I just discovered this website on the Pick Temple Show, and have been transfixed for the last hour.  The memories others have submitted certainly have created a flood of my own.  I particularly enjoyed the details from those who experienced the show first-hand, live, because I never was one of the "peanut gallery", though a couple of little boys were who lived next door. It was fascinating to hear how it all was put together!  Thank you for sharing!  I loved the show as much as anyone, that's for sure.  I'm quite sure I watched it every day.  I'd like to add a post-script, so to speak. 

In 1959 my parents bought a new home in a brand-new neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md.  It was a model (there were 3) and those 3 homes were the only ones in the subdivision called "Kemp Mill".  We were the first family to move in.  Though the development escalated over the next few years into a huge one, for a while it was mostly woods around us, with very few homes.  A couple of blocks from our house was a large farm, actually a horse farm.  It had to have been at least 100 acres, and it backed up to Wheaton Regional Park.  An old farmhouse stood in the middle of the property, and there were riding lessons given, some fenced corrals, and lots of trails to ride on.  It was heaven for me.  I was 10 years old.

Well, one of the ponies boarded at this farm was Picolo.  I remember him being quite the celebrity; we all loved it when his handler would come up and take him out of the stall so we could get a good look. He was a tiny grey Shetland - awfully cute, but I can tell you he was indeed a cranky little guy. It was known around the stable that you weren't to put your hands near his face, because he would definitely bite.  He also had an annoying habit of walking closely behind you and stepping on the backs of your shoes or boots!  And he was stubborn.  I always marveled at how well-behaved he appeared on the show!  I would have given anything at the time to have been one of the lucky kids to ride his "musical saddle" and say "Hi, everybody else!"  I always remembered Pick's final words of wisdom on each show, "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today."  What wonderful memories!   Thanks for the opportunity to finally be able to share them with others who also enjoyed those carefree, magical days.

Robin Lichterman
Silver Spring, MD
 

I found your site about DC children's show to be fantastic and a great joy to one who holds those days dear. I was on the Cindy Lou Show with my Cub Scout Den. Lee Reynolds lived near us in Old Town Alexandria and my Mom knew him. She was our Den Mother, so that is probably how we got on as a group.

The Show was sponsored by "Flav-r Straws" and I got picked to do a commercial. The straws were filled with flavored powder and you dunked them in milk 'tll the milk turned chocolate or strawberry or whatever. I did not like milk very much, and the milk they had us drink had been sitting out under the TV lights and was very warm. I did not care for it. For some reason, I got a huge cardboard facsimile of a kid sucking on a Flav-r Straw, but I left it behind. 

One of the things Cindy would have the kids do was shoot at these plastic chickens with a ping-pong ball gun. The object was to hit "The Old Red Rooster" It seemed a fairly hectic exercise. Another highlight was this quick draw thing. All the kids had weapons and some of us were chosen to "draw" against each other. The kid who killed everyone else won some prizes. It is my opinion that I should have been that child, however; the prize went to one Bucky Hayden. (buttered his holster) I think the reason he won was because I messed up that Flav-r Straw gig.

... The show was at night and on the way down in the elevator I stepped on the foot of Bob Wolfe, the guy who broadcast the Senator's games on TV. He did not hit me, but I could tell he was pissed off.

I had been telling people Pick Temple stories for years, but no one remembered or they grew-up in another area.  I started playing the guitar about the time Pick went off the air. Looking at your site, I remember that he did some extremely cool tunes, some of which I still play. It was obvious that Mr.Temple really loved music and trains, for he would sing the true lyric regardless if the cowboy or engineer was shot or boiled. I doubt that you would see such a thing today. 

Pick Temple's cow was called "Ickums" and certain kids on that show were allowed to blaze away at the old outlaw and later they shot balloons which some guy with a sharp object had to pop from behind.

I am trying to remember something about Jackson Weaver.  There was a show where they had these puppets, and one was called Wackson Jeaver.  They were more like hand puppets than Muppets.  It might have been the show where Weaver played the clown.

Actually there were two clowns “Wee Gee” and his brother "O-gee".  I think that one of them didn’t speak and they alternated days.  Another thing about that show was the clowns played cartoons, but instead of a sound track, they would use classical music.  I don’t know if it was a licensing issue or what.  The cartoons were old black and white and starred that Farmer Alfalfa guy.  They mostly seemed to be about a running battle he was having with mice.  He would build something, and the mice would knock it down.  He’d get a cat and the mice would beat it up.  Kind of rodent slapstick.

The Clowns had a theme song with the words:
"I am such a funny clown 
I like to ramble round and round
The Circus is my home
I’ll never care to roam...." (fade out to circus music.)

Now it is possible that Bozo sang that, but I think it was the Jackson Weaver Clown.

