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Fun stuff
Friday, Dec 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller * The other day, I asked you to help my former intern Paul Richardson win an online contest for one of the blogs that his fledgling, but growing company manages. What I didn’t know was that the contest was sponsored by LexisNexis. So, it was the big time. Anyway he won. And it wasn’t even close. From an e-mail…
Oh, yeah. * From the LexisNexis Litigation Blog…
And we can all be proud of Paul. * My mom was apparently rummaging around and found a confirmation letter from WGN TV. Back in 1972, when their five children ranged in age from ten down to a newborn, my parents applied for tickets to attend Bozo’s Circus. The station eventually sent my parents a letter saying we had 8 tickets for the November 8, 1979 show - seven years hence. We were living in Germany by 1979, so we didn’t go. Here’s the letter. Click the pic for a larger version…  Seven years was the standard waiting period for Bozo tix back in the day. Often, parents would request the tickets just after their kids were born. Every schoolmate of mine desperately wanted to go to that show and my brothers and I were the envy of the schoolyard when we got our confirmation. Just about everybody we knew back then sent in postcards to enter ourselves for the Grand Prize Game, and my brother Denny’s postcard was picked out of the Bozo Drum. The kid who played for him only made it to Bucket Number Two, but Denny was still a hometown celebrity after that. * Speaking of WGN TV and my mom, remember Ray Rayner? Ray had a great show when I was a kid (actually, he had two shows a day at one point, one, an after-school show, where he was supposedly an astronaut circling the globe). One of the things he’d do on his morning show was make crafts. The staff would make a finished product, and then he’d demonstrate to his viewers how to make that particular project in real time. Ray’s versions were never as good as the staff version, but it was fun to watch him stumble his way through. My mom was really into crafts, and still is. When I was a kid, we’d all sit at the table and make whatever craft Mom had come up with, often inspired by Ray Rayner. It was a lot of fun, and we all had a great time laughing at our occasional ineptitude. That’s my mom in a nutshell. She taught us how to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously, while still pushing us hard to excel and to broaden ourselves with music, sports and reading. I still have one of those crafts I made. It’s a Christmas Tree topper that’s supposed to be an angel. It doesn’t really look like an angel, but I thought it was cool back then and I’ve often topped my trees with it. * I thought about Ray Rayner when Mom posted a link on her Facebook page. It was an article about how to make homemade snow globes. What a great Christmas project for the kids…
* By the way, this is from Ray Rayner’s final show…
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- Stones - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:19 pm:
Pretty cool that you still have the postcard from the Bozo show, Rich. As you mentioned it was common knowledge about the 7 year wait for tickets but I never saw it in writing. When I see the occasionally clip from those shows today it strikes me how few people actually were seated on those bleachers. When I was a kid I imagined a much larger studio than they actually used.
Do you recall my favorite show during that time - Cartoon Town?
- OneMan - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:21 pm:
I still remember him having traffic, where it seemed like they always showed the same backed up exit ramp. Also the one year they had a ton of kids win the count the jellybean count.
The project stuff, can’t think of the guy who would do the project (just did I think it was Chauncey) before Ray but his stuff always looked better.
Finally, the rundown of folks saying good bye made me feel a bit old.
Suffice to say that was back when kids tv was cool…
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:23 pm:
“The cubs beat the Mets yesterday 5 to 3 and ….(turn hat around) … the Sox beat the A’s 4 to 1″
Thanks, Rich for taking me back too … Miss Ray Rayner …
- Stones - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:26 pm:
I also recall Ray Raynor with all those notes pinned all over his jumpsuit. Almost a precursor to Post-It notes.
- wordslinger - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:30 pm:
Ray also played Oliver O. Oliver on Bozo’s Circus. And yes, he did have some pretty shaky hands some early mornings trying to make those crafts.
Chelveston the Duck made him nervous, I think. Or it might have been those long nights at the Stockyards Inn. Only his old pal Cuddly-Duddly could calm him down.
Before fame at WGN, Ray was shot down over France in WWII and spent more than two years in a POW camp. He was actually one of the planners of the real-life “Great Escape,” but was transferred to another camp before the breakout.
“Ray, Gar and Bozo” is usually on Channel 9 around the holidays. Must-see TV.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:31 pm:
I think the orange cowboy jumpsuit needs to make a comeback.
The clips of “celebrities” really brought some memories back. I remember Raynor, Fahey Flynn (and the best weatherman short of Skilling, PJ Hoff), Ringmaster Ned, et al growing up in the 50’s. Geeze, I’m getting old…
- Irish - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:33 pm:
Does anyone else remeber the show where the kid was playing the bucket game and got to bucket number six and missed. When Bozo patted him on the back and told him too bad the kid said ” Cram it clown” They went directly to commercial and when they came back the kid was gone.
- wordslinger - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:36 pm:
Irish, the urban legend is that the kid said a “Bozo No-no” before “Cram it Clown” but I don’t know if that’s true.
My sister-in-law missed Bucket #1. She’s heading for her third divorce so it was somewhat of a foreshadowing of her future.
- OneMan - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:40 pm:
Snopes says nope about ‘cram it clown’
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/bozo.asp
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:43 pm:
Irish,
The inter web thinks that happened on Bozo-Boston.
- Wensicia - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:50 pm:
I remember the turtle races…
Ray Rayner’s was the top show before school every day. Wasn’t he also a cop on a Dick Tracy show before that?
- OneMan - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 2:59 pm:
Wensicia,
He hosted a Dick Tracy cartoon show I think.
