"Cindy
Lou"
(Source:
Lee Reynolds' Private Collection)
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Aired
on WTTG-TV 5,
Afternoons/Evenings,
Various Airtimes
From
February 1955 to September 1956;
"Gene
Autry Time
With
Gal Foreman Cindy Lou"
| Mondays
Through Fridays,
4:00
to 5:00PM (2/28-December 1955)
|
Sundays,
6:30
to 7:00PM (7/31/55 to 9/25/55)
7:30
to 8:00PM (October 1955) |
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"Cindy
Lou's Melody Ranch"
Mondays
Through Fridays,
6:30
to 7:00PM (January 1956 to 9/28/56) |
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Cindy
Lou
|
Host:
Cindy
Dahl as "Cindy Lou"
Broadcast
live from the WTTG-TV studios in
the
Raleigh Hotel at 12th St. & Pennsylvania Ave., N.W..
-
|
Before
his "Grandpa's Place"
program premiered, Lee Reynolds
directed
"Miss Cindy Lou's Melody Ranch", (as well as "Milt Grant's Record Hop",
and "The Billy Johnson
Show" on Channel 5.
Mr.
Reynolds also hosted "Cap'n
Tugg" from 1958 to 1966.)
|
Cindy
Lou featured Gene Autry films (competing for young
viewership
with Pick Temple's Giant
Ranch on WTOP-TV 9).
Gene
Autry was known for his "Melody Ranch"; hence the
source
of the program title: "Cindy Lou's Melody Ranch".
The show
was displaced in October 1956 by the return of BillyJohnson
(who had appeared on Channel-9 from 1953 to '55.)
.
|
This
photo appeared as "Backlight", page 4 of "The Washington Post Magazine",
6/10/01, (under the heading, "Planet Washington");
CLICK
IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW
"A
group of teenage Republicans in a downtown hotel. A baby pachyderm and
her
costumed
trainer in from Ohio. A TV personality in cowgirl attire, known
simply
as Cindy Lou. Whoever said the ‘50s didn’t swing? This crowd was
brought
together on the eve of President Eisenhower’s second inauguration,
with
the elephant’s mother in town to march in the parade. The baby’s legs were
deemed
too short for her to join the march, but she ended up with a gig of her
own.
The teenagers, from an Arlington group known as the Baby Elephants of
Amenca,
were at The Willard to anoint the 300-pounder their official mascot.
Before
the party was over, Vice President Nixon would stop by to witness
a brief
melee as Little Miss Burma drained a guest’s glass and went
eagerly
looking for more, sending guests scurrying for cover.
It was
1957, and the elephants were in charge."
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Sources:
Top photo courtesy of Lee Reynolds. Lower Photo from "Backlight", p.4,
"The Washington Post Magazine", 6/10/01, (under the heading, "Planet
Washington"), as spotted by Jack Maier. Gene Autry Photo from the Library
of American Broadcasting
web site. Facts on Lee Reynolds from "Whatever Happened To Those Kiddie
Show Hosts?" by Trisha Katson, 1977, George Mason U. Phoebe Magazine, (Courtesy;
John Ahmad & Jack Maier).
Airtimes
from TV listings in the Star and Washington Post.
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