This ongoing series from Barrie Historical Archive curator Deb Exel shows old photos from the collection and one from the present day, as well as the story behind them.
Romper Room
“Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today, did all my friends have fun at play?”
Those were the mystical, memorable words the Romper Room hostess would use to close each episode of the popular preschool TV program, developed in Baltimore, Md., in 1953 by Bert and Nancy Claster.
The show, which included games, stories, songs, and learning moments, was defined by its attention to courtesy and manners. The hostess was always addressed as “Miss,” and the mascot, Mr. Do-Bee, a bumblebee, helped drive this theme by beginning his sentences with “Do Bee” to describe good behaviours. Mr. “Don’t Bee” would point out what children should not do.
When it was time to sing, the hostess would announce, “We’re ready, Mr. Music,” or even better, everyone would cue the background music, by asking in a sing-song voice, “Mr. Music, please.”
The franchised show came to CKVR in Barrie 65 years ago, in 1960. Lois Welsman, or Miss Lois, as she was called, debuted in the new TV show.
Lois May Olson, born in Sioux Lookout, was married to Roger Raikes Welsman, a land surveyor and grandson of George Raikes of the Pleasaunce.
Lois graduated from the Toronto Teachers’ College, teaching at King Edward Public School for one year in the mid-1950s before supply teaching at various elementary schools in town. Post-Romper Room, Lois was involved in a program for preschoolers at the Shanty Bay Education Centre. In preparation for her work on Romper Room, Lois spent a week in training with the show’s creators in Baltimore.
Romper Room was not Lois Welsman’s first TV rodeo. As one of the charter members of the Ross Caldwell Singers, a group that had made 27 television appearances by 1967, Lois was a familiar face on several stations and from many live concerts.
She was a sought-after speaker in the early 1960s, entertaining the Jaycees, the Barrie Kinette Club and the Barrie Venture Club with her presentation on the origins of Romper Room and its popularity throughout the world since its launch.
Lois’s signature talk always included humorous incidents that occurred with guests and crew. At the Kiwanis club Rosebud Night for members and daughters, Lois performed three songs, accompanied on the piano by Doug Garraway, of CKVR, and told an illustrated animal story.
But at 11 a.m. on weekday mornings, she was Miss Lois, the beloved hostess and star of Barrie’s first program for a kindergarten-aged audience — Romper Room. Miss Lois filled the hour with projects and activities, such as “imagination time,” and by also using the program in a functional way to help prepare kids for their first year of school.
At the end of each show, Miss Lois, reaching for her magic mirror, a sparkly, open-frame hand mirror, would look into it and begin to recite those famous words: “Romper, bomper, stomper boo …”
And if their parents had mailed it in, four- and five-year-old children would know the absolute thrill of Miss Lois “seeing” them in TV land and the excitement of hearing their name: “I can see Robin and Jay and Elaine and Ken and Larry and Heidi and Glenn and Donna …”
