"Cowboy Joe Campbell Show"
Photos ©2004,
Estate of Joseph Pendleton
Campbell.
All rights reserved.
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Aired
on WNBW-TV 4.
Broadcast
Live from
Wardman Park Hotel studios.
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Weekdays
June
1954 - September 1954
15-minute
Broadcast
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(June 14 -
August 20, 1954)
9:45 - 10:00am, Weekdays |
(August 23
- Sept. 10, 1954)
2:45 -
3:00pm, Weekdays
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Host:
Joseph Pendleton Campbell
as “Cowboy
Joe”
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Joe
Campbell first polished his TV cowboy act at competing station WMAL-TV
7's Joe's Ranch in
1953. Then, Joe's personal manager Paul Menzer
thought it might
work
to Joe's advantage to take his act to Channel-4, so Joe obtained a
release from Channel-7 station manager
Charles
Kelly and got hired by the higher-rated NBC affiliate uptown. |
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The new "Cowboy Joe Campbell" show
debuted on the morning of
Monday, June 14, 1954 as a fifteen-minute-a-weekday
program. The presentation immediately preceded
the NBC network show "Ding Dong School"
with Miss Frances, which originated
from Chicago.
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In addition to hosting the
weekday program, each week Joe would be
preparing for his hosting duties on the hour-plus-long Saturday "Circle 4 Ranch"
which
featured full-length western filmed
adventures and time for more elaborate skits.. |
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Joe's
weekday program was actively promoted as "a series about the old west"
with "western songs and movies, too." Presumably the "movies" were
actually "short subjects" or "cliff-hanger serials" that once
graced the screen of the old neighborhood Bijou.
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As had been done the previous year by
competitor WMAL-TV,
Channel-4 would
promote Joe's shows (and Pepsi-Cola) with personal appearances by Joe
Campbell at Glen Echo in September of 1954. Two lucky kids would win a
pony of their own, (could both
ponies have possibly been named "Pepsi Joe"?),
and their parents would promptly face the harsh reality of raising a
horse in
an urban setting. |
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Although a new
school year was looming for otherwise carefree DC area kids on Friday,
September
3rd, 1954... they packed Glen Echo's Kiddieland Pavilion at both 4 and
9
pm to
witness the drawing of the lucky pony-winning tickets.
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Shortly after classes resumed for the
1954 to 1955 school year, Joe's 15-minute weekday show was replaced by
a program titled "DC Schools" (and later renamed "Channel-4 Learning").
Station management promptly assigned him to a second performance
on Sunday mornings of his hit Saturday "Circle 4 Ranch"
program.
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(©2004,
Estate of Joseph Pendleton Campbell. All rights reserved.)
Joe
Campbell passed-away on November 10, 2003 at age 79,
but
not before he was able to complete, and see, his auto-
biography,
"On The Edge of Greatness (But No Cigar)", in print.
The book
may be ordered through Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. |
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Photos
and articles ©2004, Estate of Joseph Pendleton Campbell. All
rights
reserved.
Data
provided courtesy of Sharen Campbell Dowdy with Mark and Phil Campbell.
Some
data provided by TV listings inThe Evening Star and The Washington Post.
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