There may not be many readers here (especially at this particular time of the weekend) who know what this is about, but I thought I'd share it anyway:
SEATTLE —
Chris Wedes, the loveable iconic clown known for decades as the KIRO 7 children’s TV personality JP Patches, has died.
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J.P. Patches [Warning: bandwidth limit is currently being exceeded] is an iconic figure to anyone (like me) who grew up in the Puget Sound region some time between the late '50s and the early '80s. His real name was Chris Wedes.
A brief description from Wikipedia:
J.P. Patches (full name: Julius Pierpont Patches) was a clown portrayed by Seattle entertainer Chris Wedes (April 3, 1928 – July 22, 2012). The J.P. Patches Show was one of the longer-running locally-produced children's television programs in the United States, having appeared on Seattle TV station KIRO channel 7 from 1958 to 1981. The show was live, unrehearsed improv with rarely more than two live actors on screen (Wedes and Bob Newman) but with frequent contributions from the sound-effects man and off-camera crew.
If you've got a few minutes, here's a decent introduction to the show as I remember it:
Anyone else who remembers him (and if you fit into the demographic described above, you will) is welcome to share their memories in the comments.