBM was not yet airing "Today in Indiana" prior to NBC's Today Show. "Today in Indiana" was hosted by farm director Harry Martin and targetted a rural audience with farm news, Gospel quartet singing (including Martin's own group), and "Quacky" the duck -- a real life duck from Martin's New Palestine farm that obnoxiously quacked along from a small pen near Martin's anchor desk.

Captain Starr may have preceded Hoosier Hank, so he would have been before my time.

WISH: Debbie Drake was a produced from the WISH Riddick Building studios. For a time, WISH was home to Cowboy Clyde who did wrap-arounds to cartoons for the kids. Gene Alisson did local wrap-arounds to the afternoon movie. And a local Pastor, Russ Blowers hosted "The Chapel Door." WISH expanded it's local programming by the early 70s, including a Saturday morning kid show called "Clowning Around" and a 9 am weekday local talk show hosted by one time ABC news Capitol Hill reporter Wally Bruner. Bruner also hosted a syndicated home repair show based at WISH called "Wally's Workshop." Bruner was replaced on the morning talker by Janet Langhart. Langhart eventually moved to Boston television and is married to one time Defense Secretary William Cohen.

I remember the Debbie Drake show, but I didn't know that it was produced at Channel 8. I thought it was syndicated from NY or LA. Cowboy Clyde doesn't ring a bell -- was he already gone by '61? I remember Wally Bruner later in the '60s, but I was too young to watch him at this time.

WTTV: Didn't Chuck Marlowe play the Ruffles the Clown character? The 60s were a great time for local kids programming at WTTV. Names like Happy Herb, Janie, Cowboy Bob. Arguably the best was a ventriloquist named John B and his dummy Clem who hosted Lunchtime Theater.

Upon further review, Marlowe was Ruffles the Clown's sidekick. He also played Kedso the Clown on another show, sponsored by Keds sneakers. All this between gigs announcing wrestling and IU & Purdue basketball. Herb Isaacs also called basketball games for a time.

Independent stations had to improvise and their personnel had to do double- and triple-duty in the '50s and '60s. Not just (then) small-market KPHO Phoenix or mid-market WTTV, but even "behemoth" WGN-TV Chicago. WGN's Jack Brickhouse did news and political reporting as well as sports, and Ray Rayner handled several kids shows on the same day, plus weather. Chuck Marlowe was that multi-talented guy at WTTV.

 

[KeithE4]

Indianapolis on Tuesday, May 16, 1961 from TV Guide

Oh, BTW, are those listings in "fast time" or "slow time?"

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

In 1961, the "Indiana Edition" included the following:

Bloomington/Indianapolis: WTTV 4 (Ind.), WFBM-TV 6 (NBC), WISH-TV 8 (CBS), and WLW-I 13 (ABC)
Ft. Wayne: WANE-TV 15 (CBS), WPTA 21 (ABC), and WKJG-TV 33 (NBC)
Lafayette: WFAM-TV 18 (CBS)
Muncie: WLBC-TV 49 (NBC, ABC)
Terre Haute: WTHI-TV 10 (CBS, ABC, NBC)
Champaign: WCIA-TV 3 (CBS)

Although they were within the market area, WCHU 33 (NBC) Champaign and satellite WICD 24 Danville (both semi-satellites of WICS 20 Springfield) were not listed. Both were flea-powered stations that barely covered their respective cities of license, and had little to no coverage into Indiana. They would be shut down in 1967 and replaced by WICD 15 Champaign with a much larger transmitter and antenna.

A good reference on Indianapolis TV in the early '60s is here: http://www.historiccolumbusindiana.org/whatwewatched/whatwewatched.asp

Some parts of far western Indiana (maybe even in the Terre Haute area) might have also been able to receive ETV/NET (now PBS) outlet WILL-12 Urbana, IL--which signed on in 1955 but is not listed in this Indiana TVG edition.

And not too long after this edition was published, WCIA would face a third threat in its then 7 1/2-year history to its VHF channel 3 position, in favor of de-intermixing the Champaign side of the Springfield/Decatur/Champaign market into all-UHF on both sides, with the exception of the forementioned WILL (which was also considered for a channel move from 12 to 3 if WCIA was forced to UHF). If this had occurred, most likely the Champaign/Danville and Springfield/Decatur sides of the market might have been split into two now +100 markets a la Peoria/Bloomington [which in those moves lost a channel 8 allocation to the Quad Cities, which was the eventual WQAD-8 Moline; similar action forced channel 2's allocation out of Springfield and into both St. Louis (KTVI) and Terre Haute (WTWO)].

