Jimmy Weldon
| Jimmy Weldon | |
|---|---|
Jimmy Weldon in 2015
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| Born |
23 September 1923 Dale, Texas, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1946–2015 |
Jimmy Weldon (born September 23, 1923) is an American voice actor, ventriloquist, and former television host. He is best known as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yakky Doodle the little Duck and the host and ventriloquist in the locally produced television series "The Webster Webfoot Show."
Born Ivy Laverne Shinn on September 23, 1923, in Dale, Texas, he began his career in 1946 as a disc jockey at KWCO, the radio station which began its operations shortly after he returned home following WWII. He was the first announcer hired at this new radio station.
While there, he developed a character named Webster Webfoot, a little duck who visited him while Jimmy was playing record requests from listeners calling in. Often they just wanted to talk to little Webster. They thought Webster was someone other than Jimmy, and so he became an important part of Jimmy's disc jockey presentations.
In 1948, Jimmy (and Webster Webfoot) moved to Duncan, Oklahoma, where they performed on another 250-watt AM station, KRHD, for two more years. The big 50,000-watt radio station WFAA in Dallas, Texas, recruited Webster and Jimmy as entertainers, and Webster became a real person on television on April 4, 1950, on The Webster Webfoot Show, produced locally by station WFAA-TV.
They moved to California on September 5, 1952, to KCOP-TV, Channel 13, in Hollywood and continued their television careers. During an appearance at a middle school in Brentwood, Jeff Chandler and Randolph Scott collected the tickets from the children and parents who came to see the show. These two movie stars made Jimmy feel very lucky indeed when they commented, "Our children think more of little Webster than they do OUR movie careers." Also, Ralph Edwards was there and in 1955 he gave Webster and Jimmy the positions as co-hosts of a new children's television program titled FUNNYBONERS, a junior version of his famous "Truth or Consequences" radio and television shows.
In 1956 Jimmy and Webster moved to Fresno, California, which began a career in the San Joaquin Valley at KFRE-TV, Channel 12. This was interrupted, however, when NBC executives called them to New York to replace Shari Lewis on the "HI, MOM" Show on the NBC Flagship Station, WRCA-TV, Channel 4.
In 1959 Channel 13 in Hollywood once again became their television home.
In 1961 Jimmy and Webster were called back to the San Joaquin Valley. They continued performing their show on KJEO-TV, Channel 47, in Fresno, California, throughout the 1960s. During this time, Jimmy and Webster also did TV shows in Salinas and Bakersfield, California, flying their airplane from city to city for those shows.
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