WOC TV 6 Davenport, Iowa had a long history of kids shows starting from the time that the station signed on the air in 1949. The first was Comic CutUps which aired during the first full week that WOC was on and it starred Ken Wagner along with PeeWee the clown puppet.

Cowboy Hosts were popular during the 1950's and for WOC it was no exception. WOC had signed on the air as Channel 5 but moved to Channel 6 in the early 1950s. While on Channel 5, the Circle 5 Ranch starring Walt Reno as Cowboy Whitey was the show which aired cowboy shorts. By the time WOC moved to Channel 6, the show was changed along with it to The Circle 6 Ranch. By the mid 1950's, country western star Wes Holly had the lead role as Cowboy Wes.

In 1956, Paramount unleashed what was then the greatest phenomenon on television. This was the packaging of the ultra popular Popeye series. Overnight the ratings soared for the channels which picked up this package. Shows were reformatted to go along with the Popeye theme. The Circle 6 Ranch was one of the shows which was changed. Wes Holly was moved to Sunday mornings and Ken Wagner was brought in as Captain Ken, the host of the new program Captain Ken's Cartoon Showboat. The bunk house and straw bales were gone. Added was a Showboat theme along with a pilot house.

Captain Ken was the first captain. He left WOC in the early 1960s and moved to Minneapolis where he started the same Cartoon Showboat on KMSP TV 9. Vern Geilow was chosen to replace him as Captain Vern, followed by Captain Don Warren and finally Captain Ernie who sailed the Dixie Belle for a decade.

As of 2007, no known copies of any of the kids shows existed. Incredibly a copy of Captain Ken's Cartoon Showboat was found in deep storage in California. This priceless film provides the following screen shots of Captain Ken and his buddies Tommy Sawyer the Cabin Boy and Calliope the Turtle. Presenting Captain Ken for the first time in 50 years, enjoy!

