September 1991: The Week We Said Goodbye to Harold and Icky

The Fort Worth forecast for the last four days of September 1991 called for a widespread sense of loss with a 100 percent chance of nostalgia. That’s because Channel 5 meteorologist Harold Taft died September 27; Channel 11 comedy icon Bill “Icky Twerp” Camfield died September 30.

(Links to YouTube videos of both men are at the bottom of the post.)

Harold Taft

Taft wikiHarold Ernest Taft Jr. was born in Oklahoma in 1922. In 1942 he joined the Army Air Corps. After the war he graduated from Phillips University and joined American Airlines as a staff meteorologist. In 1949 Taft and two other American Airlines meteorologists proposed to WBAP-TV (now KXAS) a nightly weather program.

Weather Telefax debuted (as Weather Telefacts) on October 31, 1949 with Taft moonlighting as chief meteorologist—the first TV meteorologist west of the Mississippi (and paid $7 per show). Note that on Sundays WBAP broadcast from only 4:45 to 9:30 p.m. (Photo from Wikipedia.)

(WBAP-TV had been on the air just over a year. On September 27, 1948 a WBAP camera crew had been at the T&P passenger depot when President Truman arrived and gave a speech. Performing for the occasion were bands from Carswell Air Force Base, TCU, and Poly High. “WBAP-TV televised the scene, the first spot news event ever broadcast in the Southwest,” the Star-Telegram wrote on page 1.)

In 1952 Taft (just back from Korea) and Weather Telefacts celebrated their one thousandth broadcast. Shown with Taft is Walter Porter, one of the three American Airlines meteorologists who created Weather Telefacts.

taft chalk 1954 9-29This photo of Taft at the weather map is from 1954. Taft would remain in front of the weather map almost forty-two years—forty-two years of changes in technology of forecasting and presenting the weather, forty-two years of deluge, drought, fog, tornadoes, snow, sleet, ice . . .

and changes in management:
Despite Taft’s title (bestowed by WBAP radio deejay Bill Mack) as “the world’s greatest weatherman,” in the early 1980s new management at KXAS announced that Taft would be replaced. Outraged viewers came down on the station like hail on Mayfest. Viewers waved protest signs. Cars bore bumper stickers that read “I Believe Harold.” Advertisers threatened to withdraw their business.

Well, management didn’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows: Taft kept his job.

And why not? Harold Taft was trusted, fatherly. The Walter Cronkite of meteorology. In 1988 he was voted the most popular local TV personality. Many of us remember Taft coming to our school (as did Fireman Bill) to talk about meteorology and to answer questions from kids in the audience, such as “Does it ever get too cold to snow?”

(Short answer: no.)

Each Christmas from 1956 through 1989 Taft drew children into his viewing audience as he “tracked” the flight of Santa Claus on radar.

Taft also is credited with the phrase “stock show weather.”

taft ad 2-26-70 dmnStation promo for the Texas News is from the February 26, 1970 Dallas Morning News.

taft promoted 5-25-72 dmnTaft was a colonel in the Texas National Guard and was the Guard’s senior meteorologist. Clip is from the May 25, 1972 Star-Telegram.

Taft also was an accomplished trumpet player.

taft obit p1 9-28In the late 1980s Taft was diagnosed with cancer but continued to work. His final broadcast was on August 30, 1991—less than a month before he died. At the time, he was “the world’s longest-serving TV meteorologist.” Clip is from the September 28 Star-Telegram.

taft 2-page spread 9-29The Star-Telegram published a two-page tribute to Taft on September 29.

His funeral was broadcast live by the TV station that had once threatened to replace him. Despite that TV coverage, attendance at the funeral was anticipated to be so great that the service was held in one of Fort Worth’s largest churches: St. Stephen’s Presbyterian.

Shortly before he died, Harold Taft said, “Life goes by so fast. We have had a good life.”

Bill Camfield

icky mugTo a generation of kids in the Channel 11 viewing area, Bill Camfield’s Icky Twerp and his Slam Bang Theater were the very apogee of kid culture. In the 1960s Icky and Slam Bang Theater had it all, combining the slapstick of the Three Stooges with the shaggy haircut (okay, it was a wig) of the Beatles and the undersized cowboy hat of The Terror of Tiny Town. Each day after school, no homework could be done, no chores executed, no outdoor sports played until Ajax, Delfinium, Arkadelphia, Caladium, and Linoleum had slammed their last bang and that theme song—which even today has a Pavlovian effect on a generation of AARPers—had faded.

(The theme song was “Oh, Didn’t He Ramble,” written by J. Rosamond Johnson and Bob Cole and often played by jazz bands at New Orleans-style funerals.)

