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WITI-TV broadcast a kids’ show the first day it went on the air. Magician, Billy Bishop, who had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, Bandstand Review and other network shows, played "Billy Bounce". Billy appeared with his puppet friend, a rabbit named "Witi" (pronounced "Witty"), who lived in Billy’s hat. The few viewers with color televisions could see that Billy wore his trademark red jacket, as the show was broadcast using WITI-TV’s Du Mont Vitascan system. "Billy Bounce and Witi" ran at 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. The show featured cartoons on film, including "Little LuLu", George Pal’s "Puppetoons", and "Noveltoons" - all in color. WITI-TV ran the show from 21 May through 24 December 1956. Click here for more stills of "Billy Bounce", courtesy of Glenn Bishop. Click here for a retrospective look at Billy Bishop put together by his son Glenn.
Thereafter, WITI-TV began showing films at 4:00 p.m. on a program called "Hollywood Matinee". A new kids’ show made its debut on 26 December 1956. The show was called "Clubhouse Gang". Elden Anspach played a character named "Uncle Buck". Anspach was in charge of the floor crew, and according to TV Guide formerly did shows in Rockford, Illinois and Omaha, Nebraska. He had been the original program director for WTVW, and held that position until the sale to Hearst. "Clubhouse Gang" ran Monday through Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The M-F show switched to a 5:15 p.m. time slot as of 1 March 1957. The show ran through Saturday, 18 May 1957, when Anspach went to WFRV-TV in Green Bay.
WTVW/WISN-TV had run a franchised version of "Romper Room" since 1955. On Monday, 29 July 1957, the show and its teacher, “Miss Pat” (Oliver) moved to WITI-TV in its same time slot - 3:30-4:00 p.m. The following year, “Miss Barbara” (Woods) replaced Oliver, and the show’s time slot was shifted thirty minutes earlier on 3 March 1958. After the station affiliated with CBS, the show was shifted to 9:00 a.m. It stayed in that time slot through Friday, 29 July 1959, after which it returned to WISN-TV. In early 1959, WITI started another kids’ show. Named "Post Office Box 6", the show ran weekday afternoons from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., and featured various film shorts. Staff announcer Ward Chase (Wardwell Chase Rosenberg) played a character named "Mac the Mailman". The first show was on Monday, 19 January 1959; the last on Tuesday 31 March 1959.
Thereafter, WITI affiliated with CBS. Chase was shifted to a new show called (appropriately) "Mac the Mailman", Saturday mornings from 11:00 a.m. until noon. The first show was on 4 April 1959; the last on 12 September 1959. Chase then moved to the newly independent WXIX (channel 18). (After his television career, Ward Chase Rosenberg worked as a full-time instructor at Spencerian College and the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC). He taught English, communication skills and broadcasting. He also hosted music radio shows on WFMR (classical) and WISN (big band).)
Thereafter, WITI-TV acquired a package of Popeye cartoons and elected to show them on a show with a nautical theme. "Captain WITI" (again, pronounced "Witty") made its debut on Monday, 14 September 1959 and ran through Friday, 26 February 1960, at 5:30 p.m. The captain was played by Russ Widoe. Widoe was described by TV Guide as a "ventriloquist, teacher, musical expert, and experienced showman". The "Captain" was joined an assortment of puppets and his talking parrot "Griselda".
(Tim Hollis in his book Hi There Boys and Girls! points out that Widoe later went to WBAY in Green Bay to portray "Colonel Caboose" on a kids’ show with that name. He later helped to bring public television to northeastern Wisconsin. Widoe passed away in 1999 at the age of 84.)
The show was replaced by one called "Roy the Cabin Boy", which kept the nautical theme. Roy was played by Bob Munn. His two puppet sidekicks were a 50 year-old parrot and a 2000 year-old genie. Like its predecessor, the show ran at 5:30 p.m. This show ran from Monday, 29 February through Friday, 29 July 1960. It used a live studio audience made up of kids. Bob Wundrock was in the audience for the transition and passed along these memories: "Ron Yokes, engineer at WITI in the late ’50s/early ’60s, was also a scout leader in Grafton, where I lived at the time. He was able to get our Cub Scout pack into some late afternoon kids’ shows as the "peanut gallery". One time (probably in 1958 or ’59) we were to appear on the "Captain what’s-his name" (after over 40 years I can’t remember his name) show. Apparently the Captain had enough and he introduced the show as the first "Roy the Cabin Boy Show". And Roy took over." "While us cubs were sitting in the gallery prior to the show, a couple of us precocious nippers were ogling Barbara Becker who was the weather girl at the time. She was on the other side of the studio preparing her weather map. She caught me doing the "hourglass figure" motion with my hands, and came over to say hello to us. She sat down next to me and then put her arm around me. It embarrassed the living bejeepers out of me in front of my peers!" (Thanks to Hal Erickson for providing a couple of the ads and the details of the "Roy the Cabin Boy" show. The same to Bob Wundrock for his memories, to Fay Campion for supplying the names of the persons who played Uncle Buck and Captain WITI, and to Kathleen Retzlaff for relaying information about Ward Chase.) |
