In the 50s, when Channel 11 was still in Galveston, and using the call letters KGUL, it also had a Late Show that started every night around 10:30. It started with some nice film of a seagull flying around over the Galveston surf, with an orchestra playing Claire de Lune, and then it cut to the host: a real zany named Jim Ross.
I don't know if I can describe Jim Ross in a way that today's generation would understand.
He was genuinely zany and very funny. Oftimes his commercial breaks were better than the movie he was showing. People would stay up late just to see him. I know I did. And it was all done live. Video tape hadn't been invented yet.
Thanks for mentioning Jim Ross and the old Late Show on KGUL-TV. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who remembers Jim Ross on the Late Show. One night I tuned in to the Late Show and saw Jim Ross swinging on a rope in the studio, while he was dressed in a fur coat and acting like a monkey. I'll never forget that! I don't remember what the occasion was for that particular antic, maybe they were showing Monkey Business that night, but that film was probably too new at the time. In any case, he wasn't called "Zany Jim Ross" for nothing. For those too young to remember, this "Late show" was a local studio production at the original KGUL-TV studio in Galveston and it predated the CBS network's Late Show by many years. I loved the opening of the show, which featured a short film of a beautiful sea gull gliding peacefully over Galveston beach, while Claire de Lune was playing in the background. I was in high school when this show was on the air in the nineteen fifties and I should have been in bed when the show came on. But, I've always been a night owl, and I had an old 1948 RCA TV set in my bedroom that I managed to repair. My parents didn't know I fixed that TV, much less that I turned it on and stayed up late every night to watch the Late Show after they went to sleep. I should explain that TV technology moved so fast that by the mid fifties any TV set from the forties was already considered to be a worthless piece of old junk. As the previous post pointed out, there was no local video tape in use at that time, so I may be the only person alive today who can remember seeing Jim Ross perform that rope swinging stunt on live TV. It's weird to think that the last trace of that event will be lost forever when I kick the bucket, unless a civilization in some distant galaxy happens to intercept the TV signal that's carrying that show, as it travels across the universe. If that happens, then I wonder what alien creatures will make of Zany Jim Ross.
Houston TV Stations
in Historic Houston
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Thanks for mentioning Jim Ross and the old Late Show on KGUL-TV. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who remembers Jim Ross on the Late Show. One night I tuned in to the Late Show and saw Jim Ross swinging on a rope in the studio, while he was dressed in a fur coat and acting like a monkey. I'll never forget that! I don't remember what the occasion was for that particular antic, maybe they were showing Monkey Business that night, but that film was probably too new at the time. In any case, he wasn't called "Zany Jim Ross" for nothing. For those too young to remember, this "Late show" was a local studio production at the original KGUL-TV studio in Galveston and it predated the CBS network's Late Show by many years. I loved the opening of the show, which featured a short film of a beautiful sea gull gliding peacefully over Galveston beach, while Claire de Lune was playing in the background. I was in high school when this show was on the air in the nineteen fifties and I should have been in bed when the show came on. But, I've always been a night owl, and I had an old 1948 RCA TV set in my bedroom that I managed to repair. My parents didn't know I fixed that TV, much less that I turned it on and stayed up late every night to watch the Late Show after they went to sleep. I should explain that TV technology moved so fast that by the mid fifties any TV set from the forties was already considered to be a worthless piece of old junk. As the previous post pointed out, there was no local video tape in use at that time, so I may be the only person alive today who can remember seeing Jim Ross perform that rope swinging stunt on live TV. It's weird to think that the last trace of that event will be lost forever when I kick the bucket, unless a civilization in some distant galaxy happens to intercept the TV signal that's carrying that show, as it travels across the universe. If that happens, then I wonder what alien creatures will make of Zany Jim Ross.