i'm sure many of our younger members might not even know who this is, but anyone over 30 - who grew up in Chicago does......
MrT
______________________________________________________
'Ray Rayner and His Friends' host remembered
By Ted Cox Daily Herald TV/Radio Columnist
Ray Rayner, a Chicago TV pioneer who taught generations of kids to greet each morning with creativity, good humor and the recommended daily allowance of cartoons, died Wednesday of complications from pneumonia in Fort Meyers, Fla. He was 84.
Rayner spent 20 years at WGN Channel 9 from 1961 to 1981 in a variety of roles and disguises, ranging from Sgt. Pettibone on "The Dick Tracy Show" to clown Oliver O. Oliver on "Bozo's Circus." Yet he is most fondly remembered as the host of "Ray Rayner and His Friends," a freeform, free-spirited, freewheeling live romp of a morning kids show of the sort that, quite simply, isn't done any more in the age of corporate television.
Pulling notes from his wardrobe of multicolored coveralls to dictate the show's next segment, vamping with stuffed pooch Cuddly Dudley (voiced by fellow clown Roy Brown), forever in pursuit of the ornery, all-white Chelveston the Duck, keeping sports fans apprised of the ups and downs of the Slippery Rock football team and messing up an unending series of do-it-yourself projects he could never quite pull off without getting glue all over everything, Rayner entertained kids, above all, by treating them as equals and just being himself.
"He was a very friendly, warm person," said Allen Hall, longtime producer of "Bozo's Circus." "That's one of the reasons his morning show was tremendously successful."
With Rayner reading traffic reports over stock highway footage and dealing out sports highlights from the previous day's games, his morning show was a fixture with parents as well as kids. It typically led all morning shows with a 45 percent share of the audience.
Yet what came across most was his warmth, wit and creativity. Rayner would ad-lib with "Chauncy," the name he gave his off-camera crew, or veer off to "The Closet." If a band major's uniform was hanging there, he would lead an imaginary marching band, or anchor a newscast of the "Pretend Broadcasting System" if it were a fedora and a tea-strainer microphone waiting for him.
Other regular show features were the turtle races, the jelly-bean-counting contests, the spring tomato plantings and, of course, Looney Tunes cartoons, as well as serials like "Journey to the Beginning of Time" and seasonal shorts like "Susie Snowflake."
Rayner's show predated "educational" TV, but he never apologized for that. "I'm not cut out to do a preschool show," he said. "I'd be lousy at it. I feel my role isn't to be the educator in television. I say there's a place here for the entertainer. Kids can use an education in humor, in comedy, in enjoying a good joke."
Rayner was a New York City native and attended Holy Cross College and Fordham University, where he graduated with a degree in literature and philosophy. He later received a master's in humanities from the University of Chicago. He was a B-17 navigator in World War II and spent two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp after his plane was shot down. There, he developed a taste for theater entertaining other POWs.
"You really learn what life is all about in prison camp," he later said, "and what life is all about is food."
After the war, he went into radio, then television, coming to Chicago and taking a job at WBBM Channel 2 in 1953. He played host to kids shows like "Rayner Shine," "Popeye's Firehouse" and a local teen dance program before jumping to Channel 9 in 1961. He replaced Dick Coughlan as host of "Breakfast With Bugs Bunny" the following year, and it was renamed "Ray Rayner and His Friends" in 1964.
He left Chicago in 1981 for Albuquerque, N.M., where he was the weatherman and fill-in news anchor at the CBS affiliate until 1989. More recently, he had retired to Fort Meyers. He returned to Chicago regularly and in 2000 was inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Chicago Chapter.
He retained a fondness for theater throughout his career and was a regular in local Chicago productions even while doing his live morning show.
He is survived by his wife, Marie; daughter, Christina; son, Mark; four grandchildren and generations of Chicago kids he taught to enjoy a good joke and humor in all its forms.
:mellow:
MrT
______________________________________________________
'Ray Rayner and His Friends' host remembered
By Ted Cox Daily Herald TV/Radio Columnist
Ray Rayner, a Chicago TV pioneer who taught generations of kids to greet each morning with creativity, good humor and the recommended daily allowance of cartoons, died Wednesday of complications from pneumonia in Fort Meyers, Fla. He was 84.
Rayner spent 20 years at WGN Channel 9 from 1961 to 1981 in a variety of roles and disguises, ranging from Sgt. Pettibone on "The Dick Tracy Show" to clown Oliver O. Oliver on "Bozo's Circus." Yet he is most fondly remembered as the host of "Ray Rayner and His Friends," a freeform, free-spirited, freewheeling live romp of a morning kids show of the sort that, quite simply, isn't done any more in the age of corporate television.
Pulling notes from his wardrobe of multicolored coveralls to dictate the show's next segment, vamping with stuffed pooch Cuddly Dudley (voiced by fellow clown Roy Brown), forever in pursuit of the ornery, all-white Chelveston the Duck, keeping sports fans apprised of the ups and downs of the Slippery Rock football team and messing up an unending series of do-it-yourself projects he could never quite pull off without getting glue all over everything, Rayner entertained kids, above all, by treating them as equals and just being himself.
"He was a very friendly, warm person," said Allen Hall, longtime producer of "Bozo's Circus." "That's one of the reasons his morning show was tremendously successful."
With Rayner reading traffic reports over stock highway footage and dealing out sports highlights from the previous day's games, his morning show was a fixture with parents as well as kids. It typically led all morning shows with a 45 percent share of the audience.
Yet what came across most was his warmth, wit and creativity. Rayner would ad-lib with "Chauncy," the name he gave his off-camera crew, or veer off to "The Closet." If a band major's uniform was hanging there, he would lead an imaginary marching band, or anchor a newscast of the "Pretend Broadcasting System" if it were a fedora and a tea-strainer microphone waiting for him.
Other regular show features were the turtle races, the jelly-bean-counting contests, the spring tomato plantings and, of course, Looney Tunes cartoons, as well as serials like "Journey to the Beginning of Time" and seasonal shorts like "Susie Snowflake."
Rayner's show predated "educational" TV, but he never apologized for that. "I'm not cut out to do a preschool show," he said. "I'd be lousy at it. I feel my role isn't to be the educator in television. I say there's a place here for the entertainer. Kids can use an education in humor, in comedy, in enjoying a good joke."
Rayner was a New York City native and attended Holy Cross College and Fordham University, where he graduated with a degree in literature and philosophy. He later received a master's in humanities from the University of Chicago. He was a B-17 navigator in World War II and spent two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp after his plane was shot down. There, he developed a taste for theater entertaining other POWs.
"You really learn what life is all about in prison camp," he later said, "and what life is all about is food."
After the war, he went into radio, then television, coming to Chicago and taking a job at WBBM Channel 2 in 1953. He played host to kids shows like "Rayner Shine," "Popeye's Firehouse" and a local teen dance program before jumping to Channel 9 in 1961. He replaced Dick Coughlan as host of "Breakfast With Bugs Bunny" the following year, and it was renamed "Ray Rayner and His Friends" in 1964.
He left Chicago in 1981 for Albuquerque, N.M., where he was the weatherman and fill-in news anchor at the CBS affiliate until 1989. More recently, he had retired to Fort Meyers. He returned to Chicago regularly and in 2000 was inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Chicago Chapter.
He retained a fondness for theater throughout his career and was a regular in local Chicago productions even while doing his live morning show.
He is survived by his wife, Marie; daughter, Christina; son, Mark; four grandchildren and generations of Chicago kids he taught to enjoy a good joke and humor in all its forms.
:mellow:
