"Ranger
Hal"
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Harold
Shaw In His Street Clothes
1960s
Photo From His WTOP Bio
(Donated
by Tom Buckley, WUSA-TV)
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Some
facts obtained from DCRTV's "Nostalgia & History" pages.
View
the "Ranger Hal Tribute" at Dave Hughes' DCRTV.com web site.
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As
Tom
Fielding explains, Hal Shaw continued to make personal
appearances
for many years after his show left the airwaves:
"Between
1974 and 1980, I was head projectionist at Greenbelt's
Beltway
Plaza theater. We ran kiddie matinees on weekends...
and
there was one snowy Super Bowl Sunday show I'll not forget."
"Two
weeks before the show, theater posters announced a live on-stage performance
featuring an odd assortment of characters including
Pink
Panther, Bugs Bunny, Deputy Dawg, Speed Racer,
Hot
Shoppe Jr. icon Pappy Parker, plus a surprise guest star."
"Nobody
in the theater knew who the guest star would be."
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"Ranger
Hal and Eager Beaver will share in the
'Magic
of Milling' tomorrow." 1980s photo
by Kathryn
Brown of the Journal Papers.
(Donated
by Jack Maier)
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"I
arrived early on the day of the show so the technical crew could teach
me
to operate
a small spotlight. I was shown how to turn it on and off...
and
then I was told, 'When Ranger Hal comes on... '."
"In disbelief,
I cut-off the tech in mid-phrase.. 'RANGER HAL?'.
He replied,
'Er... yes, Ranger Hal... when he... '."
"Again
I cut him off, 'Ranger Hal is gonna be here?'
'Yes...
Ranger Hal is the star of the show. When he comes out on stage, all you
have to do is follow him with the spotlight. Try to keep him centered in
the light.'"
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 ,
1960s
photo From His WTOP Bio
(Donated
by Tom Buckley, WUSA-TV)
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"As
the tech went to check the sound system, I was thinking that Ranger Hal
had
been off the air for a good six or seven years. Kids in the audience
would
probably not even know who he was."
"A half
hour or so before the show was to start, with a knock on the projection
booth door, I found a snow-dusted Ranger Hal in full uniform, holding a
small portable TV. He was a little grayer than the last time I saw him
on television,
but it was the same Ranger Hal that I grew up watching."
"'Hello...
I was wondering if there was some place I could plug in my TV?
I really
don't want to miss the game.'"
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"I
set up a spot for him to watch the Super Bowl in my booth, and we chatted
while
he adjusted his set. He sat in our big beat-up booth recliner and
tuned
in to the game, as the theater below got packed with a full house of kids."
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"The
show started with a reel of Warner Bros. cartoons. After 20 minutes of
animated goofiness, Hal went on stage, and the audience went wild! If the
kids didn't know him, parents and older siblings sure did. I really couldn't
follow the show. I was concentrating on keeping the spotlight on Ranger
Hal. (That, plus the fact that the sound system was not hooked into the
theater speakers,
so the
sound was not piped into the booth.)"
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"The
show went well, as Hal interacted with the costumed characters, and there
was much laughter from the audience. When the show ended and Hal returned
to watch the game, the rest of the cast had heard about Hal's TV. Soon
the booth was loaded with cartoon characters... taking off their heads
to enjoy the game. Speed Racer lit a cigarette, as the Pink Panther laughingly
chided Pappy Parker for not bringing his famous fried chicken. All I could
think was how surreal it all seemed."
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"After
a half-hour of rest, it was time for the next show.
I
ran the projector, and when the last cartoon was winding down,
the
characters put their heads back on, and Hal readied himself."
"Again
it was a full house. Again the show went well. Afterwards, Ranger Hal
came
back up and thanked me for the use of my booth. I told him it was
my pleasure,
and how much it meant to me to be able to meet him."
"I followed
him downstairs, opened the door for him, and watched as he
drove
off across the snowy parking lot, and thought that
it was
the best Super Bowl Sunday I ever had."
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Gerald
Owens wrote the following in the DCRTV
Mailbag of 2/8/02:
.
"I was
fortunate enough to interview Ranger Hal back in 1998 (one of his last,
if not
THE last interview he ever gave) as part of Channel 9's 50th anniversary
celebration.
It was as if I'd gone back in time. When we got to his house, there
he was
sitting on his couch, advanced in age and illness, in the original Ranger
Hal
uniform. And it still fit! He was surrounded by Oswald Rabbit and the rest
of his
famous sidekicks. Though many of them had weathered over the years.
I'm
41 now, and admit that I rarely watched the show, and hardly remember it.
But
it didn't matter. During the hour or so we spent with him, the vitality
and
charisma
he showed made it abundantly clear why he was such a big hit. Here
he was,
dealing with a painful and unmerciful disease like cancer, yet his
famous
smile never left his face the entire time we were there. He was gracious
with
his time, answering every question with a story from the '50s and '60s
that
put it all in perspective. It's rare that we get to experience history
first
hand. I'm lucky that I have. It's one of my most memorable interviews."
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Harold
Shaw, 74, died of cancer in 1999 at his home in Herndon.
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| Sources:
"Whatever Happened To Those Kiddie Show Hosts?" by Trisha Katson, 1977,
George Mason U. Phoebe Magazine, (Courtesy John Ahmad & Jack Maier)."Gag"
ad: Skip McCloskey from 1963 AFTRA Directory. Kine stills: Tom Buckley,
WUSA-TV. Thanks to Jack Maier, Tom Fielding, Dave Statter, Gerald Owens,
Frank Scheer, Steve
Moore &
Dave Hughes' DCRTV.com.
Airtimes from Washington Post & Evening Star. |
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"Ranger
Hal"
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All
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Kaptain
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Saluting
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Produced
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