A Room of Rompers, May 1967
I found a fun group of three vintage slides from a filming of an episode of the classic children's TV show, "Romper Room". I remember watching a version of this show when I was very young (15 or 16 at the latest), but the memories are vague.
From Wikipedia: Romper Room is an American children's television series that was franchised and syndicated from 1953 to 1994. The program targeted preschoolers (children five years of age or younger), and was created and produced by Bert Claster and his presenter wife, Nancy.
Romper Room was a rare case of a series being both franchised and syndicated, and some local affiliates would produce their own versions of the show instead of airing the national telecast. For some time, local shows all over the world used the same script but with local children. These particular photos were taken at KTNT in Tacoma, Washington.
The hostesses were always addressed as "Miss." The show also had a mascot, Mr. Do-Bee. Mr. Do-Bee was an oversized bumblebee who came to teach the children proper deportment. He was noted for always starting his sentence with "Do Bee", as in the imperative "Do be"; for example, "Do Bee good boys and girls for your parents!" There was also a "Mr. Don't Bee" to show children exactly what they should not do.
At the end of each broadcast, the hostess would look through a "magic mirror"—actually an open frame with a handle, the size, and shape of a hand mirror—and recite the rhyme, "Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic Mirror, tell me today, did all my friends have fun at play?" She would then name the children she saw in "television land", saying, for example, "I can see Melissa and Stu and Nanook and Ken and Lou and Sue and JG and Bu and Mike and Chris and JB and Dean and Steve and Kathy and Walter" and so forth.
28 comments:
After all these years, MISS NANCY FINALLY SAW ME!
I remember loving Romper Room. Remember when each kid had a cardboard car to “drive” around the room…and would park in it for story time?
Thanks, Major. I’ll stop back later to read everyone’s comments.
Hey! Miss Mary Ann said my name! She can see me! She can really see me!
I watched Romper Room. I have an autographed photo from a supposed Miss Mary Ann. I think I've scanned it already.....I'll look for that, and then share it here.
Thanks for these rare photos, Major!
Major-
Golly, I hadn't thought about Romper Room in, well... I'd rather not say. But I certainly remember the 'Do Bee' & 'Don't Bee'. The local station in the Los Angeles area that aired Romper Room (KCOP, Channel 13) did franchise the show - so it was locally-produced.
(I wonder if I venture in to my local J.J. Newberry five and dime store, if they still have the 'Romper Room corner', so I can buy some of the toys I saw featured on Romper Room-?)
And remember, Major...
"Romper, bomper, stomper, bo.
Tell me, tell me, tell me do.
Magic mirror, tell me today,
Did my friends at home have fun at play-?"
I watched this show in (probably) 1957, when I was four. Pretty sure it wasn't this particular iteration though; maybe the show I watched was produced in Portland, OR. We live south of there. I seem to remember that the hostess was a brunette. Of course, it was in black and white.
In the second photo, the kids all seem sedated; kinda out of it. What is that structure in front of the girl on the right? It looks like a tower made of Rice Krispy Treats... with birthday candles afire on top. Or, instead of candles, maybe they're mini-marshmallows.
3rd photo, the plaque in the background asks: "Which is a small letter". I KNOW! I KNOW! Ask ME!... "d"!!! Oh wait, the answer is already revealed below... nevermind.
Wow, that mirror really IS magic! She saw all of us GDBers! The Magic Mirror bit is the only part of the show I remember. I recall waiting to see if she would say my name, and dreading it at the same time... I don't know why. I was a weird kid.
Major, how did you come by these photos? Ebay? Seems like an odd sort of thing to find at a thrift store. Thanks for the childhood regression therapy, Major.
I found my photo of Miss Mary Ann, posing in the Romper Room Toy Corner at Sears. We went to see her at our local Sears department store, but I don't have a very clear memory of the encounter.....other than the fact that she was smoking a cigar and cussing at all of the children in line. KIDDING!!!
I had a Romper Room branded educational game, but I haven't been able to find it in many years. It's hard to believe that it would have been tossed out, but that might have happened somehow. I also had a Romper Room Punch Ball, like the one Miss Mary Ann is holding in the photo:
Miss Mary Ann at Sears
Thanks for these great pics, Major. I'd forgotten all about Romper Room. As a child I went on our local franchise of Romper Room. I have almost no memory of the experience which must have occurred around 1970 or 1971 but I did recieve a pair of Romper Stompers which I absolutely loved and tottered around on for a few years after the filming.
I had completely forgotten about Romper Room and the Do Bee and Don’t Bee. I remember watching it on KTVU out of San Francisco and asking my mother if there was any way I could be on the show. I don’t remember the answer, but I was never on the show. Our local presenter was also a Miss Nancy.
