Row 1, left to right: Charles Howard, Fred Elder, David Robinson; Row 2, left to right: Diane Rusch Zinn, Skip Granger, Calvin Ross; Row 3, left to right: Perry Ann Porter, Lee Ayres, Linda Soderberg McKay; Row 4, left to right: Kay Ellen Consolver, Dan Tontz, Glenna Stearman Park
In absentia: Marilyn Tompkins Bellert, traveling and Janice Collins Bailey, who listened, but couldn’t connect visually.
Charles Howard joined the Zoom for the first time and briefly described his life from graduation from East until the present. He is an architect and has designed around forty police stations around the US including the main police station in Boston. Now retired. After East High, he spent 3 years in the architecture program at Kansas State university, then transferred out west to finish his architecture degree. He lives in a Los Angeles suburb. Due to age and health concerns he has regrettably not used his sail boat in over 10 years.
Topic of the Day: Radio Programs We Recall
Marilyn Tompkins Bellert, reporting to Diane Zinn from way above the Arctic Circle, 10 degrees from the North Pole.
Two evenings a week when I was five years old, my parents allowed my brother Dave (he was two) and me to listen to the radio while they sat around the table after dinner. Mom tuned in the “The Lone Ranger,” our favorite. When the time came, we stretched out on the floor on either side of the radio, which was probably taller than we were, with our ears as close to the speakers as we could get. Mom kept the sound very low, so they could talk, she said. We listened intently to every minute of the program until the last “Yes, Kemosabe” and “Hi-Ho, Silver. Away!” Prime targets for advertising, we became obsessed with persuading Mom to buy us some Ovaltine. She said we wouldn’t like it, but bought it anyway; she was right. Dave was thrilled to get a cowboy outfit, including belt with pistols, for his birthday. For months, he leapt out from hiding places with both guns blazing and dashed away yelling, “Hi-Ho, Silver. Away!”
After “The Lone Ranger” was over, we were allowed to listen to the opening promo for the next program. I especially remember, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows” and the hideous creaking door that announced “Inner Sanctum.” Before the scary programs started, Mom turned off the radio and we shuffled off to bed.
My whole family listened to “Fibber McGee and Molly.” During every episode, we waited for someone to open the McGee’s closet, laughing ourselves silly every time the tumult burst out. Great sound effects! In the human sound effects department, Molly McGee had a wonderful nasal voice. “McGee,” she called, in a tone that ranged from warning to commanding. She was always miles ahead of McGee, but only needed to say his name for him to suddenly realize what was about to fall on his head.
Although I have greatly enjoyed listening to hundreds of audio books, I have not listened again to the radio series from the 40’s. Now being of age to choose my own entertainment, maybe I will finally listen to “The Shadow,” “Inner Sanctum,” “Mr. and Mrs. North,” and other radio mysteries.
Dan Tontz, en route to Fayetteville, AK
What I want to know is if anyone remembers “Big John and Sparky.” (Hands raised). This is a perfect audience for this. It came out of Cinncinnati, but it wasn’t covered in a lot of places, so I though you might think I’m crazy. I went on the internet the other day and it’s on there. John was a guy with German ancestry and had a long name. Sparky was a puppet. Now, refresh my memory. It was either Saturday or Sunday and they would read the newspaper and funnies to us. I think that got me to reading the newspaper. Must have been when I was five or six years old. Perry Ann added that Sparky always looked into your bedroom to see if it was clean or not.
Kay Ellen Consolver, Litchfield CT
I listened to all those programs that have been mentioned. But when I was sick, what I loved to listen to was “Stella Dallas.” It was an afternoon soap opera about Stella who was a poor impoverished farm woman whose daughter married into wealth above her station and it was intrigue and lots of soap. I have just ordered a CD with a 15 minute segment of Stella, so you all have inspired me.
Linda Soderberg McKay, St. Louis, MO
I think I would just ditto the ones
that have been mentioned. One of the things I was trying to remember was the song, “If you go out into the woods today, you better go in disguise,” Was that “Big John and Sparky”? I just remember the song. What I would add to our list is The Firestone Hour. That would be my treat. But I thought Big John and Sparky was on Saturday because I had to go to church at the crack of dawn on Sunday. So it had to be on Saturday or I couldn’t have listened to it.
