October 13, 1947…”Kukla, Fran & Ollie” Debuts On Chicago’s WBKB

On October 13, 2016 - TV History

October 13, 1947…”Kukla, Fran & Ollie” Debuts On Chicago’s WBKB

At the link is a timeline of the shows milestones, including their October 13, 1947 debut as “The Junior Jamboree” on WBKB in Chicago, the move to WNBQ and NBC, and their last show, 10 years later, which was also on WBKB. http://kukla.tv/history.html

In the five years that the show ran on NBC nationally, fan mail averaged 5,000 letters a day, and the show’s ratings rivaled Milton Burle’s and even Ed Sullivan’s at CBS.

The photo is of one of the early shows at WBKB. The dolly was a home-made rig, with the camera mounted on a barber’s chair. Thanks for the memories, Burr, Fran, Kukla and Ollie! -Bobby Ellerbee

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7 Comments

  1. Edward Faucette October 14, 2016

    I didn’t realize it was that old.

  2. Roy Fechter October 14, 2016

    Bobbie mentioned this previously, but it’s interesting that the TK 30 in this photo is mounted on the base of a barber’s chair!

  3. Judy Watson October 14, 2016

    My brother and I watched every afternoon.

  4. James Snyder October 13, 2016

    WBKB stood for Balaban & Katz, the owners of a midwest theater chain affiliated with Paramount until the 1949 consent decree forced the 5 major studios to divest themselves of their theater chains. The station started as W9XBK. It was first on channel 2, then switched to channel 7 (the former WENR-TV). It would remain on channel 7 until 1968 when 7 became WLS-TV.

    http://www.earlytelevision.org/w9xbk.html

  5. Mitch Lebe October 13, 2016

    We all loved them. Burr was great and so was Fran.

  6. John D. Marelli October 13, 2016

    Fran Allison raised a lot of kids in the early 50’s

  7. Tom Williamson October 13, 2016

    I loved watching The Kuklapolitans when I was a kid.