William Frazier Thomas (June 13, 1918 – April 3, 1985) was a Chicago television personality. Although Thomas wrote nine children's books, he was best known for creating, hosting, writing and producing the long-running children's television program Garfield Goose and Friends on WGN-TV.
Magic and broadcasting
Thomas began performing as a magician at age 12 in his home town of Rushville; he was just a teenager when he wrote a book about magic. As "Thomas the Magician and Company" he performed "the Mystic Revue, a full evening of magic, mirth, music and mystery" throughout the US. By 1935, he was writing a weekly syndicated newspaper column for children about magic, at first as "Thomas the Magician" and later as Frazier Thomas. The tips and tricks Thomas covered in his column were simple enough for young readers to perform successfully. His column appeared in newspapers from 1935 to 1940. Thomas was a member of the Society of American Magicians and attended their national conferences. By 1936, Thomas had an additional interest: radio; he became the host of a summer replacement show about movies for Cincinnati radio station WLW. A year later, he interviewed Edgar Bergen and became interested enough in ventriloquilism and dummies to visit the Chicago workshop of the man who produced Charlie McCarthy.
He continued working at WLW, writing and creating his own shows: I Cover the Movies and Inside Radio and as a disk jockey for others, such as BC Battle of the Bands. He was then teamed with Ruth Lyons for Collect Calls From Lowenthal. Still at WLW, the pair moved to a morning radio show, Morning Matinee (later called The 50 Club), which Thomas co-hosted with Lyons for eight years. During this time he also did personal appearances with other WLW air personalities, serving as the announcer and as a magician. In 1949, he announced he would leave Morning Matinee to establish his own radio and television production firm. He married Ann Deeds, a commercial artist for WLWT, and together the couple hosted one of the station's first television shows: Shopper's Special. Thomas then moved to Cincinnati's WKRC-TV, where he hosted his first children's program, Meet the Little People. In 1950, Frazier and Anne Thomas were among the top local television personalities in Cincinnati. Garfield Goose made his first television appearance in Cincinnati.
Garfield Goose
Thomas had the idea for Garfield Goose from attending bazaars as a boy. The local Catholic nuns used a sock puppet made into the form of a goose to ask children for charity donations. The children would "feed" the goose their pennies. He came up with the idea to use a goose puppet on his television show for giving prizes to children. The name of the goose was taken from the telephone number of the television station; at the time, all telephone exchanges had names as well as numbers. The name of the telephone exchange for the television station was Garfield.
In 1951, Thomas was hired by Chicago television station WBKB for an afternoon variety show initially called The Frazier Thomas Show. He also put in some time as the host of an evening music program, Musical Nite-cap. Thomas' afternoon show was renamed Petticoat Party; his announcer for it was Ray Rayner. Garfield Goose made his Chicago debut on Petticoat Party. It was not long before the station saw that Thomas and his goose puppet were the most popular parts of the program. On September 29, 1952, Frazier and Garfield went on their own in a show called Garfield Goose and Friend; the show went on the air directly opposite NBC's Howdy Doody.
This was a time of great transition in Chicago television. WBKB was acquired by CBS in February 1953 and renamed WBBM-TV. The WBKB call letters were then picked up by what was previously WENR-TV, owned by ABC. A clause in the contract for the WBKB sale to CBS called for all programs currently on the station to remain on the air for one year after the sale. Before the transition period was over, Thomas and his goose moved to the new WBKB (now WLS-TV), now under ABC's management. One year later, in 1955, the pair found their permanent television home at WGN-TV, where they would be joined by the other characters, making it Garfield Goose and Friends.
With the show's popularity among young viewers in the Chicago area by 1953, Thomas produced a book for them, Garfield Goose Memory Book. Thomas told the story of Garfield Goose from his youth, including information about his family and his average day in the castle. Roy Brown illustrated the 32-page booklet, which was also intended to be used as a coloring book.