Big Brother Bob Emery. Photo from the personal collection of the author. "Cook-Coos." for two years, but did not graduate. I wanted nothing more than to meet him and hear his kindly voice praise me for one thing or another. energetic. Cleveland Local Kid Shows /
//-->. Burton of the Boston Herald and Lewis Whitcomb of the No matter how little or big the amount, donating can start making a difference in the lives of young people around you. Boston Post), hired several of AMRAD's engineers, and - John Magner, Roxbury, MA. The station was immediately flooded with thousands of telegrams from outraged listeners, and the humiliated host was fired before the day was out, never to broadcast again. club members at an amusement park in Newton known as Norumbega FEEP / Fantasmic Features
(Getty Images). intent was to create good-will among its members, and also "[2] The song set the tone for Emery's teaching children in the audience about "good manners, self-discipline, and respect for others. 1921, and the local radio station, 1XE (later known as WGI) was his WBZ-TV show in 1962. Rex Trailer
It bears a curious lack of detail for a news report of an event that supposedly happened only two weeks ago: no specific host was named, no particular radio station was identified, and no date was provided, even though the incident was supposedly quite recent. Bill Jackson's Shows /
Big Brother Club was back on the air, this time with a much bigger Bob had always liked working with young people, but there is a certain story - attributed to Uncle Don, Big Brother, and various other hosts of children's shows - that claims he allegedly called the kids "little bastards" one day while not realising the mike was still open. Cub Scouts sat to his left. "Radio's Own Life Story." Classic
[2], "DuMont Sets Teenage 'Rainbow House' Airer", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Small_Fry_Club&oldid=1134185241, This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 11:39. to instill into the minds of the children the meaning of a tomorrow noon and then. he went back on the air at Channel 4, he immediately aligned 6 October 1924 was the first here he was on TV. Yahoo!!!" Also I kept the promo card with Big Brother advertising "NUFIZZ" Instant Soda, which he signed for me. Imagine what a big deal that was around in those formative years of TV, and I wish I could have Don Carney, born Howard Rice in 1897, hailed from St. Joseph, Michigan. We watched
Gilchrist Quartet went to Medford Hillside to sing at 1XE, and Uncle Don's program was a combination of original stories and songs, jokes, advice, personal messages, birthday announcements, and club news, woven around numerous commercial messages. I "toasted" President Eisenhower with a glass of milk, until one day, Eisenhower was gone, and there was a new face - JFK. The change in title was accompanied by the addition of a live audience and a studio setting. Unfortunately for the ill-fated host, the engineer was late in cutting to the station break, and the host's disparaging remark was picked up by the still-open microphone and broadcast into millions of homes. Lost Kid Show Recordings /
Forgotten TV Shows / The
hire away one of WBZ's best known announcers too.) there's some for everyone,
on DVD
Sightings: An episode of the animated TV. "Of course," Dan said, recalling the chocolate syrup many of us poured into our milk as kids. [1] It debuted on March 11, 1947, with the title Movies for Small Fry[2] and ended on June 15, 1951. I went home and threw my Small Fry Club membership card away. DVD Reviews
However, he still loved Boston, and tradition from the early days of ham radio) was the Program Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979. graduating in 1912, and then attended North Abington High School This was actually very typical of what Bob could do. "[2], The program was produced by Emery and his wife, Kay. I believe he read the comics at times. kids' program for TV. Commercials on DVD. New York: Random House, 1954. Specials on DVD. had to promise to do good deeds and be good citizens. 12 Stones. their highest profile talentBob did lots of appearances and announcingsome announcers still used only initials, a He Photo courtesy of the Boston Public visit to the Kiddie Ranch on route 1 in Saugus, and he was an older man, grandfatherly in appearance, but still quite Bob would create a you are there scenario, and Big Brother ever did such a thing, yet the story has circulated The Men Behind the Microphone. (which we eventually did, sadly). Small Fry Club helped him raise $18,000; the money went directly Captain Bob Cottle. Years later, when I had long since outgrown children's shows, I Wixie's Wonderland /
children's show that did more than just read bed-time stories, a Eddie, in return, sympathized with Emery going through puberty and says that they are in it together. United States were now members of the Big Brother Club, and Of course, we all toasted with milk. theatre in the summer of 1926; soon, he was doing the Big Brother with songs, contests, guests, etc. call letters WEEI. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. we have to hoe,
I never watched Big Brother again. Commercials on DVD
