PHOENIX — Phoenix residents under 40 just don't know what they missed.
The Wallace and Ladmo Show was on the air for 35 years. This year is the 70th anniversary of the sketch comedy and musical show and the Sunnyslope Historical Society has set up an exhibit honoring its place in Phoenix history.
“The impact is crazy. It's like a cultural phenomenon," Julia Taggart said. She's too young to remember the show but she organized the anniversary exhibit. "People will spend like, four hours here talking about the show, you know, and we're not usually open for four hours.”
To understand the craze, you have to go back to the 1950s when more shows that aired on TV were made locally.
Bill Thompson was Wallace – Ladimir Kwiatkowski was Ladmo – and Pat McMahon – was almost everyone else. But he was best known as a spoiled little rich boy Gerald.
One of the most popular parts of the show was the Ladmo Bag. It was filled with candy and prizes and only a few kids in the audience got one.
"That's what every kid in Arizona wanted. I still want one," Taggart said.
Besides being a kid's show, Wallace and Ladmo became a major player in television. Photos on the wall show Liberace, Barry Goldwater and rock star Alice Cooper-- who won a Ladmo Bag.
The exhibit has memorabilia from everywhere because when the show went off the air in 1989 – people saved the pieces.
“Collectors who will say, 'I have that piece. I have that piece. I have that piece. I don't have that piece. I want that piece.'”
Also in the exhibit is the evolution of the Ladmo Bags– from the original handmade bags to the printed bags later on.
And then there's the guest book where people sign their names and remember a part of their childhood that was one of a kind.
“You know. It meant so much to people, even after it stopped airing, it's still a huge part of their life,” Taggart said.
The exhibit opens on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 11 a.m., at 737 E. Hatcher Road in Phoenix.
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