MORE from my "12 Dead Frogs" memoir: about "Pinky Lee"--TV personality, 1950. I ran to a South Side Chicago park where he was appearing, to snap a picture with my Brownie camera...oops!

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EhABDjG9kI> (Compare him to PeeWee's Playhouse!). <https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twelve-dead-frogs-and-other-stories-a-filmmakers-memoir-rick-schmidt/1126913593>.

PINKY LEE (1954)

I learned a lot from watching TV, mainly that I loved Howdy Doody, Hopalong Cassidy, Science Fiction Theatre, Mr. and Mrs. North, Boston Blackie, and almost all movies. I sent away for decoding rings, other gizmos, even receiving a clear plastic sheet of acetate to stick on the screen. A viewer had just a short time to grease-pencil in a inch-long line, tracing each week’s clue for winning prizes. When it was announced that Pinky Lee, a local cartoon show host, would make a guest appearance at the park behind my house on the South Side of Chicago I was thrilled beyond belief.[Pinky Lee’s shows were a lot like Peewee’s Playhouse for kids (and adults) in the 1986-90].

After spending a couple of dollars of my allowance buying a new roll of film for my Brownie camera, I loaded it and carefully watched the calendar so as not to miss the big event. On the appointed Saturday morning, I raced out the front door, turned a quick right and ran fast down the sidewalk, hoping that I wouldn’t be late.

Suddenly the camera slipped out of my hands and hit the pavement, the impact somehow knocking open the light-tight back lid. In an instant my dream of recording Pinky on film had been ruined. I stood there in shock, tears dripping from my eyes.

I scooped up my camera with its visible film roll and headed back home. It just wasn’t worth it – seeing Pinky Lee – if I couldn’t get some shots.

<https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1993/rt9304/930407/04070241.htm#:~:text=Lee%20died%20in%20his%20sleep,set%20his%20age%20at%2067>.