Calvin Ross, Johnson City, TN
I remember all the ones that have been mentioned so far. One that I remember that has not been mentioned is “Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club.” My parents listened to it every morning, so I got into it as well. Another that hasn’t been mentioned is “The Whiz Kids.” When I was four or five, my parents nudged me to try out, so here I was in the studio with the other kids and their parents and they gave us a question to see how creative and sharp we were. The question was if you were stranded on a desert island, who would you like to have with you. One kid said he would like to have a comedian with him to tell jokes, maybe Bugs Bunny, so he could laugh a lot. I don’t remember what I said, but it didn’t impress the judges. I may have said something like I’d like to have my mommy and daddy. Anyway, I did not get on the show.
Perry Ann Porter, Poulsbo, WA, I really don’t remember. I do remember “Big John and Sparky” and “The Lone Ranger.” Was he on? I just don’t remember much.
Lee Ayres, Fresno, CA
What I remember when we lived in New Jersey was on Thursday night when “The Lone Ranger” was on and the William Tell Overture was part of the ending. I remember “Amos and Andy.” I didn’t quite get the humor, but my father thought it was funny. That’s the memory.
Skip Granger, Sun Valley, AZ.
A lot of you remember my sister Brenda, and she
loved cowboy shows. She wished her name had been Jean because she loved Gene Autry. We did a lot of things together and do any of you remember Bobby Benson? We used to go down to the store my dad had in Joplin at Christmas, before he went to Innes, and we had a good time. The stores were only open five days, 9-5, at that time. They were on Main Street and had a shoe department and Brenda and I loved to go there and put our feet in the x-ray machines they had to show the bones in your feet. Bobby Benson and his B-Bar-B Riders were coming to Joplin and everyone wanted to see the show. Brenda and I didn’t know anything about it, so we just went down and got into a window on Main Street. We were playing in the window where everybody could see us. It was reported that Bobby Benson and his sister were in the window, but of course he wasn’t. It was us.
Diane Rusch Zinn, Lawrence, KS
I have a huge list of radio programs and I’m so happy that so many remember “Big John and Sparky.” I had a little red radio in my bedroom and I listened to three programs there, one of which was “Big John and Sparky.” I loved the Teddy Bears’ Picnic song. I’ve sung it to all my children and grandchildren and have given the book and CD to friends for a baby gift. So that’s a really fond radio memory. “Gunsmoke” was on the radio on Saturdays around noon, and I would listen to it while I was cleaning my bedroom. On Sunday night “Lux Theatre” was on. It was probably similar to “Firestone Hour, and I would lle in my bed and listen to whatever drama was on.
We also had one of those huge console radios in the living room. I don’t remember listening to things with my parents, but I’m sure I did. I listened to “Our Miss Brooks,” “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Amos and Andy,” “Jack Benny,” “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon,” “The Lone Ranger,” “Red Skelton,” and “Fibber McGee and Molly.” There were others I don’t remember. We also listened to the radio in the car a lot, and my mother and I listened to a couple of soap operas, but I don’t remember the names of those.
David Robinson, Wichita KS
Well, I remember the radio and it was at the
bottom of the stairs. We had a record player on top of it, so it wasn’t a full-size radio. I remember sitting and listening to “The Lone Ranger” and all of those shows, but the thing that stands out in my mind is my cousin in Dodge City, “The Cisco Kid,” at 4:45 and God help those who interfered with that. You did not visit then. Everything stopped when my cousin Denise listened to “The Cisco Kid.” I’ll never forget that, as we didn’t listen to it at all. It didn’t interest me. My parents pretty much controlled the radio, not as if they were dictators, but I grew up with “Jack Benny,” “Amos and Andy” and more programs like that. I did get a little radio for my bedroom with one of those goofy dials on the front of it that you could play with and sooner or later it would fall off. I listened to kids’ stuff.
