Cousin Cliff had a kid's show down in Birmingham. I never got to be on the show but I tuned in regularly to watch Popeye cartoons on channel 13. Brook once told me that he saw Cousin Cliff in all his glory at the Princess Theater (Downtown Gadsden). All a kid had to do was show up at the theater with 6 RC bottle caps to gain entry.On his television show - Cousin Cliff would do magic tricks and show cartoons and interview the kids in his audience. He was pretty hot stuff back in the day. I think my brother in-law Dan Noojin once told me that he was on the Cousin Cliff Show.
There is a humorous story that has circulated about Cousin Cliff asking two black children what they were giggling about (while on air). After a little coaxing from Cliff, one of the little boys blurted out, "Cousin Cliff - Leroy Fahhted!" I don't know how true the story is but it was a pretty darn unexpected thing to hear in the day of squeaky clean TV.Post Note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Holman Cousin Cliff passed away September 8, 2008.
3 comments:
Other little known trivia...
George Creel and Cousin Cliff graduated high school together.
Also on the picture you have where it says "Tip Top Clubhouse"...Tip Top was the name of a bakery that made snack cakes like today's Little Debbie.
I remember all to well when Cousin Cliff Show first brought the Three Stooges to us. Every time he would show one he would have to give a disclaimer of "Hey kids....you don't need try and do what the stooges do...they are actors and it is all pretend." I wonder how many kids that stopped from hitting their litte brothers in the head with hammers.
Interesting side note: Three stooges do not appeal to women. over the years when ever the conversation would come up about the stooges, invariably the women would say, "Oh they were silly." I'm thinking...yeah...they're suppose to be.
mb
Katie loves them...maybe she'll grow up to think they are silly. I told Kelsey this past week that Katie and I needed to introduce her to them.
Tim Hollis, who has written a lot of books about growing up in the South, wrote a book about Cousin Cliff Holman. It's called 40 Magical Years of Television, or something like that. I have it at home. You'd enjoy it.
I saw Cousin Cliff when he came up and did his magic show for Twelfth Street Baptist Church. This was probably in the late 60's or very early 70's.
Post a Comment