	The film begins with a toucan bird who appears in The Dixie Belle's pilot house. The toucan, whose name is not known at this point is laughing at the previous cartoon. His banter leads to the next cartoon! ha ha ha ho ho ha ha i don't know what i am laughing for but... i'm(?) great! i love a good cartoon don't you love a cartoon, hmmmm? well, we've got another one right now about playing cards it stars bimbo! (the dog) hee hee hee what's the title of it? oh! "ace of spades"!
Bimbo was a star from the Fleischer studios from 1930 thru 1933. This is from the early years of talkie motion pictures. Bimbo was Betty Boops boyfriend. You may or may not know that Betty Boop was originally a dog, she had dog ears in the beginning and morphed into a woman. Betty became more popular and Bimbo fell off the scene after 3 or 4 years but not before he had a line of his own cartoons. The name of this cartoon is Ace of Spades. Thankfully there was a short clip of the cartoon so one can get an idea of what is going on.
	The end of the Bimbo cartoon reveals that it is a National Telefilm Associates (otherwise known by its initials, NTA) release. NTA was an independent distribution company that handled much of Paramount Pictures' animated and short-subjects library. WOC had purchased the incredibly popular Popeye cartoon package which was released by Paramount Pictures in 1956. Along with the Popeye cartoons came a variety of other Paramount properties in the package including Bimbo.
Next is a classic promotion from Ked's tennis shoes. Kedso the clown was one of the most recognized clowns in the United States thanks to a massive marketing campaign by Ked's maker, U.S. Rubber. From tvacres.com - Kedso the Clown - For years, the US Rubber Company used Kedso the Clown in all their pulp advertisements. In 1958, they transformed this happy clown into an animated success as the star of the Keds Sneaker TV commercials. The Kedso the Clown spot began "Hi, kids!...Let's all sing the Kedso Song...If you want shoes with lots of pep, Get Keds, Kid's Keds. For bounce and zoom in every step, Get Keds , Kid's Keds." When Kedso asked "Why do you kids wear Keds?" They answered "So I can run faster and jump higher; so I can win more often." The Kedso the clown character sported a black top hat, a baggy polka dot suit with a frilly wrap around collar, carried a tinyl umbrella and, of course, wore Keds Sneakers.
	While longtime WOC musical director George Sontag plays the organ in the background, Captain Ken is excited to let us know that your local Ked's dealer is giving you the chance to win a Gem Dandy surrey with a fringe on top. This dandy is easy to steer and a breeze to put together! As every child is riveted to the screen thinking about the possibility of winning, Ken's daughter Linda takes a ride in the surrey to give us a better look at the prize.
Ken assures us that this Gem Dandy Surrey could be ours FREE! All you have to do is pick up your free entry form at your nearest Ked's dealership. Just send that form to Captain Ken and he will pick the winner right here on the Dixie Belle! The dealerships cover most of the Quad Cities. Their names are seen on cards that were drawn by Captain Ken himself. Ken Wagner was not only an on air talent, he was also the station artist from the day that WOC signed on the air.
	Davenport, Iowa, Rock Island, Moline, East Moline and Silvis, Illinois. Petersen's, Gersick's, Powelson's, Norlin's and Silvis Dry Goods. A quick check of the 2007 phone directory shows that only Petersen's remains. Sadly, Petersen's is not in its original location which is shown here and which was an anchor of downtown Davenport shopping.
With the Ked's surrey free give-away segment over, a fragment of an Oscar Mayer advertisement pops up. Ken Wagner did not have room on the film to keep the commercials nor the cartoons. This snippet gives an example of what advertisements were running on The Showboat. A package of Oscar Mayer All Meat Smokie Links appears in the foreground while many franks are cooking in the background. A hand appears on the screen grabbing the package of hot dogs and the three seconds is up. That is possibly the only piece of evidence that this commercial ever existed!
	We are back from commercials on WOC and Captain Ken is setting the stage for what would take place for the next decade and a half on The Cartoon Showboat. In one of the most popular and memorable segments, Ken, along with his pal Tommy the Cabin Boy, opens his treasure chest to pull out a name of one of the viewers. The lucky child will win one of the terrific prizes that were given away daily on the show.
Tommy is allowed to do the honors, announcing the lucky winners! Today a boy named Mike Dempsey from Moline, Illinois is chosen and he has won a Voit Volleyball. Captain Ken lets us know that the next prize is the famous Ray-O-Vac flashlight. He assures the audience that this three cell flashlight will come in mighty handy when you go with your dad fishing. You can use it to see the worm when you put it on the hook! Another boy, Rodney Ninche (sp?) is the winner of this prize and he is from Coralville, Iowa. Ken sneaks a peek off screen to see how much time he has since everything on the show is ad-libbed. Realizing that he has some time to fill, he lets us know that Coralville has an earthen dam. Tommy is amazed because he has never heard of an earthen dam before. Ken explains that it is made out of dirt and as a result there is a big lake there now. Ken lets the viewers know that you won't see the Dixie Belle there because the Mississippi River does not empty into the Coralville dam area! That flashlight is going to come in handy while fishing near the Coralville dam and Tommy is ready to go to a cartoon!
The next cartoon (one of many shown on the show but only two exist on this film) was produced in 1941 and is yet another Paramount Pictures property from the Fleischer Studios and is more filler for the incredibly popular Popeye package. It is a Gabby Cartoon and is in color but was shown on The Cartoon Showboat in black and white. Gabby was one of the little people who lived in Lilliput which is the land of Gullivers Travels. Gabby was popular enough to have a cartoon series of his own and today's episode is called "All's Well". Gabby is trying to put a diaper on a cranky baby. Guess who ends up wearing the diaper by the end of the cartoon?
	The Gabby cartoon has ended and the show goes immediately to Tommy who is now with his pal Calliope the Turtle. Originally Calliope had no name. A huge "Name the Turtle" contest took place drawing over 16,000 entries from the WOC viewing area! Calliope was the winning name and Captain Ken added the name to the front of the turtle shell in order for the children to remember his name. Captain Ken was the voice of Calliope and soon he along with Tommy played by Linda Wagner, along with Ken, became the stars of the show.
When Captain Ken moved to Minneapolis in 1960, he rebuilt the Dixie Belle on television station KMSP TV-9. He left Tommy and Calliope behind and built a new Calliope for the new Dixie Belle. The last known appearance by Tommy and Calliope was in the early 1960s with Captain Vern Geilow. KMSP Calliope was left in Minnesota at the station. If you know the whereabouts of either Calliope or Tommy the Cabin Boy, please email me!
	Calliope explains to Tommy that we have run out of time but to make sure to tune in tomorrow to hear the rest of his story about Lilliput or you will never know what happened! Captain Ken, Ken Wagner, was WOC's station artist and before he joined the station, he owned the local theater in Wilton Junction, Iowa. With his incredible knowledge of artwork and film, he created the ending of the show. Children are waving as the Dixie Belle disappears up the Mississippi River into the moonlight. One can imagine that the intro was similiar with The Dixie Belle coming to shore with the kids greeting it. The theme music for Captain Ken as well as Captain Vern was from longtime WOC organist and national recording artist Marjorie Meinert. The name of the song was "Here Comes the Showboat" and is found on her "Crazy Calliope" album which is an interesting tie-in to Calliope's name as well!