September 1961 Lorain Journal TV Page

Well, I started this week with a TV page from the Lorain Journal from decades ago and I guess I'll finish the week with one too. This one is from September 15, 1961.

I think the layout of the TV page of the Journal back in the 1960s was very memorable. There were just the three Cleveland stations during the beginning of the decade, so the schedule was easy to read. Later, a few of the Toledo stations were included (11 and 13) as well as the "new" UHF stations in Cleveland (43 and 61).

The Journal sure sold a lot of small ads on the TV page in those days. I don't know why they don't do that today. Those small ads are the equivalent of today's internet banner ads.

Of course, the main reason I selected this TV page was because of the photo of Fred, Barney and Hoagy Carmichael promoting the 1961 second season premiere of The Flintstones.

Flintstone checkers

The Flintstones were really big when I was a kid, and my parents made sure my siblings and I had all of the Flintstone toys.

We had the big, plastic, off-model Knickerbocker figures of Fred, Barney and the rest that were about a foot high. I remember playing with them in our backyard on W. 30th Street with Bob Berstling, who always referred to Fred as "Freddy Flintstone."

We had the big, thick Flintstone checkers that were about 3 or 4 inches in diameter and an inch thick. At least they were pretty hard to lose!

We also had the Flintstone playset (by Marx) that included houses, palm trees, cars and the Flintstone characters and other Bedrock citizens as small hard plastic figures. Those we did manage to lose, until we only had a few bits and pieces of the homes and trees left – sort of a post-nuclear version of Bedrock.

My older brother Ken even dressed up as Fred Flintstone for Halloween 1961, a month after this TV page appeared in the Journal.

The funny thing is, as a kid I sort of favored the Jetsons over the Flintstones – and I still do! But both shows had a lot of heart, and popular characters that you liked and welcomed into your home each week.

Anyway, here's the animated version of Hoagy Carmichael performing a tune (on a Stoneway piano of course) that he wrote especially for that Flintstones episode.