B.J. Palmer turns 75 - WOC's Cowboy Wes Holly & Dwight Damon are there to help celebrate!
So then I was trained as a hypnotist (back then most of us were working as stage hypnotist) and also teaching. When I went to Davenport, I was able to use that and use my show business career in order to support my family in addition to the G.I. Bill when I attended Palmer School of Chiropractic.
Wes Holly was a student also at Palmer and that is how we hooked up together and decided to start working together.
My late wife was a nurse and I used to drop her off at the hospital in Davenport. I would always be early and I would park outside of the college. I would have a little portable typewriter and I would be doing my work (these are the days before computers). I found this fellow walking by. He was a short fellow and would walk by with a brisk walk. Every morning I would see him. He would nod and I would nod and suddenly I realized that this was B. J. Palmer. So the next morning I was waiting for him. I hopped out of the car and introduced myself and said that I would like to talk to him about show business. He said "Well, if you would like to talk, you gotta walk!" So we walked around the block.
He had worked with The Great Pauline at one time when he was a young man. The Great Pauline was a Vaudeville stage hypnotist. Doctor Palmer was very, very conversive. He also was a member of several magic organizations and circus organizations all of which I also belonged to. So I walked with him quite often and he was very interested in helping me out wherever he could. For example, we did a blind-fold boat drive from Davenport up to LeClaire. I was on the Circle 6 Ranch with Wes Holly to promote it. So, we had the mayor Busse come on the show and put adhesive tape, a blindfold and a hood on me on the air. An escort took me down and we had borrowed a boat from his brother who owned the little yacht club down on the river. I took the boat up through the locks and landed successfully in LeClaire. So, I got a lot of publicity out of that. Later, maybe six months or a year later, I did the Jaycees Rodeo and drove through Davenport out to the strip mall shopping center on the outskirts of town. That kept my name in the news.
We had a school assembly and the speaker was late showing up. When B.J. said it started at 9 o'clock, the doors were locked. If the speaker did not get there in time he was locked out. So he was taking questions and answers and somebody said "One of these students here does all of this blind-fold driving of cars and boats and everything, can you tell us how he does it?" B. J. said "Yes, I can." The whole room was all quiet and he said "He does it very well."
Another time there was a special program to honor his 75th birthday. Someone behind the scenes at the station did not like anything that I did for some reason. He did not like magicians, he did not like comedians, any act that I did he did not like so it seemed. I really wanted to be on that program, first of all because of B. J. and second of all because I needed the money and they were paying a talent fee. Every suggestion I gave him he turned down. He kept saying "You are not going to be on it", "You are not going to be on it". So this got me a little ticked off and I marched across the street to the mansion and I asked B.J.'s man if he was in and if I could see him. I told him who I was and why I was there. He said, oh yes, you can come right in. I went in and told him that I would really like to be on that program because first of all it is honoring you and secondly it pays a talent fee and I need the money! He picked up the phone and called over there and said "This is B. J. A young man is over here who is a very good friend of mine and you have turned down everything that he has suggested for him to do on the program to honor me and I want him on the program!" The WOC employee said, o.k. come back over here. That was very good. What transpired was not because of our friendship, because there really wasn't that much of a friendship, it was more because B. J. and I had a lot in common with the backgrounds both being in magic and the circus and other things.
- Dwight Damon
OPERATION 75 - B.J. Palmer Turns 75 and Palmer School of Chiropractic threw him a party - from the PSC Yearbook.
The operation was a success. The "patient" recovered nicely.
That would sum up "Operation 75" - that all-out celebration which commemorated B.J's 75th birthday. It was an event in which the chiropractic profession rose as a whole to pay tribute to the "Developer of Chiropractic." A deep appreciation was shown B.J. by the presentation of a beautiful gold-colored Cadillac and a check for $3,750 - both gifts by his friends and admirers.
"Operation 75" took place in Davenport, Iowa on the night of August 26, when more than 5,000 people filled the gigantic Lyceum tent to overflowing to see the birthday celebration.
On the Lyceum stage a large diamond motif sparkled on a purple backdrop. The initials "B.J." filled the space behind the diamond. Basket after basket of white gladioli flanked the platform, and a brilliant "75" perched on the railing around the stage. At the organ on the stage was lovely Marjorie Meinert of WOC-TV with George Sontag, also of the television station, and talented Mrs. Lyle Nagle to lead the singing. A spirit of happiness and excitement made the "top of Brady Street" fairly vibrate, as the audience - waiting for the appearance of B.J. - practiced the songs specially written for the event.
Above - WOC TV 6 star Wes Holly provides musical entertainment while (below) Wes' best friend Dwight Damon, personally invited by B.J. Palmer for the event wows the crowd with magic.
Traditional to birthday celebrations, scrolls of appreciation were bestowed, telegrams of note were read, special tributes made, and showerings of love and appreciation were offered.
In his capacity as master of ceremonies for the evening, Dr. Marcus Bach, educator, author and "researcher extraordinary," presented to B.J. a Birthday Book containing the names of all who had joined to express wishes and contribute towards the birthday gift for B.J. The frontispiece of the book had, in its concluding lines these words:
"As you have served and will continue to serve, may we also serve. Thus, birthdays become but symbols of time, and years symbols of eternity while the FLAME endures and expands."
PALMER COLLEGE'S CABARET NIGHT FEATURING DWIGHT DAMON AND WES HOLLY
"Harry Andrews Class - CABARET NIGHT," read the marquee above the doors of Danceland on Saturday evening, April 13. Indoors a spirited crowd of over three hundred danced to the music of Wes Holly and his orchestra.
Midway through the gala evening a floor show was presented with Dwight Damon as the emcee. The acts included Palmer School of Chiropractic talent as well as professional entertainers.
Quite an array of Palmer talent was indicated by featuring vocalist Ed McGaurn; pianist Leif Peterson; drummer Bud Schindler; accordionist Vic Rizzo; the New Zealand Maori Dancers; the magic of Dwight Damon accompanied by his pretty wife Lois; and TV's singing cowboy, Wes Holly.
Among the professional entertainers in the show were the dance team Eddie and Marie Adler; the magic and comedy of Jack Peters; Georgia Nehas, a song stylist; and Marilyn Stull with her twirling batons.
Dwight Damon and the other Harry Andrews Class members are to be commended for their untiring effort and time spent in adding a truely successful event to the Palmer School of Chiropractic social calendar.
Above - Dwight Damon providing magical entertainment for Palmer's Cabaret night. In one of his famous mind reading/suggestion tricks, both the man and the woman come up with the word "Problems".
Below - the Master Balloonatic himself, Dwight Damon, provides entertainment for one of the Palmer College assemblies.
Not to be outdone - Wes Holly hosts the annual Palmer Christmas kiddie show in the late 1950's
If you have any memorabilia, pictures, stories, slides or film of Cowboy Wes Holly and Dwight Damon on WOC TV 6 including the Circle 6 Ranch or Cartoon Corral, pictures of B.J.'s 75th birthday spectacular or any memories, film or pictures from the 1950's, 60's and 70's of Quad Cities live TV, please email me!
Click here to return to Captain Ernie's Showboat!