History
The show's origins were completely happenstantial. In the summer of 1949, then-General Manager Mort Watters asked Lewis (hired on two months earlier as WCPO's first art director) to host an hour-long filler show called Al's Corner Drugstore, in which Lewis, dressed in a soda jerk's uniform, would take phone-in requests for songs which he would play on his accordion, which would later become one of his many trademarks along with his straw boater hat.
At that time, the show was not aired in a closed set, so people could walk in from off the street to watch the show in person. Neighborhood children began doing just that, and Lewis, having a natural affinity for children, invited them onto the stage during the show. The same kids would return on subsequent occasions bringing friends, and they all took to calling Lewis "Uncle Al".
When mothers began calling into the station requesting tickets to be on The Uncle Al Show, a Cincinnati institution was born- again, completely by accident, although Lewis himself never treated it in such a manner, as evidenced by the show's remarkable longevity. The Uncle Al Show made its official début on June 12, 1950. Having originally started as a 15-minute outing, it quickly expanded into an hour long show airing three episodes daily:
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- First episode: 9-10 am (ET)
- Second episode: 11 am-12 noon (ET)
- Third episode: 1-2 pm (ET)
By the mid-late 1960s the show was scaled back to one 90-minute episode per day from 9 to 10:30 am, running opposite WLWT's Paul Dixon Show.
By 1955 Uncle Al had become so popular that executives from CBS came to Cincinnati to consult with Al about hosting a similar show on their network; this was before WCPO switched affiliation from ABC to CBS in 1961. Station executives understandably refused to release Lewis from his contract, so CBS brass settled on Howdy Doody alum Bob Keeshan to host their new kids' show, which became Captain Kangaroo (When WCPO switched to CBS in 1961, both shows would run back-to-back on weekday mornings).
Lewis' wife Wanda joined the show in 1956. Initially, Wanda was called "Captain Windy", costumed in a superhero-like outfit during the early days of the show, and was seen "flying" Superman-style before she made her entrance on stage. Her shy, quiet manner inspired colleague Paul Dixon to call her "The Windy One" when they co-starred on their own show (at their respective peaks, Dixon and Uncle Al ran opposite one another on weekday mornings).
Uncle Al's show was picked up by ABC from October 18, 1958 until September 19, 1959.
Read more about this topic: The Uncle Al Show
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