Frazier Thomas

William Frazier Thomas (June 13, 1918 – April 3, 1985) was a Chicago television personality. Although Thomas wrote nine children's books, he was best known for creating, hosting, writing and producing the long-running children's television program Garfield Goose and Friends on WGN-TV.

Magic and broadcasting Thomas began performing as a magician at age 12 in his home town of Rushville; he was just a teenager when he wrote a book about magic. His column appeared in newspapers from 1935 to 1940. Thomas was a member of the Society of American Magicians and attended their national conferences. By 1936, Thomas had an additional interest: radio; he became the host of a summer replacement show about movies for Cincinnati radio station WLW. Thomas and Ruth Lyons at WLW Radio's Morning Matinee, 1948. Taken from a station-issued promotional calendar. He continued working at WLW, writing and creating his own shows: I Cover the Movies and Inside Radio and as a disk jockey for others, such as BC Battle of the Bands. In 1949, he announced he would leave Morning Matinee to establish his own radio and television production firm. He married Ann Deeds, a commercial artist for WLWT, and together the couple hosted one of the station's first television shows: Shopper's Special. Garfield Goose made his first television appearance in Cincinnati.

In 1951, Thomas was hired by Chicago television station WBKB for an afternoon variety show initially called The Frazier Thomas Show. He also put in some time as the host of an evening music program, Musical Nite-cap. Thomas' afternoon show was renamed Petticoat Party; his announcer for it was Ray Rayner. Garfield Goose made his Chicago debut on Petticoat Party. A clause in the contract for the WBKB sale to CBS called for all programs currently on the station to remain on the air for one year after the sale. Before the transition period was over, Thomas and his goose moved to the new WBKB (now WLS-TV), now under ABC's management. One year later, in 1955, the pair found their permanent television home at WGN-TV, where they would be joined by the other characters, making it Garfield Goose and Friends.

In addition to entertaining, Thomas also educated his young viewers, but never with a heavy hand. His guests were people like Dr. Lester Fisher of Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo and J. Bruce Mitchell of the Museum of Science and Industry whose visits were both fun and informative. Thomas also had a Hobby Corner feature where children would talk about and display things they were interested in. During the holidays, Thomas sang "Jingle Bells" in Latin, teaching the words and their meaning to his television audience. Children and their parents were invited to write for a copy of the words; it took Thomas weeks to mail all the replies. On occasion, Thomas would take his Jew's harp from his pocket and begin to play. His goose friend would respond to the music by either retreating to another part of his castle or hitting Thomas on the head with his beak.

Little Theater Screen Segments

Family Classics and other work

Frazier and Garfield join Bozo's Circus in 1976. Roy Brown (Cooky the Clown) and Bob Bell (Bozo) are also pictured. In 1961, WGN-TV had an extensive library of films which were suitable for family viewing, but were rarely aired. Fred Silverman, who was a WGN executive at the time, came up with an idea for putting the films to use. He wanted to air them when children and their parents could watch and enjoy them with Frazier Thomas as the show's host. Thomas agreed to host the program provided he had editing rights on the films, was able to choose them himself and also to refuse any titles he believed were not suitable for the show. A set designed by Thomas that resembled a cozy home library complete with a Roy Brown painting of Garfield Goose was built and he began his Family Classics weekly show on Friday evenings. Family Classics became so successful, it was beating many of the network programs in the Chicago market. The networks responded by purchasing new movies to air in the same time slot; this made it necessary for the program to move to Sunday afternoons. The Family Classics set is now part of the Museum of Broadcast Communications' collection.

Thomas also brought a movie camera on his vacations and the footage he shot became specials for the station. The Thomas family's vacation on an schooner became Sailing the Seas of Columbus and their trip to England resulted in The Legend of Arthur, the Phantom King. Frazier's friends were off the air permanently on January 26, 1981, after changes to the Bozo program. The Thomas family donated Garfield and the rest of the puppets, along with Thomas' uniform, to the Museum of Broadcast Communications. The 2500 block of West Bradley Place in Chicago in front of WGN-TV's studios is honorarily named "Frazier Thomas Place" in his memory. In 2005, the Museum of Broadcast Communications awarded WGN-TV's Studio 1 a plaque to commemorate the forty years of children's television broadcast from the studio. Garfield Goose and Friends with a likeness of Thomas and Garfield, is on the plaque along with Ray Rayner with Ray Rayner and Friends and Bob Bell and Bozo's Circus.