Q: I was a fan of Woody Willow. Did Woody and the gang end up at the Center of Puppetry Arts museum? What happened to Don and Ruth Gilpin?
—Miriam Machida, Duluth
A: A catchy song welcomed kids to watch Woody Willow and his marionette friends on WSB in the early days of television in Atlanta.
It went something like this: “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here. It’s time for Woody Willow.”
Woody’s gang is split up these days.
Some are still hanging around the Center for Puppetry Arts, but a couple of others — including the star of the “Woody Willow Show” – are displayed on loan at WSB’s studio.
Willow and the show’s other characters were created by Don and Ruth Gilpin, who operated puppets and marionettes on TV and in traveling shows before arriving in Atlanta.
When WSB – the city’s first TV station — debuted in 1948, Woody Willow was there.
Local stations had to produce their own shows in those days, so the Gilpins wrote their show and interacted with the gang every weekday before a studio audience of excited kids. Woody Willow aired at 4 p.m. on Channel 8, according to History Atlanta, which has an in-depth article on its website (historyatlanta.com/woody-willow).
“I think the most difficult part was figuring out what you were going to do tomorrow, because we were on five days a week,” Don Gilpin said in a WSB-TV interview.
The show came to an end in 1956 and the Gilpins later retired to Florida, where Ruth died in 1999, according to the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, and Don in 2005, according to Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
More on Ernie Harwell
Atlantan Bill Savell wrote to fill in some details about Ernie Harwell’s early life in the city.
Harwell, who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, went onto become a beloved announcer for the Detroit Tigers and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Savell wrote that his family lived near Harwell, who grew up off Piedmont Avenue, near Ansley Park, and corresponded with him until Harwell’s death in 2010.
Harwell, who attended Boys High and Emory, often was praised for his generosity and kindness, which was demonstrated in a story shared by Savell.
“ … A friend remembered being his neighbor when they were teenagers. However, she had long since lost track of him,” Savell wrote. “Sometime in the ’90s, she had heart surgery. I wrote Ernie and asked if he had an extra get-well card lying around. If so, would he send it to her? I had no idea if he remembered her. After all, it had been over 55 years. Not only did he send a note, he followed it up with a phone call. Long distance. They had a nice long phone visit.”
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