Museum Of Classic Chicago Television - WCIU Channel 26

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WCIU Channel 26 - Mulqueen's Kiddie A-Go-Go (1969)

Here's a segment from an episode of Mulqueen's Kiddie a-Go-Go on WCIU Channel 26. Includes:

Pandora talking to the duck character Spike about the upcoming Chapter 6 of the serial Jungle Queen.

The kids dance to "I've Been Hurt" by Bill Deal and the Rhondels.

Commercial: Henry's Restaurants featuring "Captain Henry" and a contest with 8829 winners - "Head For Henry's" - in Chicago, Joliet, Wheeling, Des Plaines, Waukegan - Highland, Indiana - Kenosha, Wisconsin - and Benton Harbor, Michigan. (ending voiceover by Elaine Mulqueen) ("Captain Henry" is played by Dick Orkin (of his 60s radio series "Chickenman" fame) - who also worked with Rich Koz!)

Starring Elaine Mulqueen as Pandora. Directed by Drew Leach.

Former WCIU staffer Aubrey Mumpower says, "Mike May the TD [Technical Director] on duty would do those duck voices. [i.e., Spike] It was really funny when he'd use them on headset."

Note: this is presented as originally broadcast, in Black & White.

What a simpler time, eh? :-)

This aired live on local Chicago TV on Friday, April 25th 1969.

This clip aired on Friday, April 25th 1969, and is included in the following categories:

Kids' Stuff

WCIU Channel 26

1960s

Black & White Clips (As Originally Aired)

Viewer Comments

Wowzers! Mulqueen's Kiddie A-Go-Go was popular dance show for kids ran until 1970. Last time I checked, there might be some eps of this show still floating around the collection circuit in existance.
Comment posted by ChitownTVFan on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 2:18 AM

From what I could tell (especially the picture quality on this clip), in those days WCIU used RCA TK-11/31 cameras in their studios at the Board of Trade building; I don't think they broadcast or transmitted in color until sometime in the mid-1970's - and I've read Ch. 26 was the last of the Windy City stations to go color. (The 10th anniversary retrospective clip from "Rock of Ages" actually showed a behind-the-scenes pics with one of those ancient cameras, prior to their going color and switching to "cheap" cameras like the IVC 501.)
Comment posted by W.B. on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 2:45 AM

I liked the commercial for Henry's.
Comment posted by 1980sfan on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 10:17 AM

Wow!

This is a precious gem!

That Henry's commercial was hysterical!
My guess is that Henry's was kind of like Denny's, Culver's, Applebee's, etc.
I don't know, it was a little before my time. Seemed like they had everything.
Comment posted by armitagenlowell on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 12:16 PM

I have to confess that I don't remember this show. Channel 26 didn't come in very well in Rogers Park (of course, we were going with the rabbit ears and loop antenna on the TV, because we didn't have an antenna on the roof), and anyway the TV we typically watched was an oldie from the 50's that only brought in channels 2-13. I also never went to Henry's and have no idea where they were located, apart from the city (great commercial). What time was this on? (Was this a transfer from a kinescope?)
Comment posted by HUdson 3-2700 on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 2:27 PM

@ HUdson 3-2700: They were antennas that had a UHF converter for those TVs that bought in channels 2-13. When color TVs came out they had a bulit-in UHF so no converter was needed.
Comment posted by betamax75 on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 2:38 PM

OMG...Channel 26 from forty years ago??????

Where did you find this????
Comment posted by SuperCFL on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 PM

Is it just me...or does "Captain Henry" sound like Dick Orkin?
Comment posted by SuperCFL on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 7:05 PM

Henry's was a fast-food burger chain, like McDonald's or Burger King. There's apparently just one location left - the one in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Here's a history of the chain:
http://www.henryshamburgers.com/index.php/henrys-story
Comment posted by kba on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 8:44 PM

@betamax75: I remember those tuners, though I'm sure that my parents thought that they were "worthless"...Did they work very well?
Comment posted by HUdson 3-2700 on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 PM

Jack Mulqueen did a book signing at my local library a few years ago. There was a woman that sat in the back during his talk and she was reading a book and not really paying much attention. I swear it was Elaine/Pandora! I wondered why she didn't participate with him in the talk but I didn't want to actually approach her to ask either.

