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The year is 1972, I am journalism major at Mankato State College. As a term paper for a Mass Communications Class, I
decided to focus on children's television and interview Ken Wagner, known to area kids as GRANDPA KEN. What follows is a summary of that paper.
-- Jack Kennelly
On January 29, 1972 I interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Ken Wagner of Rosemount, Minnesota. Ken Wagner is known to area
children as Grandpa Ken, host of his own television program.
When the character arrived in the Twin Cities in 1960 he was Captain Ken, the captain of a Mississippi River Showboat known as
the Dixibell. With the Captain were his puppet friends – "NO NAME" the dog, PEEWEE the clown and CALLOPIE the turtle. He and his puppets entertained children in the studio and
at home with puppet shows, cartoons, art lessons and games. He is
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also known for "THE WIGGLIES" where a member of the audience came up to the drawing board and takes a marker and draws
anything. Captain Ken then made a picture out of the scribble. (Like many local kid's shows, Captain Ken made a yearly visit to the State Fair. I recall his show being performed in the corner of
the lower level of the Grandstand.)
Three years later the character of Captain Ken retired and moved to a cottage by the River and became known as Grandpa Ken. Children no longer appeared on the
show.According to Grandpa, the change made him more versatile and he was able to convey a more homey character. He also said, "When I was Captain Ken, many adults called me Captain Kangaroo."His
program airs live Monday – Friday at 8:30 a.m.
THE MAN
When I asked Mr. Wagner about his training he said, "The world of experience…people learn by doing". After high
school he worked at theatres in Iowa creating display ads. He wanted to own his own movie theatre and his dream came true with the purchase of the Wilton Theatre. During 1949 television arrived and
Ken, always an artist, noticed the artwork on television was poorly done, so he designed a call letter board for an area TV station. He then became art director and the host of a weekly program called
COMIC CUTUPS. From this program developed the CAPTAIN KEN show. In 1960 Twin City kids host Dave Lee left his program and Ken Wagner was hired.
Besides hosting the show he is an artist
and working on a series of children's books. I asked Mr. Wagner what he tries to teach kids…."I attempt to teach the tadpoles (the word he uses for kids) about the world, kindness and the
nice things of life." There is no violence in his show. He does strive to bring out the artistic abilities of kids with weekly art lessons.
I somehow feel Mr.Wagner's entire philosophy of
television and life can be summed up in the ending quote of his program… Keep smiling and make others happy, I will see you tomorrow.
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© 1997 -- 2009 Stephen J. Iverson. No material may be
reproduced without permission of Stephen Iverson and the original owner. All Casey Jones material is © Roger Awsumb and used by permission.
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