September 5: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on September 5. Discuss or comment as you please……

1953: WAIM-TV (channel 40) goes on the air in Anderson, South Carolina. It was the 4th TV station in the state, and the first in the western part of the state. Through many changes in ownership, call letters, network affiliations, and technical facilities, the station has managed to survive and currently exists as WMYA-TV (a MyNetwork TV affiliate).

1967: The short-lived sitcom Good Morning, World premieres on CBS. Despite having the long-established and popular Red Skelton Show as a lead-in, the show is a ratings failure and would last only a single season. A then unknown, pre-Laugh-In Goldie Hawn was in the cast.

1982: Longtime KTLA (Los Angeles) announcer Dick Laine dies in Newport Beach, California, aged 83. For you non-Angelinos, he became an L.A. institution broadcasting wrestling and roller derby.

1983: The half-hour Robert MacNeil Report changes its name to the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, becoming the first American hour-long network news show.

1983: Tom Brokaw becomes the sole head anchor of the NBC Nightly News, ending a 17-month stint co-anchoring the broadcast with Roger Mudd.

1987: Dick Clark's American Bandstand airs for the 2,751st and last time on ABC, after 30 years on the network. It would live on in syndication for 2 more years.

1999: Candid Camera host Allen Funt dies in Pebble Beach, California, aged 84.

2001: The Amazing Race debuts on CBS.

2006: Katie Couric becomes the first solo female anchor of the CBS Evening News, replacing interim anchor Bob Schieffer.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. It’s an entirely random selection based on a quick Net search, and is not meant to be comprehensive. So, don’t post nasty messages about “you forgot THIS” or “how could you not mention THAT?” Do so, and I’ll just take my keyboard and go home…..)

 

[RicoGregg]

1982: Longtime KTLA (Los Angeles) announcer Dick Laine dies in Newport Beach, California, aged 83. For you non-Angelinos, he became an L.A. institution broadcasting wrestling and roller derby.

Dick Lane was truly a Southern California One-of-a-Kind. I was lucky enough to know him. Out of all the thousands of people I've met in my lifetime, there wasn't a nicer one than him. He was an actor who specialized in playing gangsters, including a Laurel & Hardy film, The Bullfighters. He also played lawyers, executives, and in at least two movies, a baseball manager. When the acting roles started to dissipate, he became a staff announcer at the brand new KTLA TV station, which was originally located at the Paramount Pictures lot. He became the host of several variety shows on Channel 5, including Mississippi Showboat, which featured a young, in-his-prime Scatman Crouthers, and a circus-themed show whose title escapes my memory. He was dressed as the ringmaster.

He was the sidekick announcer for the Spade Cooley Show, and I believe he will be portrayed in the upcoming biopic of Cooley, "Shame on You", which will star Randy Quaid.

In addition to announcing Roller Derby & Wrestling, he also announced auto racing from Ascot Park every Sunday for many years. He was a busy man.

Ironically, Dick Lane's main contribution to pop culture is a phrase that is generally credited to someone else. One night, he was broadcasting a roller derby match when a female skater whose first name was Nelly was whipped too hard out of the pack. She struggled to keep her balance. While her arms were flailing, and she was on one skate and about to fall, Lane exclaimed "Whoa, Nelly!" Lane wound up using the phrase the rest of his career, and Keith Jackson said that he "borrowed" the phrase from him. To Jackson's credit, he was always quick to credit Dick Lane publicly for the inspiration.

Other Dick Lane catchphrases included "Katie bar the door", "Oh, Doctor!", "Aw, Come on", & "Don't sell them short".

A year or two before he died, the Laurel & Hardy fan club, the Sons of the Desert, was organizing a banquet that would feature actors who had worked with L&H. One of the higher-ups in the group found out that I knew Dick Lane, and asked me to try to get him to come. I made a call, and Dick was nice as always, but wasn't interested. He had had enough of SoCal freeways, even as a rider, and was enjoying the good life in Newport Beach.

There'll never be another like him.

 

[Ultimajock]

Other Dick Lane catchphrases included "Katie bar the door"

...which was used by yet another wrestling hold-by-hold announcer for ages, Rodger Kent of Verne Gagne's AWA promotion in Minneapolis...

 

[LKellerIII]

Rico - you knew Dick Lane personally? You are now officially my hero. ;D

Don't suppose you knew the bizarre Bacon boys - from Les Bacon & Sons Ford - who sponsored the Saturday afternoon Demolition Derby on KTLA? I believe Lane hosted that as well

Early LA local TV was such a trip.

