One of the most beloved figures in local television is a man who portrayed a railroad engineer, dressed in a pin-striped jacket, cap and overalls, with a red 'kerchief around his neck, and called himself "your old buddy, Casey Jones."

From 1954 until the end of 1972, Roger Awsumb appeared live as Casey Jones from one to three times daily on WTCN-TV, Channel 11. He entertained youngsters with cartoons, silly comedy bits, songs, live commercials, birthday greetings, and banter with sidekicks Joe the Cook (Chris Wedes) and later, Roundhouse Rodney (Lynn Dwyer). In their prime, the Casey Jones programs, especially his noontime Lunch With Casey, were the most popular children's shows, not only in the Twin Cities but throughout Minnesota and surrounding states where WTCN was available over cable systems.

Casey Jones, named after a real life railroad engineer, made his television debut on Channel 11, June 21, 1954. The show was initially scheduled to go on at an earlier date, but the 12 noon time slot had been preempted by coverage of the Army-McCarthy hearings for several weeks.

Noon-Time Express, as the show was originally called, aired from 12 till 12:30 on WMIN-TV. From 1953 until 1955, Channel 11 was shared by Saint Paul-based WMIN and Minneapolis-based WTCN. WMIN's studios were at the Hamm Building in Saint Paul. The Casey Jones character was created and portrayed by 26-year-old Roger Awsumb, a former disc jockey who had been working as an announcer, camera operator, and floor director at WMIN-TV. In addition to playing Casey Jones, Awsumb directed WMIN children's show s Wrangler Steve, (starring the legendary Steve Cannon) and Captain 11, (with Jim Lange, who went on to host ABC's popular Dating Game in the 1960's and 1970's.)

In the early years, Casey's sidekick and foil was Joe the Cook, a tall, thin man with a chef's hat and handlebar mustache. Practical jokes between staff and crew added an occasional moment of adult humor to the shows. One popular routine had Joe reaching into Roo-Roo The Kangaroo's pouch for a surprise. Roo-Roo, played by Awsumb, usually reacted with enough excitement to break up the cameramen.

One of Casey's most famous skits had him dressed in a red wool union suit, scratching and singing, "Valkin in My Vinter Underwear" to the tune of "Winter Wonderland."

The skit was first performed in November of 1967. The next week, Casey read, on the air, a scathing letter from a woman who was offended by the routine. He followed with an apology, but a week later received more than a thousand letters of support.

In the spring of 1955, as WMIN sold its interest in the television station to WTCN, Noon-Time Express moved to studios at the Calhoun Beach Club in Minneapolis, with a new title, Casey's Lunch Club. Wrangler Steve and Captain 11 were dropped.

Channel 11 was an ABC affiliate in the 1950's, and ABC stars like James Garner (Maverick,) Charles Bronson (Man With a Camera,) Donna Reed (The Donna Reed Show,) Jerry Mathers (Leave it to Beaver,) and Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) made frequent guest appearances with Casey.

One of the show's most popular features was Casey's "Birthday Club." Children would send their names and birth dates to the station for Casey to read on the air. As he read, a scroll of the names of the day's birthday children would appear on a drawing of a caboose.

The segment would begin with Casey singing his own original, non-traditional birthday song:

By 1959, Chris Wedes had moved to Seattle, where he hosted his own children's shows. Casey's new sidekick became "Roundhouse Rodney," played by WTCN floor director and former Ice Capades performer Lynn Dwyer.

Roundhouse was 5 feet and 3/4 of an inch tall. He wore khaki pants and a pointed hat (which was revealed to be bright green when the show went to color in 1966.) He told knock-knock jokes with Casey and did a killer impersonation of Jimmy Durante (which impressed Durante himself when he visited the Twin Cities.) He was strong and talented, impressing youngsters by standing on his hands and tearing telephone books in half.

In 1960, when ABC took over WTCN's daytime schedule, Casey Jones was unceremoniously canceled. Children and parents, not to mention sponsors, were outraged. The station was bombarded with irate calls and letters. Advertisers threatened to pull all their spots from Channel 11.

Within a week Casey was back on the air, doing a late afternoon show following ABC's American Bandstand. On the afternoon show, Lynn Dwyer began portraying Granny Lumpit ("If you don't like it, lump it!") who, according to the story line, ran the boarding house where Casey and Roundhouse lived. Dwyer described the character as "a swinger, just like today's modern grandmas."