Glenna Stearman Park, Montgomery area, DC
What was most important to me was “Baby Snooks.” She was this bratty little girl who was in trouble all the time and did everything to mess with her family. The thing I found so appealing about her was when I met Janet Thelman in middle school. She was the personification of Baby Snooks. Janet sounded like Baby Snooks; she had that wild little streak about her and it kept Baby Snooks in mind for me. The other is “Our Miss Brooks,” and I liked the way they handled their teacher. My younger sister was nuts about all the cowboy radio you guys have mentioned. She and I had a conflict because she had a horse and she tried to keep the saddle in the room that we shared. I refused to listen to any of her radio. I threw the saddle out of the room regularly and was real clear about separation in our room. Good family fights. Kay Ellen conjectured that Fanny Price played Baby Snooks, but Glenna didn’t know.
Charles Howard, La Canada, CA
I have two, maybe three, that are significant
enough to remember. There was, as almost everyone else has expressed, “The Lone Ranger.” That was my favorite. Sometime after that came “Inner Sanctum” with the squeaky door. At their home about 100 miles east of Wichita, my grandparents had a short-wave radio that my father gave to them during the war. I got to listen on that one. What was it, the guy, it was a musical show from Kentucky, “Grand Ole Opry.” There were a lot of good people in that, like Minnie Pearl. I got used to listening to it, but have no idea what music I listened to in the 50’s.
Perry Ann added she listened to Paul Harvey faithfully, even when she was in the Peace Corps, to which Charles nodded.
Fred Elder, Madison, WI
I listened to much of what’s been noted, especially “The Lone Ranger.” One of my memories is that many of these shows started at fifteen minutes and I guess I liked them a lot because I never realized they were just fifteen minutes. Click on some of the links I included in the email and you can see some of the shows. I particularly liked all the commercials. It seemed that everyone liked soap and a lot of doctors were selling Kool’s. In terms of the strange stuff, do any of you remember the big 50,000 watt radio tower that was in Del Rio, TX. It broadcast some sort of Christian radio thing. I can still remember they were always trying to sell stuff and one of them was “I don’t care if it rains or freezes, as long as I have my plastic Jesus.” In any event, that made quite an impression on me.
Janice Collins Bailey, Wichita, KS:
Janice couldn’t make an appearance on
our Zoom, but was able to listen in. She sent her radio memories by email.
I had a couple of items I wanted to mention. During WWII my mother listened to the news on the radio. At that time I was given a muff and I told her I was going to name it “General.” She was excited to think I was making some sense out of the news until she asked me, “General who?” My reply was General Lectric.
Miscellaneous Discussion
Glenna – My nephew was captured in Iraq and when he was with his captors they sang him their religious songs. Then they wanted him to sing his to them. He sang that song about the plastic Jesus to them. That was the only one he could think of at the time. I wasn’t familiar with that song, but when the kidnapping was over with Micah, I asked John Van Slyke if he had any idea what it was. He stood there and sang the whole thing.
Calvin remembered a band, the Ark Valley Boys. The reason it made such an impression on me was when I was in kindergarten I went to Alcott. It was my grade school. I went to afternoon session and when Ark Valley Boys came on, that was my cue to get ready to go to school. I may be wrong about this, but I think that Peggy Edminster’s father Corky was a member of that singing group.
Kay Ellen remembered “Ozzie and Harriet” on the radio, and Linda recalled “Your Hit Parade” on Saturday night. Kay Ellen confirmed it was Fanny Brice who played Baby Snooks, and she got that part on the radio because she played it in the Ziegfield Follies.
David Robinson recalled that Minnie Pearl was from a very wealthy family. She gave lavish dinner parties in a beautiful home in Nashville. She transformed herself for the Opry. The other thing I want to share is that the other day at the Allen House in Wichita, we heard some interesting news from a couple of visitors. He was in the class of ’67, my little sister’s class, and he was talking about the 100th anniversary of East coming up in October.
Fred reminded everyone that the website has some information about East’s 100th birthday celebration. He just received an email that promised more information about it soon.
Dan asked Calvin about the Ark Valley Boys. Calvin’s good friend Wayne Moore married Peg Edminster. The country station we listened to was way down on the dial Does anyone remember the station? I remember KAKE because they carried all the baseball games. We had KFH and Fred added KANS.
