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As an un-involved fan, I stumbled onto this article to see that it needs references. Baker and her show still get mentioned decades later.
ESparky ( talk) 18:14, 24 October 2017 (UTC)
References
KHJ/Channel 9 had Engineer Bill, the late Bill Stulla who died in 2008. Hobo Kelly, actually actress Sally Baker in hobo disguise, was over on KCOP/Channel 13.
While Hobo Kelly, played by Sally Baker, peered into Southern California living rooms through her magic glasses during the 1960s, the more elusive Chuckles the Clown soon captured "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" until his untimely encounter with a peanut-crazed rogue elephant.
Perhaps because of his age, which was relatively advanced even then, or perhaps just because of his horn-rimmed glasses, he seemed the most eminent of the local kids-show hosts, the boss in my mind of a complement that also included Chucko the Birthday Clown (Charles M. Runyon), Sheriff John (John Rovick) and Tom Hatten, who played "Popeye" cartoons in a nautical setting. Later there were Hobo Kelly (Sally Baker), little person Billy Barty, and Gene Moss and his jelly-bean-eating puppet pal, "Shrimpenstein," though none with quite his gravitas, to slightly overstate his effect.
Children's TV was once alive with actual human beings, often accompanied by puppet friends and with a cartoon or two to present. In my own childhood, there were Engineer Bill, Sheriff John, Hobo Kelly, Tom Hatten (who dressed like a sailor and ran "Popeye" cartoons). These were "come and visit" shows, in which you entered the world of your hosts, who addressed you directly through the screen and might say your name on your birthday. This is the model of the Playhouse.Cite error: The named reference "latimes 2006" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
Salley Baker; Hobo Kelly drew 300,000 letters a year.