News conference drops Ladmo Bag bombshell

The news was supposed to be about the Wallace and Ladmo Foundation, a non-profit named after the long-running Arizona children's show that will encourage kids to pursue the performing arts.

But Pat McMahon, the last surviving member of the original cast, overshadowed that with an off-hand remark during the news conference that shattered countless Arizona childhood illusions.

The seating chart used to determine the lucky seat — whose occupant would win a coveted Ladmo Bag — was a blank piece of paper, he said. A fake.

Some background is in order.

The Ladmo Bag was a grocery sack filled with sugary snacks, chips and sodas. It would be given away at live stage shows and the daily televised "The Wallace and Ladmo Show." The show, which aired under various names from 1954 to 1989, was immensely popular and the bag soon became a coveted item.

Near the end of each show, Wallace, who was played by Bill Thompson, would pull a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket that he said was a seating chart. Children thought the chart denoted a pre-ordained "lucky seat." Wallace would direct Ladmo, played by Ladimir Kwiatkowski, to an aisle, tell him to go to a certain row and count over a number of seats to his left or right. Ladmo would hand the bag to that wide-eyed winner.

By design, for every one that was given away – at one point Ladmo estimated he had handed out more than 10,000 – there were at least six children who were one seat away from winning.

The revelation about the Ladmo Bag came at the close of the Wednesday morning news conference to announce the foundation. The non-profit started accepting donations Wednesday with two aims. It would raise money to create a life-sized statue of the cast that would be installed outside the Herberger Theater complex in downtown Phoenix. Additional money would go to aid children who wish to pursue careers in the performing arts.

The conference was held outside First Studio, the original home of KPHO-TV, the station that aired the show starting in 1954. A mural of the cast adorns the side of the building.

McMahon closed the news conference by saying he would be giving away a Ladmo Bag. He said he had a seating chart and grabbed one of several copies of an artist rendering of the statue that were prepared for the news media. "This is just like the one Wallace used all these years," he said.

The comment was met with nervous laughter. McMahon continued: "Of course it was a blank piece of paper," he said. "How could we have had a seating chart for every place we went?"

But such cold, rational logic was not how the Ladmo Bag disbursement was seen by the kids in the audience. It was thought the hand of fate determined who won a bag and who went home empty-handed.

McMahon said on Wednesday that the giveaways of the Ladmo Bags were not rigged. "It was legit," he said, "We did not make it so it would go to a friend or a buddy."

But the blank piece of paper was efficient, for a trio who often had to race to two or three stage shows at different locations in a single weekend afternoon. "It was – let's get this over with so we can get to Chris-Town (mall,)" McMahon said.

Photos: Wallace and Ladmo Show

McMahon, who joined the cast in 1960, played myriad characters, including Captain Super, a blowhard superhero, Marshall Good, a cowboy actor from New Jersey who had never been on a horse, and Aunt Maude, who told macabre children's stories.

But he was best remembered for playing Gerald, the spoiled brat who was ordered to be on the show because he was the nephew of whomever happened to be the general manager of KPHO-TV at the time. Gerald, the foil to Ladmo, would often call the studio audience "tract-home twerps."

Gerald will be commemorated in the statute that will be installed outside the Herberger. Wallace will be seated, Ladmo behind him and Gerald at the other side of the bench, standing with arms folded. The statue will be built over the next year in a downtown Phoenix storefront, its creation visible to the public. It is expected to be installed in April 2016.

"The Wallace and Ladmo Show" provided a daily dose of humor and creativity for Arizona children. Performers like Alice Cooper and Robin Wilson, the lead singer of the Gin Blossoms, grew up watching it. Director Steven Spielberg has said that Wallace was one of his childhood heroes.

McMahon said he hoped the foundation would provide funds for kids to pursue their passions in the arts. "We just want them to have the encouragement that Wall, Lad and I got," he said.

Video: Wallace and Ladmo highlights

Donations will be taken at a website of the foundation and through a phone number. The website will soon offer T-shirts, videos of the show and photos for sale, with all proceeds going to the foundation, said Pierre O'Rourke, the director of the foundation.

O'Rourke said that the merchandise would be officially licensed. "We're going to make sure anything sold is going to be first-rate," he said.

He had hoped the foundation could end what he saw as the well-meaning but unofficial bootleg market for merchandise surrounding the show. He said an attorney working with the foundation told him not to say anything more about efforts to halt those sales.

The foundation has already received three $25,000 donations, from Judd Herberger, from former KPHO-TV personality Rita Davenport and from Rich Howe, general manager of KAZT-TV, O'Rourke said.

The Ladmo Bag given away on Wednesday went to Randy Murray, the owner of First Studios. He wasn't even in a seat. He was standing in the back row.

To donate

To support the Wallace and Ladmo Foundation: wallaceandladmofoundation.org or (602) 525-0527.

Photos: Bill Thompson