BJ and Dirty Dragon

Remembering Bill on what would have been his 90th! #BillJackson

Remembering Bill on his Birthday..

WFLD Channel 32 - Bill Jackson's "Please Open Before Christmas" (1968)

Remembering Bill on what would have been his 87th! #BillJackson

I was just thinking about Bill again! we lost the last great Chicago television personality a week ago! There is absolutely nothing like him today! End of an era....

BJ

http://www.tvparty.com/lostgig1.html

My dear friend Bill Jackson passed away yesterday, the last of the Chicago Kid's TV Greats! I just spoke with him recently. Some years back, we talked about doing a scrapbook type book of his career, but he decided against it, as he felt it would not sell. He was a very modest guy. He sent me tons of behind-the-scenes photographs over the years and I kept them all in a ring binder. I wrote a chapter about him in the TV PARTY book, many years ago and he liked that. He was a great lover of Rankin/Bass Productions and my books and even contributed to our 20th Annicversary Edition of The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass. His favorite character was the Bumble, but he had a special place in his heart for The Little Drummer Boy. The Little Drummer Boy was part of one of his very first Television broadcasts. This legend and great guy will be missed dearly. #Billjackson #Restinpeace #Dirtydragon

A gift for Granny

Happy 86th Birthday to my pal and Chicago TV legend Bill Jackson! #bjanddirtydragon #gigglesnorthotel #cartoontown

WFLD Channel 32 - Bill Jackson's "Please Open Before Christmas" (1968)

Happy 85th Birthday to my pal and Chicago TV legend Bill Jackson! #bjanddirtydragon #gigglesnorthotel #cartoontown

Happy 84th Birthday to my pal and Chicago TV legend Bill Jackson! #bjanddirtydragon #gigglesnorthotel #cartoontown

I celebrated at Jason's Deli tonight!

I heard from Bill Jackson yesterday! He says he is doing well! One of the last surviving Chicago TV Legends!

Chicago Kid's books

Even as a kid, I was fascinated about how television shows were made. I was going through my stacks and stacks of Chicago Kid's TV stuff and came across these books. I checked them out of the library at Stony Creek School (Kindergarten-6th grade) repeatedly. These aren't the actual copies from my school. In Ray's book he says 400,000 people watched his show. Bozo's Circus, The Ray Rayner show, etc. were the biggest shows on the planet to me during that period. In Chicago, we had some amazing local TV! You had to be there to appreciate it. #wgntv #bozoscircus #therayraynershow #garfieldgooseandfriends #bjanddirtydragon

BJ & Dirty Dragon clippings! I think I have them all!

Dirty Dragon

Meet Dirty Dragon!

The Dragon Wagon

When I picked up my books yesterday, Denny (who coordinates all of our orders) brought up Bill Jackson out of the blue. He said in the early 1970s (when in school), he collected garbage part time in the summer and collected Bill's garbage (bags and bags of letters) in Des Plaines. He said he would see him driving around town in an old Model T. I said that must have been the car he used for Parades. Bill got a chuckle out of it and said: "The vintage car he mentions was my 1917 Model T called the Dragon Wagon." #bjanddirtydragon #billjackson #wfld #dragonwagon #cartoontown Photo C. 2017 Bill Jackson

My pal Lil' Ron went to a Dirty Dragon stage show!