That Lee Reynolds guy was in a lot of stuff.  I did not realize that the Jingle Dingle thing was a franchise.  Jingle D was a very strange marionette.  He had this little stage with this thing called “The Tell-a-Bell”. He would sing a song that went: "Jingle Dingle, Jingle hey. Let’s hear what the Tell-a-Bell says today.”  There were these numbered lights on the back of the stage that were supposed to represent clouds. (Like Cloud 9 and Cloud 3.)  Jingle would take reports from the clouds who conversed with him by their light coming on and someone ringing an electric bell to mimic a sort of code.  Then Mr. Dingle would tell us what it all meant weather-wise and sign off with: “Jingle Dingle Jingle day, that’s what the Tell-a-Bell has to say.”  (Big finish)  I think kids disliked JD as much as they did Mr. Bluster.

I'm sure that there are many more memories locked in this site and, since I never put off until tomorrow what I can do today, I must go find them.

Thomas Mechling,
former finalist in the "Cindy Lou Quick Draw Contest."
(I still think that other kid "buttered" his holster)

Do you remember "Astro Snacks", a locally produced variation of Twinkies that was promoted heavily on WTTGs Countdown Carnival with acted segments featuring Captain Astro? He had a silver space suit with a spherical transparent helmet, but there was a big opening in the front of it so that we would be able to hear him speak.

Sometimes the additional actors would be a couple of kids in a lunch room exclaiming "Captain Astro!!!" when Captain Astro made the scene. But there was at least one production in which the extra was one of the Gormly characters. (It might have been A.C. Sparks.)

The jingle foor the product was in the form of a pledge, which was recited with right hand upheld, I think:

"In my lunchbox will always be,
A delicious Astro Snack for me.
Another for my pal to share,
I'll always see that both are there.
And after school I'll always eat
My favorite Astro Snackin' treat!"

Countdown Carnival also aired a serial called Jungle Girl, which was filmed in the Saturday-at-the-movies style. Yes, Jungle Girl was cute. It always seemed to me like there was a note of sly appreciation in Bill Gormly's voice when he was giving the intro just before they cut to the Jungle Girl chapter.

I once sent a joke in to Bill Gormly's show ("What do you call a bird that has been run over by a lawn mower? Shredded tweet.") He sent me an autographed picture, but I didn't realize that it meant that the joke would be used. (I doubt if the picture lasted more than a few months.)

A couple of weeks later I was watching and, completely by surprise, there was Mr. Poucher doing my joke with Bill Gormly as straight man. (Mr. Poucher was at the other end of a magneto crank phone, I think.) It was the most thrilling moment of my entire life. I can still picture Bill Gormly slamming the earpiece back in the cradle, smirking as if in true disgust, and ruefully saying "...shredded ..tweet." I'll never forget the excitement.

I think that Bill Gormly was absolutely brilliant, like New Jersey's "Uncle Floyd"  Vivino, but without the sleaze. (On the other hand)  I thought that the Bill Johnson show was strange. The way I recall it, Bill Johnson and the set of his show were just a wrapper around one animated cartoon and one Three Stooges production, but he himself didn't do anything entertaining, and it didn't look like a kid show.

His set was nothing more than a giant 'B' suspended three feet off the ground and a 'J' standing on the floor. During the opening music, he would be hiding behind the staff of the 'J'. Then he would take one step to our left/his right so that he was standing in front of the hook of the 'J', which he would use as a podium. He would just stand there like a news anchor and introduce the cartoons and the Stooges ("Today, for your Looney Toons cartoon, it's Bugs Bunny  and Elmer Fudd in...") How bizarre. Really.

Bill Johnson's giant 'B' later showed up on Countdown Carnival,  standing upright but sideways on the floor so that the lobes were pointing down. It was supposed to be Mr. Scratch's vending machine and they did some "naughty unpredictable vending machine" gags.

Paul Aitkenhead

This is a great site.

To this day I still carry a dog-eared photo of "Uncle Clyde" in my wallet for luck.

Thanks for the memories.

Pete White

My name is Robert Hunnicutt and my dad, Mike Hunnicutt was a kid show host in the early '50s. 

As I remember, he featured the Little Rascals and also showed some old silent movies - Buster Keaton, for example and he played the piano along with the film and did a humorous narrative.

Later on, as I recall, he had Wilkins coffee as a sponsor and they had the first appearance of Kermit the frog doing the Wilkins ad.  ... My dad thought that Kermit would never go anywhere.  Ha! 

Dad was on weekdays, mid-day and sometimes, when I came home from school for lunch, I would watch.  We lived in Spring Valley, just behind American University and I went to Horace Mann  Elementary School about a 10 or 15 minute bike ride.

I guess I was in about the 4th or 5th grade.  Maybe even the 6th grade during this time. ...

Robert Hunnicutt