The Lorenzo Show
A mute tramp's daily quest for a lollipop.
The Lorenzo Show was a children's television program starring Gerry Wheeler that aired in multiple American markets from the 1950s into the mid-1970s. The series was also known as Lorenzo and Friends and Lorenzo's Cartoon Festival. Wheeler created the mute title character, Lorenzo, who became the show's central figure.
Quick Facts
- Original market
- KARK-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas
- Years at kyw-tv
- until the mid-1970s
- Notable cast addition
- Bud Smith (joined in Philadelphia)
Facts from the source article.
Background and broadcast history
Gerry Wheeler, a native of Salado, Arkansas, first performed the character Lorenzo on KARK-TV in Little Rock, initially opposite hostess Pat Fontaine before receiving his own program. During the Philadelphia years, the show was syndicated nationally, including in Baltimore. Bud Smith joined the cast in Philadelphia, playing characters such as Smythe the Magician and Pancho Villa.
Synopsis
Each program began with Wheeler, in street clothes, sitting before a makeup table and addressing the audience directly while applying his costume and makeup to become Lorenzo. The final touch was a battered fedora that Wheeler later claimed to have worn on the show for 17 years. Lorenzo, a mute character akin to Emmett Kelly or Don Sandburg's Sandy the Tramp, then embarked on a daily adventure, typically revolving around an attempt to obtain a lollipop. On the rare occasions he succeeded, he performed a dance to Yakety Sax by Boots Randolph, known as the Lorenzo Stomp. Wheeler also created speaking characters: Clarence the Country Boy, with an overbite, sunflower corsage, and straw hat; Nevada Ned, an Old West prospector with a gray handle-bar mustache and blue bandanna; and Percy the Pirate.
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