I was very much enjoying your site on forgotten TV shows. Romper Room is my all time favorite show from childhood. I wish it were repeated in syndication somewhere. For about 30 years now, I've longed to get some sort of reproduction on video, picture, j-peg, whatever, of the Magic Mirror segment. 

What I saw on your site just now gave me some hope:

"Mac" McLanahan adds: "Another thing I did had to do with the infamous Magic Mirror.  I went to a film producer in Baltimore (I believe his name was Max Brecker) and looked at a number of film effects he had.  I picked one that looked kind of hallucinogenic with a changing swirl of colors eminating from the center.  Once again, we duplicated this piece of 16mm film and sent it to all the stations.  This is what millions of  kids saw as they held their collective breath, hoping to hear their names spoken."

I found that swirl of colors that Mr. McLanahan referred to absolutely magical in its simplicity.  Is there any to locate a tape of the show, or some sort of reproduction of the magic mirror's swirl of colors? 

Thanks for your help and for making such thorough and respectful homage to Romper Room on your site.

Stacey Morris

How do I buy any video of Washington DC's RANGER HAL... My wife claims he was her only good male role model... If such a video exists of the good Ranger please point me in the right direction.

Dan Webb
Brainstorm Comics
Frederick Md 

I was so psyched to find your website!  I had vague memories of growing up in the '70s and watching "Captain 20" on his channel 20 cartoon show.  I remember the gerbils (I'm sorry, but that's hilarious) and I definitely remember the monkeys, because I was one of the people who won a bike.  I picked number 3 because he had been beating everyone that week.  If I recall, the monkeys had to run across and climb some kind of ladder.  Because I was so young, I actually thought the monkeys were racing in the studio.

Unfortunately, my bike got stolen eventually, but I'll never forget my mom calling me to the phone that afternoon. 

Thanks for the memories--what a great site.

Cat Needham
(formerly of Gaithersburg, MD)

Being a 55 year old from the generation of which your sights focuses, it is great to be able to locate some of the adventures of the good ol' days!

Perhaps, you will be able to answer a question for me - "The Lone Ranger" made a personal appearance in this area in the '50's and I thought it was on the Pick Temple Show.  If you have any information about this I would appreciate receiving it as I was fortunate enough to have met him at that time.  I still remember how I felt when I looked into his eyes and felt transported to a place that was far away.

I believe that it was sometime in the time frame of 1954-1956 as I was about 7 or 8 years of age.  I was attending St. Mary's Parochial School in Alexandria at the time and resided on Ashton Street.  I recall my grandmother permitting me to watch shows which my mother would never have let me watch (for her own reasons).  I sent a card in and was fortunate enough to have my name drawn to join Mr. Temple in the "hayloft".  I remember wearing my western hat and feeling pretty special at that time just by being one of those chosen to participate in his show. ...

Please tell Mr. Temple's son that I thank him for sharing his memories of his father with so many of us who admired him if only from the confines of our living rooms.

Phyllis M. Scott

I really enjoy your web site. I have a brief story about Cap'n Tugg, but I just want to mention that I was looking at the Tugg page, when I noticed a photo "courtesy of Richard Cook of The Glen Echoes". I know Richard -- in fact, I'm the tenor in his barbershop quartet: The Glen Echoes! Small world! (Click the GlenEchoes link by the photo, and you'll see what we look like.)

I watched Cap'n Tugg for years. I can't tell you exactly when -- my sense of chronology is poor. One thing that has stuck with me for years, and I suppose always will, is how Commander Salamander announced himself on the radio: "This is Commander Salamander of the Coast Guard -- we guard the coast, you know."

Mike Holmes

Your website is the greatest!! There's so much in it I'd forgotten about, but then to see so many of those faces again & have the memory click in...it's just great. I actually got your website from my sister, who's still in the DC area, and I don't know where she got it from. But what a treat! Thanks for doing it all. It hadn't occurred to me that so much of that ephemera (buttons, stickers off the end of bread loaf wrappers, etc.) would turn into a trove for memorabilia collectors, but why not? 

By the way, my favorite radio shows were the Joy Boys and (well before them) "The Man Who Owns Midnight--Steve Allison," who did a live remote broadcast over (I think) WWDC-AM from a table in a nightclub (the name of which escapes me) and took phone calls from listeners via 7-second tape delay. He was a sleazeball, probably, but it all sounded so sophisticated and adventurous!! Any idea whatever happened to HIM? 

P.S. I did radio briefly in the area, starting in the mid 60s at WMUC, briefly at WASH and WFMD. And I"m not done browsing your website yet, not by any means. Thanks again & best wishes.