In April of 1961, WTCN lost the ABC affiliation to KMSP-TV, Channel 9. With an entire schedule open for local programming, Casey resumed his lunchtime program while continuing the afternoon show. The noon show was retitled Lunch With Casey. A third show, Wake Up With Casey, was soon added.

Roger Awsumb and Lynn Dwyer were more than just TV performers. Both fathers, the two men had a genuine interest and fondness for children.

They made numerous personal appearances at fast-food restaurants, Boy Scout meetings and schools, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Both Awsumb and Dwyer wrote educational pamphlets for children (Dwyer had a teaching degree from Macalester College.) Awsumb, also a Macalester graduate, wrote a regular column for children that appeared in the locally published "TV Times" magazine.

Dwyer was a health nut long before it became fashionable. As Roundhouse Rodney, he encouraged children and adults to eat right, exercise, and not smoke. He would then flex his muscles to show them the benefits of good health habits.

In the early 1970's, things began to change. Area schools started hot lunch programs, meaning fewer kids coming home at noon to watch Casey. Proposed changes in FCC advertising regulations also threatened the show . Casey's live endorsements had been good for both the sponsors and the station. But successful lobbying efforts spurred by Peggy Charren of Action for Children's Television led to the prohibition of commercials delivered by primary characters in children's shows. (The Children's Televisi on Act, which banned this practice, took effect on January 1, 1973.)

Casey Jones was finally derailed on December 23, 1972, seventeen months after Metromedia, Inc., took over WTCN. The new owners went out of their way to leave their mark on the station by changing the schedule and having the station identify itself as "Metromedia 11." The company had a policy against live hosts on children's shows and Casey became a casualty along with hosts on other Metromedia stations.

"I'm really kind of a corny guy and I care about kids," a defeated Awsumb told the Minneapolis Tribune. "I really tried to do a good job and I feel I let the kids down."

But the kids and adults who grew up with him knew it wasn't Casey who was letting them down. Within minutes after Casey announced during his show that he would be going off the air at the end of the week, the station's switchboard was jammed with protesting calls. Some shouted "Scrooge!" since the cancellation was happening so close to Christmas.

By 2 p.m. that same day, WTCN had received 275 protest calls. By 9:30 the next morning, the station had logged 619 calls concerning Casey. Thousands signed petitions to keep Casey on the air, but the station stood firm. Casey and Roundhouse were replaced with a light talk show called What's New with Warren Martin and Nancy Nelson.

Casey and Roundhouse didn't completely disappear, however. The following year they released Casey's Comedy Album for Kids, which became a hot seller locally. WTCN did not own the characters, so Awsumb and Dwyer continued making public appearances as Casey and Roundhouse.

Roundhouse went solo with his own Roundhouse Show, on Twin Cities Public Television KTCA-TV, Channel 2 in 1974. Dwyer, who had been working as a church janitor in St. Louis Park after Casey went off, raised the money himself to produce the show and put it on the air.

Unfortunately, Lynn Dwyer, after producing 26 new shows for KTCA, had a fatal heart attack while jogging in Brainerd. He died on September 3, 1976, at the age of 48.

A decade after getting his pink slip from WTCN, Casey made a comeback of sorts with an all-new morning program on UHF station WFBT-TV, Channel 29 (now WFTC.) The Channel 29 show premiered on March 14, 1983.

The new show looked a lot like the old one, although the host now wore glasses and a few lines on his face. He also had a new sidekick ("Brakeman Brad" Walton, later replaced by Jim Barber, who played "Charlie Caboose.")

Unfortunately, the new show didn't quite catch on. While a loyal following of adults who had grown up with Casey tuned in, contemporary children were too spoiled by sophisticated technology to take much interest in the show. When new owners took over Channel 29 a year later, the show was relegated to Sunday morning oblivion, disappearing quietly soon after.

Twenty-seven years after his original show went off the air, Casey is remembered and loved more than ever. When he makes personal appearances in character, large crowds show up just to shake hands and get autographs from their childhood hero, their "old buddy, Casey Jones."

Photo courtesy of Julian West