Wes Holly succeeded Walt Reno and he left and went to Des Moines. It was when Wes Holly was there that they made the switch from the cowboy movies to cartoons. Wes sat on an old rail fence in front of a flat that Ken Wagner had done his artwork on because Ken was not only the film director for the station, he was also a cartoonist. He drew in the Warner Brother's characters such as Tweety and Bugs Bunny, etc on a flat and it was called the Cartoon Corral. It was kind of a strange thing to have a cowboy with cartoons. So Wes who was a Palmer college student and had a cowboy/western band along with his wife Joy, just decided that he could do better doing personal appearances and concentrating on his dance band plus he got a barn dance show on our station. So with all of that, he decided that it was probably best to move out of the cartoon genre which then brought on Ken and the Cartoon Dixie Belle. As you know, later on, Ken went to Minneapolis and he was followed by Captain Vern, Captain Don and then Ernie.
Special thanks to Tim Hollis, incredible historian and author of books including the stellar "Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Programs" for the scan of the WOC advertisement from the 1950's
The cowboy show was first called Circle 5 Ranch because WOC signed on in 1949 on Channel 5, then when a boost in power was granted they had to change to Channel 6 to keep from infringing on the Channel 4 signal thus the name changed to Circle 6 Ranch (WOC engineer Stan Straight said that the actual reason for the switch from Channel 5 to Channel 6 was WOC and WMAQ Channel 5 Chicago were overlapping in areas such as Dixon, Illinois, hence the frequency change). I came to work at WOC in September of 1953 and Walt Reno was already there as Cowboy Whitey. I went into the army in October of 1954 and returned in August of 1956 and Wes Holly had replaced Walt after he went to Des Moines. The above picture is of Wes Holly but the set is exactly like that used by Cowboy Ken and Cowboy Whitey. The potbelly stove was on a wheeled dolly and the stove pipe was rolled up seamless paper. The rest of the set consisted of pine benches and a couple bales of straw. The stove, benches and bales were also seen on a good number of other shows as set pieces.
Wes and Joy Holly late 1950's at the WOC studios. Wes was the last WOC cowboy on the Circle 6 Ranch before the switch to The Dixie Belle!
09/04/2006 ... Wes Holly fan Glenn Lego wrote: I grew up in Mount Carroll, Il which is in the Sterling/Rock Falls area and I remember watching Captain Ernie all the time evenings after school. I don't remember so much him falling off the Dixie Belle set and all his fans thinking he'd fallen into the River but I do remember a few years before that when Wes Holly had the afternoon kid's show. This was about the time rock singer Buddy Holly was killed in his airplane crash and a lot of people thought it was Wes and the WOC switchboard was jammed because of that incident. I really enjoyed seeing the website highlighting the history of WOC TV and radio. In the early 1970's my brother and I took a tour of WOC one day and found it very interesting .
04/19/2006 ... Bob Allard and Wes Holly were friends as well as co-workers at WOC. Bob's show "Cactus Jim" preceeded Wes' Show "Circle 6 Ranch" in the 1950's. Tracy Allard, Bob's daughter, remembers Wes!
I have a Wes Holly story too. He was the last cowboy to present cartoons on WOC before the show became The Cartoon Showboat with a captain. Wes had a cat as a pet. He had to go out of town suddenly and didn't have anyone to take care of her so my mother offered. How hard can it be to take care of a kitten? Except this wasn't an ordinary kitten - it was a lion cub. Ma thought it was a six or eight week old cub - a cute little fur ball. She was six months old and the size of a St Bernard. Her name was Kenya and she spent about two weeks in our back yard. Wes drove up in a convertible with this cat sitting in the front seat lounging over the door like a big dog.
At first she was chained to the elm tree in the back yard but the flies and gnats in the grass bothered her so she was moved into the garage and was much happier. My parents had checked with the police and there wasn't any ordinance at that time against having a big cat as long as it was confined and we took "reasonable" precautions. We posted no trespassing signs on the chain link fence that surrounded our back yard, chained the gates shut and locked the garage door. She never bothered anyone. In fact the neighbor boy slept out in his back yard in a tent all week so that he could get a scout badge and said he never heard a sound out of her.
