Chicago’s Animal Kingdom to close it’s doors this month
November 30th, 2009 by Scott Marks
Photo credit: agilitynut.com
I remember going there on a day camp field trip to meet Chelveston the Duck.
Chicago’s premier pet store Animal Kingdom, located at 2980 N. Milwaukee Ave., will be closing its doors after 65 years of service.
According to their web site, “For over 65 years Animal Kingdom has proudly served the Chicago pet community. It is time for our pets and our staff to retire. Animal Kingdom will be closing its doors sometime in December. Til then, take advantage of our HUGE store closing sale, offering discounts from 10%-70% on Pets and Pet Supplies. With these low prices our inventory should go quickly. Come in and visit the store with pets and a whole lot more before we are gone forever.”
Why mourn the passing of a neighborhood pet shop? It was the home of Chevelston the Duck, Ray Rayner’s winged foil who brought so many hours of laughs to me and generations of Chicago kids. The Kingdom also served as an animal booking agent for countless Chicago-based TV shows, plays and all sorts of entertainment venues. According to chicagobreakingnews.com, AK rescued Chelveston from a local poultry store. The rest is the stuff Chicago television history is made of.
Thanks to EC reader Al Lang for passing this sad info on. To read more about Animal Kingdom, click here.
For more photos of Chicago kids television click here.
Tags: animal kingdom, animal kingdom closing, chelveston the duck, Chicago, chicago childrens show, ray rayner, ray rayner chelveston, WGNFiled Under Uncategorized
Robert Smigel parody of WGN’s BOZO’S CIRCUS
June 19th, 2009 by Scott Marks
On last night’s WGN News at 9, EC’s old pal Dean Richards interviewed Robert Smigel and ran a clip from an unaired Fox pilot that featured a devastating parody of Bozo’s Circus.
I made a note to scour YouTube and when I awoke this morning my work had been done for me. In my Facebook inbox a letter began, “I wanted to send you these links to a pilot my friends created for Fox that not surprisingly got shot down.” It was from my old friend Larry Kapson who is still at Columbia College in Chicago.
Columbia College? Slowly I turned…I remember Columbia College. Isn’t that the film school where the Department Chair once showed a pan-and-scan print of “The Graduate” and praised cuts that were inserted by some geek seated at an editing console and where a certain History of Cinema teacher was browbeaten for not renting an anamorphic print of “Citizen Kane?” But I digress…
Robert Smigel’s TV Funhouse is the funniest thing to play SNL since Bill Murray left the show. (Or am I forgetting “More cowbell?”) The trip to the Disney Vaults is a spot-on satire with enough buried in-jokes to please even the most demanding viewer.
Prozo’s Circus is a pitch-perfect assault on Bob Bell’s Chesterfield’s-throated incarnation of Boz and it’s is the sharpest impersonation of a beloved childhood favorite since Dave Thomas’ Bob Hope or Billy West’s Gen. Larry Fine. Smigel doesn’t miss a beat: Bell’s extreme poses, the slurred boredom in his voice, the “grownups only” stage whispers. There’s even been a third tip added to Prozo’s celebrated candy apple red headdress. Bent over he looks like Bozo the Kremlin.
Continue reading Robert Smigel parody of WGN’s BOZO’S CIRCUS
Tags: Bob Bell, Bozo the Clown, Bozo's Circus, Chicago, Chicago Memories, Clowns, Frazier Thomas, grand prize game, kids show hosts, kids tv, kids tv shows, prozo, prozo the clown, robert smigel, robert smigel bozo, tv funhouse, Video, WGNFiled Under Rants, Uncategorized
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