The chalk writing below the Do Bee and Don’t Bee in these photos is a bit odd. “Do Bee Absent, Don’t Bee Mrs. Placer.” Hmmm…
The “Magic Mirror” reminded me that I would often watch reruns of 1960s episodes of The Jack LaLanne Show before cartoons came on in the morning. I distinctly remember one episode where he said “You - come on - join in!” When I pointed to myself and asked “Me?” he responded “Yes, you, little boy!” I was convinced Jack LaLanne had some special two-way camera that allowed him to see me at home. I joined in with the exercise.
TM!, I remember my little sister had a Romper Room-branded Inchworm that she got the same Christmas I got my first bicycle. I think we had another game or toy, too, but I can’t remember what it was. Maybe a Spirograph?
JB, no, she didn’t see all of us GDBers. She never does…
Chuck, I had competely forgotten that the inchworm was a Romper Room toy. I found my old one during Covid while clearing out the family home when my parents downsized. We also had that clown punching bag. Our local affiliate seemed to have been the Nashville public broadcast station. Romper Room clearly had quite a big franchise network.
Blast From the Past! I vaguely remember this program and the Bees, but I doubt that I watched it much.
Major, I’m concerned that this tv person can see me! The forerunner of the Surveillance State! (Grabs tinfoil hat!)
Thanks for the look back, Major, and everyone else for their more vivid memories.
JG
I know I had the ROMPER STOMPERS …. I think it was the law in the early 70’s that children have them. I also had the punching clown …. I remember being very small and getting upset that my uncles were punching him - I don’t think I understood it was suppose to be punched… I also had a romper room toy called the GINGERBREAD GAME: there was a plastic gingerbread house you would load plastic candy pieces into the chimney then take turns pulling a lever … a candy piece would slide out from the front door and each player would place their candy piece on a plastic gingerbread man tray …. Whoever finished theirs first won. I loved that game … it always made me think of SANTAS VILLAGE.
Glad I’m not the only one who was freaked out (terrified?) by that satanic mirror. I must have been watching channel 13 in Canoga Park in the late 1960s. Also had Romper Stompers. They were yellow as I recall.
Lou and Sue, Miss Nancy didn’t see me, but it’s OK! I know I watched Romper Room when I was little, but it’s all vague. It’s weird to see the color photos, because we had a black and white TV back then.
TokyoMagic! whaaaaaat? You have an autographed photo from Miss Mary Ann? How??
Nanook, like you, I doubt I’ve thought of Romper Room for decades. I was more of a “Dusty’s Treehouse” guy! I remember that poem because it is in the last paragraph of this post!
JB, I can’t remember where my family lived when I watched Romper Room, we moved a lot when I was a kid (Navy family, you know), it might have been Virginia. Or San Diego. I wonder how many versions of RR there were over the years? Kids get tired, or overwhelmed, easily, the “sedated” girl is probably ready for a nap. Did Rice Kirspy Treats exist in 1967? Probably. TBH, I don’t remember my RR lady ever saying my name, and it is a pretty common name! These were in a big batch of slides that I bought years ago.
TokyoMagic!, wow, that is super cool!! I did not remember that there were RR-branded toys, those people were smart. That’s where the money is! Just ask George Lucas.
Pegleg Pete, I remember seeing our local children’s TV host in (I believe) Virginia, “Bungles the Clown”. It was Christmas, and we all received gifts from him, which I later realized had been pre-paid for by our parents.
Chuck, funny, I don’t ever remember wishing that I could be on a TV show. Remember Bozo the Clown? Of course you do! He would do these contests in which a kid was supposed a flip a spoon into the neck of a bottle - darn near impossible. The prize was “jams and jellies”, probably $2 worth, why not make a contest that a kid might actually win once in a while? I remember being outraged even at a young age. That’s when I became a hippie and fought “the Man”. Jack LaLanne, when that show came on, I knew that the fun shows were over and it was time to figure out something else to do with my day. I do remember the inchworm toy, but not that it had anything to do with Romper Room. Don’t worry, the Magic Mirror didn’t see me either…
Pegleg Pete, wow, I wonder if toys like the Inchworm are collectible? Surely lots of people who are now grown adults with money would want to recapture a piece of their childhoods.
JG, I know that you were more a fan of Zacherly and Chiller Theater! Which is a good thing. I hope that the lady can’t see me when I’m in the bathroom, how embarrassing.
Mike Cozart, I don’t think romper stompers were much of a thing when I lived in Huntington Beach, but when we moved to Pennsylvania, all the kids wore “waffle stompers”. So of course I had to get some too. It made more sense in a land of snow and ice. I didn’t remember ever having one of those punching toys, but then I scanned some old family photos and we had a clown, too! I’ll bet we eventually punctured it somehow, we were little terrors. Wow, The Gingerbread Game, those RR folks really had a lot of product tie-ins!
Steve DeGaetano, I actually wonder how many nutty parents would think of the Magic Mirror as “satanic” today??
