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Bob Keeshan

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Robert James Keeshan (June 27, 1927 – January 23, 2004) was an American television producer and actor. He created and played the title role in the children's television program Captain Kangaroo, which ran from 1955 to 1984, the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day.[1][2] He also played the original Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody television program.

Bob Keeshan
Keeshan in 1995
Born
Robert James Keeshan

(1927-06-27)June 27, 1927
Lynbrook, New York, U.S.
DiedJanuary 23, 2004(2004-01-23) (aged 76)
Windsor, Vermont, U.S.
Alma materFordham University
Occupation(s)Television host, producer, actor
Years active1947–2004
Spouse
Anne Laurie
​
​
(m. 1950; died 1996)​
Children3

Early life

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Bob Keeshan was born to Irish parents[3] in Lynbrook, New York.[4] After an early graduation in 1945 from Forest Hills High School in Queens, New York, during World War II, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, but was still in the United States when Japan surrendered. He attended Fordham University on the GI Bill. He received his bachelor's degree in education in 1951.[5]

An urban legend claims that actor Lee Marvin said on The Tonight Show that he had fought alongside Keeshan at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Over time, this legend has been published verbatim.[6][7] Other legends had compounded on it, such that Keeshan was a trained killer,[8] that he was awarded the Navy Cross,[9][10] that he was a tough sergeant who saved the lives of dozens of men and women in the war,[11] and that he destroyed a German tank in action in North Africa (an apparent confusion with a similarly named British soldier).[12] However, Marvin never made the statement (he never served in Iwo Jima, but was wounded during the Battle of Saipan).[13] Keeshan never saw combat in Europe or Japan, having enlisted too late to serve overseas.[6][14] The Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C, still receives calls asking for verification of Keeshan's "heroic" war service.[15][9] Keeshan continuously dispelled the rumors.[9]

Television career

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Keeshan as Captain Kangaroo

Network television programs began shortly after the end of the war. Howdy Doody, which premiered in 1947 on NBC, was one of the first. Starting on January 3, 1948,[16] Keeshan played Clarabell the Clown, a silent Auguste clown who communicated by honking several horns attached to a belt around his waist. One honk meant "yes"; two meant "no". Clarabell often sprayed Buffalo Bob Smith with a seltzer bottle and played practical jokes. Keeshan had conflicts with Smith and in late 1952 left the show, or possibly was fired, after hiring an agent for himself and other workers on the show.[17]

By September 21, 1953, Keeshan came back to local TV on WABC-TV, Channel 7 in New York City, in a new children's show, Time for Fun. He played Corny the Clown, and this time he spoke.[18] Later that same year, in addition to Time for Fun, he began Tinker's Workshop, a program aimed at preschoolers, where he played the grandfather-like Tinker.[19]

Developing ideas from Tinker's Workshop, Keeshan and his long-time friend Jack Miller submitted the concept of Captain Kangaroo to the CBS network, which was looking for innovative approaches to children's television programming. CBS approved the show, and Keeshan starred as the title character when it premiered on CBS on October 3, 1955.[18] He described his character as based on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children". The show was an immediate success, and he served as its host for nearly three decades.

 
From left: Dancing Bear, Bunny Rabbit, Captain Kangaroo, Grandfather Clock, Mr. Moose, and Mr. Green Jeans

Recurring characters included his sidekick (and fan favorite) Mr. Green Jeans (played by Hugh "Lumpy" Brannum), Dennis (played by Cosmo Allegretti), and puppets such as Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose.

The New York Times commented: "Captain Kangaroo, a round-faced, pleasant, mustachioed man possessed of an unshakable calm ... was one of the most enduring characters television ever produced."[16]

Keeshan also had a Saturday morning show called Mister Mayor during the 1964–65 season. Keeshan, in his role as the central characters in both Captain Kangaroo and Mister Mayor, heavily promoted the products of the Schwinn Bicycle Co., a sponsor, directly on-air to his audience.[20] By 1972, he had introduced another character on Captain Kangaroo to recommend Schwinn products: Mr. Schwinn Dealer,[20]: 167  due to the Federal Trade Commission ruling against children's show hosts directly endorsing their sponsor's products during their programs after 1969.

Keeshan had a longtime close friendship with Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Each paid visits to the other's show in 1970, and they appeared together on the PBS special Springtime with Mister Rogers in 1980. The following year, Rogers appeared briefly in Keeshan's TV special Good Evening, Captain (following Keeshan's 1981 heart attack); Rogers and Dick Clark presented Keeshan with flowers at the end of the show.