We didn't have problems with any of the kids in the neighborhood, it was the parents. "Just climb over the fence, Johnny - when will you ever have another chance to pet a lion!" I wouldn't go near her, but one of my friends pet Kenya and seemed to be just fine - picture attached. The picture is dated 1961 and the note my mother wrote on the back says Kenya ended up in the Peoria Zoo when she got too big for Wes to handle.
Oh the crazy things we did way back then! I'm still digging thru boxes to see if I can find anything else. Thanks!
Tracy
Presenting a conversation with Mr. Wes Holly. 04/14/2007 ...
The lion was partly the reason that I left WOC. I left on a friendly basis but I was bringing the lion with me to work on a regular basis and everyone was threatening to quit because they were scared of the lion.
I am 78 years old now and I get a kick out of watching all of these old cowboy movies off of satellite TV. They were all made in the 1930s and 1940s, even before my time! I get a kick out of watching that old stuff every once in awhile.
I was going to Palmer School of Chiropractic and that is how I got involved with WOC. I started thinking about it when I was in the airforce. That was during the Korean War. When you are in your twenties or middle twenties, you wonder what you are going to do with the rest of your life. I started looking into chiropractic. I had not been exposed to it before but I had visited some of the schools and I came and visited B.J. Palmer and I said "this is where I want to go".
I was a student there in January of 1956. I came by and visited the television station around the first of December of '55. They said that they were going to have The Tree of Lights. Every year they had this telethon for the benefit of the Salvation Army so that they could get money to buy things to give people for Christmas.
I went in there with my cowboy outfit and I had been doing this for a number of years already. I had done some of this while in the service. I used to go out to some of the various television stations where I was assigned in the military and do a number here and a number here. It was fun.
Later that night at WOC, it was around the first of December, I did two or three songs and that was it. I forgot all about it. I was getting ready to start school (and school was going to begin right after the first of January). I went in to the program director, whose name was Ray Guth and said "I want to thank you for having me on there". Ray said "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?!!"
They had been trying to catch up with me ever since I made that appearance on that Tree of Lights program and they wanted me to start the show in the afternoons.
At that time they had Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies and then WHBF Channel 4 in Rock Island had the Mickey Mouse Club. Mickey Mouse club was eating us alive. Their ratings were 35 and our ratings were 10.
Then WOC went out and bought a package. It was a Warner Brothers cartoon package which included Popeye the Sailor Man. The minute they started running that, they changed the name of my show from The Circle 6 Ranch, where I was on every day, to The Circle 6 Cartoon Corral.
Overnight the ratings flip-flopped and we became the preferred show! We had the 35 ratings and they had the 10 ratings. The Mickey Mouse Club had been on for quite awhile but it did not interest people as much as it had. So we took over and ran it our way for awhile.
Special thanks to Gwen Korn for the WOC Popeye advertisement.
The set was supposed to represent a bunk house. They asked me if I could ride a horse and of course I grew up on a horse. I said "sure I can ride a horse but I don't have one". They brought one in, a chocolate layer colored one. The fellow who owned it sold it to the Annie Oakley television series. It was a dead ringer double for the one she rode on her TV show so her stunt double and she both had one.
One day they took me out there in the park, I don't know where it was exactly but we had what looked like an outdoor western setting and I rode across the field on this horse. I rode up to what looked like an old delapidated bunk house. I got off the horse at the bunk house and went through the door and then next thing would be me coming through the door, only live. There was no tape in those days, the picture of me riding a horse was a movie, they made a film out of it. They would play it and I would walk in onto that stage setting and I would sit on a bale of straw and there was the type of artwork that you would use in that setting. This was all used to go along with the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry movies. When we went to The Corral, we did not have to change it because we called it The Corral!
I had special guests on the show all of the time. We never had the calabur of Roy and Gene but we did have people like Lash LaRue and a half-of a dozen of the slightly lesser known cowboy stars. They would come through the area and appear on the show. We would have a variety of people appear on the show. Every time there was a circus or carnival in town, we would have some of the variety acts on the show, things like that. We had a guy with an alligator on the show one time. The gator got loose in the studio and the tail was swishin all over!
