Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 224

station officials didn't think the character was a good commercial presenter, so Gallos became Clancy the Keystone Cop in an old-fashioned bell helmet and long-skirted uniform, talking like Jerry Colonna. Later, when the station wanted a younger commercial presenter, Gallos got rid of the comedy mustache, switched to a modern police uniform and made Clancy a more contemporary cop with Irish accent. Allan Lotsberg joined Clancy as a flat-hatted sidekick named Willie Ketchum. Lotsberg also took over as the voice and manipulator of the Vivian Vulture puppet, and presently created a puppet called Wilfrid the Wiener Wolf really a dressed-up arm with a wolf 's snout that kept snatching hot dogs out of Clancy's mouth. Wilfrid's rudeness was a big hit with young viewers.

When Gallos first went on with a comedy hour featuring Laurel-and-Hardy movies, he hosted in the guise of Clancy. The station began to hear from adult viewers who wanted to see the movies, but were annoyed at being addressed by a kid-show-type host. So Gallos went straight as a movie host. Lotsberg stayed in TV until 1980, and in the late 1970s dropped the character get-ups to be a straight host on an informational show for children called "Allan's Window." He now teaches self-management and sales techniques for Wilson Learning and recently has made several trips to London to train British Airways personnel who will be conducting their own training sessions for airline employees. Channel 4 had its resident cowboy too.

For four years beginning in 1955, announcer Jack Hastings packed six-guns as Johnny 44 between showings of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies. Autry came to the Minnesota State Fair in 1955 to help give the program a sendoff Later visitors to Johnny 44 were Captain Kangaroo and actor Leo Carrillo of the Cisco Kid movies. Hastings, who now works for Scandinavian Design at Ridgedale, remembers that Dave Moore also auditioned for the Johnny 44 role, long before Moore was on his way to becoming the station's star news anchor. "I won the audition," Hastings mused, "and Dave won the war." Moore, incidentally, used to make himself up as an elderly western character to appear in breaks of the Cisco Kid movies on Channel 4, but disclaims any actual experience as a kid-show host. Above, Allen Lotsberg as Willie Ketchum (left) and John Gallos as Clancy the Cop, with Vivian Vulture.

Lotsberg (right) now works at Wilson Learning Corp. mJlLizz: i anram' nil mm -Itf?.