|
Smilin'
Ed McConnell - Host of the popular 1950s children's program
SMILIN' ED'S GANG/NBC/ABC/CBS/1950-55 (originally titled SMILIN' ED
McCONNELL AND HIS BUSTER BROWN GANG).
Helping our happy grey-haired
host were Grandie the talking piano, Froggy the Gremlin, a
mischievous frog puppet dressed in a tuxedo, ("Plunk your magic
twanger, Froggie!") and puppet animal co-hosts Midnight the Cat and a
hamster named Squeaky the Mouse.
The program (which aired on radio
between 1929 to 1953 as the Buster Brown Show) featured songs,
stories and live-action filmed adventures starring Nino Marcel as
both Little Fox, an American Indian boy and Gunga Ram, an Asian
Indian boy.
Smilin' Ed McConnell closed each program saying, "Yes,
Sir, we're Pals and Pals stick together. And now, Gang don't forget
church or Sunday school."
Born January 12,
1892 in Atlanta, Georgia, James Edwin McConnell died July 24, 1954
in Newport Beach, California. McConnell began broadcasting his “Hymn
Time” program on the radio in 1922 and earned the nickname “Smilin’
Ed McConnell.”
When Smilin' Ed McConnell died in 1954,
the show was retitled ANDY'S GANG and starred Andy Devine, popular
at the time for his role as Jingles B. Jones, the frontier sidekick
on the western adventure WILD BILL HICKOK/SYN/1951. See also -
"Andy Devine"
External Links
Back to Top |