Hear the theme song:

William Joseph Camfield was born in Mineral Wells in 1929 and moved to Fort Worth about 1935.

camfield 1945He attended Carter-Riverside High School, where he acted in school plays and wrote a column entitled “Reader’s Indigestion” for the school newspaper. He graduated in 1947 and soon got a job writing ad copy for Leonard’s Department Store.

bobby tv radio 51By 1951 Camfield was on TV, co-hosting Let’s Go Shopping on WBAP at 12:45 p.m. after the Bobby Peters show.

icky wed 10-7-51 dmnMeanwhile, Camfield got married and started a family. In 1951 he was married in the church that forty years later would hold Harold Taft’s funeral. Clip is from the October 7 Dallas Morning News.

icky tcu 5-8-54 dmnIn 1954 Camfield was among winners of a creative writing contest at TCU. Clip is from the May 8 Dallas Morning News.

In 1955 Camfield went to work for the new TV station in town: KFJZ-TV Channel 11 at 4801 West Freeway. He wrote ad copy and created original programs and commercials, often performing in them himself. He voiced the puppet Hoover the Movie Hound on Million Dollar Matinee and played Mortimer Moolah in commercials for credit company Texas Consumer Finance. He also was Cosmo the Clown. Oh, also Mr. Tapioca and Hobart Entwistle.

icky skit stillCamfield created the character Icky Twerp (born “Ickamore Twerpwhistle”) for Slam Bang Theater, which went on the air in 1959. Camfield wrote seven scripts a week for the show. Often using only the most skeletal of scripts, Camfield and company (most cast members had “real jobs” off camera at the station) improvised a lot. The final stage direction often was “[FOC]” (fade on confusion).

In addition to the several hats Camfield wore on camera, he wore another hat off camera: He was the station’s executive producer.

icky car ad 1960Scripted or not, Icky Twerp and his show were wildly popular. Ben Griffin’s Ford dealership in Dallas offered a $2,197 “Icky Twerp Special” when Camfield made a personal appearance at the dealership in 1960.

icky gorgonAfter the birth of Icky, Camfield remained Channel 11’s Bill-of-all-trades. On Saturday nights Camfield went over to the dark side. On his Nightmare show Camfield, as host Gorgon, took us to the opposite of slapstick—horror. Appearing cadaverous and menacing, with his fiendish echo-chamber laugh, Camfield as Gorgon was the anti-Icky.

Remember the opening narration of Nightmare?

“When the night falls, and the shadows become deep and black, the silent pall of evil settles on the Earth. Who dares to search, who dares to see what walks in the night? If you dare, welcome to Nightmare.”

icky reveille 63Camfield also co-hosted Reveille, a morning show, in 1963. He was also the station’s director of programming and merchandising.

icky sbt and nightmare 19-28-64 dmnBut we remember Camfield best as Icky Twerp. This Dallas Morning News clip from 1964 is a real time machine: Channel 5’s Feature Five movie hostess Bobby Wygant, senatorial candidate George Bush, Slam Bang Theater (4 p.m.), Nightmare (7:30 p.m.), and the Texas News (10 p.m.) featuring Harold Taft. (I have enlarged the TV listings in the inset in the upper left corner.)

icky outlaws 1-13-65 dmnIn 1965 Camfield, along with eight other kids show hosts from around the country, went Hollywood: They appeared with the Three Stooges in the feature film The Outlaws Is Coming. Camfield played Wyatt Earp. Clip is from the January 13 Dallas Morning News.

icky outlaws stillsSome still frames from The Outlaws Is Coming.

icky with stooges emilCamfield is in the background of this photo as fellow Outlaws cast members Larry Fine, Emil Sitka, and Curly Joe DeRita mugged at a cast party.

Icky Twerp/Slam Bang Theater is one of those “If you were there, you don’t need to be told. If you weren’t there, you can’t be told” memories of childhood. During thirteen years an estimated 1.5 million kids (and adults) watched five thousand episodes of SBT.

Camfield wrote in D Magazine in 1987:

“I have reaped some real rewards in recent years when the former kids (now in their twenties, thirties, and forties) recall their days in front of the screen. Few say more than ‘I used to watch you when I was a kid,’ but there is a fondness about the way they say it and the look in their eyes. I can tell that their hours with Slam Bang Theater are treasured in their memories as good times. They tell me, in many ways, ‘It was good that you gave us that entertainment and we remember it fondly.’ That is what I think I hear them saying, and what I want to hear them say.”

SBT was on the air until 1972, at times before school, at times after school, at times both. In 1972 Camfield moved to Denver to work for a TV station there.

When Camfield left Channel 11 and the show ended, Icky explained to his young viewers that he was going away to help Grandfather Twerp work the Lost Twerp Mine.

