The Dr. Max Show

Did You Know?

• A radio announcer in Muscatine, Iowa, petitioned for the show to air again after it stopped.
• Max Hahn died in June 1984 at age 73.
• The show's cancellation was also attributed to WMT focusing more on news programs and children's shorter attention spans.

Production

The Dr. Max Show took over the time slot previously held by a cowboy program featuring Marshal J., which had been on WMT-TV for six years during the 1950s. When that actor moved to California for television work, the station looked for a new show. Max Hahn, who had acted in community theater and worked in broadcasting and radio theater on Cedar Rapids stations KWCR and WMT in the 1930s, was approached about the role. At the time, Hahn was working the night shift as a printer at a company.

He agreed to the job while keeping his printing position. Hahn wore a safari jacket, and his character was portrayed as a world traveler who made house calls as a doctor. The program outperformed competitors like Sheriff Steve on KCRG-TV and Captain Jet on KWWL in ratings. A coloring contest featuring Mickey Mouse brought in 25,000 entries from four states.

The show originally ran for one hour, aimed at young children, and later expanded to 90 minutes for older kids. Cartoons such as Foghorn Leghorn, Deputy Dawg, and Huckleberry Hound were broadcast, and Dr. Max called them "colortoons." Early on, an off-stage noise was accidentally heard during a broadcast, and Hahn claimed it came from an unseen character named Mombo. He continued to blame Mombo for any on-set mistakes.

Children wrote letters asking for Mombo to appear, so Hahn brought in his community theater friend Fred Petrick for the role. Petrick worked at the Quaker Oats Company and had experience as a clown. He had only 30 minutes to get into costume after driving from his job. Mombo initially sat silently beside Dr. Max, but children wanted him to speak, so after a month Hahn told Petrick to talk.

Mombo started with brief appearances but eventually became a regular part of every episode. Petrick said Hahn asked him to do the role for just a couple of episodes, but he ended up playing Mombo for 20 years. He performed magic tricks as the character and appeared with Hahn thousands of times at events like store openings and parades.