The Genii Forum

Does anyone know if any recordings exist of this show?

This might help:
http://www.tvparty.com/lostwonder.html

interesting.

it would be nice if there
was a breakdown of who was
on what episode. i'm looking
for the ones my dad was on.

EarthStation1 has a DVD with 140 minutes' worth of WONDERAMA:
Earth Station 1\'s Wonderama DVD

Note that they've also got some Sandy Becker, early Captain Kangaroo, Chuck McCann, and Paul Winchell stuff! The quality is VERY shaky (I've got some of these), but hey, they're better than nothing...

--Josh

You should be specific as to whether he appeared on Wonderama with Sonny Fox or with Bob McAllister. Sonny was the original host, Bob took it over when Sonny left. I did it quite a few times with each of the hosts. HARRY LORAYNE.

I was a Sonny Fox kid. Watched it every Sunday morning while Fox was the host. Didn't care for McAllister and stop watching after seeing his first show. (But I liked Bob when I was an adult, as a kid he just didn't do it for me.)

Harry,

I believe it was just Bob.
I cam across several letters from Mark Letty
about doing the show. I think I still have
him. So I probably can look back on dates
at least.

Someone suggested contacting the NY museum
of broadcasting.

He appearantly was on there quite a few times
also. I just like to have them in my collection.

AND

I've never seen the show before.

Bob and I would meet about twice a month at the Edison. I tried to get him to restore his Wonderama stuff, he said that he had moved most of it over to 3/4" videotape. He had a couple of hours on two different tapes, I never got to see them. They probably do exist, and are with his daughter...The Dean could probably track her down. I have some stuff, Zany,Brit Dude, I can't remember who... give me six weeks and I'll get back to you. Rennie? Are you out there? I loved Bob, but then again, it was the only thing on Sunday mornings. He was a wonderful man.

Harry,
You sure did! I loved watching your appearances!

Two favorite McAllister moments: Introducing Tony Slydini to the kids on Wonderama, asking them to welsome "Mr. Slydini", and watching him at the S.A.M. Centennial convention in New York City,interacting with a kid as only he could. Masterful.

I know he marketed a few effects, including his version of "Standing on Edge" with a bill (thread), his magnetic dots booklet and and magnets, and his chocolate chip cookie routine.

I used to see him roller skating around New York.

Matt Field

Any Sandy Becker fans out there?

--Josh

they should make this show widely available.

film like this, was a stepping stone for many,
like...

eh, I'll start up another thread on it later.

Originally posted by Josh Mandel:
Any Sandy Becker fans out there?

You mean Norton Nork?

I was a member of NATAS, the TV Society when Becker was the president of the New York chapter. I met him several times -- he was a great creative force in '50s New York TV.

Matt Field

I didn't realize it was a syndicated show.
I thought it was a East coast production only.

Until I found a letter from a couple in
California who had seen dad several times
on the show. They got his info from the castle.

The year of the letter was 1970.

Before my time.

Matthew,

If you remember Sandy's show, then you might get a kick out of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGYmpUr_j30

--Josh

As a late bloomer in the "family" sense, and with an eleven month old crawling around the house... I see a lot of Norton Nork in Elmo's Mr. Noodles.. The first time I saw Mr. Noodles, I thought maybe it was Todd Robbins, searched, and found out that there were two Mr. Noodles, one being Nyack New York's very own Bill Irwin!

And the other Mr. Noodles was the late, great Michael Jeter!

"We'll take a glass together... in celebration of our meeting..." -- dang it, I'll be singing that all day.

JMT

To Josh, Matt & MaxNY:
In the mid-1960's, we moved from the city of Philadelphia to the northern suburbs of Bucks County. Thanks to the installation of a rotating TV antenna ("Tenna-Rotor"), on most days we could pull in the signals for NEW YORK TV! Channels 5, 9, & 11 were like having MAD Magazine on the ol' B&W - much more hip than anything I'd grown up with on the tube. And so I discovered Sandy Becker, Chuck McCann, Officer Joe & The Three Stooges, Wonderama, etc. Soupy Sales doing "Philo Kvetch." Sandy Becker was the coolest of all of them; McCann was a close second. Memories of Sandy in full Victorian Brit Army Officer mufti (with shades), lip-synching to "The Jerk" (by The Larks) - this performance would morph into multiplying panels of 16-20 identical images. Very hi-tech for the time. Also dug Sandy's character, K. Lastima; very un-PC, but you could get away with it in those days.

I'd give anything for some footage of Chuck McCann doing "Bob Cummings" (usually on Merv or Mike Douglas).

Thanks to all for this exercise in nostalgic wool gathering.

At an SAM Parent Assembly workshop many years ago Bob showed the group his video of all or the best of the magic acts he had on Wonderama. It was great!

Originally posted by Kenardo:
At an SAM Parent Assembly workshop many years ago Bob showed the group his video of all or the best of the magic acts he had on Wonderama. It was great!

hmmm...interesting.

When I was in high school I was a production assistant for a couple of days for Chuck McCann -- on the Chuck McCann show (with the puppets) and his appearances on the WPIX teen dance show (the name of which escapes me at the moment).

Matt Field

A year ago I posted on Youtube a short segment of Dai Vernon doing three card monte from Bob's Wonderama show. The TV show visited the Magic Castle and did segments with Senador Crandal and Vernon and I think Francis Carlile too. I just put on the Vernon segment.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ztPiSXzsjTg

--Rene

Just looked at my old videos.

The Vernon Monte clip I put on Youtube comes from a copy of the video tape Bob gave me which I am sure is the same one Ken mentioned earlier.

It had a visit with The Magic Castle with Bill Larson, Carlyle, Lawton, and Crandell. Also Wonderama studio performances by Flosso, Slydini, Duke Stern and Johnson.
Johnson I remember also went by the name Count Something or other. He was known for making a violin out of a match box. Here he does his routine with an ashtray where the spectator doesn't see where it goes, but the audience sees him put it on his head. Also there was Bob doing a napkin trick and doing the sponge bunnies.
The other magicians on the tape he gave me were from other sources and not from his show.

I had talked to Bob about releasing a tape with magicians from his show and he said it was not going to be worth it as for every tape bought there would be a dozen copies made and didn't feel it would sell well enough to be worth the effort and expense.

Rene,

Do you have all the magicians that were on the show on tape?

And does it say what episodes and dates are on it?

I emailed the guy at the earth station 1 about
my query and I haven't heard anything back.

Hi Mai Ling,
The tape I got from Bob was with just the acts which appeared on the show that I named above. Of those magicians on the tape, only Al Flosso is on twice. Once doing the Miser's dream and once doing the egg bag.
I know Bob wanted to go through the tapes down at the old WNEW studio and collect the magic segments but I don't know if he ever got to do that. I think not as this was the only tape I saw from him with Wonderama segments.

The other source for these would possibly have been Bob's Producer of Wonderama, Dennis Marks. Dennis, who also was a well known magician, later moved to Los Angeles and died just a few years back.
--Rene

I vaguely remember Sonny Fox but Bob McAlister's Wonderama is strong in my mind. Some of my fondest childhood memories are watching Bob. Got to meet him a bunch of times in the early 80s and he was a class act! Anyone remember what he called his teach a trick segment?

Thanks Rene.

I heard back from MBC and they
don't have anything but referred
me to MTR.

My dad was on it several times.

I have yet to look for the letters
to determine how often he was on it.
But I remember there must of have
been a stack of letters of maybe
20-25 from Mark Letty.

I really need his "Levitation"
footage from the 1960's.