Ray Rayner (born Raymond M. Rahner; July 23, 1919 – January 21, 2004) was an American television presenter, actor and author. He was a staple of Chicago children's television in the 1960s and 1970s on WGN-TV.

Early life and education

Rayner (the name was initially spelled "Rahner" but pronounced "Rayner") grew up in Queens, New York. He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Rayner's first media job was for WGBB radio in Freeport on Long Island while he was attending night school at Fordham University.

Chicago

thumb|left|150px|Rayner circa 1960

After briefly working in radio at WOOD in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as in New York and Dayton, Ohio following the war, Rayner joined what was then WBKB, later to become WBBM-TV in Chicago as a staff announcer; he also worked on a local morning program called Rayner Shine in 1953. This was Rayner's first work with puppets, who were provided for the show by the Mulqueens. The show, geared towards teens, ran for five years.

WBBM asked Rayner to switch to a children's program in 1958, though reluctant at first, he did so with The Little Show, which was very much like Ray Rayner and His Friends; on this version, the duck he worked with had the name of Havelock. After that, he occasionally appeared on the show as Oliver and filled in for Ned Locke as "Mr. Ray" when needed. Following the cancellation of The Dick Tracy Show, a new afternoon program called Rocket to Adventure ran until 1968; this featured early appearances by Gigantor and Tobor the Eighth Man. Rayner hosted the show appearing as an astronaut.

Ray Rayner and His Friends

Starting in 1962, Rayner began hosting his own long-running Ray Rayner and His Friends, which had the title Breakfast With Bugs Bunny when he became its host; it was renamed in 1964.

Rayner also had a talking dog puppet, Cuddly Dudley, created and voiced by Roy Brown, a.k.a. "Cooky the Cook" from Bozo's Circus and The Bozo Show. The segment highlighted viewer mail which included many hand-drawn pictures submitted by children. The segment was often humorous as it was a chance for Rayner and Brown to interact and use comedic ad-libs. He would also simulcast traffic reports from sister station WGN Radio over stock footage of traffic moving along the Chicago-area Interstates. During baseball season, he showed and narrated highlights of the Cubs and White Sox games from the previous day, wearing a custom-sewn ball cap that had the front half of each team's cap, resulting in a two-billed cap which he spun around, depending on which team's highlights were being shown. Rayner would do the same thing for the Bears during football season.

The arts-and-crafts was a regular segment that always began with a finished version prepared in advance by someone "behind the scenes" (often the wife of Producer Dick Flanders) that was displayed to the audience, followed by Rayner's attempts to demonstrate the process in an amusing, all-thumbs effort, also set to music, that resulted in a comically sub-par facsimile that more resembled a random collection of felt, construction paper and glue. Rayner's version would then be displayed alongside the original further emphasizing his comical ineptitude regarding crafts. Rayner also featured a "How and Why" segment on his shows with J. Bruce Mitchell of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, as did Garfield Goose and Friends. Along with Bozo's Circus, a video game was added to Rayner's show that viewers could play by phone called TV Powww.

Rayner also wrote a book titled The Story of Television published in 1972. It is basically an industry guide to how a television show is made featuring many photos of Rayner from his Ray Rayner and Friends show. The book is quite rare and commands a high price, when available, from on-line auction sites. One copy was donated to the Museum of Broadcast Communications about seven months after Rayner's passing.

Later years and legacy

He moved to KGGM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1981, before retiring from television in 1989. He cited the harsh Chicago winters as the motivating factor. He returned to Chicago for the 25th and 30th anniversary shows for Bozo's Circus. Rayner continued to accept some Chicago theater roles and took some time to patiently answer children's questions about his work even after moving to Albuquerque. He did a week-long stint filling in at weather and other duties at Chicago's Fox Thing in the Morning on WFLD in May 1995. Rayner took some courses at the University of New Mexico, did some teaching and wrote a column for a local newspaper there. His activities there included reading to the blind, Grant A Wish (for terminally ill children), and delivering Meals on Wheels.

He died on 21 January 2004, of complications from pneumonia in Fort Myers, Florida, at the age of 84. Rayner's coveralls, complete with notes, is part of the museum's collection. Cuddly Dudley and his doghouse from The Bozo Show are also part of the museum's collection. A photo of Rayner on the set of his television show with two guests was chosen as the cover photo for Chicago Television, published for the Museum of Broadcast Communications in 2010.

See also

  • The Bozo Show

References

Bibliography

  • via Project MUSE
  • Ray Rayner WGN Photo Gallery Chicago Tribune
  • Ray Rayner - Find A Grave Memorial

;Videos

  • Various Salvaged Clips of Ray Rayner and Friends