photo courtesy kathryn jean jones
Trent Wood with Jana Hubbard Beaty
I've written before about Trent Wood, one of the most popular hosts (along with Wink Martindale and Happy Hal Miller) in the history of Memphis television. You can — and certainly should — read the whole story here.
He certainly had an interesting career. A graduate of Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College, of course) he earned a degree in economics, but somehow found himself in front of the camera. I guess his striking good looks and dapper attire (especially a peculiar fondness for boldly striped jackets) didn't hurt.
Though he began his career at WHBQ-TV Channel 13, he soon moved across town to WMC-TV Channel 5. After first hosting a children's program called Storyboard, he ended up hosting another show called Home Makers. Most readers probably don't remember either one of those.
In 1957, however, he became the host of Looney Zoo, a show for the kiddies, where he was capably assisted by "Tiny the Clown" — in real life, Ray Hill, a drama professor at Rhodes College.
The popular show remained on the air until 1971 (other sources say differently, but that's what Trent told me himself when I interviewed him years ago.)
He didn't remain in television, but moved to Oklahoma City, where he ... okay, look — just read my original story. I don't need to repeat the whole thing here.
Despite the popularity of Looney Zoo, photos of Trent (or Tiny) on-stage with kids are very hard to find. So you can imagine my surprise when looking over the Facebook group called Historic Memphis, where Kathryn Jean Jones had posted the photo you see here.
She explains that the little girl in the photo was her daughter-in-law, Jana Hubbard Beaty. Well, I should say Jana IS her daughter-in-law now; she certainly wasn't married at the time of the photo.
I'm a little confused about where, exactly, this photo was taken. The setting itself doesn't seem to be the set of Looney Zoo, and all the photos I've seen of Trent from that period showed him in a striking black-and-white striped suit. Here, in a rare color photo, he's still wearing a striped suit, but it's somewhat more subdued than his usual costume, which looked like something you'd see at a carnival — or Shakey's Pizza Parlor.
And I really don't know what to make of that thing behind them. I guess it's a puppet show, with a really bizarre-looking clown at the top.
