So What's The Deal About

Captain Penny

During the publicity for last book my sometimes writing partner Thomas Kubat and I wrote we were asked over and over and over again why were so morbid. Every interview, whether it was Television, Radio or Print, it was the same. The thing is when Thomas and I wrote the book we were thinking more of the history, the great stories that came out of these events. We weren’t slowing down to see if anyone died in the car crash we were really interested in these events as part of the greater history of Cleveland . 
 

So after the promotion was more or less finished for that book I decided to try and write something a bit more fun, something that might make people smile instead of grimace. A few years back Thomas and I wrote a book on Burton, Ohio. And while researching the book we found a local man name Ture Johnson had been an occasional guest on the Woodrow the Woodsman television show as sort of a nature expert. Which in large part he was. So the idea of how rich and colorful television for kids on a local level had been during my childhood had been rolling around my head for awhile. 
 

Romper Room, Franz the Toymaker, Woodrow the Woodsman, Barnaby of course, and Captain Penny. Even as a kid I couldn't quite understand why a guy who dressed like a train engineer called himself Captain. But the he'd roll out a Three Stooges short and I lost interest in that question. Truthfully I barely remember him, but I do remember when I was four I thought he was the coolest guy in the world with the exception of my dad.                                                                      

So I entered into conversation with a publisher that thought the idea had some merit. And I decided to run with it. I want to interview a whole lot of people for this book though and hear their memories. I don't particularly want to write a history of these television hosts as much as tell the story about how they affected us, the kids who grew up in Northeast Ohio watching them. So far I've done a couple of great interviews, The one that really was fun was Barnaby's daughter, she was so gracious with her time.
                                                                                                              

So now I'm in the process of writing a new book about these folks, and I'd really love to hear from people and here their stories.