- Stones - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:06 pm:
Wordslinger - LOL on the Sister in Law comment! Every once in a blue moon you would see a kid miss bucket #1. When it did happen the look on the kid’s face was always priceless.
I also heard that the comment that kid made never happened. Had it been true someone would have posted it on youtube by now.
- demgov - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:06 pm:
Loved the Bozo show! I got the same card for my kids when they were little. I was so excited. We went and they were totally bored because all the other kids got picked for the games! Oh, well, it was cool for me!
- Pot calling kettle - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:13 pm:
We had a B & W TV, so I had no idea his jump suit was orange! LOL
- Secret Square - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:15 pm:
I always watched the Ray Rayner Show in the mornings before school… if I remember correctly he used The Irish Rovers’ “Unicorn Song” as the closing theme.
“You got some green alligators and long necked geese,
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born
You’re never gonna see no unicorn.”
- Northsider - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:17 pm:
Ray Rayner was — and still is — so much better than any of the network or cable twinkies’ morning shows.
Along with everything already noted, he also gave us (bonus!) “Looney Tunes” cartoons, and a signature sign-off for the ages: “Bye-bye-Byyyyye!”
- Aldyth - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:19 pm:
My personal favorite was Garfield Goose with Frasier Thomas. The wooden clacking sound that Garfield made every time he’d close his beak is permanently embedded in my brain - in a good nostalgic way.
- Boone Logan Square - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:22 pm:
The first time I ever saw a television camera was visiting the studio for Ray Rayner. I must have been four years old and was amazed at how big the camera was, and how bright the studio lights were.
- In_The_Middle - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:35 pm:
As long as we’re reminiscing, how about a little Suzy Snowflake?
- OneMan - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:42 pm:
Is she back in town?
- Been There - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:43 pm:
One of my favorite shows was Clutch Cargo. Every time I see Greta Van Susteren it reminds me of those episodes.
- Anonymous - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:43 pm:
Thanks for the memories everyone. I remember just getting home from 1/2 day kindergarten watching Romper Room when the news broke in to announce the assassination of President Kennedy. I was not old enough to comprehend what was going on but I still remember it like it was yesterday…
- Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:44 pm:
===Is she back in town? ===
Next week.
- wordslinger - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:49 pm:
I’m a Hardrock, Coco and Joe man, myself.
- gregory tejeda - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 3:51 pm:
Thank you for the reminiscing about Bozo and Ray Rayner.
Insofar as Rayner’s ineptitude at crafts, it couldn’t have been as shaky as what he would do to a turkey every Thanksgiving Day. My brother and I still recall the way he would carve a cooked turkey and make a complete mess of it. And yes, as a very little kid, I can recall having a Cuddly Dudley dog doll.
I also recall the time I got to see a Bozo broadcast live. My elementary school actually worked it so that every year for several years back in the 1970s they got enough tickets so that a trip to WGN studios to see Bozo was the fourth grade field trip.
No, I didn’t get to play any of the games, but it was a memorable experience in that for weeks afterward I heard from people who claimed to have been watching on television and saw me sitting in the stands.
But what I remember in particular was at the end of the show when the cameras focused on all us kids filing out of the studio. Suddenly, I felt a “whack” on my behind. When I turned my head to try to figure out who the wiseacre was, I saw “ringmaster” Ned Locke looking at me and giggling like crazy.
Not exactly the stuff to write a Bozo tell-all about, but still a moment that pops into my head that day.
-30-
- Arthur Andersen - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:01 pm:
Thank you, Secret Square, for planting the Unicorn Song deep inside AA’s melon. Off to ITunes to hopefully replace it.
PS: Rich, who won the Judge Zagel caption contest? Sorry if you posted and I missed it.
- Anonymous - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:05 pm:
Missing bucket number one is like missing the first question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which is usually a nursery rhyme or something else baby easy. Jack and Jill went up the — and they say stairs lol.
- dupage dan - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:08 pm:
My nickname was Diver Dan for many years because of that show. Now am a certified diver, so…it fits. Great memories. The “Pretend Broadcast System”, Frazier Thomas’ Famiily Classics”, Garfield Goose, Mrs McGilicuddy, Rhomberg Rabbit.
The rude kid on Bozo’s Circus - I think that was an urban legend.
- Wensicia - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:20 pm:
What was that mermaid’s name in Diver Dan, the one he could never catch sight of? Or am I not remembering this right?
- mokenavince - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:24 pm:
You have a great MoM. My kids got to go on Kiddy
A GO GO! It was a lot of fun.
- Rod - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:28 pm:
Ray Rayner also was an American Hero. When World War II broke out he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, serving as the navigator of a B-17 during World War II, when he was shot down over France April 3, 1943. During 2 1⁄2 years as a POW in Stalag Luft III, he helped prepare the escape depicted in the film The Great Escape—though he was transferred to another camp before the escape took place.
I read about this in Ray Rayner’s obituary years ago and never forgot it. Really great and brave warriors like Rayner can also be wonderful and funny people. Mr. Rayner had nothing to prove to anyone, he proved it though his work to help with the escape he never was able to go on himself.
- siriusly - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:42 pm:
Ray Raynor lived in our suburban neighborhood when I was a kid, he was THE local celebrity and a great house to go to on Halloween. He always gave out a full size Hershey bar - score!
- Mad Brown - Friday, Dec 16, 11 @ 4:48 pm:
Loved Ray as a kid! I’m glad someone else besides my brother and I remember Clutch Cargo…with the creepy real mouths.