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Remembering Kids TV’s First Circus Ringmaster by Kevin S. Butler
February 11, 2016 marked the 100th birthday of the ringmaster of kid TV’s first circus program, Claude Kirchner.
Born Klaus Von Hindenberg in Rostock Germany to a German military official, the child would later have his name changed to Claude Hindenberg Kirchner. The Kirchner family would move to The United States around the late 1920’s and settle in Chicago where the young man attended Riverside Grammar school. When he attended Brookfield High School Claude Kirchner excelled in sports and he performed in operettas including a memorable turn in Gilbert & Sullivan’s ”The Mikado”.
This lead to his first professional show biz gig where he served as a barker for “The Streets Of Paris” exhibit at the Chicago World’s Fair and later for legendary stripper Sally Rand. Following his graduation from Brookfield High in 1934, Kirchner went to work for the 2nd Chicago World’s Fair as a tour guide for "The Black Forrest” exhibit. While attending Chicago University Claude took a summer job at the Texas Centennial, again as a barker. This would lead him to a career in broadcasting.
When he joined the staff at radio station WRR as an announcer he worked briefly at WRR before he left for WROK in Rockfield, Ill. and later he served on the announcing staff at WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wi. where Claude worked on a musical/variety program ”Heine & His Grenadeers”.
He also served as a radio DJ playing the popular swing tunes of the day and Claude mc’d women’s panel show ”Ladies Be Seated.”
In 1949,Claude was invited to audition for a kids radio game show for a local confection company as he recalled in his last TV interview with Ira Gallen in 1989, ”There was a
company called Super Bubble Gum in Memphis and I was working on a couple of shows for ABC Radio in Chicago at the time. They (the owners of Super Bubble Gum) went to see the programming director in Chicago. Harold Stokes (a former bandleader) and they said ’Can you create a radio show?’ Harold Stokes, Phil Patton, who was
the producer of Ladies Be Seated, Bill Adams the writer and I, we went into this thing—Let’s do a radio quiz show for little kids and teenagers and we’ll call it Super Circus."
Kirchner, Patton and Adams also hired musical entertainer Mary Hartline for the show, a pilot was recorded but an unexpected mishap occurred. ”Super Bubble Gum” dropped their sponsorship of the program before it went on the air. Since TV was coming to Chicago and to the nation, it was decided to redo the game show concept and turn it into a children’s circus variety TV series. Hiring veteran rain stage and radio comic actor Clifford Sobier to play the program’s boss clown ”Cliffy.” Kirchner and Sobrier did a live tv show pilot on a Saturday night in 1949.”There were three TV stations - Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis. We had four acts (on the show) a musical trio and they played music for the acts. We did audience participation”.
That first show had about 35 minutes of scripted material, for the remainder of that first telecast Kirchner and Sorbrier ad libbed. Passersby were brought in make up the studio
audience. The series was on the air for three weeks yet, despite it’s flaws, ”Super Circus” became a hit with kids so the heads of the ABC network moved the program to a Sunday afternoon timeslot. Ms. Hartline would join the cast along with professional circus clown Nick Francis (who played the sad face tramp character of “Nicky”) and “Scampy” (played by Phil Patton’s son Bardy) became a regular part of the show.
The clowns performed their comedy skits, while circus and variety acts performed for the studio audience and the viewers inside of The Pacific TV Theater. Eventually, Bardy Patton outgrew his role of “Scampy” he was replaced by Sandy Dobritch (who was a member of a former circus trapeze act) in the part. The show also featured a game segment where kids from the studio audience were chosen to try and find silver coins inside of three large jars filled with pennies.
Long before he became the director of "The Dean Martin Show" for NBC Greg Garrison guided “Super Circus” through it’s first season. After Mr. Garrison left the series for other venues Ed Skotch became the show’s second director.
The series remained a popular attraction on ABC’s Sunday afternoon line until it was decided to drop the Chicago cast and move the program to New York City with a new lineup - comedy musical entertainer Jerry Colonna replaced Kirchner as the ringmaster, Sandy Wirth became the new ”Queen Of The Super Circus Band”, and Will B. Able, Jerry Kosloski and The Baron Twins were the new resident buffoons.