Keeshan did voice recordings for a number of albums for Columbia Records, Golden Records and RCA-Victor. Several were of children's songs performed with other characters from Captain Kangaroo, but other albums included A Child's Introduction to Jazz, narration for Peter and the Wolf conducted by Leopold Stokowski, and Captain Kangaroo Introduces You to the Nutcracker Suite.[21]

Heart attack and retirement

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Keeshan suffered a severe heart attack just moments after stepping off a plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport on July 11, 1981, which pushed the start of a revamped version of his show back to at least mid-August.[22] He had come to the city to accept a children's service award.[23]

Keeshan underwent triple-bypass surgery and received an estimated 5,000 get-well wishes from fans during his hospitalization.[24][25]

Following the heart attack, Keeshan received three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in 1982, 1983, and 1984.[26] Despite these accolades, Keeshan's show was shortened from its hour-long format to 30 minutes in 1981, to make room for the expansion of the CBS Morning News lineup. The program was retitled Wake Up with the Captain, and moved to a new 7:00 am time slot. At the start of 1982, the show was rescheduled to an even earlier slot of 6:30 am. In the fall of 1982, CBS installed it as a weekend-only hour offering, and two years later, in the fall of 1984, the show became a Saturday half-hour entry.

Tired of CBS's constant reductions of his show, Keeshan left Captain Kangaroo when his contract with the network ended in December 1984, just nine months shy of the show's 30th anniversary. By 1987, repeats of the show were airing daily on many PBS stations.

Keeshan's show was given a farewell of sorts with Captain Kangaroo and Friends, a primetime network TV special that aired in 1985.

Later life

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Bob Keeshan speaking for United Way at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida, in April 1999

After Captain Kangaroo ended, Keeshan hosted 1985's CBS Storybreak, which featured animated versions of children's literature. He appeared in framing sequences for the animated stories, showcasing the book versions and suggesting similar books for the viewers to seek out.[27] In 1987, he founded Corporate Family Solutions with former Tennessee Republican governor Lamar Alexander, which provided day-care programs to businesses.[28]

He was a strong advocate against video game violence and took part in congressional hearings in 1993.[29][30] He also joined with parents' groups in the 1980s who protested children's TV shows based on toys like He-Man and Transformers, feeling that toys turned into TV shows did not teach children anything about the real world. He also made a rare film appearance in The Stupids in 1996.[31]

In 1997, he starred as the Wizard in the St. Louis Muny outdoor theater production of The Wizard of Oz.[32]

In the 1990s, Keeshan expressed an interest in bringing back a new version of Captain Kangaroo as a gentler and kinder answer to the violent cartoons on children's television. Despite having sponsors and television stations lined up, he was unable to obtain permission from ICM, the company that owned the rights to Captain Kangaroo at that time.[33] In 1994, Keeshan was featured as a semi-regular on the FX daytime talk show Breakfast Time.[34]

Personal life

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Keeshan was married to Anne Jeanne Laurie Keeshan for 45 years, until her death February 25, 1996.[16] They had three children: Michael Derek, Laurie Margaret, and Maeve Jeanne.

Keeshan resided on Melbury Road in Babylon Village, Long Island, New York, before moving to spend the last 14 years of his life in Norwich, Vermont, where he became a children's advocate, as well as an author.[35] His memoirs, Good Morning, Captain, were published in 1995 by Fairview Press.[36] Bob Keeshan died in Windsor, Vermont, on January 23, 2004, at age 76. He was buried in Saint Joseph's Cemetery in Babylon, New York.[37]

Keeshan's grandson, Britton Keeshan, became the youngest person at that time to have climbed the Seven Summits by climbing Mount Everest in May 2004. He carried photographs of his grandfather on that ascent, and he buried a photo of the two of them at the summit.[38]

Awards

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Keeshan received many honors and awards, including:

