“Forgotten Hollywood”- Fair Weather Willard…
Manny P. here…
Willard Scott was the manic Today show weatherman for thirty-five years. His folksy manner hid his lack of meteorological training during his time as television’s best loved meteorologist. He also portrayed Bozo the Clown and created the Ronald McDonald character.
“`As a teen, Scott took his initial media job as a page for an NBC affiliate in Washington D. C. in 1950. While working in television and radio, he donned the clown suits and his efforts paid off. The people at McDonald’s headquarters liked his creation of Ronald McDonald enough to use the character nationwide. Unfortunately, for the national ad campaign, McDonald’s hired someone else to play Ronald.
“`Scott’s efforts would lead to the weather gig at Today in 1980 and his outsized personality and small-town values made him a fan favorite. Viewers sent him gifts and flocked to see him when he did the weather live from county fairs, parades, and civic events around the country.
“`In 1983, Scott wished a happy 100th birthday to a woman on the air and this started a tradition that became one of the Today show’s most popular features. The show began receiving thousands of requests for centennial shout-outs and Scott did them once a week until 2015, long after he relinquished the full-time weather job. In all, he honored over 40,000 birthdays.
“`Scott was a co-anchor of NBC’s coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade from 1987 to 1997. And he often portrayed Santa Claus at the White House. In all, Scott was with NBC a total of sixty-five years.
“`Willard Scott (right) was eighty-seven.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2021 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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