"Uncle" Al Lewis dead at 84

[Roy Tucker]

I was a Cleveland kid so I grew up on Captain Penny, Barnaby, and Mr. Jingeling. Later on, Ghoulardi was the thing.

[redsmetz]

Originally Posted by minus5

I did see that. Also, in an interview while promoting Willy Wonka, Johnny Depp said that for part of his character he used Uncle Al as his inspiration. He grew up watching Uncle Al in Tampa (If I recall correctly), where Scripps owned a local TV station and aired Uncle Al.

Folks forget how much production both in radio and TV Cincinnati had back in the day. David Letterman talks about being influenced by Paul Dixon (his ham giveaways are from those days) and radio folks Jerry Thomas and James Francis Patrick O'Neal.

Bob Shreve was absolutely insane on his late night shows and both Channel 12 and Channel 5 had their own children's programs. Glenn "Skipper" Ryle on 12 and Mr. Hop (a guy in a rabbit costume) on 5. When Channel 19 came along, they had The Cool Ghoul and Larry Smith and his puppets were on a couple of stations (our family once picked him up hitchhiking from Wright Patt when he was in the Air Force. He had his puppet case with him).

And that's not mentioning Ruth Lyons and the 50/50 Club, Midwestern Hayride or Nick Clooney's variety show.

And again, that's not mentioning all the radio production that emenated from Cincinnati in the 1930's through the 1950's, many nationally broadcast on one network or another.