I just watched the special and it was very very good, the vintage footage and the singing tribute by Bowser and Blue at the end which was pretty well spot on.
I have a page on my Tighsolas website about Johnny Jellybean that gets a lot of hits. It’s a footnote to my play Looking For Mrs. Peel.
Johnny Jellybean was a TV character, one truly beloved to Montreal children of the era.
In 1981 or 2 Ted Zeigler, the comic actor who played Johnny Jellybean, visited the station and a producer noticed that everyone was coming around to the studio for a peek. “We employees ignore all the sports heroes and such who pass through this place,” he said,”but we go berzerk for Johnny Jellybean.”
I know because the producer said it to me. I was working in radio, as a copywriter in that era, and the CFCF radio offices where adjacent the TV Newsroom. I was one of those employees trying to sneak a peek of Zeigler.
What really freaks me out about this 50th Anniversary Special is that more years have passed between 1982 and today, than had passed between 1982 and 1961, the year CFCF (Canada’s First, Canada’s Finest) came on the air. In 1982, as a young adult in my 20′s, 1961 seemed a million years in the past, while 1982 seems like yesterday to me right now, although I have sons in their twenties to prove it isn’t.
So it goes.
I know I didn’t see CFCF come on the air because my family was living in Labrador and only moved back to Montreal in November.
As it happens, they aired a clip of Jimmy Tapp who anchored one of the station’s first shows. Jimmy worked in radio as an announcer in 1982. His son worked there too.
Magic Tom, well, I never went on his show as a child, but my Aunt was in Army Recruiting during the war and I guess she had worked with him. Sometimes in the late 70′s we met him downtown and she introduced us. He was a very handsome man and I could tell she had had a crush on him back in the old days.
Oh, and Jack Curran worked in radio too. He once told me a story about one of the Romper Room hostesses, which I won’t reveal here, but let’s say, she acted out of character. I don’t think they showed a clip of that popular pre-school program.
Anyway, it’s true what Mitsumi said about the special feelings Anglo Montreal has for CFCF. The station holds a unique place in our hearts because of our unique (and often annoying) situation, politically-speaking.
I’m sure there are many, many Torontonians who would like to have seen this show (and maybe they did on satellite). I know quite a few personally.
One night, in 1983, I awoke in a cold sweat because I suddenly realized I had forgotten to change a radio ad for the next day, and it would start playing at 3 am or something. So I took a taxi into work.
Well, the taxi driver was a young law student from McGill and he was just SOOO thrilled to be in the building at 405 Ogilvy, his head was spinning, almost literally as he took it all in. I recall him saying, despondently, as we left, “I guess this is the first and last time I’ll see this place.” Gee, maybe he was coming onto me. Too late now!
Anyway, Edith and Flora would have lived long enough to see CFCF come on the air, although they retired and moved back to Richmond around that time.
I wonder what TV stations Richmond could get in the 60′s. They loved to watch Bonanza. But I seem to recall that show was on the CBC.
One more thing: CFCF was a Canadian Marconi Station. In 1912, Marconi was experimenting with radio waves. I read an article about it in Technical World. He was hoping his new invention would have a democratizing effect on the world’s citizens, that it would even the playing field, so to speak, similar to what was hoped for the Internet. Hmm. How Interesting.