If you know what it looked like, in the old days WOC was really just a huge garage. It was like a house on the front of a garage. The studio was the garage part.
On the Circle 6 Ranch, I would play the guitar and sing. They had various other musical shows. There was one called Soiree with Sontag (with George Sontag). I consider George to be a very good friend. He had a program I was on. I would show up as a guest. I was a regular on for you might say three years. Then there was a barn dance show on WOC that some of the local country music bands had. They had come in and talked the station into it and so forth. I said "let me have a crack at that!" They said "ya, go ahead!" I organized a band and we put on a show and from then on it was our show!
My first wife played the organ on it. There were six people and all the guys I had on with me, including my ex-wife Joy, they were all superb musicians. There was nothing wrong with the guys that were on before us but they were hometown boys just doing a little bit of it and the guys who I picked up were hard pros and really into it.
I got to appear on all of the well known musical shows. My second wife and I were what they called "regular guests" on the Grand Ole Opry. What this regular guesting was back in the old days in the 60's and 70's was they had a list of people that were pre-approved that anytime they were going to be in town, they would put you on the Opry. We were on that list and appeared many times on the Grand Ole Opry. I also appeared many times on the WLS Barn Show out of Chicago. We just about hit them all and it was fun.
I count among my friends probably one hundred chiropractors. I feel very strongly about it but I decided to stay in the music business and not in the practice. I converted all of my family into chiropractic patients and sometimes I will help out when they come to me and said "dad, please give me an adjustment". That is the extent of my involvement.
We had Hostess Cupcakes on the show as an advertiser. They were on quite a bit. The name escapes me now but we also had the number one bread in the area as a sponsor as well. I do not believe it was Wonder at the time, I am just not sure.
Dwight Damon, we were inseparable friends during the time that I was at the chiropractic college. He was a hypnotist. He did a lot of entertaining things, of course there is a lot of trickery to all of that stuff. He used to do these blind-folded things and all kinds of magic things and hypnotism. We just happen to have been really good friends. He did a Clarabelle the Clown type character from the old Howdy Doody Show. He actually did several different characters. He was already a professional when he hooked up with me, I did not make him or anything like that. There really was not a schedule that we were on where he would be on a certain day of the week. It was whenever we wanted him to be on then he came on the show. It was my job and I was the only one who got paid by WOC.
One guy, however, who got started with me is named Fred Ball. He on the other hand came to me when he was 16 years old. The four years I was on WOC, he came to me and showed me some of the things that he could do. I saw what he could do and took him along with me and used him in some capacity in everything that I did as part of my show. He was like my side-kick.
When they were on TV they did not get paid for doing it. They did however get the publicity. So we would go out and do shows and they would get paid for doing those shows. You can name just about any time within a hundred mile radius of Davenport and we were there. One summer I did 108 shows where we went into a town and put on some kind of presentation. That summer we did 108 shows in 90 days. During that time I made a lot of money and lost a lot of money!
The format of the shows was I had a band and it was a band that I am very proud of. We would go to Nashville and record stuff. Mercury Records .... at the end of a show on the radio, there would be 1/2 of a minute or a minute left and they would put an instrumental on there. They called it bumper music. They would put it in and we recorded a lot of those songs for Mercury Records.
The guy who was the head of Mercury Records in Nashville at that time, HE told me "you guys have got the best band in America, man!"
Three of the guys in the band had what is called "natural pitch". It was impossible for them to make an error. If they ever made an error it was physical, like they slipped or something, they just never made a mental error. You could take them out to the middle of a forty acre field and tune your guitar to them while they were humming the notes. Working together with them worked out really good for all of us.
Cowboy Whitey who was Walt Reno was my predecessor on what was then the Circle 5 Ranch (Channel 6 was previously Channel 5). He was gone before I got on there. They had a substitute that I remember they had, actually they had two of them. They had one named Cowboy Ken and another one who had a scandal so he did not work out. They had another young fellow and there was nothing wrong with him but it wasn't going along that great. I replaced him. After the Circle 6 Ranch went off the air, it went straight to Ken Wagner and The Cartoon Showboat.