Kirchner, Hartline, Sobrier, Francis and Dobritch would host the last show in December of 1955. Claude moved to NYC in 1956 where he would begin a new phase of his career in kid's TV as the emcee of WOR Ch. 9’s cartoon fests.
On Monday evening October 22, 1956 he became the ringmaster of Ch. 9’s “Terrytoons
Circus”. He worked solo on this local TV program engaging his viewers in stories,craft making, hobbies,informational segmnents and interviews with guest performers and personalities in-between the reruns of ”Terrytoons” sound movie cartoons. Kirchner would also engage his viewers in some comedy as he tried to surpress the wisecracking antics of his saucy clown puppet ”Clownie”
“Clownie” took great delight in either trying to upstage or insulting the old circus man with such wisecracks as ”String Bean”, “Skinny Bones” and the somewhat controversial “High Pockets” which Kirchner would respond with an exasperated “Oh, for goodness sakes”.
Claude and “Clownie” continued to entertain and inform their visitors to ”Terrytoons Circus" until Friday April 27, 1962.
Adding to his busy schedule Claude also did voice-overs for TV commercials and mc’d a weekday afternoon cartoon series”The Scrub Club” which opened it’s doors to NYC’s young members on Wedneday, May 8, 1957. Unlike “Terrytoons Circus” Claude did not appear in his circus garb, he sported a dress suit, tie and manipulated a different set of hand puppets: ”Scrubby The Pig”, ”Dr. Owl” and other lovable characters (“Clownie”, ”Scrubby”, ”Dr.Owl” and the rest of Claude’s puppet stock company were created by a puppet maker known as Caroline). The series was set against the backdrop of a neighborhood clubhouse where Claude and his puppet pals would entertain and educate their club members between reruns of old movie cartoons. Unfortunately, ”The Scrub Club” was not a successful concept and left the air on Friday, September 13, 1957.
Kirchner and his wisecracking clown puppet counterpart would host two more series on WOR TV. “Super Adventure Theater”, a film anthology program which reran old movie ”Have Rocket Will Travel” with “The Three Stooges”, ”Pack Up Your Troubles” with Laurel & Hardy, “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein”, ”Godzilla” etc. Claude and “Clownie” would keep “Super Adventure Theater” open for business Saturday and Sunday mornings from Sunday, September 20, 1959 to 1967.
The pair would also emcee “Merrytunes Circus” where Claude and “Clownie” would entertain and inform their viewers between the reruns of the Paramount/Famous Screen Songs” and Columbia/Charlie Mintz ”Krazy Kat”, ”Scrappy” and ”Lil Abner” movie cartoons weekday evenings from Monday, April 30, 1962 to Friday, September 20, 1963.
Claude attempted to return to network kid's TV when he got the opportunity to host a new circus variety show for NBC and for the Louis J. Marx Toy Co.
“Marx Magic Midway” was originally conceived as a magic circus/variety series set against the backdrop of a traveling circus. Magician/ puppeteer/ cartoonist/ and comic actor Doug Anderson was slated to emcee the program. But the producer Peter Piech and the sponsor decided to drop the magic format and have Kirchner serve not only as emcee but to promote the toys as well (at the time Kirchner was the spokesman for the toy company). This series debuted on Saturday, September 22, 1962.
The show also featured Bonnie Lee Bailey (the teenage baton twirling champ of 1962), Phil Kiley (Paul Dooley), Doug Anderson and Bill Bailey were the resident clowns and Lou Stein & His Circus Seven Band provided the musical accompaniment for the circus and variety acts that appeared on the show. The kids in the studio audience would play games for a chance to win a treasure chest of Marx Toy prizes. But the show was hampered by creative interference from the producer and Marx Toys quickly withdrew it’s endorsement of the show. The series continued until it finally went off the air following the Saturday March 6, 1963 episode.
