Ramar of the Jungle

I stepped off the school bus in 1954 and saw a man installing an antenna on the roof. My brothers and sisters and I ran into the house and the first show we saw was Ramar of the Jungle. I'll never forget it as long as I live. TV was simple and entertaining back then. We weren't allowed to watch all day but there wasn't much for a kid to watch after the cartoons in the morning until late afternoon when Ramar of the Jungle came on and other shows like it. At night we watched mostly westerns and cop shows and shows about WWII. They are all fond memories of my childhood. I watch a lot of the same shows today and think how corny they were compared to what we have today but we loved them at the time. Before we got our TV, we had to go into town and watch my big brother's TV. It was usually the Wednesday night fights we watched.

With the coming of television, the smaller Hollywood studios, which had specialized in low-budget movies and serials, were pushed out of theaters, but found a new market ideally suited for the disciplines of their 'assembly-line' productions (short shooting schedules for each episode, reliance on standing sets and stock footage, simple action-oriented plots) in the new media, and many serial 'flavored' series appeared. "Ramar of the Jungle" was one example, and while it didn't enjoy the success of "The Adventures of Superman" or "The Lone Ranger", it was still a fast-paced, exotic-looking adventure show which captivated younger viewers, like me!

Jon Hall, best-known for his RKO 'Arabian Nights' swashbucklers during WWII, starred, as Dr. Tom Reynolds, a man dedicated to healing ('Ramar' was a native term for 'Medicine Man'), who seemed to spend most of his life working out of his tent in the middle of the jungle. His partner, Prof. Howard Ogden (played by happy-go-lucky Ray Montgomery, another film veteran), had a habit of getting the pair into hot water, but also had the scientific skills to implement the solutions that Reynolds would come up with. Dealing with evil hunters and thieves who would come to the jungle to plunder, Reynolds would always arrive in the nick of time to defend the African natives, and save the day.

It wasn't a particularly intellectual show, but it was fun, and Hall and Montgomery had an easy-going chemistry together (and they looked very cool, dressed in khakis!)

Ah, the joys of television during the early days!

Ramar was weekly viewing fare in our house. What would seem corny to today's children was then watched in awe. Information would come to the party via a runner who had to cover more miles than a Range Roveer to get there. I seem to recall a Territorial police official who seems to appear out of nowhere to take someone into custody after Reynolds and Ogden ended their criminal career. Looking back I can still see some of the makeup and costumes that had a lot to be desired to be convincing by today's standards. But, that was then and the good guys always won. There was always a good moral ending to each episode. Babbet the monkey, was a great character too. I even had a "Ramar of the Jungle" board game! I would love to watch this series today.

I watched this faithfully, every episode, at ages 5, 6, and 7. Then I watched reruns. We had just gotten our first TV and this series was pure magic to me. I learned about other peoples, other ways of life, and Africa. Even though now when I joyfully revisit Ramar, and I see the inaccurate mixture of jungle and savanna animal habitats, it doesn't matter, because Ramar showed me the world and taught me so much at such a young age. I also learned fair play, honesty, service to humanity for other than material gain, and good versus evil. Charlie was a favorite too, with his British accent!

In those early days of Television, every series seemed to be a bold and new sort of "One various Genres had, of course, been filmed before for the Theatrical Release and consumption. As a mater of fact, when the "Brave New World" of Broadcast Television finally became a reality (following finishing up a little matter called World War II) and the fledgling Networks started out very slowly; but soon demanded more and more filmed series; the "B Movie" assembly line Studio Operations were on the spot in delivering the goods.

Producer Frederick W. Ziv, who had background in producing Radio Programming, jumped on the TV Series Bandwagon and did much, if not most, of his successful productions were not born of the Networks; but rather of Syndication. That method of distribution dealt directly with the Local TV Stations; providing them individually with new ½ Hour Drama, Adventure & Comedy series. The marketing system is similar to that distribution device used by the various Newspaper Syndicates in providing Comic Strips, Columnists and other features to Newspapers throughout the land. (And to an extent, World-Wide.) Hence we had many Ziv/United Artists programs such as "I LED 3 LIVES", "SEA HUNT", "HIGHWAY PATROL", "SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE" and even "HOME RUN DERBY". Each and every one came to our Living Rooms via Syndication; yet they are as well known as anything from CBS, NBC, ABC, DuMONT, FOX or Polit Bureau System (PBS).

SO IT CAME TO PASS that a series about a Great White Medicine Man, Dr. Tom Reynolds (Jon Hall) and his partner Professor Howard Ogden (Ray Montgomery) who spend their lives dispensing medical services and getting involved with any variety of carpetbagger, scalawag and renegade scum who came to their Jungle outpost; always to work some crooked and nefarious ploy in cheating the indigenous aboriginal peoples.

In its 2 seasons, RAMAR OF THE JUNGLE (1952-54) managed to do the one feat that most longer, more successful series eventually succumb to; namely, a change of location. They inexplicably uprooted the American Medics from their fictitious African setting to an equally imaginary locale in the Sub-Continent of India. Supporting cast member changed from one jungle to the other with Nick Stewart as Willy-Willy in the African adventures and James Fairfax as Charlie in the Indian episodes.

The stories gave opportunity to give employment to any of the Black Actors in Hollywood. We remember seeing Johnny Lee (Calhoun on "AMOS 'N' ANDY", the voice of 'Brer Rabbit' in Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH) portraying a thoughtful and progressive Native Chieftain in one episode. The now legendary James Edwards (HOME OF THE BRAVE, PATTON) also portrayed a Chief in an episode; but there were many others in similar roles.

Likewise the Ramar series employed a myriad of those "B Movie" players and character actors, you know, the ones who we always know by face; but not by name. A few we did know both ways were: Robert Shayne (Inspector Henderson on "SUPERMAN"), Ludwig Streussel (Lou Gehrig's Father in PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, "that little old Wine Maker, Me!" for Italian-Swiss Colony commercials), Anne Gwynne (Lady Sonia in FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE), Harry Lauter (Clay Morgan in "TALES OF THE Texas RANGERS"), Kenneth MacDonald and Harry Woods; to name a few.

Being a syndicated show often called for a regular sponsor for a particular station and market. We well remember commercials for various products being done by actors from the particular series, in character. We in Chicago saw the likes of SEA HUNT'S Lloyd Bridges for "G. Heilleman Brewing Co. of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, makers of Old Style Beer!", or Duncan Renaldo as THE CISCO KID hawking "….tut, tut, nothing' but Butternut Bread" and Truman Bradley on SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE plugging Bromo-Seltzer.

It was in this tradition that we saw the tailor made commercial messages on RAMAR OF THE JUNGLE. The message was filmed on location in the Hollywood back lot Jungle Set. In it Dr. Reynolds (Mr. Jon Hall, himself) is trekking through a particularly heavy thicket in the Jungle, all the proper bird and animal sounds surrounding him; when he looks up and fires his .50 calibre Elephant Gun and down falls a box of his sponsor's product, Good & Plenty Candy! Ramar (pronounced "Rah-mah", by the bye!) then expounds on the merits of this coated licorice treat to the young viewers. This was before the advent of "Choo-choo Charlie" and his "Train."

As an adventure series for the Small Fry, RAMAR was a.o.k. in our book. The stories were exciting; but not too violent. Like most Jungle Sagas, it made use of a lot of stock shots of Lions, Tigers, Elephants (African & Indian), Crocs, Zebras, Antelpoes,Wildabeasts, Hippos, Rhinos and even Flamingos! But the content of the story lines were big on human relationships, tolerance, kindness and justice for all men.