Camfield recalled: “The very last show was really something—a shot of me walking over that hill by the Lena Pope Home [nearby orphanage] and a shovel, and they were playing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ But you know something? I never really said goodbye.”

icky obit 1 9-30Perhaps Icky never really said goodbye to us, but we had to say goodbye to him. On September 30, 1991—three days after Harold Taft died—the Star-Telegram announced a double loss: Bill Camfield and Icky Twerp had died.

taft icky gravesHarold Taft is buried at Rose Hill; Bill Camfield at Greenwood.

(Thanks and a tip of the Twerp wig to Michael H. Price for his assistance.)

Harold Taft in Weather Telefax in 1973 on YouTube:

Icky Twerp on YouTube:

In 1989 Camfield was the subject of a TV special, 30 Years of Comedy: A Salute to Icky Twerp. Here are short clips from that special taken from VHS videotape:

Icky Twerp and Star-Telegram wrestling columnist Betty Ann Stout arrive for the TV special.

“Icky Twerp Day” in Texas.

Spanky McFarland.

Mr. Peppermint.

Harold Taft.

Fritz and Chris von Erich, Bobby Wygant, and Joan Maurer.

“Slam Bang” slapstick.

Man of many faces.

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13 Responses to September 1991: The Week We Said Goodbye to Harold and Icky

  1. Richard Van Name says:

    My mom Sally Parr worked for KFJZ TV as Miss Starlight and hosted the Late Night Movies in those early days of CH11. Had the opportunity to meet Mr Camfield on a couple of occasions when she took us down to the studio as kids. He hosted Saturday night Horror film as Gorgon in addition to Icky. We met Capt Swabby hosted Popeye cartoons, Howard McNeil meteorologist, Ann Harper, and Dave Naugle announcer. Great memories.

  2. Dan Washmon says:

    About 1959, Bill Camfield and Ann Harper operated puppets Binky Beaver and Belinda Bunny in the Mickey and Amanda time slot…two weeks, IIRC…I was afraid that M&A were gone but they returned….I corresponded with Dick Clayton in the 1990s and he revealed that he and Hilda Cohen didn’t have vacation time in their contracts but the station allowed Bill and Ann to cover for them….I don’t know what might have happened to those interloper puppets….

  3. Dennis Hogan says:

    In addition to Harold Taft, I recall two other weathermen in front of the TV cameras in North Texas in the 60s: Warren Culbertson and Hines Nagle (or was it Dave Naugle?). Warren would occasionally set up a flip chart and explain the meteorology of some condition to his TV audience.

    • hometown says:

      I remember both men. Culbertson was with a Dallas station. Very folksy. Dave Naugle was with Channel 11 for years, going back to the 1940s.

    • Terry Wallace says:

      I think you’re conflating Hines Wolters and Dave Naugle with Hines Nagle. But Howard McNeil was the chief meteorologist for Channel 11 the longest.

  4. Barry Kooda says:

    I was fortunate to be in Bill’s band for the 30 years of comedy show at Dada. Hopefully the film shot at the show, including Bill singing, will show up some day.

  5. Wes Thompson says:

    I remember both. Harold Taft was the ONLY weatherman that could accurately forecast the weather in Texas. I still remember him saying that a 3 day forecast was as far as you could be accurate. And day 3 would be iffy. This when the other TV stations were giving 7 day forecasts. Not accurate he would say.
    I also remember Icky Twerp. I watched SBT EVERY morning when I lived with my grandparents before a move back to Texas for the family. I got to meet him when I was 5. I was scared to death! I hid behind my grandmother! Oh what fun times those were. The 60’s and especially the early 60’s were a fun time to grow up. I wasn’t old enough to comprehend Vietnam and Kennedy’s assassination. And some of the other terrible things that happened. Thanks so very much for the time travel machine that you have made. Your blog is fantastic.

    • hometown says:

      Thanks, Wes. We were lucky to have grown up in the era of these two men. Taft–and his spiritual “son,” David Finfrock–was old school. Facts, not flash. A scientist first, a celebrity second–and reluctantly.

  6. Ike Renfield (Sally Campbell) says:

    On this day of memorials, I used the searchwords “Didn’t he Ramble.” Searchy worked quite well.

  7. Nice story on two men I admired. I never missed Slam Bang Theater if I could help it when I was growing up. Harold Taft was special. He was the weather man my father would always watch. Harold became a supporter of the Amateur Radio based Skywarn weather tracking program that started in the early 1970’s. He would eventually become an Amateur Radio operator to be able to communicate directly with us. On May 14, 1974, there was a tornado that touched down just south of Benbrook and I was the lucky tracker who was able to give real time tracking reports via Amateur Radio which were sent quickly to the National Weather Service, Civil Defense, and out over Ch. 5. Harold had me and the Fort Worth/Tarrant County Civil Defense Coordinator Robert E Lord on his 5pm weather report.

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