The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz

We've written earlier about Ralph Chessé's first foray into bringing marionettes into television, the 1951 children's program Willie and the Baron. While it received accolades, it ceased after about six months due to a lack of funding.

Financial support came his way the following year. Chessé recalled in his memoir, "I was approached by a group of ladies who were very much interested in promoting kindness toward animals." This was the Oakland's Latham Foundation for Humane Education who had presented the Adventures of Brother Buzz on KLX radio in 1937 and 1938.

According to Chessé's recollection, the Foundation approached him in the spring of 1952 and by the fall of 1952 he had assembled a number of marionette animals and went on the air. However, look at the San Francisco Chronicle of March 5, 1952 already shows Brother Buzz as part of the broadcast schedule.

Advertisement for KPIX, Channel 5 (source: San Francisco Examiner June 4, 1952)

A later advertisement noted that the program was created for children aged 3 to 10, describing it as "Fascinating lessons from insect life in these charming marionettes, with Brother Buzz as the bee."

It's difficult for us to imagine today that in 1952 near all early television was broadcast live and there was a limited amount of syndicated programming. Chessé had to bring his puppet theater and fellow marionnettists into the KPIX studios at 2655 Van Ness Avenue once a week to film on Wednesday afternoons.

Brother Buzz and Busy Bee  (image source: Chessé Arts Limited website in Archive.org)

The show continued to be written by Dolores Wilkins Kent, president of the Latham Foundation. Charlotte Morris produced the show for KPIX. 

In the early seasons Ralph Chessé's son Dion voiced Brother Buzz; Lettie Connell Schubert voiced Miss Busy Bee. Later on Bruce Chessé's took over for his brother and Virginia Arnett followed by Marian Derby took over for Lettie Connell. Ralph Chessé voiced most of the animal guests on the program.

While The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz only broadcast for fifteen minutes a week, each episode required significant creative labor on Chessé's part. He had to continuously imagine, design and make every new marionette characters. Throughout his long career he eventually created over a thousand puppets. 

Gilbert Fox and Mr. Rabbit (image source: Latham Letter Winter 2014)

When a syndicated show displaced Brother Buzz from KPIX in 1960, Chessé and his team continued the program on KTVU. This coincided a change in production team to a Hollywood based firm who according to Chessé were less interested in marionettes. Nevertheless, they made arrangements to get the show syndicated nationally. The show's end was foreshadowed in 1963 when the station began to broadcast the program from videotape. It was then paired with nature documentary shorts. 

The show broadcast through 1969, although it's possible that as soon as 1966 the marionettes were replaced by animated characters.

Filming of The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz at KPIX-TV (image source: Latham Letter June 2015)

The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz was longest running children's television show in Bay Area history. The show received continuous fan mail. By the mid-1960s, the Brother Buzz Club boasted more than 45,000 Bay Area members.

Remember these are the closing days of the exhibit Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century in the Main Library's Jewett Gallery. The exhibit continues through August 18, 2024.

Bibliography:

Chessé, Ralph, The Marionette Actor (George Mason University Press, 1987).

Comer, Kellie and Kathy Foley, "Ralph Chessé," Puppetry International, (n. 51) 2022. in: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=df2e6cf1-ec9a-36c4-b5c9-ceefc6c950fb

Holt, Tim, "Conversation With a Puppeteer," San Francisco Chronicle April 28, 1974.

"Latham Celebrates: A Year in Our Life and A Little Bity of History," Latham Letter (Winter 2004).

Newton, Dwight. "Kids and Commercials," San Francisco Chronicle August 6, 1972

O'Flaherty, Terence. "Television and Radio," San Francisco Chronicle April 16, 1953

"A Page from Our History Book: The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz," Latham Letter Winter 2015.

Wasserman, John L., "Buzz Pulled Some Strings and Has Gone National," San Francisco Chronicle February 16, 1964.

The Origins of Brother Buzz

The San Francisco Public Library is presenting Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century through August 18, 2024 in the Jewett Gallery. 

Ralph Chessé's most watched and appreciated marionette presentation was his children's program, The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz. His participation with the program ran from 1952 until 1966.

The character Brother Buzz originated with an organization called the Latham Foundation. Founded in 1918 and dedicated to artist Henrietta Latham (1838-1909) by her children Edith and Milton, it has been dedicated to the humane treatment on animals. (She was the widow of Milton S. Latham who represented California in the United States Senate from 1860 to 1863).

While San Francisco Chronicle television critic Dwight Newton wrote that Brother Buzz originated as a radio program, the earliest evidence for it appearing on the airwaves is 1937.

11 A.M. radio schedule printed in the Oakland Tribune October 13, 1937

11 A.M. radio schedule printed in the San Francisco Examiner October 14, 1937

"Adventures of Brother Buzz" was broadcast at 11:15 A.M. on Thursdays on KLX, a radio station affiliated with the Oakland Tribune. This 15 minute program was listed as an "Alameda City Schools" program in the San Francisco Examiner. The basic premise of the program foreshadowed the future marionette shown on live television. The bumblebee Brother Buzz, transformed from an elf, offered young listeners insights into the lives of other living things.

source: Oakland Tribune April 28, 1937

The professional journal California Schools listed The Adventures of Brother Buzz as part of the state's educational broadcasts from the Alameda School of the Air.  Since it was broadcast during school hours, doubtless, teachers throughout the Bay Area who had radio receivers in their classrooms may have shared the program with their students.

source: California Schools April 1938

Each episode was based upon stories written by Dolores Wilkens Kent of the Latham Foundation that were dramatized for radio by Marie Williams. The radio program also introduced two characters who were regulars on Ralph Chessé's program in the 1950s and 1960s, Miss Busy Bee and Flitter-Mouse the bat. There is no information about who voiced these characters. The radio program was broadcast for the duration of the 1937-1938.

Fifteen years later, Chessé more enduringly brought these characters back to life when the Latham Foundation approached him to create The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz for television audiences.

Bibliography:

"Devotees of Bridge to Hear Talk over KLX," Oakland Tribune May 5, 1937.

"Dude Martin Group Offers Cowboy Songs," Oakland Tribune April 28, 1937.

Holt, Tim, "Conversation With a Puppeteer," San Francisco Chronicle April 28, 1974.

Hughes, Edan Milton, Artists in California, 1786-1940 (Crocker Art Museum, 2002).

Newton, Dwight. "Kids and Commercials," San Francisco Chronicle August 6, 1972