‘Mr. I Magination’…First CBS Childrens Show

‘Mr. I Magination’…First CBS Childrens Show

I must admit, I’m to young to have seen this, but have heard about it. Do you remember this?

This show debuted on CBS on April 24, 1949 and ran live as a half-hour weekly show till 1952. In a way, this was the CBS answer to ‘Howdy Doody’ on NBC and ‘The Small Fry Club’ on Dumont, but those shows were M-F shows. It’s likely the WCBS had a local kids show, but I don’t know…do you?

The host, Mr. I. Magination (Paul Tripp), dressed as a train engineer, and each week, different child actors would come in and ask questions about occupations, historical figures and activities and guests would come in to answer. The train could also travel in time so figures like Annie Oakley could be interviewed as is the case in this 1952 video. https://archive.org/details/Mr.I.Magination1952

Guests were as diverse as Damu, a lion tamer from Ringling Brothers Circus, and test pilot Scott Crossfield. Yul Brynner served as the director of the show at times, but did not appear as a performer. Two other actors that were later famous did perform on the show…Walter Matthau and Richard Boone. Incidentally, Tripp later made an appearance on Boone’s ‘Have Gun Will Travel’. Enjoy, share and help us fill in the blanks if you know more on this and ealy WCBS kids shows.

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