Galen Grindle (born June 16, 1934), better known as Johnny Ginger, was a pioneer of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

television.

Biography

Grindle was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

. His parents, Ray and Edna, were a

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

family act performing at the Paramount Theater in Toledo.Kiska, Tim & Golick, Ed (2010) ''Detroit Television'', Arcadia Publishing, , p. 52 His brother, Kenny, was a tap dancer in the family act. One day they brought little Johnny up onstage to sing "Sonny Boy" and he was an instant hit. As a teen he performed

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

in clubs all over Toledo,

, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Grindle had been working as a comedian under the name Jerry Gale when he auditioned to present a program for WXYZ-TV based around re-runs of '' The Three Stooges''. Given the role, WXYZ vice president John Pival insisted that he work under the name Johnny Ginger, the name taken from a bottle of Johnny Bull Ginger Beer. Ginger's afternoon show, ''Curtain Time Theater'' (which was always pronounced "Thee-A-ter"), entertained kids from 1957 to 1960 on WXYZ-TV Channel 7.Castelnero, Gordon (2006) ''TV Land: Detroit'', The University of Michigan Press, , p. 51-62 The live portions of the show were broadcast all around the television station, with Ginger in his janitor costume of bib-overalls and driving cap. By the early 1960s Johnny adapted a new character inspired by the

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in popular culture, pop culture ...

film '' The Bellboy'', that of the head bellboy at the Rocky Plaza Hotel, run by Rocky Granet (the voice of Rube Weiss), and the show became ''The Johnny Ginger Show''. He introduced a new generation of kids to The Three Stooges and even played the part of Billy The Kid in the Stooges last film, '' The Outlaws Is Coming''. As a gesture of gratitude, the Stooges used many of the children's hosts who had run their shorts in the cast. He, Ricky the Clown, Jingles, Poop-Deck Paul, Milky the Clown, Rube Weiss, Captain Jolly, Sagebush Shorty and Soupy Sales helped pioneer Detroit television for children in the fifties and sixties. ''The Johnny Ginger Show'' was cancelled in 1968. Ginger went on to host ''Captain Detroit'' for

WKBD-TV WKBD-TV (channel 50) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV (channel 62). Both stations share studios on ...

. Johnny left Detroit for Hollywood and appeared on an episode of ''The Rifleman''.

References

External links

* American television personalities American stand-up comedians Living people People from Toledo, Ohio Television in Detroit 1934 births Comedians from Ohio {{US-tv-bio-stub