 

[RicoGregg]

Other Dick Lane catchphrases included "Katie bar the door"

...which was used by yet another wrestling hold-by-hold announcer for ages, Rodger Kent of Verne Gagne's AWA promotion in Minneapolis...

I'm not familiar with Mr. Kent, but I'm sure he was as good as you say. The wrestling in Southern California that Dick Lane announced was affiliated with the rival NWA, which was administered (and still is) from St. Louis. It's quite possible that a) either Mr. Kent or Mr. Lane picked it up from the other or b) it was a coincidence. Those things do happen. San Diego Padres announcer Jerry Coleman has also exclaimed "Oh, Doctor!" for many years. What inspired him to adopt the phrase is unknown to me, but it should be noted that prior to being hired by the Padres, Mr. Coleman was an announcer for the California Angels for 2 years in the early 70s - on KTLA, Lane's longtime station.

Several wrestling announcers over the years have credited Dick Lane not only for inspiration, but for advice and information. Dick was generous when it came to helping out new talent. Steve Allen, THAT Steve Allen, credited Lane with helping him when Allen, before he hit it big in television, scored a job announcing wrestling. Later on, when Allen had a syndicated talk show, he had Lane on as a guest.

I like to think that if Dick were with us today, and in his prime, that Vince McMahon wouldn't hesitate for a second to hire him. His present-day WWE main announcer, Jim Ross, who was inspired by the late, great Gordon Solie, is about the closest I've seen to Dick Lane. Both are excellent straight men, like Solie was.

 

[RicoGregg]

Rico - you knew Dick Lane personally? You are now officially my hero. ;D

Don't suppose you knew the bizarre Bacon boys - from Les Bacon & Sons Ford - who sponsored the Saturday afternoon Demolition Derby on KTLA? I believe Lane hosted that as well

Early LA local TV was such a trip.

Early LA local TV WAS a big trip! To tell younger people about it, especially if they're from out of the area, would be unbelievable to them. The threads we could make about it. Luckily, I have VHS tapes, yes, VHS, of both 50th anniversary specials of KTLA and KCOP. It always quiets the non-believers down.

I should have mentioned earlier that on the Spade Cooley Show, Lane was known as "Old Leather Britches." It'll probably come up in the upcoming movie.

I need to make one correction from the earlier post: The show with Scatman Crouthers was not called Mississippi Showboat, but Dixie Showboat. After all these years, I think I'm entitled to at least one memory slip-up.

I didn't know the Bacon boys, but they were delightfully strange. However, Madman Muntz, another strange L.A. original, seemed to get all the press when it came to strange.

Do you remember on the Sunday racing show the sponsorship of Frank Taylor Ford? No Sunday Selling.

Demolition Derby was also known at times as Jalopy Derby. I believe that Ascot Park promoter J.C. Agajanian, another L.A. original character, asked KTLA for a more dignified title than Jalopy Derby.

There is a Wikipedia listing for Dick Lane, as well as imdb.com. For more info on the great Dick Lane:

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Lane_(TV_announcer)

It also contains Lane's imdb.com listing. A quick click away.

 

[bpatrick]

I've heard a story about the origin of Gorgeous George,
and I wonder if Dick Lane was on hand when it happened:
George Wagner was a journeyman wrestler who had reached
midcard status as a hillbilly, but seemed to be stuck there.
However, he was so into the character that he wore his
hillbilly costume all the time, and I mean ALL the time. One
day his wife gave him some money and told him she was sick
of the hillbilly garb, to go buy himself a suit. He brought the
suit home, put it on, and she said, "You're GORGEOUS, George!"
That gave him an idea: he had his hair bleach-blonded and curled,
he began wearing ornate robes, hired a valet to spray the ring,
referee, and opponents, and generally took on the role of a sneering,
effeminate type. He went down to KTLA and went into his act,
completely straight. Everyone present was on the floor laughing,
but it established him as the first great wrestling superstar of the
television era. Wonder if Dick Lane was there that day?

Don't forget, too, that KTLA was the home of a couple of shows
you might have heard of: "Time For Beany," the puppet show which
was syndicated in the '50s and turned up in animated form on ABC
in the '60s as "Beany And Cecil"; and "The Lawrence Welk Show,"
which aired locally in Los Angeles from 1951 until ABC picked it up
in 1955 (strangely, KTTV carried Welk in syndication).