When Ken went to The Showboat, that left me without anything at that moment. I went in and talked to the program director there and the manager and said "I only need one appearance a week to keep my business going." They came up with a show for me that turned out to be a incredible winner! That was the Cartoon Corral on Sunday mornings. It was on from 8 in the morning until 10 on Sunday mornings. At the time, in that era of Quad Cities television, it was the only thing on the air. If anybody turned on the TV, as soon as they had the Indian tuned up and you set your set by it, there was nothing to watch but Cartoon Corral! The exposure was unreal!
I was so grateful to them because that publicity I got out of it was priceless.
In regards to why I left WOC, there was not a fight or argument about it but I would come in there on Sundays and do the Cartoon Corral and bring my lion on a leash. They called me in one day and said "we are not going to be able to get anybody to come in and work if you bring in that lion." I said well we have already run the course on this and I will just drop off the course for awhile. I got a letter from the station manager at the time. It was the most complimentary letter I have ever seen and we parted as friends.
The cat went on the show with me. I did not have it trained to do tricks. She was not fully grown but she was a handful. When I got her, she was about 85 pounds. She would have grown to 500 pounds. I have never told anyone what happened to her until now. We were giving her some veterinarian treatment and of course I was using a local farm animal and pet type veterinarian and he used a drug on her that killed her. I talked to a guy Captain Cristy who ran the zoo in Moline and he told me that I should get a lion, I would get all kinds of publicity for it. He told me where I could get one and I went out there and got it. Later on, when I was telling him about what happened to the cat and how it died, he said if you would have talked to me I could have told you. He said that with wild animals, there are a lot of drugs that they can not handle, they are real easy to kill.
The program that we did was an hour. Those old movies were an hour long. They were somewhat edited so you could put them into an hour show. In the early years of television, you could go into the markets and buy an hour of television. So I would go in there and buy an hour and promote something like that and we would do it for an hour on TV. Usually it would be on a Sunday. In the early days of television you were only allowed seven minutes of commercials an hour. That was a law. Today it is up to twenty minutes! During the show there were some film commericals but there was no tape. So anything that we did we had to do it live.
Keds sneakers for example had film.
I was on WOC for four years. I started with WOC in early 1956 and left there in late 1959. My song Shufflin Shoes was on Iowana label which was a local recording company. That song was recorded in 1950 I do believe. There is a person who became quite famous after playing on that recording. It was the first recording that she was ever involved with. Just a month or two later her first single was released and it became a huge national hit and that person was Del Woods. Del Woods, the piano player for the Grand Ole Opry, her first recording was backing me up on Shuffin Shoes. Her big single was "Down Yonder".
I did have a gun on the show as Cowboy Wes. I had a six shooter. I had it rendered inoperable so that if I wanted to wear it in my belt and go into a town, if I was questioned by police, I would not have any problems. I did not do any of the cowboy tricks on the show. I can get on and off a horse and ride it but that was about it.
George Sontag. He had his own show that I appeared on. It is an interesting story. One of my nieces wanted me to sing at her wedding. We went into the rehearsal. The organist and the preacher and everyone involved said that they thought we were terrible and that we were the worst thing that they had ever heard. So I called up George, and said "George, you have got to come up here and play for us at this wedding!" (George was a prolific golfer) George said "I've got a golf tournament!" I talked him into it. He walked in and we didn't even have a rehearsal, we just talked over what we were going to do and he backed us (and I am going to do a little bragging here) and we were a pretty good duet! There was a photographer there who was in the back of the room taking pictures and he went up to the preacher and said "Man! That is the most wonderful music I have ever heard!" George had come in, sat down, played the wedding and then slipped out the side door and went and played the golf tournament! George and I got along pretty good. We were the best of friends when I was there and I really put the pressure on him that time and it paid off!
Don McGonegle and I were the best of friends but we had this little thing going. He was always trying to make me crack up on TV.