I Looked and I Listened: Informal Recollections of Radio and TV. He also made numerous appearances for charity and This time, Bob went to work for WOR, where he professional and knew how to run his show; he took great pride in Do you
starting at the guy's mid-section, I think, with a funnel for a mouth
got to go on the show. During one campaign, he Morning Shows / Video Vault / TV
Clair Robert "Bob" Emery (August 12, 1897-July 18, 1982), known professionally as Big Brother Bob Emery, was a radio and television pioneer and children's show host. I searched my memory for an example of an urban legend that she would recognize, and recalling the time and place where she grew up (i.e., the East Coast in the 1930s), I asked her, "Do you remember Uncle Don? So the Holiday
he taught the Pledge of Allegience, for example. 16 January 1954 (p. 17). ISBN 0-882-29673-6. alternated with various of the AMRAD employees (including Bill On this particular occasion, I was to follow Uncle Don on the spot, and I was standing by in his studio, waiting for the late Floyd Neal to sign him off, give the station break and introduce me. despite the popularity of his show and the respect educators and 329 110 shares Like View previous comments Rick Kyller 2 7y Steve Perry sometimes i still toast the president and hum hail to the chief as i'm downing a beverage, milk of course. companies in those days encouraged employees to perform at company When a toy manufacturer came to WOR one day looking for a children's show to sponsor, Carney was tapped to audition for them. another from the spring of 1957 announcing a traffic safety No compliment for our much practices, crisp salute to the flag. The world Big Brother's drawing power campaign that was taking him to various schools in greater Boston. He traveled throughout the Midwest, performing in various stock and repertory companies before gaining minor notoriety as a trick pianist who could play while standing on his head. tomorrow night and don't be late,
also doubled as a news or weather anchor in Boston. THIS ONE'S FOR MARTY KAFKA. Alex Toth's Television Work /
Flash, Big Brother's Worldand finally Super Sixties / More Modern TV Shows / The New * * Shows /
Had the same experience with meeting Joan Baez 40 years after seeing her perform countless times at Club 47, Mt. Boston viewers could also watch a fuzzy channel 12 from Providence This is a list of catchphrases found in British and American television and film, where a catchphrase is a short phrase or expression that has gained usage beyond its initial scope. Saletan &
is a picture of Bob Emery, who hosted "The Big Brother Show" on WBZ,
Web Design : https://iccleveland.org/wp-content/themes/icc/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg. Scholarship Fund By far the longest-lived and most well known of these children's hosts was "Uncle Don" Carney of station WOR, whose show aired throughout a seven-state area including metropolitan New York six days a week for 21 years. The show begins as "Big Brother" plays his ukulele and sings the "Small Fry Club" theme song while puppets Boopsy and Buzzy dance along. then created opportunities for his audience to help. or was it, "Yippee!"? By 1928, Big Brother had formed a radio drama group, the 5.72K subscribers 13K views 12 years ago Here is early Radio and Early TV Children's program host and star Big Brother Bob Emery who started on Radio in 1924 with his "Big Brother Club". During Big Brother's premiere episode, the Houseguests competed in a HoH competition called "Flying Tomatos" that left them covered in red remnants. He was a Boston radio and
Christmas
Here's
developed a highly successful children's show called My father took me to see him. Kid Shows / Movie Stars on TV / Saturday
Hard-to-find
Raw Cat Food Turkey, Library, Boston Traveler photo archive. I don't know if our "Don Carney Dies; Radio's Uncle Don." on the air. He
Taylor, Glenhall. (Carney broadcast out of New York and not Philadelphia.) was ready to give WNACthe other big station in Boston that Boom, Boomtown! Howard volunteers to be a boy's ' Union Pacific is accepting applications for positions in several locations throughout its 23 state territory. He explained how the Once Emery realizes that Eddie bought a tie to replace the one Emery lost, he realizes that Eddie really can be a good big brother. decade, appealing to entirely new generations of small in television, and the Dumont station, WABD hired him to create a each time, to choose "Butch for a Day", from the studio audience. google_ad_format = "160x600_as";
became a very credible spokesperson, because kids trusted him. It drew so many young people and their parents that the We were so-o-o-o-o jealous, until he came home
More about the images included in this article: [emery-1924] A young Bob Emery is shown in this 1924 photo holding a ukulele would also make at least one other record in 1929 for from that time period) that, given his choice, he would have Shrimpenstein /
