Golden Opportunity was actually on WOC-TV for quite some time. I believe Warren Vassen might have been the original host of the program, but later, Tom Parker and then Bill Bailey were hosts of the show. When Bailey did it, the title was changed to Talent Showcase. It was a Ted Mack type of show, but I'm unaware of what the "winners" actually got as a prize. I am unaware if they earned a trip to Ted Mack's show.

While I was at WOC, Bill Bailey was host and we did a fair number of shows.Bailey held auditions for several weeks, picked the acts that would appear, and then we taped them one show per week. Bailey was rather pickey, and perhaps rightly so, as to what talent acts were featured on the program. He wanted to spotlight real talent, not just every tap dancer or baton twirler.

One particular show featured a play of a short story by Davenport writer Susan Glaspell. Bailey, his wife Victoria, Ernie Mimms and his wife, and Lyle Sears were in the play. Bailely wanted me to mike the heck out of the set and I chose to use several hidden mikes and the big RCA boom mike. While Bailey was mad at me, it actually worked out quite well. We even managed to avoid boom shadow on the sets and the hidden mikes picked up the audio quite well.

The fall of 1969 was the last year that Talent Showcase was aired. Partially due to the problem of coming up with plenty of unique talent, and partly because of the production time. I don't believe the program was ever sponsored, but I might be wrong on that.

Dave Coopman - WOC Alumni and author of "Someplace Special...KSTT"

02/11/2006 ... I was on a show called Cowboy Ken around 1950. I was 9 and played my saxaphone. The following year I was on Golden Opportunity. More than 50 years later, I went to the same address (now KWQC) to be on the air with Fran Riley. How time flies.

I wore a cowboy suit and played "Home on the Range" on the alto saxaphone. I was 9 years old. All I remember is walking across a concrete floor and someone holding back a canvas curtain, then standing in front of the big clunky camera. I didn't miss a note. I was a third grader and a student of Charles Bickhaus at Wethersfield Scools in Kewanee, IL. By sixth grade I was playing in the high school band. Hardly anyone in Kewanee saw me, because hardly anyone in Kewanee had a TV. It was circa 1950. ~ Bill Vancil

01/09/2007 ... Tom Parker (pictured on the left) was the host of Golden Opportunity. - Legendary WOC engineer Jon Book

04/15/2007 ... Nick Karay wrote: I really enjoyed this bit of nostalgia. I grew up in Wyoming, Illinois and sometime between 1952 and 1954 I was apart of a pantomime band Called Woody and His Woodpeckers. We were 2 time winners on The Golden Opportunity T.V. program and if we had won the 3rd, we would've won a trip to Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. Our leader was Ron Harris, now lives in Peoria. Others in the group live in Brimfield area (Bob Curran), Princeville (Phil Johnson), Aurora (Larry Leadley, L.A. Ca (Jim Duncan), Colorado (Jack Real, who had a Catholic Parrish In The Davenport/Rock Island area) and me in Tarpon Springs, Fl (Nick Karay). BTW, the group jokes about being beat our 3 time by, I think, a Baton Twirler or an Adagio Dance team! LOL We entertained groups all over Illinois until we all went off to College in 1954.

09/17/2007 ... Kevin McLaughlin was on Golden Opportunity!

Hello,

I happened to find your website and it really took me back.

I was on the Golden Opportunity Show with Tom Parker in 1966. I was part of a group called the "Fly-Aways". We played a song called "Hang on Sloopy". We got on the show because we were in the talent show at the Dixon Petunia Festival and Tom Parker was the MC that year.

I remember Uncle Ernie, Captain Ken, Captain Ernie, Pat Sundine, Bill Gress, Cactus Jim and also Granpa Happy and Aunt Polly on WHBF and I think Igor from WQAD's Chiller Theatre.

Years later I worked for an ad agency in Chicago with a guy named Bill Shuler(sp) who had been Bill Bailey at WOC-TV.

Thanks for the trip!

Kevin McLaughlin
Tucson, AZ

04/15/2009 ... My band was a contestant group on the Golden Opportunities show in the spring of 1967. Our group, The Sounds, played Rock ‘n Roll and Motown. The competition lasted 13 weeks and we were the grand prize winners. We won $1250, which we had to split 5 ways. The competition was very tough – replete with a baton twirler and concern pianist. I remember coming to the studio (towing our bright orange band trailer with our name painted over it) and there about 100 teenagers outside waiting for us with signs and cheering for us. I remember us sharing a dressing room in the early stages and for the last show, we had our own dressing room. We often referred to this as a “regional Ted Mack Show”, though we did not get to that show. A local radio DJ approached us about making a “record”, but we never pursued it. Fond memories of WOC.

Bill Crutcher

Click here to return to Captain Ernie's Showboat!