Here is one hilarious Don McGonegle story I have to tell you. We were doing George's program, Soiree with Sontag. They tried to make it really high class and there was no joking around allowed. They had a girl singer who did "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". At the very end of it they set up a black power jar that would send up a little bit of smoke and that was all it was supposed to do. Well Don loaded that charge and when they set it off, it blew that girl off the piano. Her nylons were singed off her legs. She was not seriously hurt. I was supposed to be next, the next performer to go on and I was cracking up, absolutely falling apart at the seams. The next day I am called into the program director's office and was told that "they expected more professional conduct out of me" than to act like that. Don McGongle was standing in that office with his back to me while that whole room was shaking in my face. Now you tell me how I was supposed to "control yourself" while you were looking at what had just happened during that show?!
Don is also famous for another incident involving me. We had a contest going on. He was going to crack me up on camera and I was going to not crack up. One day he holds up this sign "YOUR FLY IS OPEN!" and I cracked up. That is a very very true story. Don McGongle's recollection is as follows; One day I held up a printed sign that said "Wes Your Fly Is Open!!!!" as he walked out (it wasn't). He took a stealth like glance, saw it was not open, realized he'd been had, then broke up laughing.
Special thanks to Tim Hollis, author of "Hi There Boys and Girl's, America's Local Children's TV Programs" For the scan of Wes Holly's characatures from the 1950's coloring book "TV Doodles" from the Milt Boyd collection.
Condolences may be sent to the family at bmason615@aol.com.
WHITE BLUFF, Tenn. Walter Wesley Ortgiesen, also known as "Wes Holly," passed away Thursday, March 27, 2008, at the age of 79. Wes was best known for his career in show business which spanned more than 30 years. He was an accomplished singer, guitar player, band leader, showman, promoter and TV star.
Walter, nicknamed "Waddie" as a child, was born in Dixon, on Feb. 1, 1929, to Jesse Adell "Della" (Rossiter) and Walter Ortgiesen. The youngest of three children, he grew up on the family farm in Dixon and graduated from Dixon High School in 1947. In 1951, Wes joined the Air Force, serving four years during the Korean War. He worked as a cook and was on the menu planning board for the entire Air Force.
Wes planned a career in chiropractic and was a student at the Palmer School of Chiropractic in 1956, but left school to pursue a career in show business. In December 1955, he performed in a telethon on WOC-TV (Davenport, Iowa), the "Tree of Lights" to benefit the Salvation Army. The television station liked him so much they hired him to star in "The Circle 6 Ranch" which played old cowboy movies. This show was changed to "The Circle 6 Cartoon Corral" and got huge ratings. Wes also had his own barn dance show, "The Wes Holly Show," on WOC. His first wife, Joy, was one of its talented musicians. In 1957, Wes recorded "Shufflin Shoes" on the Iowana label. Cowboy Wes starred on WOC for four years, from 1956 until 1959. During this time, he had a very unusual pet which he brought to the studio, a lion cub. You can learn more about Wes's time on WOC at captainerniesshowboat.com/wesholly.
Wes and his second wife, Eileen, were "regular guests" on the "Grand Ole' Opry" during the 1960s and also appeared on the "WLS Barn Show" out of Chicago. Locally, they were regulars at the Candlelight Inn in Sterling. In 1972, Wes and Eileen took their act, called "The Sounds of Holly," to Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe and numerous other Nevada cities. They performed at famous casinos such as the Silver Slipper and the Frontier. Wes and Eileen recorded many record albums together.
After retiring from the music business, Wes worked for a time as manager of Rock Falls Chamber of Commerce. During this period he created a board game for the city. He loved the idea and went into the game business himself. He invented his own game and was self-employed as salesman and board game manufacturer. During the next 20 plus years, Wes created hundreds of custom-made board games for cities, towns and counties.
Wes was married twice and has five children. His first wife was Joy McCoy. They had one son, Wesley Lon Ortgiesen. Lonnie and his wife, Paula, live in Richmond, Va. His second marriage was to Eileen Dobberstein. They had four children, Brenda Rene' Mason, Nina Eileen Perkins, Nathan Robert Ortgiesen (who passed away shortly after birth) and Erin Elexis McElwain. He has eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Wes was preceded in death by his mother and father; two sisters, Glady Glessner and Dolly Hollingsworth; his youngest son; and also by his beloved cousin, Kenny Hollingsworth.
