LOCAL
KIDS SHOWS:
SAN FRANCISCO
in the 1960's and '70's
MAYOR
ART
You
refer to both Mayor Art and Marshall J and his dog Rowdy.
My father
was a camera man at KPIX. When I was little, we would often be allowed
to sit on the sidelines and watch the filming of Marshall J, Mayor
Art and Dick Stewart's Dance Party. After the hits became
old hat, my sister and I received the records, 45's, often signed by
the singers.
I still
have photos my dad took of those days, including a portrait of Marshall
J, Dick Stewart and Peter Paul and Mary singing on the show. J must
have been in cahoots with my dad about our highly desired skates, as
on one visit, J magically produces a pair for each of us. I remember
Rowdy was sweet, but distant. Mayor Art was strange. If you invited
him over for dinner, he would remain in character and 'speak' through
one of his puppets. We were delighted, but my mother was always peering
at him strangely.
I have
never seen any pictures of Jay besides the ones my Dad took when he
worked at KPIX. Marshall J, by the way, did get fired for being drunk.
Such a shame.
The large
11 x 14 pictures were taken by my father, John Shurtleff Stevens, in
July 1962.
- Anne
Stevens


A lot of
long memories (and a lot of time wasted at work for me reading them).
First of
all, Art Finley also had a weekly cartoon panel in the S.F. Chronicle
called Art's Gallery that featured an old turn-of-the-century
woodcut illustration from the Chron archives that he would add a gag
punchline to underneath.
Years after
he left TV Finley was on radio as a talkshow host on KGO and a news
anchor on KCBS before retiring (to Canada, I believe).
I was on
Mayor Art with my brother and sister in 1963. He hosted Popeye
cartoons and replaced Skipper Sedley, who went over to KTVU and
hosted Three Stooges shorts as the rechristened Sir Sedley.
Also not
to be forgotten is Marshall J, who was on KPIX starting in the
late '50s and later went over to KGO as the same character. His set
was a ranch house and he had a dalmatian called Rowdy. The oft-told
tale was that he was removed from the show for going on the air drunk.
He hosted Clutch Cargo and Space Angel cartoons.
Finally,
Captain San Francisco on KBHK was Mike Cleary, a longtime radio
morning man on KNBR who now writes a travel column for the newspapers
I work for.
- CT
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SAN
FRANCISCO
LOCAL KID SHOWS
(by you)
"I
lived in San Mateo, CA in the mid 1960's and remember a San Francisco
kiddie show personality by the name of Art Finley (sp?).
"I
think he was mainly a columnist for either the S.F. Chronicle or the
Examiner. I believe the show was on KRON-TV in San Francisco, it was
called the Mayor Art show. Do you know anything about this?
The time frame would have been around 1964 or so. Just curious. It
was a good show."
-Mike
Pittsley
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