The Man Behind The Curtain…The Wizard Of Ollie

The Man Behind The Curtain…The Wizard Of Ollie

Here is a rare look behind the curtain at the creator of the great ‘Kukla, Fran And Ollie’ show, Burr Tillstrom at work. He had two monitors to see how he was doing on the other side.

Burr was the creator and only puppeteer on the show, which premiered as the hour-long ‘Junior Jamboree’ locally on WBKB in Chicago on October 13, 1947, where it stayed for a year.

Tillstrom got a better offer from across town competitor WNBQ (and NBC O&O stations) and they moved. The program was renamed ‘Kukla, Fran and Ollie’ and aired locally on WNBQ (the predecessor of Chicago’s WMAQ-TV) starting November 29, 1948.

NBC NY executives saw the show and wanted it for the network. The first NBC network broadcast of the show took place on January 12, 1949. It aired from 5–5:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday from Chicago.

Fran was Fran Allison, a radio comedienne and singer who was usually the only human to appear on screen, filling the role of big sister and cheery voice of reason as the puppets engaged each other concerning their foibles.

Fans became so attached to the show that when it was cut back to 15 minutes in November 1951, letters of outrage poured into NBC. During that time, KFO was a hugely successful show that counted Orson Welles, John Steinbeck, Tallulah Bankhead, Ben Grauer, Milton Caniff, and Adlai Stevenson among its many adult fans.

From August 1952 to June 1954, KFO ran as a weekly program on Sundays but NBC gave them a weekday radio show in October of that year. Incidentally, Gene Rayburn made his first network appearance on KFO and would occasionally have Burr and the puppets on ‘The Match Game’.

Here’s a short clip of the show from WNBQ in Chicago. Enjoy and share!

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