In 1968, the National Association of Program Executives named the TV6 team of Ward Allen and Albert the Alley Cat the No.1 weather show in the country. I loved how Allen could draw the coolest looking directional arrows on his weather map...so I drew one in (with a mouse) on the above photo. Thanks Ward. I still practice drawing your arrows.
Albert the Alley Cat, and his twin brother, Filbert, was the voice and hand of puppeteer, hipster and late night horror host, Jack Du Blon. In the pre-cable TV era, from the brilliant retro movie programming of channel 18 to the sheer manic talent at channel 6, Milwaukee was television paradise. More on Jack Du Blon in a later post.
7 comments:
being close to 50 yrs old ( you decide which side ) we decided to look thru some Wi. history and remember the channel 6 weather it was alot of fun to watch Ward and Albert. I hope there are many more of you out there that have the same fond memories of a time gone by.
Such memories...as a young child at Thorson Elementary in Cedarburg, i remember the special visit from Ward Allen and Albert! That was 34 years ago!
If you know of any video clips, it would be great to so it.
I was pretty unhappy when they dropped the Ward and Albert team because Paul Joseph made comments about it being less than proffesional to have a puppet involved with the weather forecast.
Does anyone know where ward and Barbara Becker are now?
Kevin
I remember way back in the early 60's,watching Albert chat with the news and sports guy.At one point,Albert made a comment that was bleeped,but the guys were laughing so hard that they could not continue with their duties. I have an idea what Albert said(it involved a photo of a female cat),and remember laughing right along with the crew.
Ward lives a peacefull and private life in a small Dodge County town.
Every time I see Tom Skilling on WGN I think back to his days in Milwaukee trying to be serious opposite Albert. I bumped into him at a fundraiser about 15 years ago and mentioned Albert. He was not to happy to talk about it!
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