Doug Ramsdell 

I was a cameraman on WMAL-7's "The Black Phantom". It was broadcast live (pre-videotape) from the Ice Palace at 4461 Connecticut Ave. 

The Phantom was named Guy I. Aylward. He was a staff announcer who came out of the booth and into "makeup" when needed. I remember that Guy and his big cape were prone on a long table with a big fan blowing in his face for the closing shot.

This flying effect could be enhanced by tossing talcum powder into the fan for a nice cloud look...

Did you ever hear the legendary story of the "Dead Monkey" that has been morphing around broadcast gatherings for nearly fifty years?

The real deal happened on Tom Willette's show at the "Ice Palace". This time I'm in the control room (video control) with director Charlie Stopak and the gang.  The show is about 80% kids movies and 20% live cut ins with Tom and guests.

We are in a film segment and Tom is almost ready in the studio with the featured guest (Woman with a monkey, dressed and treated like an infant).  Film segment runs out in one minute,  but there is a PROBLEM... the monkey just died in the woman's arms.

Pandemonium in the control room "What will we do?" all over the place.  So I turn to Stopak with the immortal suggestion "Tell her to stick her hand up the monkeys ass and work it like a puppet".

If you walk past 4461 Connecticut Avenue on a dark night,  you can still hear the laughter.

Milt Wishard

Concerning the show "Time For Science"... Mr. Drummond taught at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (formerly Oak Street School) in Falls Church, Virginia.  My older sister was in his class (the seventh grade, I believe) in 1957.   I recall his name being "T. Darrell Drummond".

I left the DC area and returned in 1960, when "Time for Science" was on the air.  As the budding geek of my seventh grade class, I was given the enormous responsibility of setting up the TV set in the auditorium for each broadcast.  I don't recall the broadcast channel, but I do remember that it was produced by GWETA (Greater Washington Educational Television Association).   Mr. Drummond became an instant celebrity in my class - partially because of the content of the show; and partially because the show permitted us to watch TV in the middle of the school day.  He was held in such high esteem that nobody would believe that a mere mortal, such as me, could have met him. 

My sister would have tales of his sense of humor, and I recall one TV episode that reflected this.  The experiment involved food of some sort, and he had brought some along in a paper lunch bag.  As he was using great care to remove the food from the bag, the announcer mimicked the beginning of the show and announced this portion of the program as "Time for Lunch" (along with the appropriate text titles and the familiar theme music). 

Daryl Long

For years and years, I had been waiting to go on the Bozo Show -- since I was 9 or 10. Well... my wish to get on a TV show came true when I received a letter in the Fall of 1960 informing me that I was going to be on the Bozo Show, only it was "the Bozo Show with Cousin Cupcake"!  Boy, was I disappointed! All these years anticipating the fame of being on Bozo, and then to get selected for a Saturday morning with his Cuz. Not only that, I was now 13 years old. How could I possibly go on live TV with a bunch of 8, 9, and 10 year olds?

Embarrassment be damned! I was going on TV!

So... bright and early Saturday morning, I got up, washed, and carefully donned my crisp Boy Scout uniform with my sash containing all my hard-earned merit badges. I was resplendent!

My Dad dropped me off at the studios and said he'd pick me up in about two hours or so. Even my Dad couldn't bear the embarrassment of being seen with me in that environment. Can't blame him.

So I trooped on in with my letter in-hand and was directed to a kind of holding area along with a bunch of "little kids." I stood at least a head taller than anyone else on the show, with the exception of Cousin Cupcake himself.

We were all led into the studio and I was amazed at all the bright lights and the heat they generated. I could see where the cameras were and I intentionally -- as best I could -- positioned myself so that I could be picked up in the background. As I recall, the studio area was set up like a circus setting with a ring platform down in front. This was where Cousin Cupcake sat and where he spoke with the kids.

The only real part of the show that has a profound memory impact was when Cupcake invited me up to the front with him and we had an actual dialog about my merit badges and my neckerchief slide (a carved Indian head which I had hand-painted). I got my TV fame!

My siblings watched all this on TV at home. Later they told me they were rolling on the floor laughing because I looked so silly as a big boy among all those little kids. I could not have cared less. I was a TV star as far as I was concerned.

In retrospect, I probably set the record as the oldest kid to be on the show. I am still disappointed to this day that I only got to be on the Cousin Cupcake Show and not Big-Time Bozo's.

It was a lot of fun, nevertheless.

The site is fantastic! Keep up the great work. Those of us native Washingtonians really appreciate all the nostalgia and grey-matter jogging. Thanks.

Jim Jenkins