The most important thing in the world to Wes was his family. His favorite hobby was watching the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears on television. Wes moved to Tennessee in 1986. All three of his daughters followed him there and continue to live and make their lives in the Nashville area. Wes never retired from working. He was still selling hometown board games at the age of 78.
In May 2007, he fell and broke his shoulder. During subsequent surgery, he suffered a stroke. He spent the last nine months in the care of the veterans hospitals in Nashville and Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he passed away in his sleep. Even during these last nine months, Wes exhibited the characteristics which made him so popular, becoming a favorite patient of many of his nurses. He was sweet, charming and loving until the end.
A memorial service was March 30 at Nashville First Church of the Nazarene, Nashville, Tenn. It was Wes's wish to donate his body to Meharry Medical College in Nashville. His remains will be cremated at a future date. His family is planning to place a bronze marker in memory of him at the location of his mother and father's graves at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, Dixon.
Condolences may be sent to the family at bmason615@aol.com.
Wes Holly appearing at the 1958 Mississippi Valley Fair in Davenport, Iowa. Wes was featured on "Children's Day" Wednesday afternoon with his Circle 6 Ranch Show. Gene Autry appeared Sunday afternoon and night. This clipping appeared in the Quad City Times on August 8th, 1958.
The picture of Wes includes a wagon wheel to his side and his hand is on the neck of his guitar. This picture is his WOC professional picture which was a postcard sent out to his fans from the station and also appears in TV Doodles Magazine which can be seen in yellow at the top of this page.
Above - Not seen in almost five decades this picture is one of the most incredible historical shots in the history of WOC Television kids show programming. The picture features Cowboy Wes Holly along with Little Oscar from Oscar Mayer in front of the pilot house from Captain Ken's Cartoon Showboat. Wes' program - The Circle 6 Ranch had been changed to The Cartoon Corral when WOC purchased the Popeye cartoon series which had recently been released by Paramount. Eventually it made more sense that a Captain rather than a cowboy present the Popeye & other cartoons. Cowboy Wes was replaced by Captain Ken and the Cartoon Showboat. Captain Ken appeared in Wes' old time slot Monday through Friday and Wes now appeared on Sunday Mornings.
In this shot, most likely the only shot to exist of Wes' Sunday morning cartoon show, it appears to reveal that Wes' backdrop was The Dixie Belle from Captain Ken's Showboat.
This historical picture, not only for WOC but also for the history of local kids show host of the 1950's and 1960's is incredible in that it shows the popular Cowboy Wes Holly, having been phased out of his own program which was built on the cowboy craze of the 1950's and replaced by cartoons, is in front of the 1959/1960 cartoon set. This stellar shot is the missing "bridge" picture showing the switch-over from westerns to cartoons.
In this terrific picture, Cowboy Wes is participating in a trick with the iconic Little Oscar who is hawking Oscar Mayer weiners while performing with a magic wand and magic rope all on the set of the Cartoon Showboat. It doesn't get any better than this!
Shad Campbell “The Original Overland Scout” . . . I have a lot of stories about Shad, believe me, he was a real character and gave us a lot of laughs . . . Actually, I found him when I was on the midway at the Mississippi Valley Fair promoting for the Village Shopping Center as a tramp clown. - Dwight Damon
Above - Unknown singer. Below - Wes with his pals.
Above is actually a young Fred Ball as “Toby Tolliver” . . . Obviously, not too adept at doing his makeup . . . There were still “Toby” tent shows playing out there in that era (such as Neil Schaffner, etc.). - Dwight Damon.
Above cowboy in same photo is unknown.
Above - Toby Tolliver and Susie B. Sharp
Neil Schaffner was no country bumpkin, but his alter ego was a complete hick.
When Schaffner put on his bib overalls, red wig and silly hat, and painted on his huge freckles, clown mouth and peaked eyebrows, he became the best rube around — Tobias T. Tolliver of Hogscratch, Ark.
Toby's cornball antics delighted hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners for more than 40 years. Actor Schaffner became Toby for more than 8,000 performances throughout Iowa, northeastern Missouri and western Illinois.
