Page 102 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

CHAPTER 29 - Life as a TV Celebrity

When the County Agricultural Fair was in town, Channel 4 had a booth for people to
meet our on-air personalities. They also made life-size photos of each of us for the
times we couldn’t be there. One of them was a cutout of Henry Baron, known as
Ranger Hal who had a very popular morning kid’s show. When the Fair closed, all of
the props were placed behind the Midday set in the studio. One afternoon, Dick
Stratton took the cut-out of Ranger Hal and placed it inside the janitor’s closet, facing
the door. Early the next morning, Wesley Stewart was the first one to come into the
building. When he opened the door to get his broom, he nearly jumped out of his skin!
Wesley was a very talented artist. He could make all kinds of figures from toothpicks
and a bottle of Elmer’s glue. He created animals, cars, and trucks, houses, and
merry-go-rounds. He frequently won awards at the County Fair.

The employees who worked at Channel 4 from its beginning in 1949 throughout the
50’s and into the 60’s were very clever in creating illusions on television. Not long after
I started at WJXT, I told Dick Stratton that I could make him disappear. Unknown to
him, we taped the opening of the Midday Show desk with three of us seated, but his
chair vacant. The show started as usual with the four of us seated. Claude Taylor, the
newsman, and Phyllis Hanskat, the co-host, sat to Dick’s left and I sat to his right. After
sharing introductory comments with each other, I stated to Dick that I had talked with a
Magician that taught me how to make someone disappear. When he asked how, I
pointed at him and said, “Pow!” At that instant, the Director punched up the tape with
him missing. He stared at the monitor in disbelief as he saw the three of us still there,
but he was gone.

Our business manager, Jerry White, told me about the Jacksonville Power Squadron
that met on the former Gibbs Shipyard property at the foot of Hendricks Avenue. They
had asked me to attend their regular meeting and teach a Weather Course to area
boaters. I also was invited to speak about weather to the Outboard Sport Fishing Club at
Mayport’s Monty’s Marina by Paul Mains. Having been a judge at the Northeast
Florida Regional Science Fairs for many years, I was invited to speak to the Live Oak
Kiwanis Club by E.K. Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor of Kiwanis. E.K. was from
McAlpin which was not far from my wife, Virginia’s, birthplace in Pine Mount.

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