By Michael Perna Jr.
Contributing Writer
BOSTON – Many people of a “certain age” might fondly remember a children’s television show which ran throughout the country – “Romper Room”! The show, which aired from 1953 to 1994 in various cities, was created by Bert and Nancy Claster.
Television version of pre-school
The show was hosted by a hostess (always known as “Miss ___”) and was designed to teach young, mostly pre-school children such things as good manners, kindness, colors and shapes, and to be good “Do-Bees” – to do good things for others – which was taught by a bumblebee character named “Mr. Do Bee”. There were also segments taught by “Mr. Don’t Bee,” which were used to teach the children about “what not to do.”
Each program started (in the USA) with the Pledge of Allegiance. This would be followed by the children chanting “We’re ready Mr. Music” or “Mr. Music please!” to prompt background music. The children on the show, who were usually four to five years old, were rotated every two months.
Etiquette was taught while milk and cookies were served – before the children began eating, they would recite the “Romper Room grace: “God is great; God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen.”
Boston version
In the Boston version of the show, Miss Barbara (Barbara Plummer) hosted the show beginning in 1958. She was followed, in the 1960s and 1970s by Miss Jean (Jean Durkee). A widely remembered part of the show is the “Magic Mirror” segment. The host would recite a rhyme – “Romper, stomper, bomper, boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic Mirror, tell me today, did all my friends have fun at play?”
Then she would call out the names of children in the TV audience (“Television Land”) that she “saw” through a prop mirror – actually an open frame with a handle that was the size and shape of a mirror. The children whose names (first names only) she would call out, saying, “I can see Kathy, John, Peter, Susan, Sandy, and Kevin,” would actually have mailed their names in with hopes that they would be mentioned on the show.
The show was wildly successful and so popular that there were reportedly long waiting lists of children that wanted to appear on the show. It was reported that one waiting list was over three years long. In Baltimore, it was reported that the list was so long that some children would not make it on to the show until they were 40 years old! Some children, who were “comfortable” with the show, were actually invited to appear in multiple episodes.
“Romper Room” was so well-known that other countries – including Canada, Japan, the Philippines, Finland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Paraguay, Australia, Argentina, and Greece – obtained franchises, with some programs being broadcast in Spanish.
The format of the program was revised in 1981, featuring different songs and characters.
Romper Room was a true American children’s television classic. The last episodes of the program were made in 1992, although they were aired until 1994.
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