References

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  1. ^ "Bob Keeshan | American television producer and entertainer". Encyclopedia Britannica. August 4, 2023.
  2. ^ "Keeshan, Robert James". Encyclopedia.com.
  3. ^ "Bob Keeshan, Who Played Captain Kangaroo on TV, Is Dead". The New York Times. January 23, 2004. They were Irish on both sides of the family
  4. ^ Flocker, Michael (2002). Vermont: The Green Mountain State. Gareth Stevens. p. 41. ISBN 9780836851465. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  5. ^ Fatama, Rahman. "Robert Keeshan". www.fordham.edu.
  6. ^ a b Solomon, Michael (June 24, 2013). "Cereal Liars?: Cap'n Crunch and 9 Other Fake Military Titles". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  7. ^ "Captain Kangaroo and Lee Marvin, War Heroes". ccvva.org. Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1122. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  8. ^ "12 People You Didn't Know Were U.S. Marines". Naval History Blog. March 9, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c "Officials Disclaim Myth of Capt. Kangaroos as War Hero". Sun Sentinel. February 5, 2004. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  10. ^ "Did Captain Kangaroo and Lee Marvin Fight at Iwo Jima?". Snopes.com. March 8, 2002. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  11. ^ "Quiet Giants and Unsung Heroes". GrowingLeaders.com. December 14, 2009. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  12. ^ "Robert Millar Keenan". WartimeNI.com. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  13. ^ Zec, Donald (1980). Marvin: The Story of Lee Marvin. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 217. ISBN 0-312-51780-7.
  14. ^ "FALSE: Captain Kangaroo and Lee Marvin". Snopes.com. February 22, 2016.
  15. ^ "The Debunker: Was Captain Kangaroo a War Hero?". Woot.com. August 28, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  16. ^ a b c Severo, Richard (January 24, 2004). "Bob Keeshan, Creator and Star of TV's 'Captain Kangaroo,' Is Dead at 76". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  17. ^ "Bob Keeshan, Captain Kangaroo, the original Clarabell the Clown". January 28, 2012.
  18. ^ a b "The Museum of Broadcast Communications – Encyclopedia of Television". Archived from the original on October 31, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2007.
  19. ^ "Tinker's Workshop". tvparty.com. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  20. ^ a b Petty, Ross D. (2007). "Pedaling Schwinn Bicycles: Lessons from the Leading Post-World War II U.S. Bicycle Brand" (PDF). Charm. Babson College, Massachusetts: 162–177. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 14, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  21. ^ "Bob Keeshan". Discogs.
  22. ^ "'Captain Kangaroo' suffers heart attack, show delayed". The Free Lance-Star. Fredericksburg, Virginia. Associated Press. July 13, 1981. Retrieved August 24, 2018.[permanent dead link]
  23. ^ Bird, David; Krebs, Albin (July 13, 1981). "Notes On People; Captain Kangaroo Suffers a Heart Attack". The New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  24. ^ "'Capt. Kangaroo' Goes Home". Los Angeles Times. United Press International. August 3, 1987. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  25. ^ Sullivan, Patricia (January 24, 2004). "'Captain Kangaroo' Was Friend To Generations of Youngsters". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  26. ^ Newcomb, Horace, ed. (February 3, 2014). Encyclopedia of Television (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 1242. ISBN 978-1135194796.
  27. ^ Shales, Tom (March 30, 1985). "'Storybreak'". Washington Post.
  28. ^ Aldrich, Marta W. (January 27, 1997). "Corporate Family Solutions Fills Expanding Niche". Los Angeles Times.
  29. ^ Ramirez, Deborah (December 2, 1993). "Video game labeling proposed". Times-Advocate. p. A3.
  30. ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice (1995). Rating Video Games: A Parent's Guide to Games: Joint Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Subcommittee on Regulation and Government ... December 9, 1993, March 4, and July 29, 1994. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-16-046563-5.
  31. ^ Landis, John (September 2015). "Acting Royalty". Film Comment. Vol. 51, no. 5. pp. 14–15. ProQuest 1716967766. Also playing Mr. Sender was Bob Keeshan, better known in America as the beloved Captain Kangaroo.(subscription required)
  32. ^ Lefkowitz, David (July 14, 1997). "Original Captain Kangaroo Opens July 14 as Wizard in Muny Oz". Playbill.
  33. ^ Walsh, Bill. "Corporations Buying and Selling Captain Kangaroo". Media Literacy Review. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  34. ^ Rosenberg, Howard (August 14, 1995). "'Breakfast Time' Serves Up Funny Mornings". Los Angeles Times. An exception is its "Thought of the Day" from legendary kids show icon Bob (Captain Kangaroo) Keeshan.
  35. ^ Bruni, Frank (February 9, 1997). "Are They Dead Yet? Well, Yes and No". The New York Times. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  36. ^ Keeshan, Robert (1996). Good Morning, Captain: Fifty Wonderful Years with Bob Keeshan, TV's Captain Kangaroo. Fairview Press. ISBN 978-1577490005.
  37. ^ Wilson, Scott (August 19, 2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3rd ed.). McFarland. ISBN 9781476625997 – via Google Books.
  38. ^ Ruibal, Sal (June 2, 2004). "Keeshan spans globe to honor famous 'Kangaroo'". USA Today. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  39. ^ "Honorary Degrees, I-L". herrick.alfred.edu. Herrick Memorial Library, Alfred University. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  40. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Keeshan, Bob". Encyclopedia of Television. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2022 – via museum.tv.
  41. ^ McCarthy, Peggy (May 17, 1987). "COLLEGES, BIG AND SMALL, BID FAREWELL TO CLASS OF '87". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  42. ^ "International Clown Hall of Fame inductees". FamousClowns.org. July 24, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
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