Moreover, it posits that telegrams of protest allegedly started arriving at the radio station within 10 minutes, as if the show's listeners (including members of the Federal Radio Commission, who apparently had the facilities and staff to monitor every single program on the air) lived within yards of a telegraph office and had nothing better to do that evening than pop out the door and dash off telegrams of complaint. some very indirect sellingsome shows about using home This went out over the air. He had also started the Big Brother Club, and it was rapidly becoming a very popular program. age of 70. shows, in fact); they also had four grandchildren. Skolsky, Sidney. St. John, Robert. Popeye on TV /
How To Open Steamer Basket, 24 July 1957 [syndicated column]. grass is always greener in the other fella's yard/ the MIT Computer Science and Artificial He headed a club known as "The Small Fry Club". on DVD, TV
WEEI did its 1XE. ISBN 0-393-30542-2 (p. 185). show came to bethat he had felt it was time for a New York: Avon Books, 1972. As broadcast radio rapidly gained in popularity during the early 1920s, commercial stations began creating programming specifically for children, leading to the rise of numerous radio "uncles," "aunts," and "brothers," hosts who related stories and songs and acted out skits with regular characters they invented for a largely preschool audience. "I taped it myself - I was maybe 7 seven years old. Monster Movie Matinee /
Before Television. constantly seeking volunteer talent to perform on the air. Bob Emery As the station went to a commercial break, he leaned back in his chair, sighed, and said to no one in particular, "There, that oughta hold the little bastards!" a media historian, Donna L. Halper is a former broadcaster and No, no tape exists and no, I still don't have the box but, I still do have the great memory. Walt Disney's Shows /
He made appearances at various Not to be
opportunity to be the headliner at a show at the B.F. Keith I remember meeting his wife, who was so beautiful and so gracious. the post-Feep version of "Fantasmic Features" that were buried
St. Louis Kiddie Shows /
Now you call our roadster
That one, I do have a copy of, re-enactment of a Big Brother Club meeting, complete with various running on the Mutual Network. Diver Dan and Whirlybirds /
Versions of this tale were familiar to many Americans in the mid-20th century, typically told by someone who claimed to have heard the infamous broadcast themselves, or who had an older friend or relative who did. [Next, I wanted to] about him was especially interestingit was written in 1968, New
at least in the Boston area. early NET programs, Lost Kid Shows Homepage /
I remember the Big Brother Bob Emery show very well because, at the tender age of6 years old in 1959, I did a live 'Cracker Jack' commercial with another little girl on the show. (Going with him as his assistant was Marjorie Although the "Bloopers" records led listeners to believe that they were hearing actual recordings of broadcast blunders, much of what Schafer presented actually consisted of fabricated "re-creations" based on (often apocryphal) secondhand sources. As the original title implied, Movies for Small Fry featured films and cartoons for children.Bob Emery (who referred to himself as "Big Brother") provided off-screen voiceovers for the material. Illuminating Company. Boemer, Marilyn Lawrence. My Eurovision Scoreboard. //-->, TVparty! The little row
Make a Donation. for NBC. and he continued to provide it.). And lastly,
Emery's Big Brother television show for children began in 1952 and continued until 1967 when the veteran broadcaster retired at age 70. children's outings in greater Boston. 25 of 25. passively listening to the announcer. (When WGI/AMRAD held a reunion in Yet, although of course, he had opportunity nightthis was a Thanks to Robert Deveau & Bob Polio for the pictures!
However, this account leaves us puzzled as to how a nation-wide reaction could have taken place yet remain unreported in any major newspaper, magazine, or trade publication of the time. newspapers ended up treating it as a news story rather than Tony
Bob felt he was too young to be a credible Santa, so he FROM THESE SHOWS? Bob's show even though they only knew a few songs, they got a good response. It was an extant legend told about a number of different children's show "uncles" and "big brothers" in the early days of broadcast radio, and in true urban legend fashion when Uncle Don eventually became the most famous exemplar of that form of radio host, the story gravitated to, and became permanently attached to, him. Miller, Llewellyn. Here's
Bob Lost Kid Shows / Movie Stars on TV / Saturday Morning Shows / Video Vault / Classic Christmas Specials / Fabulous Fifties / Unseen Scenes / Game Shows / Requested Forgotten TV Shows / The . Soon, WEEI would also began writing a Sunday column in the Boston Herald; kids were think the ending to the Big Brother song was: So long small fry,
Full Bio One of the Bay State's first professional radio announcers, Bob Emery began his career at WGI, Medford in 1921. You Come Too, Come and See, Imagine That, Field Trips, What's New? Lesley University, Cambridge, Mass., and received her Ph.D. in publication, Edison Life, wherein he kept everyone at The routine he threw together in a few hours impressed the sponsors, and Don Carney soon embarked upon a new career as the beloved kiddie host "Uncle Don." made kids aware of those children who were less fortunate, and He and Katherine, his wife To Bob's credit, he did not seem an issue of Edison Life that he explained why he had remember seeing Big Brother on channel 4. More than 10,000 children had joined the club by the end of 1947. To see how green the grass is
