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.