As America entered the late 1960s WOR TV began to cut back it’s children’s programs with the exception of ”Romper Room.” Claude Kirchner was the only kids TV emcee left working at the station.
He would work on two more kid's TV series at WOR a weekday morning version of ”The Scrub Club”. Unable to use his puppets from the previous series he would manipulate and voice two sock puppets ”Super Flop” (A sad face failure) and “Super Flo” (a mean spirited, wisecracking witch).The program was the first NYC based kids tv cartoon fest to screen Abbott & Costello TV cartoons. It was also the last kids tv show to rerun the “Spunky & Tadpole” films. ”The Scrub Club” was seen weekday mornings on Ch. 9 starting on Monday, August 26, 1968. It was also not a hit and the station execs closed down the clubhouse on Friday, December 13, 1968.
Claude’s last regular tv appearances was on WOR TV’s version of ”The Bozo Show” seen weekday mornings starting on Monday February 3, 1969. He would serve as the ringmaster/announcer for ”Bozo” (played by stage and TV actor and singer Gordon Ramsey), ”Professor Tweetiefooer”, “Grandma Nelly” and ”Slim Jim” (played by comic/character actor/ dialectician/ magician/ and cartoonist Tom Mahoney) and “Snappy Pappy” and “Larry Loveless” (played by actor/scriptwriter and producer Earl A. George).
The cast would entertain and inform their studio audiences and viewers in-between the reruns of “The Bozo” made for television cartoons and “Flash Gordon” and “Buck Rogers” movie serials.
Once again, poor Claude had to deal with creative interference and he left the show before it moved to a weekday afternoon timeslot and was retitled ”Circus Circus Circus” (Earl George replaced him in the role of ”The Circus Boss” a live action version of the ringmaster character that appeared in the “Bozo” cartoons).
Following his abrupt departure from “The Bozo Show” Claude Kirchner’s TV appearances became few and far between, he would work for a time as booth announcer at Ch. 9. He moved back to Chicago where he hosted another jazz era music show for a local radio station. His show was popular with the listeners of the Windy City until the station underwent new management and the show was cancelled.
He then returned to NYC where he created and produced radio commercials for other announcers to promote. He was also invited to host a new version of “Super Circus” for national syndication but the project never came to fruition.
During the 1980’s, he made a guest appearance on WOR Ch. 9’s 35th Anniversary tribute which aired on Tuesday night, October 11, 1984. The show also featured former radio & TV DJ Cousin Brucie Morrow; former radio & TV entertainer and NYC based kid's radio and TV wraparound host/performer Ray Heatherton; and talk show interviewer Joe Franklin. Former Canadian radio & TV broadcaster, actor and singer Lorne Greene was the show’s host and narrator.
He was also reunited with Ms. Mary Hartline on the WABC TV Ch. 7 NYC newsmagazine ”Where Were You?”. He made his last television appearance on NYC based producer and host Ira Gallen’s Manhattan Cable talk/nostalgia series ”Biograph Days/Biograph Nights”. Coinciding with the release of recently discovered minnie film prints of ”Super Circus” Claude recalled his years as the first ringmaster host/announcer of kiddie TV’s pioneering circus variety program.
It was hoped that Mr. Kirchner would do more interviews on Mr. Gallen’s series but it was not to be. On March 8, 1993, he succumbed to cancer at a Hawthrone, New York Hospisic. He was 77. Nevertheless Claude Kirchner’s contributions to children's television
paved the way for other circus and cartoon programs that were seen on the networks and on many local stations all throughout the country.
His efforts are still remembered by many young viewers and studio audiences who were lucky enough to be "in their regular ringside seats” for every performance.
Remembering Kids TV’s First Circus Ringmaster
He also served as a radio DJ playing the popular swing tunes of the day and Claude mc’d women’s panel show ”Ladies Be Seated.”
That first show had about 35 minutes of scripted material, for the remainder of that first telecast Kirchner and Sorbrier ad libbed. Passersby were brought in make up the studio
