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Romper Room was a preschool
television show that ran in almost every major market in the United
States and was broadcast from 1954 until the late Seventies. It was
sold to stations in two ways - in standard syndication and also sold
like a franchise with a different local host in each city (150 in
all). The series was developed by Bert and Nancy Claster who trained
many of the local hosts.
The syndicated version was originally filmed in
Baltimore, MD (later moving to Chicago) and starred Miss Nancy (Claster).
She was replaced in 1964 by the Claster's daughter, Miss Sally.
The unique thing about the franchise and hiring local hosts is that
people felt a better sense of community when they watched the show.
Many of the children in the cities would also come to the shows and
take part.
All of the hosts, many former kindergarten teachers, spent the
half-hour reading from books to the seven or eight kids on the set,
teaching the alphabet, manners and values in a gentle way.
The kids would often go nuts on the show, some wouldn't communicate
at all, others would take over the whole show and there was nothing
the poor hostess could do but deal with it because they were on a
cramped set together for thirty minutes live.
Each show ended with the hostess gazing into the 'Magic Mirror'
(just a mirror frame) and saying "Romper stomper bomper boo,Tell me
tell me, tell me do. Magic mirror, tell me today, Did all my friends
have fun at play? I see . . ." (changing the names each day): "I see
Mary and Hank and William and Virginia and Hannah and all of you
boys and girls out there!"
But by 1981, a thousand shows later, stations decided it was easier
to buy
already-produced shows. Claster Television obliged, offering a
syndicated version called Romper Room & Friends. The revamped room
was hosted by Miss Molly McCloskey (with help from puppets Kimble,
UpUp and Granny Cat) and produced by Bert and Nancy's daughter,
Sally—a former hostess herself. Romper Room & Friends did fairly
well, until a 1984 FCC decision to relax the standards for decent
children's programming made the show seem a bit tame for the times.
The show was last produced in April of '91, with stations receiving
85 episodes in a revised format. Those episodes ran until 1994.
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