Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Nov 17, 2007, 4:23 PM
|
|
"Checkers and Pogo" creator Jim Hawthorne dies, 88
|
|
|
TV and radio personality Jim Hawthorne, co-creator and original host of long-running Honolulu kids' show Checkers and Pogo, died November 6 at 88.
Hawthorne had congestive heart disease and died at the Buena Vista Care Center in Santa Barbara, California, son Scott told the Los Angeles Times.
Hawthorne was the original "Mr. Checkers" on Checkers and Pogo, which aired daily from 1967 to 1982 on KGMB 9. The show featured many Hanna-Barbera cartoons. It also imported such now-famous Japanese animated series as Astro Boy, Speed Racer and Princess Knight. As well, the local children's show offered the British puppet-animated series Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett.
He moved to Hawaii in 1965, beginning as "Ol' Weather Eyes" for the KGMB news. Although Checkers and Pogo was a quick success after it first ran in 1967, he left the show after only four months. However, he was very proud of his role on the program.
Born in Colorado, he was an institution in post-Second World War Los Angeles, introducing the catchword "hogan" into his radio and TV shows. Guests on his programs included a young Daws Butler.
In 1947, he gained fame on Pasadena radio station KXLA (now KRLA). Said Time magazine the following year, he "suddenly turned his show into a carefree, wit-loose 'Hellzapoppin on the air.'"
His nighttime show offered a wide variety of the strange: records by Spike Jones, Homer and Jethro, Buddy Baker, Red Ingle and Slim Coates, as well as ancient 1910s discs by such early artists as Arthur Pryor, Billy Murray and Prince's Band, whose "So Long Letty" became Hawthorne's theme song.
"He was one of a kind," said syndicated radio host Barry Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento. "There was no one else like him on the radio at that time -- totally free-form, off-the-wall, and making great use of humor."
Born in Victor, Colorado, on November 20, 1918, he attended Denver University, during which he got his first radio job in 1940 at KMYR. He served briefly in the United States Army, then moved to L.A.
Hawthorne worked as assistant director on the Range Busters Westerns before joining KXLA in 1943. Later, he was program director and show host at radio station KFWB.
Hawthorne pulled crazy stunts on his nighttime show, once interrupting 10 minutes of Bach, with various asides and the sound of a barking seal. Or he might interrupt a record with a voice that said, "I've got cole slaw in all my pockets. I'm cold."
He'd use the word "hogan" in such neologisms as "Pasadena-hogan" and "hoganburger." He called his listeners "Hoganites."
Hawthorne also played the "Hogantwanger," made up of different lengths of hacksaw blades on a wooden base. He wrote and recorded "The Hogan Song," a musical tribute to his obsession.
He voiced various characters on his show: Skippy, an old man who'd mock him; Eggbert the "engineer"; and Scrappy, a piece of paper with which he'd chat by crumpling it against the mike.
In 1950, Hawthorne produced and starred in the Saturday night radio show The Hawthorne Thing, which came from NBC's Hollywood studio and aired from coast to coast.
On TV, he hosted This Is Hawthorne, a 1950-52 late-night talk show on KLAC-TV (now KCOP-TV 13). He also did TV shows on Los Angeles channels 5 and 2.
In his book Hi-Ho Steverino: My Adventures in the Wonderful Wacky World of TV, Steve Allen said that he sometimes called Hawthorne "the West Coast Ernie Kovacs, since both men specialized in fresh, inventive sight gags and camera tricks, rather than simply doing radio comedy on TV, as other comedians of that time did."
Hawthorne made several novelty records in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including (with Red Ingle) the 1948 hit "Serutan Yob," a hillbilly-style parody of Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy."
Moving back to Denver in 1970, he was program director and promotion director and program director at radio station KOA. He also created, wrote and hosted a daily news magazine for KOA-TV. Retiring in 1985, he continued to appear over the years on radio, also writing a Web column for a Los Angeles radio page.
A resident of Buena Vista Care Center for the last few years, Hawthorne produced several local cable-access variety shows from the facility. The shows featured the talents of staff members, as well as fellow residents and their children.
"He just had fun down to the very end," his son said.
Besides son Scott, Jim Hawthorne is survived by his other son, Darr, and five grandchildren. Daughter Deone died in 1994.
|
|
|
|
