Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

“The grass is always greener in the other fella’s yard.”

When I was a kid that song was the theme song of Big Brother Bob Emery’s live TV show on channel 4. His previous show in the late 1940’s was called Small Fry Club and he referred to his young guests as “small fries.”

Going purely on this old memory (before I researched it), I remember him playing the ukulele. But what I remember vividly was my sister and I actually being on the show in person, on live TV with the grandfatherly Big Brother.

Back then we only had a few TV channels. 4, 5, 7 and channel 2, PBS (channels 38 and 56 came along shortly thereafter). My mother watched shows like David Susskind on channel 2 and we had to wait until it was over to hear dad say, “Stop flipping the channels!” The locally produced shows were favorites among the kids of the era.

A few of the shows that local children could be on were Rex Trailer’s Boomtown, with his original side kick Pablo, and then Sgt. Billy, Cactus Pete, Major Mudd, and Bozo (and Butch for a day). We also watched Miss Jean on Romper Room. “Romper, Stomper, Bomper Boo, tell me, tell me, tell me true … magic mirror tell me today, did all my friends have fun at play?”

I did a story about Boomtown a while back and discovered that a lot of Somerville’s Baby Boomers were on the live western themed show. Some were on Major Mudd and a few made it onto Bozo’s show featuring the late great Frank Avruch as the lovable red-haired clown. I made my TV debut on Big Brother’s show with my big sister Christine.

When we were on Big Brother, I remember we said the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we drank our chocolate milk with a portrait of President Dwight D Eisenhower behind us. He was President from 1953 to 1960 so we were both real “small fries.” Hail to the Chief was played during the salute to the president.

I remember being very nervous and staying as close as possible to my big sister. Reciting the pledge, saluting the president and drinking milk was part of every Big Brother show. Bosco sponsored a lot of kids shows and drinking that chocolate milk on live TV was one of my clearest memories. There’s no one left in my immediate family to get more facts regarding our one day on television.

There’s also that well known story, or urban legend, connected with the show. Rumors swirled that Big Brother once uttered a few choice comments to the effect of, “Those little ______!” There is no evidence that this ever happened. After retiring in 1968 Bob Emery lived in Newton, MA, until his death in 1982.

One of my dearest friends says, “Best years of my life living in Somerville.”

Cub Scouts got me on Bozo, my uncle got me on Rex Trailer, and my dad got me to meet Major Mudd. “There’s a good dad and a lucky kid right there!”

Here’s two generations of Somerville kids on local TV: “I was on the Rex Trailer show and four of my children were on the Major Mudd show.”

Here’s a nice tribute to TV artist Captain Bob Cottle: “I Used to get up early just to watch him draw animals. I credit him for me being a decent drawer my whole life since.”

As we age some memories are lost but my memory of being on Big Brother is very clear. I’m very grateful that I have this pleasant memory of my late sister.

I wonder if my friend Ron still has the superball he won playing tic-tac-toe on Major Mudd’s show? And as the good Major used to say at the end of each show, IBBY. I’ll be blasting you!