Clellan Card

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Clellan Card, circa 1962

Clellan Card (June 24, 1903–April 13, 1966) was a noted on-air personality at the Minnesota station WCCO best-known for the dozen years where he played Axel Torgeson on the local children's show Axel and His Dog. Card was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and spent most of his life in the Twin Cities region, although he attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He dropped out of Rutgers in 1926, moved in with his parents, and worked various jobs before starting his radio career. His first broadcasting job was doing voice work for a fishing tackle commercial.

The Axel character, a loony "Scandihoovian," was created by Card in the late 1930s when he had a popular morning radio show on WCCO AM called Almanac of the Air.

A devoted family man, Card suffered great losses in 1952 and early 1953 when two of his three children died in separate incidents four months apart. His son Peter died in a plane crash in Texas, and John died in a car crash in the Twin Cities. It is believed that these events led Card to focus his broadcast talents toward children.

Axel and His Dog went on the air for the first time on August 5, 1954. Don Stolz played Towser, the dog on the show, and soon added Tallulah the cat as well. Local singer and entertainer Mary Davies played Carmen the Nurse. In October 1954, the show became the first local program in the Twin Cities to be broadcast in color, using an experimental system.

The show proved to be extremely popular. In January 1959, for example, its rating was nearly three times that of the nearest competitor, American Bandstand. One live event at Excelsior Amusement Park at Lake Minnetonka in 1958 saw an attendance of 12,000.

In the 1960s, Card began to suffer from the effects of cancer, though few people outside of WCCO knew of his condition. He continued to do the show as long as possible, but was admitted to Abbott Hospital in April 1966. He died eight days later. Carmen the Nurse went on the air the next day to inform viewers of what happened. A memorial fund was set up, with $5,600 raised in the next two months. Roughly half of the money came in small donations of coins from children.

The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting inducted Card into their hall of fame for Minnesota broadcasters in 2002.