Calvin told Linda she would be interested to know that when he first started listening to baseball games on the radio, he listened to the St. Louis Cardinals with Harry Carey. At that time, there were no KC Royals; the St. Louis team was the one to listen to.
Kay Ellen added KFBI to the radio station list.
Fred said a classic Harry Carey thing was when he was in KC calling a game. Rain delayed the game for around 2 1/2 hours. Most people who knew Harry knew that he started drinking a little bit before the game started and it was just amazing. I remembered it because I listened to the whole game. They were talking about the purple martins, maybe they should turn off the lights. In those days, they had to fill in with comments. It was really funny and I’m told it exists somewhere on the internet. Linda added Harry still kept his job. Probably because he worked for Anheuser-Busch, Fred said.
Perry Ann said good-bye as she departed for an appointment in the 75 degree weather. “Wish me well,” she teased.
Skip – I have been consumed the past few weeks working with Ford Motor Company. Does anyone own a Lincoln SUV ? In case you haven’t seen it, it’s been recalled because they’re catching fire and burning down houses. I’m writing some letters as an attorney for some people. If you have one, get it out of your garage. You can’t drive it; you can’t do anything with it. Linda wondered if it’s an electric car. Skip confirmed it is. Several years ago, they wanted $83,000 for it, and it was going to take fifteen months for delivery.
Lee commented on Charles’ wanting to become an architect. I didn’t know many people who were architects growing up, but later in life I came to have a huge appreciation for them as I got back into community projects. Several chapters behind that included serving as city manager and seeing terrible projects. The next chapter was as a real estate developer, more of the same. We were focused on what we saw as an opportunity for garden apartments and transitional neighborhoods and all were poorly designed in retrospect. Then later on, I got involved with other investments and non-profits and I served as CEO of Tree Fresno and that really brought it home because most places hadn’t given much thought to landscape architecture, let alone the building. Or they ran out of money before they got to the landscape. A good friend who is a distinguished architect and this ties in with the home Wright home in Wichita where David is a volunteer. He was a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright and at age 82 he just landed another engagement in San Joaquin Valley in Allentown. This project will have a huge impact because of its becoming a major focal point of Black history. That’s the short answer. Whenever people ask me about a project, I tell them they must have an architect at their side.
Skip asked everyone, especially Lee, when he visited him in Sunnyvale and I introduced him to Norman Glickman. He had an office next to Lee and we used to get together. I came down from Silicon Valley a lot, and we had lunch together. The last three months I have been unable to contact Norman, so wondered if anyone knows what’s happened to him. At Linda’s suggestion for a phone call, Skip will call Norman’s son. When he has called, he’s told Norman is no longer living.
Glenna offered a comment about architecture. In high school, we had career days when we went to a class for a certain profession and learned about it. Glenna went to the one about architecture, I was aware of the Jack Austin house because I had been to a couple of parties there. I was interested in the architecture of very beautiful homes at an early age. In the class at East, the architect looked around at the room full of guys and asked me what I was doing there. I said I wanted to be an architect and he said I couldn’t. I asked him why not and he replied that no one would work for a woman. That was symbolic of the fights in my life.
Charles asked if anyone had been to the old library in Wichita – the one across from City Hall. He worked on that one. David commented that it was brutalist style, and Charles agreed. I was working with them about how to integrate the windows and the books. David said to Google Boston City Hall, and it’s the spitting image. I did the police station in Boston, and I looked at their City hall and took the example. David commented he just hoped we can save it.
Skip commented on the number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Arizona. His son took him to one in Scottsdale for a special event.
Charles said probably the strangest thing he did was after high school when he went to work for an architectural firm, Kruse and Roberts, and did work for a little pavilion in Riverside Park that was made of brick with a little pointy roof on it. A couple of days later the guys who started Pizza Hut in Wichita wanted to use that design for their buildings.
Linda told Skip she had found Norman’s phone number.
Diane asked for new stories for the website. Charles thinks we have really good ones. Fred asked for themes for the next Zoom. Joyland said Glenna, and Kay Ellen said Kiddieland should be included, too.
Join us for the next Zoom on August 17 at 2:00 p.m., Wichita time.
