Cactus Club
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How The Cactus Club Started
Money, Milk and Make-Believe Money, Milk and Make-Believe Romans 8:28 tells us that “all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose”. This account is a true story in my life and it explains how I got involved with the dairy industry, television and my present occupation. As a bit of background let me set the stage. In 1953 the Congress of these United States finally decided the issue of color television. Of three systems invented then, the congressmen selected a color telecasting system that was black and white compatible developed by RCA (Radio Corporation of America). All who used this system paid a royalty for this privilege. Immediately, towns across the USA saw television stations pop up like weeds. Quincy, Illinois, with a population of fifty thousand was no different. The local newspaper, The Quincy Herald-Whig was awarded Channel 10. Fifteen miles to the south, across the Mississippi River was the smaller town of Hannibal, Missouri. It was assigned Channel 7 and was awarded to the Hannibal Courier-Post. Radio Station WTAD, the CBS affiliate in Quincy, made a deal with the Hannibal Courier-Post for the rights to Channel 7 by hiring the principal executive. The Federal Communications Commission required that they build a studio in Hannibal. They were linked by microwave to the studios in Quincy. Channel 7 was required to originate a percentage of local programs from the Hannibal Studio. In 1953 I was working as an announcer/salesman at a small radio station (KXGI) in Ft. Madison, Iowa located 40 miles up the Mississippi River north of Quincy. I was the father of three small daughters. I was unhappy with my life. Selling radio advertising in a small town is difficult. My wife suggested I apply for a job in television. In August, 1953, we drove to Quincy and I applied for a job at both television stations. The Program Director of KHQA-TV hired me as a camera-man for the same amount of money I was earning in Ft. Madison. The station was to debut on Sept. 21, 1953. There would be some “wood-shedding” or practice nights. I would be expected to attend.. I was thrilled. KHQA-TV went “on the air” at 4:00 pm Sept. 21st as scheduled and signed off at 10:30 pm after the evening weather, news and sports. It was a CBS-TV affiliation but also telesvised a few kinescopes provided by ABC. The studios were converted radio broadcast rooms. They were crude by today’s standards. Unpainted wood frames held the tv monitors. Big wires across the floor made walking hazardous. Klieg lights were adjusted by a forked stick. Our two cameras were mounted on wooden tripods riding on triangular dollies. The Program Director, Merritt, came to me around the first of October and asked if I would like to be host of a children’s program. He simply said I could be a “hillbilly” or a cowboy. I chose the cowboy role. We looked at settings We found a roll down canvas flat that featured cacti around an adobe hut on a desert road. It had purple mountains in the distant horizon. I thought it was perfect. I had less than two weeks to plan the show. As my family was still living in Ft. Madison, I lived at the near-by YMCA. One day on the way to work I saw the city tree trimmers who were cutting down a tree. They were sawing the trunk into eighteen inch lengths. I asked one of the workers if I could have a section. He was happy to get rid of it. They were carting them to a dump! Using a bear hug, I carried this hunk of wood to the television station. (stopping to get my breath every fifty feet). Our studios were located on the 10th floor of the WCU Building. I looked silly carrying that section of wood. Somehow I just didn't care how I looked. It fit in perfectly with the backdrop. My next search was for a costume. In those days cowboy duds weren’t much in style so the local stores didn’t stock them. I found a “lumberjack shirt”, a pair of blue jeans and a bandana in a nearby J. C. Penny store. I bought a pair of Justin cowboy boots in some shoe store . There was plenty of time to shop during the day as I didn’t report for work until 3:30 pm. In my “costume search” I stopped in at a pawn shop on Jersey Street, a back water store that had huge signs offering CASH for items. The owner, Jack B., was a likeable old guy with time on his hands. We talked for a while and he asked me a lot of questions. As I turned to leave he said, “Don’t go 'way yet.” He disappeared into a back room and a few moments later appeared with an old dilapidated cowboy hat in his hand. “You can borrow my old hat if you’d like. Try it on.” he said. It was a perfect fit and I felt like an “ole cowhand” wearing it. Bill W., the station’s artist, designed a promotional slide and did a caricature sketch of my face. It was not very flattering but I didn’t say anything because I had a lot of wrinkles for a twenty-six year old man. I did write a small introduction for the audio booth announcer. The music librarian suggested I use “Roadside Rag” by Speedy West as a theme. It was a bouncy instrumental arrangement that had a western tang. I went to the film room and looked at some of the two reel westerns we would be using. There were shelves filled with sixty minute cowboy films nicknamed “oaters”. These featured stars that I had known back in my childhood from the Saturday afternoon movies. Tex Ritter, Lash LaRue, Johnny Mack Brown, Buck Jones and a host of lesser known cowboys were the headliners. I selected one and put it on the projector. Looking at ten minutes of film, I wrote down some of the names and a brief plot of the story line. I was all set for my debut. At 5:00 pm on October 21st, 1953 I sat on my stump and looked into the lens of Camera 1. “Roadside