 

[LKellerIII]

Rico - you knew Dick Lane personally? You are now officially my hero. ;D Don't suppose you knew the bizarre Bacon boys - from Les Bacon & Sons Ford - who sponsored the Saturday afternoon Demolition Derby on KTLA? I believe Lane hosted that as well
Early LA local TV was such a trip.

Early LA local TV WAS a big trip! To tell younger people about it, especially if they're from out of the area, would be unbelievable to them. The threads we could make about it. Luckily, I have VHS tapes, yes, VHS, of both 50th anniversary specials of KTLA and KCOP. It always quiets the non-believers down.

I should have mentioned earlier that on the Spade Cooley Show, Lane was known as "Old Leather Britches." It'll probably come up in the upcoming movie.

I need to make one correction from the earlier post: The show with Scatman Crouthers was not called Mississippi Showboat, but Dixie Showboat. After all these years, I think I'm entitled to at least one memory slip-up.

I didn't know the Bacon boys, but they were delightfully strange. However, Madman Muntz, another strange L.A. original, seemed to get all the press when it came to strange.

Do you remember on the Sunday racing show the sponsorship of Frank Taylor Ford? No Sunday Selling.

Demolition Derby was also known at times as Jalopy Derby. I believe that Ascot Park promoter J.C. Agajanian, another L.A. original character, asked KTLA for a more dignified title than Jalopy Derby.

There is a Wikipedia listing for Dick Lane, as well as imdb.com. For more info on the great Dick Lane:

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Lane_(TV_announcer)

It also contains Lane's imdb.com listing. A quick click away.

There should probably be a "Classic LA" TV Board, so we don't bore everybody else.

I do remember Frank Taylor and his weird halting speech. The car dealers were a trip - many of them never should have been on TV. There was Ralph Williams with his speech impediment...he couldn't even say his own name right. It came out "Ralph Wullyuns." There was old Fletcher Jones whose head shook as he talked (some kind of nervous tic or something). Fletcher himself must be long gone, but his name is still attached to many car dealerships throughout the western U.S., so I guess it became a very successful family business.

There are numerous stories of the mishaps that happened in the 50s when many of the car commercials were still done live...like the racist remark Bob Yeakel supposedly made on camera.

Then there were the right-wing newscasters and commentators like Dan Smoot; Dr. Harold Fishman (way before he was the beloved grandfatherly anchor "Hal"); and the totally over-the-top George Putnam. When there would be some big local or national news story about communism or hippie protesters, I loved tuning in old George on KTLA to watch him froth at the mouth in his "One Reporter's Opinion" segments.

Early local LA TV was very unique...but rarely boring.

 

[RicoGregg]

There should probably be a "Classic LA" TV Board, so we don't bore everybody else.

I do remember Frank Taylor and his weird halting speech. The car dealers were a trip - many of them never should have been on TV. There was Ralph Williams with his speech impediment...he couldn't even say his own name right. It came out "Ralph Wullyuns." There was old Fletcher Jones whose head shook as he talked (some kind of nervous tic or something). Fletcher himself must be long gone, but his name is still attached to many car dealerships throughout the western U.S., so I guess it became a very successful family business.

There are numerous stories of the mishaps that happened in the 50s when many of the car commercials were still done live...like the racist remark Bob Yeakel supposedly made on camera.

Then there were the right-wing newscasters and commentators like Dan Smoot; Dr. Harold Fishman (way before he was the beloved grandfatherly anchor "Hal"); and the totally over-the-top George Putnam. When there would be some big local or national news story about communism or hippie protesters, I loved tuning in old George on KTLA to watch him froth at the mouth in his "One Reporter's Opinion" segments.

Early local LA TV was very unique...but rarely boring.

Fletcher Jones, Sr. has passed on, but Fletch Jr. continues the family tradition.

Chick Lambert, spokesman for Ralph Williams Ford, is generally "credited" as the first TV auto spokesman to have a dog with him on camera. Not true. Fletcher Jones Sr. usually had his beloved Beagle with him long before Lambert brought Storm with him.

I know that the Yaekel (not sure of either spelling) Bros. got into some kind of trouble, but I wasn't sure for what. Didn't one or both go to prison?

I miss the live commercials. You never knew what was going to happen. They were almost never boring. More entertaining than many of the shows they sponsored.

