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Channel 7 Studio In Hannibal, MO. This was the Hannibal, MO
Studio in the early years.
I had to load "Lady" into
a horse trailer and present
the Cactus Club at this
location every Wednesday
during the summer of 1956.
Duke Ware of Farmington,
Iowa, had sent us a farm
gate as a backdrop. The
camera would roll out on
a pad behind this building.
I would wait over the hill
till the cameraman waved a
white handkercheif on a stick.
Then ride up to the camera,
rear, then dismount and start
the program outside. This
picture is courtesy of Lu
Jaworski of Hannibal. Thanks Lu!

The Beardsleys. This photo came from Sally Beardsley in AZ. Her husband, Don, is on the right in the striped shirt (rear). His brother, Mike, is in the rear next to him and his cousin/uncle in the striped shirts on the front row. This was taken on the show August, 28, 1961. Thank you Sally!

The Brummers are on Cactus' left side!. Linda Brummer is the
donor of the picture - Linda is the wife of Lester Brummer and a sister in
law to Vince and Ida (Vince, Lester and Ida are the three Brummer children
in the photo).

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1958.

Hallowe'en 1958. Today I found a bunch of negatives from 1958. Built a rig to copy them in negative mode. Hhere's the first (of many, I hope)

Western Star, Johnnie Mack Brown. About 1957, Johnnie Mack Brown,
star of many westrn movies in
years gone by, was the featured
performer at the Ft. Madison,
IA rodeo. That summer we featured
his movies and of course welcomed
him on the Cactus Club in September.
This is the only photo I can find
of that event!

Engineer Ed Schnier. Here Ed checks the vacuum tubes in one of the many electronic cabinets located in the Channel 7 control room. There were no
transistors in the mid 1950s..only the old
heat-creating vacuum tubes.
Ed and his wife, Ginny. had a cute little daughter that appeared on the Cactus Club.
She swalllowed her milk then grabbed my arm and said, "Cactus, I bupped". (burped). :-) The close-up shots of their little faces was priceless!

Channel 7. The Cactus Club started out as a
30 minute program...but was later
expanded to 40 minutes to give
us time to talk with the children.