Great article from a GREAT Central Illinois TV history page created by a WICD-Champaign weatherman (Doug Quick) concerning the first 10 years of WCIA's history and all the threats the station faced to its channel 3 position in its early years:

http://www.dougquick.com/wciachampaign2.html

 

[Gregg.]

I'm confused about the listings for Channel 3 Champaign and Channel 10 Terre Haute, in this TV Guide. I always thought that stations in the Central Time Zone ran almost all their shows at the same time as Eastern Time Zone stations, except for something like the "Today Show" which runs at 7am local time, regardless of time zone. In this TV Guide, 3 and 10 do the opposite. They ran the first two shows of the day (CBS News with Richard C. Hottelet and Captain Kangaroo) at the same time as the other CBS affiliates. But the rest of the schedule, they both were an hour ahead, for daytime and prime time shows.

So as soon as Captain Kangaroo is over, they go right to "I Love Lucy." The other CBS stations get an hour to run whatever they want, local or syndicated, before the daytime CBS schedule takes over. 3 and 10 do their late news at 10pm E.T. while everyone else in this TV Guide do their late news at 11pm. So I'm confused. If Champaign and Terre Haute are in the Central Time Zone, why are these local stations in effect TWO hours ahead of where they should be? If they are doing their late news at 10pm Eastern Time, that must mean they are doing their late news at 9pm Central Time.

Unless TV Guide is correcting for the time zone difference? They figured readers in Illinois and far Western Indiana, where Terre Haute is, want their listings in their local time? So they show 3 and 10 programs in local time, even though anyone with a good antenna pulling in stations from the Eastern Time Zone will be all confused? Maybe 3 and 10 ARE running most daytime and evening shows at the same time as the Eastern Time Zone stations?

By the way, 10 WTHI is listed as being a CBS, ABC and NBC affiliate, although a quick glance doesn't show anything other than CBS programs.

 

[KeithE4]

As for "Fast Time" and "Slow Time," the Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Muncie and Lafayette stations all seem to be on Eastern Time, but Channel 3 Champaign and 10 Terre Haute ran a lot of their shows an hour ahead of the other CBS affiliates in this TV Guide, so I assume they were both in the Central Time Zone.

But I always thought that stations in the Central Time Zone ran almost all their shows at the same time as Eastern Time Zone stations, except for something like the "Today Show." In this TV Guide, 3 and 10 ran the first two shows of the day (CBS News with Richard C. Hottelet and "Captain Kangaroo") at the same time as the other CBS affiliates. But the rest of the schedule, they were both an hour ahead, for both daytime and prime time shows. So as soon as Captain Kangaroo is over, they go right to "I Love Lucy." The other CBS stations get an hour to run whatever they want before the daytime CBS schedule takes over.

Indianapolis stations ran their network fare on a one-hour tape delay in the summer to keep them on the Eastern schedule, even though they were on Central Daylight Time during the summer, as was the rest of the state other than the Cincinnati and Louisville suburbs.

But in the early '60s, some counties in Indiana used Eastern time and some used Central. Also, some used DST and some did not. One notable case was Santa Claus IN, where one half of the town observed DST and the other half didn't. It was all very confusing, so TV Guide listed "slow time" in parentheses.

Things settled down after 1967, with only a few county adjustments either way. All of Indiana save for "The Region," Evansville, Cincinnati, and Louisville areas did not observe DST. NW and SW Indiana were on Central time with DST, and suburban Cincinnati and Louisville were on Eastern time with DST. IIRC it was only about 10 years ago when all of Indiana started observing DST.

After 1968, the real meaning of "slow time" was discovered: It was found that people in the counties that observed "slow time" took an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes.

By the way, 10 is listed as being a CBS, ABC and NBC affiliate, although a quick glance doesn't show anything other than CBS programs.

Before 1973, when Terre Haute got its first full-time ABC affiliate on Channel 38, that network was fill-in on WTHI-TV 10, and later was split between it and WTWO 2 when it went on the air in 1965. WTHI only rarely aired NBC shows, and IIRC didn't join that network untill WTTV lost the NBC affiliation in 1956.

WTTV, with its transmitter in Cloverdale, about halfway between Indy and TH, from 1954-57, was the de facto NBC affilliate for Terre Haute. I don't have any schedules handy, but I'm guessing that WTHI dropped ABC during the 1956-57 season and aired more NBC shows while WTTV was the ABC affiliate.

WTTV moved to Trafalgar right about the time they lost ABC to WLW-I in October 1957. They were still incapable of covering the northern "money" end of the market from Trafalgar, and that's why they bought WWKI Channel 29 Kokomo in the '80s and made it their satellite. If they weren't a two-channel operation, I doubt if CBS would have affiliated with them.