Would you believe that Dan Smoot, long departed from these shores, has an active web site? I forget the URL, otherwise I'd list it. All the episodes of The Dan Smoot Report are archived. The man still has disciples. I almost hate to think what he would have done with the Internet. Matt Drudge has nothing on Dan Smoot.

Slightly off-topic, but there were plenty of right wing wack jobs on Mexican radio in the 60s, especially on Tijuana's XEMO, whose signal was deliberately aimed at Los Angeles. Dr. Curtis Springer, who sounded virtually exactly like W.C. Fields; Dr. Carl McIntire, a ranting maniac who got into trouble with both the FCC and the IRS; A conservative-oriented show whose title I can't remember that was sponsored by H. L. Hunt; and Richard Cotton's Conservative Viewpoint, a half hour commentary whose host ended each show with the following:

Remember, freedom is not free, free men are not equal, and equal men are not free.

I think that George Orwell would have had fun listening to XEMO.

 

[Tim L]

There should probably be a "Classic LA" TV Board, so we don't bore everybody else.


Early local LA TV was very unique...but rarely boring.
[/quote]




Not boring me one bit. I love hearing about Classic TV from all over. I imagine I might bore people by occasionally sticking a Cleveland reference in a thread. I like hearing about the creativity and style (or lack thereif) of Local TV wherever it may be from..

 

[RicoGregg]

I've heard a story about the origin of Gorgeous George,
and I wonder if Dick Lane was on hand when it happened:
George Wagner was a journeyman wrestler who had reached
midcard status as a hillbilly, but seemed to be stuck there.
However, he was so into the character that he wore his
hillbilly costume all the time, and I mean ALL the time. One
day his wife gave him some money and told him she was sick
of the hillbilly garb, to go buy himself a suit. He brought the
suit home, put it on, and she said, "You're GORGEOUS, George!"
That gave him an idea: he had his hair bleach-blonded and curled,
he began wearing ornate robes, hired a valet to spray the ring,
referee, and opponents, and generally took on the role of a sneering,
effeminate type. He went down to KTLA and went into his act,
completely straight. Everyone present was on the floor laughing,
but it established him as the first great wrestling superstar of the
television era. Wonder if Dick Lane was there that day?

Don't forget, too, that KTLA was the home of a couple of shows
you might have heard of: "Time For Beany," the puppet show which
was syndicated in the '50s and turned up in animated form on ABC
in the '60s as "Beany And Cecil"; and "The Lawrence Welk Show,"
which aired locally in Los Angeles from 1951 until ABC picked it up
in 1955 (strangely, KTTV carried Welk in syndication).

The Beany & Cecil of KTLA and the animated version of them are almost two different animals. The cartoon version had "safe" humor obviously aimed at a children's audience, while on the live puppet show, voices Stan Freberg & Daws Butler usually wound up disregarding the script and ad-libbed their way through the show. As a result, "Time For Beany" had many adult fans, including a visiting lecturer in residence at Cal Tech, a fellow named Albert Einstein, who was a big fan of the show.

The Lawrence Welk Show on KTLA was also very different than the one the national network & syndicated audience saw. Welk was a huge draw at the Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica, and if I remember right, his KTLA show wound up being televised live from there. Instead of the, I don't know what the right term would be, safe? Conservative? Sappy(?) show that was on nationally, this show was more laid back, and very loose and off the wall. People had fun with it, and the Welk Orchestra was actually considered "hip" at the time. Then, ABC approached with a contract, and you know what happened from there. A one and a two....

As for the origins of Georgeous George, a man so many in wrestling should thank for inspiring their own careers, Wikipedia can explain it much better than I could:

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wagner

 

[Ultimajock]

Other Dick Lane catchphrases included "Katie bar the door"

...which was used by yet another wrestling hold-by-hold announcer for ages, Rodger Kent of Verne Gagne's AWA promotion in Minneapolis...

I'm not familiar with Mr. Kent

...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzusRc9fWgY is a nice little overview of his work on WTCN-TV/11 Minneapolis in the '60s, '70s and '80s. He doesn't use the phrase there...

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1975: In Sacramento, CA, Manson family follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempts to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford.

