A TV NEWS ANCHOR
Television began in Miami in March of 1949. There was only one station and It was the first television station in Florida and only the 16
th in the entire country. As I recall, all programming was local until the late 1950s. The technology to bring shows in from New York and California didn't exist yet. Consequently, programming consisted of news broadcasts, morning and afternoon children's shows and whatever local talent could be found. Among these local shows was Uncle Martin's Country Band. Uncle Martin was the father of my dear friend Barbara. He also did weather broadcasts on radio as Frosty Martin and I believe he did the weather on TV as well.
In 1952, I was in my junior year at the University of Miami where Barbara was also in school. One day when we were eating lunch together, she asked me how I would like to be on television. My Dad had just bought our first TV set and it was in my parents bedroom, so I didn't watch it much. And as I said there wasn't much to watch anyway, so I knew very little about it. Barbara said that Uncle Martin thought it was boring just to watch a band on TV and he wanted a couple of people to do some dancing and to pantomime the songs. I suppose Barbara thought of me because of a show I did in high school. I guess I was considered 'funny' and Barbara was much too pretty and sophisticated to do it herself. She told me she had already asked our mutual friend Lester to do the male part and he agreed, so I said I would do it too.
Lester and I did it for fun, not money. We were not getting paid, but we learned a little about how this new thing called TV worked and we had a good time doing it. The program came on late Saturday afternoon right before the 6:00 news. Uncle Martin's country music wasn't much like the country music of today, but he did have a vocalist who sang the songs we pantomimed. Such famous hits as "We was picking' berries at old Aunt Mary's, when I picked a blushing bride." Lester and I would pretend to pick berries and would do sort of a combination jitterbug and square dance. I think he wore Jeans or overalls and I wore a full skirted floral Dress, but we didn't wear any special makeup and used very few props. I do remember one song called "Won't you ride in my little red wagon?" and Lester pulling me around the stage in a child's wagon. I'm sure we looked pretty stupid. In fact I know we did. One Saturday my parents had invited two gentlemen in the movie business from New York out to our house for cocktails. They told my parents that they were watching television in their hotel room and saw "The worst show on the one channel we could get with two teenagers dancing around to a country band." One said, "You have no idea what TV in New York is really like. It's going to sweep the country." I asked Mom if she told them that was me, and she said she wasn't about to after she heard their opinion!
Lester and I continued to perform for several months when Lester decided to quit because he had other things he wanted to do on weekends. Uncle Martin wanted me to stay on and do a solo performance and he wanted me to sing. (I don't sing and if you heard me you would know why.) He said I could do some of Sophie Tucker's songs that I could 'talk/sing' like..."After you've gone and left me cryin'." I tried but I was lousy and that same Saturday it all changed. At the end of the show, I saw three people enter the studio. The two men were in overalls and old straw hats. Walking with them was a red-haired girl who had on a country dress and a pinafore. Her face was made up with freckles and she had wired her hair into pigtails so they stood out on each side. It was obvious that they were there for an interview. I wanted to quit anyway and I told Uncle Martin if they were any good, he should hire them. I 'retired' and he did hire them.
The girl's name was Molly Turner. She became "Cousin Effy" on the "Uncle Martin Show." and she played a country music singer and comedienne with flaming red hair, a freckled face and blacked-out teeth. Molly stayed with the station and eventually she became the first female TV reporter, blazing the trail for many of today's female broadcast journalists. She retired in 1988 after 37 years, and passed away at the age of 93 in 2016. I met her only one time and I didn't tell her that I was her predecessor, but later I read an interview with her in the Miami Herald. The reporter asked her how she got started in television and she said, her Mother was watching the Uncle Martin Show one day and said, "Now I know you can do better than that girl. (Me) You should go down there and get a job!"