Also, the MBC had the episode of Kiddie A Go Go that featured the New Colony Six and I would always watch it when I would go to the archieves there because my aunt dated one of the members. They played in the basement of my Grandma's duplex for my aunt's Sweet 16 and they gave her a charm bracelet.
Comment posted by smctopia on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 9:45 PM

SuperCFL, I agree 100%. That is the voice and face of Dick Orkin. I loved it when he and Bert Berdis were a team. They both are still in advertising.

Fuzzy, this is a rare clip. Is this from the studio master. It looks so pristine!
Comment posted by Erniebaud on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 10:22 PM

This was recorded live, off the air in the studio, by the director Drew Leach. He wrote down the exact airdate so that is confirmed.
Comment posted by FuzzyMemories on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 10:31 PM

@ Hudson 3-2700: My uncle had a Winegard converter that was used on an old black & white Zenith TV from the early 60's and it did work well. They bought the converter becase WCIU was showing Italian programming at the time. They did buy another black & white one in the late 60s with a built-in UHF so no converter was need. I did remember when I was little when they did have that earlier TV with the converter hooked up. The first time my uncle and grandparents had a color TV was in 1979. My parents first color TV was an Admiral set in 1968 and then a Zenith Chomacolor II in 1975.
Comment posted by betamax75 on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 10:11 AM

Wow! This almost looks like an SNL skit...
Comment posted by Pete on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 5:35 PM

In the latter part of the '60's the closest equivalent to WCIU in the New York area was Newark, NJ's WNJU Channel 47, which signed on the air in 1965 (a year after WCIU). They ran different ethnic programming (including Spanish), as well as shows like legendary Philadelphia/New York horror-show host Zacherley's music series "Disc-O-Teen" and, very early on in the station's existence, a folk music program hosted by Pete Seeger. But by the end of the decade WNJU had moved further towards the Spanish-language format it has retained to this day (since the late 1980's, the Telemundo flagship for the area). Even the structure of the call letters were similar (the ending "U" in each case signifying UHF).

In terms of studio facilities, however, from what I've read, WCIU's setup sounded not too dissimilar to a cross between public-access cable studios and those of WOR Channel 9 (if based on what longtime talk show host Joe Franklin wrote in one of his books).
Comment posted by W.B. on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 9:25 PM

The Henry's in Des Plaines was at Rand and Graceland. Replaced by Pot 'n' Pan, Destiny and now Jimmy's.
Comment posted by Polyrasmatazz on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 4:01 PM

In Chicago on the north side I can tell you the location of three Henry's.
Foster and Nargansett where the original building was there till about ten years ago when it was razed to make room for a parking lot for a resturant. That lot is now a CVS store. Foster and Western was also a Henry on the NW corner. A 7-11 now stands there. Farther south on Western a Henry's Building still exists directly across what use to be Riverviews main entrance. It's used by a Used Car dealer. I'm going to post the picture of it I was able to find on Google maps.
Comment posted by telefrank on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 9:30 AM

This clip is precious. Thanks, Fuzz :)
Comment posted by onehotmomma66 on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 4:58 PM

The audio is out of sync with the video on this. Note to self to redo this one.
Comment posted by FuzzyMemories on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 7:11 PM

FINALLY - found the time to re-transfer this properly and make a new video file. The audio is now properly synced to the video, as it was when originally aired. Sorry it took so long. This is the way the clip should have looked when I posted it the first time but I had a disc that my encoder didn't like very much.

What a great clip - such a precious time capsule of a simpler time. :-)
Comment posted by FuzzyMemories on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 1:34 AM

Fuzzy, can you post up the Henry's commercial as a separate clip? I think it is worth it.
Comment posted by afdave on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 6:52 PM

I agree. I'll do it tonight.
Comment posted by FuzzyMemories on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 6:59 PM

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This clip has been viewed 2749 times.
This clip debuted on FuzzyMemories.TV on Monday, November 2nd 2009.


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