KXTV-10 (then-CBS) coverage of the assassination attempt has been found on YouTube (in 3 parts, includes original commercials):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIf88xZAjwg&feature=PlayList&p=7822D9FF2D1CCD2B&index=1 (Part 1 of 3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lriz6Yl636A&feature=related (Part 2 of 3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LWcTA88j-E&feature=related (Part 3 of 3)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1932: Actress Carol Lawrence is born (as Carolina Maria Laraia) in Melrose Park, IL. Her resume includes TV appearances on shows like "Hawaii Five-O," "Rawhide," and "Sex in the City."

 

[LKellerIII]

1932: Actress Carol Lawrence is born (as Carolina Maria Laraia) in Melrose Park, IL. Her resume includes TV appearances on shows like "Hawaii Five-O," "Rawhide," and "Sex in the City."

...Carol Lawrence was also famous for those syrupy and often mocked commercials for General Foods' International Coffees in the 1970s..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riR18N-vXi0

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

2005: The "Big Switch" in central Illinois: After 52 years (since sign-on) as an ABC affiliate, WAND-17 Decatur swaps affiliations with then-NBC affiliates, Sinclair-owned WICS-20 Springfield/WICD-15 Champaign.

 

[Prais]

Caarole Lawrence,, married/divorced from Robert Goulet.

 

[Ultimajock]

KTLA was the home of a couple of shows
you might have heard of: "Time For Beany," the puppet show which
was syndicated in the '50s and turned up in animated form on ABC
in the '60s as "Beany And Cecil"; and "The Lawrence Welk Show,"
which aired locally in Los Angeles from 1951 until ABC picked it up
in 1955 (strangely, KTTV carried Welk in syndication).

The Beany & Cecil of KTLA and the animated version of them are almost two different animals. The cartoon version had "safe" humor obviously aimed at a children's audience, while on the live puppet show, voices Stan Freberg & Daws Butler usually wound up disregarding the script and ad-libbed their way through the show. As a result, "Time For Beany" had many adult fans, including a visiting lecturer in residence at Cal Tech, a fellow named Albert Einstein, who was a big fan of the show.

The Lawrence Welk Show on KTLA was also very different than the one the national network & syndicated audience saw. Welk was a huge draw at the Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica, and if I remember right, his KTLA show wound up being televised live from there. Instead of the, I don't know what the right term would be, safe? Conservative? Sappy(?) show that was on nationally, this show was more laid back, and very loose and off the wall. People had fun with it, and the Welk Orchestra was actually considered "hip" at the time. Then, ABC approached with a contract, and you know what happened from there. A one and a two....

...KTLA/5 was also the home of one Spade Cooley, whose career as a Western Swing bandleader was hotter-than-hot in the early 1950s, as http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ffaY432A7Hg/SxOU2zJUPnI/AAAAAAAAAM4/sXoHoN3F94A/s1600/SPADE+TV+AD.jpg and http://www.metnews.com/articles/spadecooley.gif show. Tragically, he let his drinking and belligerence get so out of hand that KTLA fired him in 1957 and his subsequent KTTV/11 15-minute weekday strip at 5:30 P.M. lasted only a few months in '57-'58. Cooley's fortunes continued to slide until, in April 1961, he brutally murdered his wife by, in part, stomping her ribs in; bitterly ironic is the fact that two of Cooley's biggest hit records had been titled "Shame on You" and "Oklahoma Stomp"...

 

[Corky Marlowe]

..KTLA/5 was also the home of one Spade Cooley, whose career as a Western Swing bandleader was hotter-than-hot in the early 1950s, as http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ffaY432A7Hg/SxOU2zJUPnI/AAAAAAAAAM4/sXoHoN3F94A/s1600/SPADE+TV+AD.jpg and http://www.metnews.com/articles/spadecooley.gif show. Tragically, he let his drinking and belligerence get so out of hand that KTLA fired him in 1957 and his subsequent KTTV/11 15-minute weekday strip at 5:30 P.M. lasted only a few months in '57-'58. Cooley's fortunes continued to slide until, in April 1961, he brutally murdered his wife by, in part, stomping her ribs in; bitterly ironic is the fact that two of Cooley's biggest hit records had been titled "Shame on You" and "Oklahoma Stomp"...

There are a couple mentions in this thread of a planned Spade Cooley movie starring Dennis Quaid. The posts are a couple years old...Did anything ever become of the movie?

 

[Ultimajock]

There are a couple mentions in this thread of a planned Spade Cooley movie starring Dennis Quaid. The posts are a couple years old...Did anything ever become of the movie?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436765/