Bill Thompson (television host)

Last updated
Bill Thompson
BornWilliam Earnest Thompson
(1931-12-18)December 18, 1931
New York City, New York
Died July 23, 2014(2014-07-23) (aged 82)
Phoenix, Arizona
Nationality American
Other names Wallace
Occupation Television host
Known for The Wallace and Ladmo Show
Spouse(s) Donna Cope (1952–?)
Katie Frye (1974–2014; his death)
Children 3

William Earnest Thompson (December 18, 1931 – July 23, 2014), better known as Wallace, co-hosted The Wallace and Ladmo Show , a daily children's variety show broadcast on KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona for 36 years. [1] The program featured short comedy skits and cartoons and was known for humor that appealed to adults as well as children.

The Wallace and Ladmo Show, also known as It's Wallace? and Wallace & Company, was a children's television show produced by and aired on KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, from April 1, 1954, to December 29, 1989. For most of its run, it was broadcast in the morning, Monday through Friday. With the advent of video tape the show was recorded the day before and played the following morning.

KPHO-TV CBS television affiliate in Phoenix

KPHO-TV, virtual channel 5, is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The station is owned by the Meredith Corporation, as part of a duopoly with independent station KTVK. The two stations share studios on North Seventh Avenue in Uptown Phoenix; KPHO's transmitter is located on South Mountain on the city's south side. KPHO extends its signal throughout northern Arizona by way of more than a dozen translators.

Phoenix, Arizona State capital city in Arizona, United States

Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of Arizona, with 1,626,078 people. It is also the fifth most populous city in the United States, and the most populous American state capital, and the only state capital with a population of more than one million residents.

Contents

Personal life

Thompson was born in New York City on December 18, 1931 to William and Marie Thompson, who had met while attending the University of Arizona. [2] The Thompsons were a wealthy family who had made a large part of their fortune through mining operations in Arizona carried out by Bill's great-uncle, William Boyce Thompson, and grandfather, J. E. Thompson. As a child, Bill visited J. E. Thompson's estate in Phoenix, the Rancho Joaquina House, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the historic register for the City of Phoenix. [3] [4] Bill's father traded stocks on Wall Street. When Bill was three, the family moved from Manhattan to Bronxville, New York, where he grew up near the Thompson family's mansion.

University of Arizona public university in Tucson, Arizona, United States

The University of Arizona is a public research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885, the UA was the first university in the Arizona Territory. As of 2017, the university enrolls 44,831 students in 19 separate colleges/schools, including the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson and Phoenix and the James E. Rogers College of Law, and is affiliated with two academic medical centers. The University of Arizona is governed by the Arizona Board of Regents. The University of Arizona is one of the elected members of the Association of American Universities and is the only representative from the state of Arizona to this group.

William Boyce Thompson American engineer

William Boyce Thompson,, was an American mining engineer, financier, prominent in the Republican party, philanthropist, and founder of Newmont Mining. Thompson was one of the significant early twentieth century mine operators that discovered and exploited vast copper deposits that revolutionized Western American mining, and reaped for themselves tremendous fortunes. He currently has a school named after him in Yonkers New York called the William Boyce Thompson school.

Rancho Joaquina House historic house in Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Rancho Joaquina House is a Mission Revival/Spanish Colonial Revival mansion in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix. Built in 1924/1925 by the Phoenix architectural firm Fitzhugh & Byron, the mansion is known as the earliest adobe revival property in the Phoenix area. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the historic register for the City of Phoenix.

After graduating from Bronxville High school, Thompson attended DePauw University, where he studied art and acting, but was not an enthusiastic student. [1] Around that time, he began writing children's stories featuring a character named Wallace Snead. [1]

DePauw University private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, United States

DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, is a private liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the North Coast Athletic Conference. The Society of Professional Journalists was founded at DePauw.

In 1952, Thompson dropped out of college, moved to Phoenix, married Donna Cope and started a family. They had three children: Carrie, Annie and Tony. [1] They eventually divorced and, on March 4, 1974, he married Katie Frye. [2]

Thompson died on July 23, 2014 of undisclosed causes in Phoenix.

Career

After arriving in Phoenix, Thompson worked in the circulation department of The Phoenix Gazette newspaper. He eventually was hired by KPHO-TV and, on April 1, 1954, his character Wallace Snead first appeared on the KPHO-produced children's program, The Golddust Charlie Show. [2] KPHO's program director, Bob Martin, soon offered him his own show and in January 1955 it debuted as It's Wallace? [2] [5] The following year, "Ladmo" (Ladimir Kwiatkowski) joined the program. On June 15, 1970, the title was officially changed to The Wallace and Ladmo Show, as it had come to be known colloquially. It continued broadcasting, Monday through Friday, until its last taping on December 29, 1989—one of the longest-running, daily, locally produced children's television shows in American broadcasting. [6]

Ladimir Kwiatkowski American actor

Ladimir Kwiatkowski, better known as Ladmo, co-hosted The Wallace and Ladmo Show, a daily children's variety show broadcast on KPHO in Phoenix, Arizona. The program featured clowns, cartoons and short comedy skits.

Thompson holds a prominent place in the cultural history of Arizona and has been inducted into Arizona Historical Society's hall of fame. In addition to his TV program, he made thousands of personal appearances and performed at live stage shows and in the 1960s he owned a chain of fast-food restaurants with his co-host, Ladmo. The Wallace and Ladmo Show won many awards, including nine Emmys, and has been credited by Steven Spielberg, Alice Cooper and generations of Phoenicians as having a formative influence on them. [7]

Arizona Historical Society organization

The Arizona Historical Society (AHS) is a non-profit organization whose goal is to collect, preserve, interpret, and disseminate the history of Arizona, the West, and Northern Mexico as it pertains to Arizona. It does this through 4 regional divisions. Each division has a representative museum. The statewide divisions are as follows: Southern Arizona Division in Tucson, the Central Arizona Division in Tempe, the Northern Arizona Division in Flagstaff, and the Rio Colorado Division in Yuma. It was founded in 1884.

Steven Spielberg American film director & screenwriter

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the founding pioneers of the New Hollywood era and one of the most popular directors and producers in film history.

Alice Cooper American rock singer, songwriter and musician

Alice Cooper is an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spans over fifty years. With his distinctive raspy voice and a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, deadly snakes, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by music journalists and peers alike to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock people.

After The Wallace and Ladmo Show left the air, Thompson, then 58, essentially retired from broadcasting and public life.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Bill Thompson Biography". kpho.com/story/14870311/bill-thompson-biography. Retrieved 2014-07-26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ruelas, Richard (2006). Thanks for Tuning In. Phoenix: Boffo Books.
  3. ↑ "Individual properties on city's historic register". Archived from the original on 2008-05-09.
  4. ↑ "Rancho Joaquina Needed a Facelift Before It Could be Shown to the Public".
  5. ↑ Hollis, Tim (2001). Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Shows. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 36.
  6. ↑ "Missing a Friend: End to Ladmo's life of Joy". Arizona Republic. 1994-03-05. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  7. ↑ "Brief History Of "Wallace And Ladmo"". KPHO Web Site. Archived from the original on 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2010-03-31.

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