JB, that tower is maybe made of Flintstone Building Boulders. I had those, back then, and loved playing with them. They were Styrofoam--nice and lightweight. HERE'S a set on eBay.
Waving enthusiastically at the TV! Yeah, those kids look pretty morose to be in such a fun room in pic 2. I like the nursery rhyme character cut outs, with a pseudo-Pinocchio. Don’t Bee a Misplacer! Thanks for the behind the scenes photos, Major.
I do remember Bozo. That was another show I asked my mother if I could be on but never was (don’t misunderstand - I don’t resent it at all;; I just remember asking). I even had a Bozo spoon and fork set that I learned to feed myself with and were my primary silverware until I was maybe six or seven. They had white plastic handles and one had a big melt mark on it from when it had fallen out of the silverware rack and landed on the heating element. I still have my Bozo Christmas record.
Sue, I had some building blocks like that, too! I got them for Christmas 1970. They were different pastel colors - blue, green, yellow, pink and white - but I don’t think they were Flintstones-branded. I also don’t remember any curved pieces like in the set you linked. But they were a lot of fun!
Major-
"I remember that poem because it is in the last paragraph of this post!" Well, you see Major... when I got to the last paragraph and saw MY name, I lost all sense of time, etc., and I became the perfect example of a Don't Bee-!
Romper Room. A relic from our past. My favorite part was the magic mirror at the end of the show. Didn't realize the show lasted until 1994.
I mostly remember the show "Captain Kangaroo" with Mr. Green Jeans from my childhood. That was my preferred show.
Thanks, Major.
What?!?! Miss_____ [fill in the blank] didn't see Chuck or Major Pepperidge? She must be using a defective Magic Mirror.
Sue, by golly, I think you're right about the Flintstone Building Boulders. Thanks!
Ken M., I too preferred Captain Kangaroo, and I have stronger memories of that show.
Like Nano and others, I saw Romper Room on KTVU-Oakland. I lived in San Jose, so I didn't have ready access to Newberry's, or Children's Fairyland, or a lot of Oakland/SF locales regularly plugged on KTVU kid shows. To this day I've never been to the Cow Palace.
Adolescent humor: I never found a place to use a gag I thought up with Miss Nancy and the mirror. "I see Susie, and Tommy, and Eddie -- You'll go blind if you keep doing that! -- and Mary, ... "
^ Hahahahaha!!!
OK, getting mentioned by Miss Major today was just as thrilling as getting mentioned by Miss What's-her-name on WOR (NYC local) in the late 70s.
Also, I was an adult before I realized that Romper Stompers were called that because of the show, and not just a coincidence.
^ Dean, don’t feel bad. I first realized that Romper Stompers were from Romper Room — today.
Who remembers the song? "I always do what's right, I never do anything wrong, I'm a Romper Room Do Bee, a Do Bee all day long"
Lou and Sue, Flintstone Building Boulders?! I love it!
Kathy!, I’m sure that the energy level came and went depending on what the kids were doing, they couldn’t be hyper and excited ALL the time! The style of those nursery-character cutouts reminds me strongly of a greeting card company from the 1940s and 50s, I wish I could remember the name.
Chuck, it sounds like you don’t have your Bozo spoon and fork anymore. Too bad! A Bozo Christmas record, now I’m going to have to look that up on YouTube.
Nanook, I understand, it was all so exciting!
K. Martinez, oh yeah, I loved Captain Kangaroo, with Mr. Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose, the pingpong balls, and Tom Terrific, “Fred”, and so on!
JB, it’s OK, like JG hinted at, I don’t need no surveillance State!
DBenson, I knew a lady who saw The Beatles at the Cow Palace, she still had her ticket stub! I think that magic mirror joke would be more at home on The Simpsons!
JB, don’t encourage him!
Dean Finder, good old Miss What’s-her-name!
Lou and Sue, I definitely did not make the connection AT ALL.
Anonymous, I sadly remember very little about RR, I might have just been too young.
I remember Miss Mary Ann leading the kids on various parades around that set....sometimes on their Romper Stompers! In Cub Scouts, we made our own Romper Stompers, using large coffee cans and rope!
TM! I bet you still have them….you amazingly kept everything.
Do you remember them parading around while standing in those cardboard [box] cars…I think they were police cars. They held them up by their waists with handles on both sides—and zoomed around. Then they sat down on the floor, while still in their cars.
Sue
HERE WE GO!
Sue, thanks for the link to that clip. Yes, I do remember them "driving" around the room in the cardboard boxes. I think she would also lead a parade of them around the room, while they were all punching their "Punch Balls." Or now that I think of it, maybe they just stood in place for that.
My homemade Romper Stomper knock-offs were in my mom's garage for many years, but they did eventually get tossed. I probably wouldn't have tossed them if they were officially branded Romper Stompers. But they were just "Folgers Stompers." ;-)
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