In the early 60s, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw showed up at stores and shopping centres. They appeared at fairs. A small show was developed with Eddie Alberian as emcee; Eddie had been part of Howdy Doody’s Roadshow Pals, which was making the rounds in 1960.
Buffalo seems to have been a favourite stop for Huck. Below are some clippings from the Courier-Express about several shows (there are other clippings that aren’t very readable). The Hanna-Barbera characters sometimes appeared as part of some larger for charity.
August 22, 1961
August 27, 1961
December 25, 1961 (note the misspelling of “Barbera”).
January 1, 1962
January 26, 1962
April 26, 1962
June 21, 1962 (top of layout modified)
June 13, 1963
Huck equals Luck in Buffalo. WGR-TV ran the Huckleberry Hound Show starting on Thursday, October 3, 1958. Kids in Buffalo could also watch Huck on Fridays at 6 p.m. on WTEN in Albany and pick up the show on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. from CBLT in Toronto. WGR-TV plugged Huck in box ads on occasion. The one you see above is from September 15, 1960.
Rochester would have been the place to be for your Huck viewing -- you could pick up the Buffalo stations if you were on the west side of town, and the Toronto stations if you were close enough to Lake Ontario (little too far down I-90 from Albany to pick up those stations, though....)
ReplyDeleteYou've also got Utica and Syracuse down the Thruway before reaching Albany....
DeleteThose "meet your favorite cartoon stars" gimmicks always gave me the creeps when I was a kid. Always knew that that wasn't Yogi Bear or Bugs Bunny, and that they wouldn't be able to do the character's voice. Most kids in those days knew Daws Butler and Mel Blanc when they heard them.
ReplyDeleteIn 1961 I was 5 years old and my family lived right around the corner from the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo. I was a huge fan of Huck and Yogi, and if I had known that show was going on, I would have begged my parents to take me!!
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