"Claire
& Co Co"
(Courtesy:
Chris Athey)
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Aired
on WMAL-TV 7,
Mornings,
at various times
From
August 1965 to October 1969:
(8/30/65
to 9/16/66):
8:00
to 9:00AM Monday-Friday |
(9/9/67
to 12/22/67):
7:30
to 8:30AM Monday-Friday
9:00
to 9:30AM Saturday |
(9/17/66
to 4/7/67):
8:00
to 9:00AM Monday-Friday
9:00
to 10:00AM Saturday |
(12/25/67
to 7/13/68):
8:00
to 9:00AM Monday-Friday
9:00
to 9:30AM Saturday |
(4/10/67
to 9/2/67):
7:30
to 8:30AM Monday-Friday
9:00
to 10:00AM Saturday |
(7/15/68
to 10/12/69):
8:00
to 9:00AM Monday-Friday |
Special
Programming:
On Friday
November 25, 1966, (the day after Thanksgiving),
Channel
7 aired the 1959 movie "A Gift for Heidi" ...
hosted
by Claire and Co Co.
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-
The
Sunday Star TV Magazine, 3/9/69
(Courtesy:
Jack Maier)
Hostess:
Claire
Kleess as "Claire" with
"Co
Co" (short for "Coquette"),
her
pet white poodle since 1958.
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| Broadcast
live from WMAL-TV studios on
Connecticut Avenue at Van Ness; featuring plentiful pre-filmed
segments;
(some seg- ments with guests were filmed on-location).
The print
listings for the black and white show initially stated "Filmed portions
in color." But, beginning January 2, 1967, the entire show
was broadcast
"In Natural Color".
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Hostess
Claire Kleess
(formerly
a teacher
at Potomac's
Primary
Day
School) held a
degree
in literature
from
Cornell University.
A mother
of three,
by the
late 1960s,
she
was known
as "Claire
Lyons".
(Ad
Courtesy:John
Bevilacqua)
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TV
Guide Magazine, Week of July 9, 1966
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WMAL-TV
7 Promo Supplement from the Sunday Star, 9/12/1965
(Courtesy:
Jack Maier)
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JRB
wrote:
"Claire
and Co Co's cartoons included the Revolutionary War charac- ter Hector
Heathcoat with a pet dog (or maybe a pet turkey) along on his many
adventures. " |
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Hear
a 1 Minute Promo For "Clare & Co Co" by Bill Trumbull
(With
a Johnny Batchelder Station ID) at Kidshow
Klips!
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The
Sunday Star TV Magazine,, 9/11/1966
Courtesy:
Jack Maier
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Milt
Wishard, who worked at Channel 7
from
1950 to 1993, recalls: "I
was a cameraman on this show and Charles Gibson, (today an ABC
anchorman and 'Good Morning America' host), was the floor director.
Co Co
was a big standard poodle and when she dumped on the studio floor,
Charlie
had to do the cleanup honors. That's called working in the trenches."
Tom Gauger
adds: "...whenever Claire had a
touch of something and couldn’t come in to do the show, John
Lyon (of WMAL Radio) sat in. ... Since
John played banjo and sang, he was a great enter- tainer and perfect for
the show."
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Trisha
Katson's 1977 article "Whatever Happened To Those Kiddie Show Hosts?"
tells
how
"C &
CC" featured songs, crafts, learning numbers, kid exercise, geography
and
phonics.
.
Endorsed
by DC area schools, the show won many awards, such as a 1966
Metropolitan
Area Media Award (MAMA) by the
American Association of University Women (AAUW) and
a 1967 Ohio State University
award for con-
tributions
to educational TV.
(Photo
Courtesy: Jack Maier)
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.The
Sunday Star TV Magazine, August 1965
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The
Sunday Star TV Magazine, 10/31/65
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The
show was famous for making fascinating filmed "field trips";
most
often to a DC area location.
For
instance, the program would
visit
the children at a different
foreign
embassy every Tuesday;
(an
idea credited to WMAL-TV
director
Charlie Stopak).
.
Longer
trips took C & CC skin-diving
in the
Bahamas; helicoptering past
the
Statue of Liberty; shark fishing
in Florida;
lobster fishing in a kazoo boat; king cobra milking; and touring
Montreal
Canada's Expo '67.
(Photo
Courtesy: Jack Maier)
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| Kathy
Kurke adds "I
played Winnie the Pooh in a pantomime on Claire & Co Co around
1965.
I took community acting class in about 5th grade, and a few of us were
invited to perform a holiday show. I can't remember if it was
Thanksgiving
or Christmas, but I believe it was the latter since the pantomime was
called
'Pooh discovers the North Pole.' It was great fun, but I was
very
disappointed with Co Co. The dog was unfriendly, powdered,
and had
red or black painted toenails, although it did not really matter since
our TVs were in black and white." |
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One
filmed feature starred Samuel G. Athey, Jr. as "Sam the Safety Man"
with
his shinyTrailways bus.
Sam gave
various safe driver and passenger tips to the kids at home and
demonstrated
the many steps in learning to drive a full-sized bus.
