Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 227

One of the most durable presenters of children's entertainment in early TV was KSTP-TV's Jimmy Valentine. Channel 5 was the first TV station in the Twin Cities, in 1948, and, in its second week on the air, Valentine began a Saturday show called "Riddle Griddle." Late the following year he began a show called "Jimmy's Junior Jamboree," which lasted about five years. He didn't play any outlandish character, and simply came on as himself: "I used quasi-educational technique and simply explained and explored things, primarily because I didn't have any other talent except to be curious." He ran talent shows and invited young viewers to bring pets, hobbies, school projects and the like to the studio. The show lasted until Channel 5, like other stations, became obsessed with characters. Valentine, still working at the station, is pretty much the off icial off-screen voice of KSTP-TV in promotional announcements.

He also is involved in previewing films and commercials and approving advertising copy. For a short while the station had a cowboy host named Texas Stan Dyer who was a real Texan and brought his real horse into the studio. Station executives no longer know his whereabouts. The station also has lost track of its old Commander Saturn, portrayed briefly by a Milwaukeean named Lan Singer in the mid-1 950s, and another western character known on the air as Boots Denault. Above, Jimmy Valentine judged a dog contest on his show on KSTP-TRV In 1951.

Below, Valentine still works at the station. 7 I 1 ft 4, A 'v is to. -HY.