The Wallace and Ladmo Show
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The Wallace and Ladmo Show was a children's television show produced by and aired on KPHO-TV (Channel 5) in Phoenix, Arizona.
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[edit] History
The Wallace and Ladmo Show ran from April 3, 1954 to December 29, 1989—36 years—becoming the longest-running daily children's television show in history. (The Philadelphia children's show Chief Halftown was a Saturday morning children's television show on WPVI-TV from 1950-1999 making it the longest running Saturday morning children's TV show in history)
The television show It's Wallace premiered on April 3, 1954 as a vehicle to showcase cartoons for KPHO. The show was hosted by Bill Thompson, who created the character of Wallace Snead when he appeared on the "Golddust Charlie Show", and aired on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6:30 PM. Within a year, Ladmo, played by Ladimir Kwiatkowski (who had been a cameraman for the station), had joined the cast to complement the children's humor of Wallace. In 1960, Pat McMahon joined the cast and developed a list of characters (such as "Gerald," "Aunt Maud", "Captain Super" and "Marshall Good") that entertained children (McMahon would later go on to become a popular talk radio host for KTAR in the Phoenix market). The cast of the show also performed regular stage shows at such venues as local movie theaters and malls, Encanto Park, and the Legend City theme park in Phoenix.
In 1968 the show was renamed Wallace & Company and again in 1970, to its now famous title, The Wallace & Ladmo Show. In 1973, the time slot of the show split with a morning and afternoon show but taping of the two shows was still in the afternoon so children could attend the audience after school.
The show ended with the final taping on December 29, 1989. By that time the show had won many awards, including nine Emmy awards.
In recent years, the show has run in syndication on KAZT-TV (Channel 7 in Prescott and Channel 27 in Phoenix) at 5:30 PM.
[edit] Ladmo Bags
Not long after the addition of Ladmo, the Ladmo Bag appeared on the show. The Ladmo Bag was a prize won by children in the audience for on stage performances or by sitting in the lucky seat in the audience selected in a drawing during that show. Originally the Ladmo bags were large paper grocery bags and they were filled with lots of candy and junkfood, but as the show progressed, the Ladmo Bags were in smaller paper grocery bags but still stuffed full of candy and assorted coupons.
To diehard fans and collectors, an authentic Ladmo Bag from the original show can be worth a considerable amount of money. However, very few of these bags still exist intact, as most children that won the prizes consumed the candy inside. Some natives of the Phoenix area use the expression "I never got a Ladmo Bag when I was a kid" as a metaphor for "I had a deprived childhood."
Ladimir Kwiatkowski, the actor that played Ladmo, died from cancer in 1994. However, during special events in Arizona, particularly the Arizona State Fair, Ladmo bags are still won by select people attending. The last Ladmo bag that was given during the last telecast was won by Alice Cooper, a popular local celebrity.
[edit] Plays
In recent years there have been two plays written about the show with a third still in production. The first play follows Wallace, Ladmo, Pat and Mike Condello as they struggle to hold the show together when Pat and the parody band "Hubb Kapp and the Wheels" are offered a record deal with Capitol Records. The second play deals with the death of Ladmo from cancer. The first play was performed two times at the Herberger Theatre in downtown Phoenix, with several celebrities showing up as Time Machine guests, including long-time Arizona resident Alice Cooper. The plays were all written by Ben Tyler with input from both Wallace and Pat.
