Classic Clips Online

Here’s what you can expect weekly at www.theboomermagazine.com

DEC. 4: Click links below to view videos

• The advent of kineoscopes. - 1949
• How RCA explained television in 1939.
• In 1941, a short film called Magic in the Air showcased advances.
  
• Jon Gnagy started teaching people to draw in 1946 on You Are an Artist.

DEC. 11: Click links below to view videos

• Juvenile Jury featured Jack Barry, who’d go on to create game shows such as Tic Tac Dough, Twenty-One and The Joker’s Wild.  
• How a typical episode of Howdy Doody (originally known as Puppet Playhouse) began.
• The Chicago-based Kukla, Fran and Ollie featured Fran Allison and puppeteer Burr Tillstrom. (“Kukla” is Russian for “doll.”)

DEC. 18:Click links below to view videos

• Milton Berle with Arnold Stang and Berle’s singer-dancers.
• Arthur Godfrey moved from radio to TV in 1948 to host Talent Scouts, the series that introduced Pat Boone, The McGuire Sisters and other budding stars.
• Morey Amsterdam, “The Human Joke Machine,” hosted his own series set in the Golden Goose Café.

DEC. 25: Click links below to view videos

• The classic thriller Suspense stirred controversy when a character in one episode appeared to be drinking blood. This one, though, features Boris Karloff. 
• Mike Stokey’s Pantomime Quiz won the first Emmy given out for Most Popular Television Program in 1948.
  

JAN. 1: Click links below to view videos

• Comic Kenny Delmar, who’d played blustery Senator Claghorn on The Jack Benny Show, starred in The School House with Arnold Stang. 
• The 1949 version of The Life of Riley with Jackie Gleason. Despite winning an Emmy, it lasted only one season with Gleason.
  

JAN. 8: Click links below to view videos

• Hi-yo, Silver! Here’s episode 1 of The Lone Ranger starring Clayton Moore.
• Remember when Ed Norton dressed up as Captain Video on The Honeymooners? Here’s the real Captain Video — a sort of Star Trek on a shoestring budget. 

JAN. 15: Click links below to view videos

• The first episode of Crusader Rabbit from 1949. Creator Jay Ward later reshaped Crusader and his sidekick, Ragland T. Tiger, into Rocky and Bullwinkle.  
• Vaudevillian Ed Wynn helped honey-voiced Dinah Shore make her TV debut. 

JAN. 22: Click links below to view videos

• Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters had a hit (and a bit of TV fun) in 1949 with “I Wanna Go Home With You.” 
• Lights Out was pretty scary for 12 years on radio and three on TV. Frank Gallop was the creepy host.

Feb. 5: Click link below to view videos

• Abbott & Costello built their career on classic vaudeville routines which they polished often with the help of Sid Fields (who played their landlord and many other parts on their TV series). Here's Sid in jail.

Feb. 12:Click link below to view videos

• Here's Make Room For Daddy's Rusty Hamer and Angela Cartwright (long before she wound up "Lost In Space").

Feb. 19: Click link below to view videos

• And here's the opening titles of "Lassie," featuring June Lockhart before SHE became "Lost In Space."

Feb. 26: Click link below to view videos

• Watch lovable con man Bilko on "The Phil Silvers Show" with future "Car 54" stars Joe E. Ross and Beatrice Pons.

Mar. 5:Current Week - click cameras above to view videos

• How about Nat "King" Cole with the 11 year old Billy Preston - 16 years before Billy topped the charts with "Will It Go Round In Circles?"

Mar. 12:

• Three-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan not only starred in "The Real McCoys" but scored a hit record in 1962 with "Old Rivers."

Mar. 19:

• Here's Edd "Kookie" Byrnes (the prototype of "Happy Days'" Fonzie) with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. on "77 Sunset Strip."

Mar. 26:

• The very first episode of "Dobie Gillis" featured "Dennis the Menace"'s father (Herb Anderson) as the teacher and 16-year-old Tuesday Weld as Thalia Menninger. Off camera, Dwayne Hickman tried to date Tuesday without luck. He later wrote that she was perfectly cast "as Tuesday personified Thalia in real life."
• Jack Benny went Christmas shopping in the same store with most of his regular cast. This is actually from 1960, but you get the idea.