Schaffner loved his rustic other half. "He's not particularly bright, but good-natured," he said.
Schaffner's lifelong helpmate was his wife, Caroline, who played Susie B. Sharp, a gal in pigtails with the same huge freckles, wearing a calico dress and a straw hat with a single blossom. Together, the Schaffners brought live theater to small-town audiences. They and their acting company were popular when tent shows prevailed and rural America was starved for entertainment. It wasn't unusual to see four generations of a family sitting in the audience enjoying the corny jokes and slapstick.
Toby always outslicked the city slickers, and good always won over evil. It was country humor geared for Midwestern audiences.
"We know what the common people like, and we give it to them." Schaffner said.
- Des Moines Register
Above - Wes and his Rhythm Ranchers possibly on The Tree of Lights on the set of WOC TV 6. Notice the candy cane hanging on the frosted windows in the background.
Above is one of Wes Holly's sidekicks - Fred Ball . . . Fred came East and worked for me one or two summers when I had the TV show here . . . We had a lot of laughs just as we had out in Iowa. - Dwight Damon
Below - a scene repeated endlessly across the country by local kids show host - kids show host Wes Holly making the rounds at the local hospital cheering those in sick and in need.
The picture below is of me. I did a lot of characters on TV, radio and on the Fairs because I ended up getting paid per act . . . Actually, we were financially partners until Joy decided that instead of them being a two-person act, we really had a three-way money-split when it came to settling after shows, so I made the per act deal with Wes, and at times on some fairs, or busy days when we played three towns I ended up getting paid more than the whole band . . . I never complained about that! - Dwight Damon
If you have any memorabilia, pictures, stories, slides or film of Cowboy Wes Holly on WOC TV 6 Davenport from the Circle 6 Ranch or Cartoon Corral or can identify any of the people in the above picture or have similar of any of the Quad City kids show hosts or any memories, film or pictures from the 1950's, 60's and 70's of Quad Cities live TV, please email me!
02/10/2010 ... I met Mr. Holly while I was a member of the Toby Dick Ellis's Possum Holler Opry WGEM Ch. 10 Quincy,Ill.
I believe it was 60 thru 63. I was on that show. Wes was the first real pro I met in this business that I've have been in now for over 50 years. He was so smooth. I have a snowy film clip of Wes introducing me on the P-H-O show. My brother-n-law took it by filming his T.V. set. Talk about quality. But it's a treasure to me. Thanks for the wonderful trip down memory lane.
Tony Smith
03/11/2010 ... What a walk down memory lane! I'm from the Wes Holly generation; my sons watched Capt Ernie. When I was about 5 or 6 I sang on the Wes Holly show with a friend. I wish I did have some memorabilia; maybe a clip from that episode. Sure would be fun showing that to my sons and granddaughter. - Merrilee Woeber
Dwight Damon, we were inseparable friends during the time that I was at the chiropractic college. He was a hypnotist. He did a lot of entertaining things, of course there is a lot of trickery to all of that stuff. He used to do these blind-folded things and all kinds of magic things and hypnotism. We just happen to have been really good friends. He did a Clarabelle the Clown type character from the old Howdy Doody Show. He actually did several different characters. He was already a professional when he hooked up with me, I did not make him or anything like that. There really was not a schedule that we were on where he would be on a certain day of the week. It was whenever we wanted him to be on then he came on the show. It was my job and I was the only one who got paid by WOC. 
The program that we did was an hour. Those old movies were an hour long. They were somewhat edited so you could put them into an hour show. In the early years of television, you could go into the markets and buy an hour of television. So I would go in there and buy an hour and promote something like that and we would do it for an hour on TV. Usually it would be on a Sunday. In the early days of television you were only allowed seven minutes of commercials an hour. That was a law. Today it is up to twenty minutes! During the show there were some film commericals but there was no tape. So anything that we did we had to do it live.
Keds sneakers for example had film.
Special thanks to Tim Hollis, author of "Hi There Boys and Girl's, America's Local Children's TV Programs" For the scan of Wes Holly's characatures from the 1950's coloring book "TV Doodles" from the Milt Boyd collection.
