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A Surprising Chat With Gene London at the Flower Show

WRTI's Jack Moore with Gene London at the Flower Show.

WRTI airs At Your Request live from the Philadelphia Flower Show every year. While there, Jack Moore speaks with various officials and exhibitors. This year was no different. Or was it?

Anyone with a few miles on their odometer, as BP would say, remembers the people they watched on TV as kids.  Sally Starr, Wee Willie Webber, Captain and Mrs. Noah, Pixanne, Happy the Clown (Howard Jones), Captain Philadelphia (Stu Nahan), among others, and of course, Gene London.

London would host his show from Cartoon Corners at Channel 10 every Saturday morning, and sometimes during the week, too. He'd introduce cartoons, tell stories to an enraptured studio filled with kids, make wonderful drawings, follow the story of the Golden Fleece, and so much more.

Needless to say, Jack was excited to speak with Gene, especially because, as a little boy, Jack was a studio audience member and saw him in person. Of course, there was a certain expectation he had in mind for how the talk would go. But no one was prepared for what happened next!

Listen to what happens when live radio takes a hard left into the unexpected...

It's his parents' fault. For Joe's sixth birthday, they gave him a transistor radio. All of a sudden, their dreams of having a doctor or lawyer (or even a fry cook) in the family went down the tubes.