Do You Remember Captain Kangaroo?

MarkD said:
Was that Playland in San Francisco? My aunts took me there once but I didn't get sprayed and didn't see Clarabelle. But I did see Laffing Sal.
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No, I grew up in NYC. There must have been a million Playlands when we were kids! And, they were cheap.
 

I got temporally separated from my group while on a bathroom break at Disneyland. I was sitting on bench off the mainstream traffic on the fringe of the park when I looked up and here comes Micky Mouse surrounded by an entourage of employees escorting him into the park proper. I was 60 years old, but still surprised. I jumped up and cried out a simple, "Mickey!" He gave me a high five, and just kept going. I don't think I would have been more excited if it was the President of the United States. Some silly things are just that much fun.
 

Life was simple back then.

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Pepper said:
No, I grew up in NYC. There must have been a million Playlands when we were kids! And, they were cheap.
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I think you must be right about that. This is just a slide show presentation at a library about our San Francisco play land. The beginning is all about the moving rides but other than the bumper cars the part that stands out for me was the Fun House which included the long wooden slides, the turn table and other weird things you did without being in any kind of car. I suppose this must have been a standard feature at all of them. He only starts talking about the Fun House at about the 24:10 mark.

 
MarkD said:
I think you must be right about that. This is just a slide show presentation at a library about our San Francisco play land. The beginning is all about the moving rides but other than the bumper cars the part that stands out for me was the Fun House which included the long wooden slides, the turn table and other weird things you did without being in any kind of car. I suppose this must have been a standard feature at all of them. He only starts talking about the Fun House at about the 24:10 mark.
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Been to SF many times, but I never visited Playland before it closed in 1972. I think it's interesting that, although the famous fun house mirror scene in Orson Welles' Lady From Shanghai (1948) was not filmed at Playland, after that sequence Welles is shown walking in front of the Fun House there. When he crosses the street, the Laff in the Dark attraction is clearly seen.

It may have been featured in another noir film too, but I can't recall which.
 
ChiroDoc said:
Been to SF many times, but I never visited Playland before it closed in 1972. I think it's interesting that, although the famous fun house mirror scene in Orson Welles' Lady From Shanghai (1948) was not filmed at Playland, after that sequence Welles is shown walking in front of the Fun House there. When he crosses the street, the Laff in the Dark attraction is clearly seen.

It may have been featured in another noir film too, but I can't recall which.
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Interesting to learn more, thanks. I didn’t grow up near San Francisco but visited relatives here regularly and after my father left the navy and resettled in Southern California I came back to the East Bay.
 
MarkD said:
Interesting to learn more, thanks. I didn’t grow up near San Francisco but visited relatives here regularly and after my father left the navy and resettled in Southern California I came back to the East Bay.
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Come to think of it Playland SF was likely shown in scenes of several noirs since many were shot in SF. I'm pretty sure Woman on the Run (1950) has a scene or two in the amusement park, and probably shows "Laffing Sal" outside of the Fun House.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Yeah, I watched all the ancient kid shows.
Ding Dong School The oldest?
Howdy Doody
Capt. Kangaroo
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I had forgotten all about Ding Dong School. I don't think I ever watched it other than a brief look during a channel change. I'm pretty sure I was way to old for that one.
 
I think he was on in the mornings, but my grandparents always had the news on in the morning. I wasn’t allowed to watch many Saturday morning cartoons. Gramps would say they make you dumb.

Besides, on Saturdays , I had a lot of work to do on the farm from 8 until around 2 in the afternoon. It wasn’t hard work, but dirty work. If I had high school baseball or football, I got off early. By the time I was a senior, I was a strong country boy. After college, I had to serve in the Marines for at least 5 years, but I made it my career for 30 years. But no boot camp.
 
I watched it a few times. I even remember the Statler Brothers song, Flowers on the Wall ... "Watching Captain Kangaroo, now don't tell me I have nothing to do."
 
Vaguely ... I remember Mr. Rodgers better - though, neither were my thing.

I was a big Looney Tunes fan! Also loved Speed Racer and Kimba, which most have never heard of....
 
Oh yes, he and another guy forget who, use to ride in a van down thru the neighborhood and throw out Planters peanuts in small packs, along with taffy. May have been before he became famous, can not remember. Remember Howdy Dowdy , I was on his show once.
 
RedAlert76 said:
Oh yes, he and another guy forget who, use to ride in a van down thru the neighborhood and throw out Planters peanuts in small packs, along with taffy. May have been before he became famous, can not remember. Remember Howdy Dowdy , I was on his show once.
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Now THAT deserves telling of the story...(y)
 
I certainly watched Captain Kangaroo from time to time, but my morning TV fix as a kid was Continental Classroom.

(Yeah, I was a strange kid :rolleyes:).
 
Captain Kangaroo was never my cup of tea. My Saturday morning favorites were in the cowboy genre: The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Sky King, Hopalong Cassidy, etc.

Other than that, from childhood forward, I've never watched TV in the mornings, nor did I allow my children to do so. DD has followed suit.
 

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