Bob McAllister

Bob McAllister (June 2, 1935 – July 21, 1998) was an American television personality, magician and children's entertainer and the host of "Wonderama". cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Bob McAllister, 63, TV Host and Magician |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E4DD1639F931A15754C0A96E958260 |quote= Bob McAllister, who talked his way into a television career without moving his lips, became the host of an acclaimed children's show, then made magic his metier, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 63 and best known for his decade as the ebullient, Buster Brown-coiffed host of "Wonderama." His family said the cause was a respiratory ailment that he would have learned yesterday had been diagnosed as lung cancer. By the time Mr. McAllister replaced Sonny Fox as host of the three-hour Sunday morning children's extravaganza known as "Wonderama," in 1967, the show had been on the air for more than a dozen years. ... Mr. McAllister, who was married and divorced twice, is survived by his mother, Peg McAllister of Virginia Beach, Virginia; three daughters, Susan Abbott of Clearwater, Florida, Robin McAllister of Manhattan and Molly Jo McAllister of Ossining, New York, and three grandchildren. |publisher=New York Times |date=July 22, 1998 |accessdate=2007-06-21 ]

Biography

Born in Philadelphia, Bob first made his name as a ventriloquist on NBC on the "Today Show" in the 1950s, while still in his teens. He appeared in 1953 on CBS on Ted Mack's "Original Amateur Hour" and was able to get his first regular television job hosting his own program on WTAR in Norfolk, Virginia. The "Bob and Chauncey Show" paired McAllister with a wise-cracking dummy ("Chauncey"). This led to his being hired on at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland in 1963 on "The Bob McAllister Show".

The show was a big success and led to an offer from WNEW-TV in New York to host his own program there in 1967. Though the New York version of the show failed, he was brought in as host of the syndicated popular show "Wonderama," produced by WNEW-TV, to replace the departing Sonny Fox.

McAllister's version of the show became Metromedia TV's most popular children's series. He also found the time to host a NYC edition of "The Bob McAllister Show" and a few children's television specials for WNEW-TV during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He hosted a reproduced "Wonderama" show at Six Flags Great Adventure. In 1975, Monty Hall, impressed by McAllister, flew him out to Los Angeles to host a pilot for a new game show called "Carnival". By all accounts, the pilot was well-done, but it was never picked up as a series.

He was forced to leave "Wonderama" following the Sunday, December 25, 1977 broadcast of the series. In the fall of 1978 McAllister briefly returned to children's television as the host/performer and interviewer of ABC TV's "Kids Are People Too!", a show that took its name from the title of McAllister's closing "Wonderama" theme.

But the show that he was hired to emcee was aimed at teens, not children, and this led to creative disputes with the producers and network executives. In November 1978, Bob McAllister was fired from "Kids Are People Too!" and he was replaced by Michael Young and by Randy Hamilton as the program's hosts.

McAllister would spend the remainder of the 1970s and 80s performing at corporate banquets and picnics and, for a time, served as co-owner of a roller skating rink in Westchester County, New York. He tried a return to children's television with an educational program called "Tuned In" for PBS-TV in the early 1980s. He played the teacher, Mr. Graff.

Bob received recognition in the magic field with numerous awards, including the prestigious "Magician of the Year " award from the Society of American Magicians.

He died on July 21, 1998 of lung cancer.

References

The roller rink was in New Rochelle New York. It was called "The Rink".

External links

*imdb name|id=0563960|name=Bob McAllister
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opkrA15zaIc A clip of Bob McAllister doing a magic routine, the year before his death]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMuMrI7YyU A clip of Bob McAllister on Wonderama introducing ABBA]