Dan Kravetz read my posting about Los Angeles kid show hosts and sent the following…
I was a devoted viewer of Cartoon Carousel when Skipper Frank switched dummies in about 1960. The original was named Julius and also had a last name which I can't remember. I don't recall the Skipper mentioning on the show specifically that Julius had been stolen from his car, but he did create some sort of mystery about his pal being missing, and on one episode displayed a "letter" from Julius that read, "I have been kidnapped by Jimmy Weldon!"
The new dummy was named Ziggy Zachary, but before it was ready, the Skipper did a bit of ventriloquism with a temporary replacement named Pancho Blinkey, a kind of mitten puppet that could be purchased in toy stores. I started watching Carousel around 1954 or '55, when the cartoon fare was the earliest Looney Tunes starring
Bosko and Buddy. I seem to recall that his show lasted an hour, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM, at which time one could switch to KABC for the original hour-long Mickey Mouse Club. When Mickey moved to a half-hour at 5:30, that made it possible to catch Tom Hatten and Popeye at 5:00. I believe Engineer Bill came on later, during the dinner hour, and Sheriff John was on at noon, during school, so I didn't get to see them nearly as often, but all were fine men whom youngsters could respect, even when they were pushing products.
I believe Cartoon Carnival (Skipper Frank's show) went on in '56 but I do remember him showing the earliest Looney Tunes. I don't remember that letter from Julius. I watched every day and would have laughed my head off at the mention of Jimmy Weldon, who was on Channel 13 opposite Skipper Frank.
And I had my own Pancho Blinkey, which was just a white glove printed with the kind of face Señor Wences drew on his hand. It was a lot of fun for about the first three minutes you owned one.
Another memory I have of Skipper Frank is what I believe was his final series for KTLA, Channel 5. Their afternoon bloc of kids' show hosts had gone away so late in the sixties, he did a morning show for them and it was done as a live remote. You'd turn it on and there would be the Skipper coming to us from somewhere in Los Angeles, broadcasting from a truck that the KTLA newsmen would be using later in the day to cover stories. Someone back at the studio (I guess) would be rolling in the cartoons he introduced.
This might have been a good idea if he could have done it from local events — fairs, public gatherings, places where things were occurring — but it rarely was. The show aired at either 7 AM or 8 AM (the latter, I think) and nothing much was happening at that hour. So it would just be Skipper Frank inexplicably standing by the KTLA truck in some parking lot somewhere. For a time, they did it like a contest. They'd drive around L.A., pick some residential street and do the show from outside someone's house. If it was your house and you came outside and said you were watching, you got some sort of prize…but I don't recall that anyone ever did.
I watched him while I was getting dressed for school and wondered why they were going to the trouble and expense of taking the truck out every morn to basically do the show from nowhere. Later, I realized it was probably the cheapest way they could have done the program, broadcasting from a truck with a crew that was probably about two guys, rather than opening the studio. Doing it on location like that meant no lighting men, no security staff, a one-camera shoot, etc. That it was still watchable television had everything to do with Skipper Frank's great ability to just talk on camera and be interesting. I don't see a lot of people on my TV these days who can do that.