What in the world would Alleghany County have to do with 1950s-era, Chicago television?
Well, recently, Phyllis Wood Fournel brought in a large box of family papers from Henry Harold and Elizabeth Zachary Vogler of Winston Salem, North Carolina, for donation to the museum.
Mr. Vogler was grandson of the Winston jewelry store owner, William T. Vogler.
William Theodore Vogler was influential in the growing towns of Winston and Salem around the turn of the century. He was very active in the Home Moravian Church in Salem; he was one of the original stockholders of Wachovia National Bank, and he was president of the Winston-Salem Building and Loan Association. He also served as a town commissioner for Salem before its consolidation with Winston in 1913.
Info from Vogler Cottage at Roaring Gap’s Application to the National Register of Historic Places
It was only natural, therefore, that when Hugh Chatham was planning a mountain resort for prominent citizens from Winston, Salem and Elkin, William Vogler was one of the initial founders.
Mr. Vogler purchased a lot from the Roaring Gap Summer Resort Company, of which he was a founder, in 1894.
He built a summer cottage, there, in 1908 and called it Locust Grove Cottage. Locust Grove was a 1+1⁄2-story Queen Anne-style influenced frame cottage, that featured an expansive, wrap-around porch.
Eventually, William’s grandson, Harold, would inherit the cottage.
William Theodore Vogler (age 64) with his son, Henry Edwards (age 49)
& his son Henry Harold Vogler (age 12) on August 13, 1917
at William and Johanna’s 60th Anniversary party.
The couple was married August 13, 1857.
(Image, copyright ©2023 Alleghany Historical Museum )
Harold was a part of his family’s business, William T. Vogler & Son Jewelry Store, and Elizabeth was the Dean of Girls at Salem Academy when they were married, June 8 of 1941. He was 36 and she was 39 when they married and they had no children.
Mr. Vogler died in 1990 and she, just 3 years later, in 1993.
Locust Grove had been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. It was demolished 4 years later in 1995.
When we opened the box and started sorting and evaluating the documents and photos, we found that a good part of the collection isn’t from Harold’s family, but that it is mostly from Elizabeth Zachary’s family, from Brevard, North Carolina.
And, the collection includes a lot of material that relates to Elizabeth’s sister, Beulah Zachary. And, oddly, there seemed to be a lot of information on (of all things) the old Kukla, Fran and Ollie, television show:
“a television show using puppets. It was created for children, but was soon watched by more adults than children. It did not have a script and was entirely ad-libbed. It was broadcast from Chicago between October 13, 1947, and August 30, 1957.”
Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television Watson-Guptill Publ
After a ten-year run in the 50s, [the show] left the air… But they were rarely out of the public eye, appearing in a short daily show on NBC, starring on Broadway, hosting The CBS Children’s Film Festival, creating a series for PBS, performing in Side by Side by Sondheim, and presenting annual live performances at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
http://www.kukla.tv/
The Kuklapolitans can also claim some important television firsts, including the first ship-to-shore telecast and the first color telecast of a network program. Burr [Tillstrom, series creator and star] was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1986 for his many contributions to the medium.
After a little research we found that Beulah Zachary, born in Brevard, NC, on August 13, 1911, to William and Beulah Zachary, attended Salem College in Greensboro, and had intended to become a teacher. She began working in television in 1944, when she was hired by the Chicago-based station WKBK.
She rose in the industry to become the executive producer of Kukla, Fran & Ollie.
Tragically, Miss Zachary died on February 3, 1959, when American Airlines Flight 320 crashed in the East River in New York City.
Burr Tillstrom, who created K. F. O., disclosed Wednesday that Miss Zachary departed for New York to acquire space in which she and Tillstrom planned to open a Kuklapolitan Workshop theater. Tillstrom said he would go ahead with these plans.
Excerpt from the Chicago Daily Tribune, February 5, 1959.
“Beulah might have accepted many other jobs,” said Burr, “but she lived and loved Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, and she believed in their future. So she just stuck with us.”
Fran Allison, who now has her own WGN-TV show, said: “No one ever worked so tirelessly or gave more to make an idea succeed than Beulah did for Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.”
Tillstrom disclosed that it was Miss Zachary who insisted that Kukla, Fran, and Ollie be an ad libbed show. This accounted for much of its freshness and sparkle.
“Beulah not only had great integrity and fine judgment,” said Tillstrom, “but she fostered the creative spirit.”
According to the Tulgey Wood Blog, “Buelah was named in honor of the show’s producer Beulah Zachary (though we can perhaps surmise from the difference in the spelling that someone wanted to be clear that Buelah the witch and Beulah the producer were two entirely different entities).”
(Image, copyright ©2023 Alleghany Historical Museum )
As a producer and director, Miss Zachary was also know for A Walk with Me (1946), Ladies in Retirement (1948) and Marriage Proposal (1945).
–For more info on Kukla, Fran and Ollie, please visit The Kuklapolitan Website at:
http://www.kukla.tv/
