Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 214

i 1 0 Cannon, now WCCO's drive-home-time entertainer, remembers those days well because he was then a WMIN disk jockey doubling as Wrangler Steve, the gun-totin' host on a show that featured old Buck Jones and Charles Starrett westerns. "My big sponsor was Bosco, so I'm in the bunkhouse with a glass of milk, I dribble that chocolate syrup over everything, so messy, and the ad-agency people would just go crazy," Cannon said. "One afternoon I went on, I said to the kids, 'Gang, you tell your mother, you don't get Bosco, you're not eating supper The station manager went into an absolute rage. 'What are you doing! You can't tell kids not to eat their supperl Their mothers will kill On days when then-bachelor Wrangler Steve perhaps looked tired, he would explain that he had been out on the range having a great time with his horse Gerry all night. Word gradually spread outward from those in the know at the station that Gerry was the real-life nickname of Wrangler Steve's girlfriend, so a lot of viewers of post-kiddie age took to tuning in the catch the Gerry innuendoes.

Gerry eventually became Mrs. Cannon. And Cannon went on to find new airwave sidekicks called Morgan Mundane and Ma Linger. Captain 1 1, who provided half an hour of early space-age adventure every day at 5:30, was played by WMIN announcer Jim Lange. Lange eventually headed for the West Coast and served as host of ABC's "The Dating Game" from 1965 until 1974, and then of "The New Dating Game" from 1978 until 1980.

Those shows are still running all over the world in syndication. Lange also is the host of the new syndicated version of "Name That Tune" taped for release to stations in the fall; in the Twin Cities, the show will be carried by Lange's old TV home, Channel 11. Since the 1 960s Lange also has served as a disk jockey for Gene Autry's West Coast radio stations. For a number of years he lived in San Francisco and was heard on KSFO. Now he has moved to Los Angeles and spins a program of big-band-era sounds, featuring a lot of Sinatra and Ella vocals and the like, from 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m., six days a week, on Autry's KMPC. Well as Cannon and Lange may be remembered by their kid viewers, they're also remembered by more than a few then-young mothers who used to watch along with the kids because Captain 1 1 and Wrangler Steve had a certain heartthrob value. A Jjs Jim Lange, upper left, is now a TV game-show host. Upper right, Lange as Captain 11. Steve Cannon played Wrangler Steve, at left, but eventually settled into a more mundane role as a WCCO radio personality.

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