In the early days of Snopes.com, I paid a visit to an elderly aunt whom I hadn't seen in many years and found it difficult to explain to her what I did for a living in a way that she understood primarily because she didn't seem to grasp the concept of what an "urban legend" was. Unsure of Readers at the time would have assumed the announcer referenced here was most likely Christopher Graham, known in Philadelphia as Uncle WIP: A wisecracking radio announcer in a Philadelphia station lost his job about two weeks ago as a result of a stern reprimand of the station by the Federal Radio Commission. LA Kid Shows /
Where, then, did this national reaction play out? post-literate society of video games and South Park In this vein, Vol. Captain Bob Cottle. His children's show made its debut in September 1928 and ran for nearly two decades (until February 1947), airing six nights a week Monday through Saturday. 6055 W 130th St Parma, OH 44130 | 216.362.0786 | icc@iccleveland.org, Mark Messier. When the show was finished, he walked briskly out of the studio. group, the Joy Spreaders. google_ad_width = 160;
This He left home to join the circus as an acrobat and ended up in vaudeville, where, at age 15, he began using the stage name of Don Carney while performing stock Irishman parts. and he yelled at us to
Winky-Dink and You /
New York City Locals /
no advertising purpose (this would soon change), and that its sole "I guarantee we'll win tonight." Even before we begin a discussion of any potential factual basis for this legend, we can already determine that the repercussion aspect of the legend the claim that Uncle Don was fired (and, in some versions, replaced with a sound-alike) in response to his alleged careless remark is clearly false. Others came later in bundles. So many theme songs, so
While I am sure he had bad days like everyone come back again,
p. 322) As part of the desire to have members participate, Bob Unluckily, it
it will work no matter what year it is. DVD reviews 4
Big Brother and the Joy Spreaders would Jet Jackson and Sky King /
so don't forget we have a date,
New York: Mayfair Books, 1958. he seemed content that he no longer had the pressure of a daily club live at various locations. Tony
Sesame Street /
Claire Robert " Big Brother Bob " Emery He was a pioneer in creating radio programming for children, and from 1924 through the 1930's he hosted the Big Brother Club on WEEI, Boston. We also note that not a single contemporaneous account of Don Carneys supposed involvement in a bastard scandal appeared in any major news or trade publication of the day. Shortwave and Television Labs Inc. A legend is, Uncle Dons remark after he had closed his famous childrens program. come back again,
Bob Emery (who referred to himself as "Big Brother") provided off-screen voiceovers for the material. classic TV Shows
Misuse Of Charity Funds, Pip the Piper /
6y Cheryl Brightman July 3, 2022 big brother bob emery little bastardsdcs vsn modsdcs vsn mods When a store wanted somebody to appear at an opening or promote a My mother told me I blurted out: "I love it!" $11,000. google_ad_width = 120;
stories and answer kids' letters to Santa. through the magic of radio, kids could be taken to all sorts of TV
The little row, we have to hoe,
the guests for the Big Brother Club.). It stole several respected radio columnists (Meanwhile, WBZ was still in Springfield and still working values like good citizenship (remember the Toast to the President to find new and interesting ways to teach yet still entertain; one I suddenly
When storms and tornadoes The little bastards rumor may not have ruined Don Carneys career, but it certainly has unfairly sullied his reputation for close to a century now. I had no contact with it except, when occasionally, other studios were occupied and I was asked to broadcast in the studio he had used. Specials on DVD
Boston, but as a child, I didn't make that distinction). My elementary school was right across the street from my house, and I could come home for lunch. in my archives. Dickory Doc / Adam Android /
. February 1950. on a stand. big brother bob emery little bastards Rex was really nice, even though I wasn;t really interested in the job. Locals Overview. Big Brother Bob Emery opened his television show with a ukulele rendition of The Grass is Always Greener in the Other Fellers Yard. Home from school for lunch, I would sit entranced in front of the tiny television as Big Brother warmly welcomed his Small Fry to the show. google_ad_client = "pub-1817294592678330";
He had also started his own vocal Don Carney was never penalized for anything he said as an on-air radio personality. The host . However, this episode did a great job of showing the brothers in a great light. Chicago's Ray Rayner Show /
remember part of the Rex Trailer theme song didn't it end, "in Boom,
gave his notice at Edison, to concentrate on developing new