Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Good Ol' Officer Boyle Of The EEFMS

Good evening Kovacsians. When Edie Adams passed away last week I sent an email to our good friend Jack Phillippe, who grew up in Philadelphia and as a young man was a guest on a January 1952 episode of "Kovacs On The Corner."

Hearing of Edie's passing made Jack reminisce about growing up in Philly during the 1950's and watching the great television shows of that time. He wanted to share some artifacts from his collection with all of us and has been gracious enough to take the time to send me some scans.

The first is of an EEFMS card; it's an original from Ernie's very first show on WPTZ Channel Three, NBC in Philadelphia, "3 To Get Ready." Jack sent this once before and I posted it, but this time its a bit bigger and clearer. Enjoy:

One staple of Philadelphia televison in the 1950s was Officer Pete Boyle, played by that icon of Philadelphia Kids' TV Peter Boyle Sr.. Pete Sr. was the father of the late actor Peter Boyle Jr. most recently of "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame. "Offcier Pete Boyle" appeared in his own shows on WPTZ and many times as a guest on Ernie's. In fact, he played his "Officer Boyle" character the day that Jack appeared as a guest on "KOTC!"

Jack went to high school with Peter Boyle Jr. in the 1950s and Peter was an actor even back then. These photos are some extracts from a playbill that Jack kept from his high school days; they're for a musical called "Song Of Norway" in which the young Mr. Boyle appeared.

A very young Peter Boyle (a far cry from Frank Barone!):

Here he is on the cast list (even in high school it seems he had an understudy):


Peter Boyle Sr. hosted a very well known kids show in Philly called "Chuckwagon Pete" in which played the title character. Here's an ad he took out in the playbill:

You can click on the "Peter Boyle Sr." link above to see a photo of "Chuck Wagon Pete" and read more about the show.

Jack, thanks again for some great memories.

Until next time, "it's been real!"

AL QUAGLIATA

P.S.- The Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page is up to 828 friends since our last post. As always we thank everyone who requested an add or accepted a request from us. We also thank you for the nice comments sent about Edie.

1 comment:

Al Quagliata said...

Jack wanted me to let everyone know that the year of the play was 1952, the first year he entered high school.