Woodrow the Woodsman was a local children's television program host in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

and

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 t ...

from 1961 to 1972, and again in 1997 to 2000.

History

Lead actor J. Clayton "Clay" Conroy (born 1918 in Jersey City,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

) attended the

Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art (NSFIA) was a city-run vocational and art school in Newark, New Jersey. Opened in 1882 as the Evening Drawing School, its name was changed in 1909 to the Fawcett School of Industrial Arts, and changed agai ...

, and later the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on H ...

, where his instrument was the

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

. He moved to

in 1959, and got his start as a supporting character on

Linn Sheldon Linn Sheldon (September 20, 1919 – April 23, 2006) was a Cleveland, Ohio-based American children's television host and actor, best known for his character "Barnaby," which was seen in Cleveland for over 30 years. Biography Born Linn Richard ...

's "

Barnaby Barnaby is an Old English surname composed of the Saxon element ''beorn'' 'young warrior' and the Danish suffix ''by'' meaning 'settlement'. As a given name, it means "son of consolation" and is etymologically linked with the New Testament name Bar ...

" on KYW-TV. He branched off with his own show, "Woodrow," in 1961, and remained with Barnaby on Saturdays in "Barnwood Playhouse," moving to

in 1966 shortly after the station was sold. His show ran through 1972 (returning to Cleveland as "Hey Woody" that year), and was revived for three years starting in 1997 after a chance encounter with a Canton television executive (David Little), who had loved the show as a child. Remarkably, Conroy still had all of his original props and costumes in his basement, including the puppets who were regular characters on the show: Tarkington Whom Owl, Voracious the Elephant, and Freddie the Alley-Croc. The puppet characters were voiced by fellow Cleveland actor Lawson J. Deming from 1961–1966, and Canton native Thomas E. Grove from 1997 - 2000. Deming went on to portray the popular horror movie host

Sir Graves Ghastly Sir Graves Ghastly was a character created by Cleveland-born actor Lawson J. Deming (1913–2007) for the popular television show of the same name. Sir Graves was a vampire whose persona, look, and exaggerated laugh ("Nnnnyeah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaa ...

for 15 years on Detroit television.

References

{{Reflist
The Woodrow the Woodman tribute page at detroitkidshow.com

Images of Woodrow the Woodsman from the Cleveland Memory Project
American television personalities 1961 American television series debuts 1972 American television series endings 1997 American television series debuts 2000 American television series endings 1960s American children's television series 1970s American children's television series 1990s American children's television series 2000s American children's television series Television in Cleveland Television in Detroit Local children's television programming in the United States American television shows featuring puppetry