Josie Carey, 73: Children's TV Pioneer
Children's television pioneer, Josie Carey, who was an early collaborator with Fred Rogers, died June 4 in Pittsburgh. She was 73.Carey was the host of The Children's Corner, which aired in Pittsburgh from 1954 to 1961 and appeared on NBC for 39 weeks. The show received a Sylvania Television Award for best local children's television program in 1955.
Carey went on to host children's shows in Pittsburgh and South Carolina.On The Children's Corner, Carey collaborated with Rogers, who went on to achieve acclaim and recognition as the host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Carey wrote song lyrics to Roger's compositions during the seven-year run of Children's Corner, which also saw the debut of Mister Rogers' puppets, including Daniel Striped Tiger and King Friday.
Josie Carey was was interviewed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation’s Archive of American Television on July 23, 2000. The entire interview can be viewed at the Archive’s offices in North Hollywood. For more information call 818-509-2260.
On the first broadcast of The Children’s Corner.
That was the longest hour that I can remember. We had it planned out pretty well. It was probably the best children’s program anybody has ever done because it had something for everybody. And we were aiming at the eight to twelve-year-olds. So we had a club and we stole from the Boys Scouts and the Girls Scouts and we got their handbooks and found out what it was that made a good club and so we used some of those rules. We had our own songs. Fred [Rogers] used the music and I wrote the lyrics so that worked. We just worked very closely together.
On her television audience.
I always talked to one person. I always talked to a friend. Fred learned that from Gabby Hayes. It made great sense. Why should you look into a box of some sort, a big box in those days and think of 200,000 people and get scared at who might be watching you? I always wanted to communicate. I couldn’t wait to get on the air to tell people what I had just learned. Fred used to say, "In one ear and out her mouth." because that’s the way it was. I didn’t even bother to check things out sometimes.
On her on-camera persona.
I was myself. I was Josie Carey. One of the things that the children liked, sometimes, I would wear a sheet. It was very hard to dress. I couldn’t wear anything provocative. I couldn’t wear stripes or checks or I couldn’t wear black or white. I would have a couple of little sheet dresses and I had some collars that I would put on and I had one that was a jeweled collar. I was very animated in those days. And the collar would move and I would call it my traveling collar. And the children who came to the program, they would sit in a gallery of glassed in balcony where they could watch the program. They weren’t on the program and the one little girl she said to me once, "Oh, I was hoping you were wearing your traveling collar." The traveling got to be one of our jokes.
On her impact.
I would mention something and the kids would all flock to buy it. Mr. Wrinkle said to me, "Oh you smell good this morning." I didn’t want to say perfume and I said "Oh, toilet water." Well, I got letter from a lady. "Watch what you say," she said. "My three year old came out of the bathroom came out drenched and I asked her how she got so much and she said, ‘I’m wearing toilet water just like Josie.’" I told the kids once that they could call Denver to get the weather. That’s when the direct dialing and all that had come in. And I explained how it worked. I never expected them to do it and then I got irate letters from parents who got the telephone bill, there were calls to Denver and they were from the children because I told them they could do it.
On Fred Rogers.
Fred does Fred. And Fred is Fred. He’s very careful. He’s very aware of what should be said to small children. I think he has to be credited with that because there were many times when we were asked to do things or could have done things that were perhaps financially good, but Fred said "No." Because all along, he wanted to do a program. Even in the early days, it was never a show, always a program.
On how she would like to be remembered.
As far as my work, goes, I’m being remembered. You realize it’s 35 years and people still say hello to me. I don’t know too many people in the city who get recognized when they haven’t been working that long. I’d like to be remembered as someone who brought a little light into the world, who opened a window. I can tell the age of a child when they were watching me. If a person comes up to me and says, "You taught me to tie my shoe." I know they watched Josie’s Storyland in ‘59 and they were a preschooler. I learned French from you or we still sing "Goodnight God." I know where I fell into their lives. I’m being remembered and I hope I will continue to be remembered by these people nicely.