Rag” strummed out of the speaker…the announcer faded the music and introduced the “Cactus Club” with Cactus Jim as host. The red tally light flipped on and I was “on the air”. I got into the spirit of the thing. I pretended I was talking to my own daughters. I had an old knife and began whittling on a small stick. The gist of my patter was to tell them a story about these old friends of mine out west. I would stop every 30 seconds and check my carving as if the audience didn’t really matter too much…it was the whittling and the story that counted. As I talked about the film hero as if he were my best buddy, the producer did a “segue” from camera one to film projector one. We had rolled past the title and credits to pick up the film in the body of the story. I was told not to look right into the lens of the camera. I nodded my head in agreement but inwardly was telling myself, “If you are talking to children you look at them…not at their ear!” So I acted as if I forgot their advice. We stopped the story about fifteen minutes later for a few comments and then resumed the story for another ten minutes. About twenty-eight minutes after 5:00 the producer faded from projector one and flipped the camera back on the host. As I recall, I urged them to be good “clean-living” cowpokes and invited them to tune in tomorrow for more of the story. My conclusion was that they should “clean up their plate, drink their milk, say their prayers and ride their “hoss” up to ranch Channel 7 at five tomorrow. ‘Till then adios amigos”. With that the camera clicked off, the theme song picked up and the voice over announced that this had been …etc. I had survived the first show. I jumped off the stump and took my place as cameraman of camera one. The backdrop was rolled up and we were ready for the 5:30 News, Weather and Sports. No one said much to me about my performance as there was too much to do as these next shows were $ponsored programs! That was important. In the short time I had worked at the television station I had become a friend of the film projectionist. He was about my age. He had invited me to join the local fraternal club where he was a member. We would go there after work as they served beer and had a dance floor. This club stayed open until one am. That evening after work, he confided that the General Manager had walked into the Control Room while I was on the air and had watched me for a few moments. He quoted the GM as saying, “Merritt, we don’t want this on our airwaves!” He was referring to The Cactus Club. Merritt replied, “Now give it a chance. We need some local programming.” This took some of the wind out of my sails. Bill made a couple of other suggestions and sandwiched them in with his own compliment. The next day I went to work and was informed by the receptionist that Ralph D. wanted to see me. He was a television salesman. Ralph informed me that a local dairy had called the station and put a “hold” on The Cactus Club. Ralph said I might be wise to mention drinking milk a couple of time during the show as the Board of Directors of this dairy was going to be watching today’s show. That day was one I will never forget. At four forty-five I went into the studio with my cowboy outfit and all seven television salesmen were there. So were the General Manager and the National Sales Manager. They were going to “catch” my show. My throat became dry, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, my voice had a “squeaky-nerdy” quality that I didn’t recognize and nothing went right. I blew it for good! That night after work Bill said, “Well, we are all beginners”. He changed the subject. No one else said much of anything to me. Wednesday came. I made up my mind to forget yesterday and do what I did on the first show. When I got to the station, an old friend said, “Hello”. It was the barber who cut my hair from Fort Madison, Iowa. He had brought his two children, aged nine and eleven, to see the studio. I showed them as much as I could in a short time and then asked if they would like to join me on the set that day. They agreed and I found a low bench to place beside my stump. That program went much better. I had someone to talk to and they talked back to me. We turned the monitor around so they did not know when they were “on the air” and thus did not stare at themselves. Things went smoothly. I felt right at home. That night Bill told me over a bottle of beer that it had been a good show. Thursday when I went to work everyone smiled at me. The receptionist said, "Mr. R. wants to see you." He was the gran fromage, THE BIG MAN, the General Manager. His office was on the 8th floor. The studio was on the 10th. When I appeared there his secretary announced me. He got up and met me at the door. He shook my hand. “Well, the dairy bought your show for 13 weeks,” he said. “That’s the first daily show we’ve sold in a half hour slot. Let’s do a good job and keep them on the air”. When I got back to the 10th floor, there were a group of children asking if they could be on the program with me. I agreed and went into my “Cactus Jim” mode. The Cactus Club took off and lasted for seventeen years as a staple in their television line-up. I would like to conclude that I was a “clean-living” cowpoke, but I wasn’t. I pretended to be and fooled some of the people. I did not fool myself, or my Lord. Seven years later I became a Christian and then the conflicts reached a climax. Romans 8:28 is true. All things do work together for good in my estimation. I was not a Christian at that stage of life, but the Lord still worked a miracle. He knew that someday I would be! I must admit that I still “…clean my plate, drink my milk and say my prayers!” ### |
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