Mr. Athey
passed away in 1984.
(Info
Courtesy: Carolyn, Dave and Chris Athey)
(Ad
Courtesy: Jack Maier)
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The
Sunday Star TV Magazine
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The
Sunday Star TV Magazine, April, 1967
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By
1968, the show had a daily
audience
of 34,900 kids (from age
2 to
11), plus an estimated 4,300 teenagers, 1,300 men and 4,100 women,
according
to an article
published
in The Evening Star.
(Ad
Courtesy: Jack Maier)
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"My
brother and I had
the privilege of singing on the Claire & Co Co show with our
church's children's choirs (First Baptist Church of the City of
Washington, D.C.) in the show's early days. I believe it was
sometime
around Easter.
My Dad took pictures on the set and we still
have them
somewhere."
Jane
(Maplesden) Applewhite
Burtonsville, MD
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"Back in the late 1960s,
my father, Robert Krauss was Claire's hairdresser. We
watched her show every morning all the way to the credits, to see 'Hair
by Mr. Robert of Saks Fifth Ave'.
I was nine years old, so she invited me to be in the Cherry Blossom
parade and ride on the float with she and Co Co. I remember
that it was very cold, but being on the float in front of a very large
TV set was very exciting!! I waved my white gloved hand until
I was frozen.
My family and I went to the Ice Capades with her. We children
felt so special sitting with such a 'famous' lady. She was
always so nice. I am glad to have known her."
Raschael Krauss McGuire
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Jack
Maier reports: "For a while after the 'Claire and Co Co' show ended,
Claire
hosted adult interview shows on WMAL-TV 7, Weekdays from 10:30 -
11:00am.
The first version was called 'Now! Women', and was co-hosted by
Gwen
Dillard. In June of 1970, the show title was changed to 'Claire'."
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According
to a spokesperson, Claire Kleess Lyons, 80, died suddenly on Tuesday,
3/28/2006, at a hospital near her home in Florida
from a clot in her heart.
Claire
Kleess Lyons, Loving mother
to Alix Foran, Eric Kleess and Guy Kleess, passed away on March 28,
2006. Claire Kleess Lyons was best known as the star of the pioneering
children’s educational television show “Claire and
Coco”. “Claire and Coco” aired in the
Washington DC
area from 1965 to 1969.
“Claire
and Coco” combined
educational lessons in phonetics, colors, shapes, music, and basic
mathematics. It also featured Claire with her poodle, Coco. The
highlight of the show had Claire with Coco taking field trips to local
embassies to see how children of different cultures lived, and to
important cultural and historical sites. Claire’s field trips
with Coco went as far as to an animal preserve in the Venezuelan
Jungle, shark fishing in Key West, the 1967 World’s Fair in
Montreal Canada, visiting The Trapp Family in Vermont and SCUBA Diving
in the Bahamas. The show won many prestigious television and
educational awards.
After
“Claire and Coco”,
Claire hosted the TV interview shows “Claire” and
“Now! Women”.
Claire graduated
from Cornell
University, entering college at the age of 16. She married her first
husband, geologist and Marine Corps Officer, George Kleess in Cairo,
Egypt in 1947. Before starring in “Claire and
Coco”, Claire
taught at the Primary Day School in Potomac, Maryland.
She is survived by
her three children
and her grandchildren, Katherine, Lauren, John, Jessica, Annabel, and
John.
A Funeral Mass was
held Wednesday
4/5/2006 at 10:00 AM at St. Michael’s Catholic
Church, 505
Broome Street, Fernandina Beach, Florida with Father Eburn
officiating. There was a reception held following the service at 12:30
PM at the Senior Center of Osprey Village, Amelia Island, Florida. In
lieu of flowers, the family request that contributions be made to the
Humane Society, http://www.hsus.org/.
(Oxley-Heard Funeral Directors, Inc.) (The death notice appears here
courtesy of Pat Murphy.)
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Sources:
"Whatever Happened To Those Kiddie Show Hosts?" by Trisha Katson, 1977,
George Mason Univ. Phoebe Magazine, (courtesy: John Ahmad &
Jack Maier).
An Evening Star article "TV's Claire Films Her Travels", (date
unknown).
Messages by "John" on 3/14/00 and by "Alan" on 3/16/00 in the DCRTV
Mailbag.
Email from Milt Wishard, JRB, Kathy Kurke, Carolyn M. Dooley, and Dave
Athey. Image and data from Chris Athey.
Images
and data from Sunday Star TV Magazines, courtesy Jack Maier. TV Guide
ad
by John Bevilacqua.
Thanks to Pat Murphy for
obtaining the death notice for Claire.
Airtimes
confirmed from TV listings in the Evening Star and Washington Post.
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Do
you remember?
Any Other
Cast Characters
Who
Played Those Characters
Name of
Cartoons/Shorts Featured
Name of
Show's Theme Song
Any Other
Details/Corrections
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Email
Us
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Kaptain
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Saluting
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Produced
In Washington, DC
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