The Tale of Mr. X

[monkeefan]

Its Christmas Morning, 1990. On a VERY SPECIAL Christmas edition of a short-lived revival of the hit TV game show To Tell the Truth, retired pro football player Lynn Swann welcomes among the celebrity panelists for the day: Kitty Carlysle, Chris Lemmon (yes, the grown son of the late Jack), Peggy Cass, and actor/raconteur Fred Burrows (known professionally as Orson Bean).

At the very end of the episode, a segment included on this version only was called One on One. In the days episode, a gentleman in his late 60s/early 70s is introduced as Mr. X; subsequently, a lady named Barbara Cohen from El Toro, California is picked from the studio audience to guess his true identity.

As you may see, Mr. X had 2 stories to tell, only one of which was true.

In the first story, the man identified himself as Hank Ketcham, the man who created Dennis the Menace; in the second story, he identified himself as Johnny Marks, the man who wrote the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The questioning of the panel began with Kitty asking Mr. X (as Hank) how long Dennis had been in the newspapers (up to that time), with Mr. X responding, 40 years, followed by Chris asking What inspired the character of Dennis the Menace, with Mr. X responding, My Son, with Peggy then asking Who played Dennis on TV, to which Mr. X responded, Jay North, and lastly, Orson asked who Dennis neighbor was whom he drove crazy, to which Mr. X responded, George Wilson, to which Lynn joking He in an Asylum right now.

After a brief moment, the questioning resumed with Kitty asking Mr. X (as Johnny) how much money he had made up to that time on the song, to which Mr. X responding, very comforting money, followed by Chris asking how many chord changes there are in the 1st verse, with Mr. X pointing out there are only 4 chord changes in the whole song, followed by Peggy asking whether the song was written for the show or whether the song was written first and the show came later, to which Mr. X responded with an interesting response, It was written from a book by Robert May in 1949 and was given away as a freebie, and lastly, the questioning ended with Orson asking who his favorite artist who recorded the song was besides original artist Gene Autry, to which Mr. X proudly responded, Bing Crosby.

At the end of the questioning, Barbara was asked to guess what the true identity of Mr. X was, whether he was Hank Ketcham or Johnny Marks, to which Barbara guessed based on his looks and sense of humor that he was the man who created Dennis the Menace.

Afterwards, Lynn asked Mr. X, What is your true story, Mr. X? His answer: To Tell the Truth, My name is Hank Ketcham and I created Dennis the Menace, after which Barbara was awarded $500 for a correct guess.

The life of Hank Ketcham, according to the official Dennis website (http://dennisthemenace.com) is quite an interesting one.

Henry King Ketcham was born in Seattle, Washington on March 14, 1920, the son of Vernon Weaver Ketcham and Virginia King. After graduating high school in 1937, at age 17, Hank enrolled in college at the University of Washington, only to drop out after his freshman year to pursue a career in animation working for Walt Disney.

He didnt get hired by Walt right away, but WAS hired by Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker, with whom he was employed by for 14 months, after which Walt Disney hired Hank to animate for him such feature films as Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi.

In 1942, aged 22, Hank enlisted in the U.S. Navy, during which he conceived a fictional Military hero called Half Hitch as a comic book series.

After his honorable discharge from the Navy, Half Hitch was also discharged from comic books; by this time, Hank and his wife of a few years, Alice Mahar, were expecting their first child.

In November 1945, a baby boy, Dennis Lloyd Ketcham, was born.

In October 1950, Hank was in the midst of drawing a caricature of himself and his then 4-year-old son Dennis when his wife, Alice, said to him, Your son is a Menace!!!!

Dennis the Menace made his comic book debut on March 12, 1951 in 18 U.S. newspapers. 7 years later, in early 1958, TV producer James Fonda decided to adapt Dennis the Menace as a live-action situation comedy.

With Hanks permission, Jim adapted Dennis into a TV series for Screen Gems Television, and soon afterwards, 7-year-old Jay Waverly North, Jr. was cast in the title role after 2 auditions.

Born on August 3, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, Jay was the son of Dorothy and Jay Waverly North, Sr., who split up soon after Jay was born.

After his parents divorced c. early 1956, Jays maternal aunt, Marie, and her husband, Hal Hopper, a former member of a 1940s music group called the Pied Pipers and also an actor, became Jays legal guardians due to Dorothy having a full-time job at the American Film & Regional Theater Arts.

In 1958, Jay was cast as Dennis the Menace on the 1950s sitcom adaptation of the comic book series of the same name. Dennis made his primetime debut on October 4, 1959 on the CBS Television Network.

On February 17, 1962, character actor Joe Kearns, who played Mr. George Wilson, died of a Massive Stroke at age 55, mere HOURS after filming the series 100th episode; the following May, Joe was replaced by Gale Gordon, who was cast as his brother, John Wilson, initially a guest of Mrs. Wilson (Sylvia Field) before bringing his OWN wife, Eloise (Sara Seegar) that Fall.

By this time, however, Jay North, who was 11 years old and noticeably bigger and older, was determined by network execs as too old to continue to portay Dennis the Menace; because of this, CBS canceled the series at the end of Season 4. The final original episode was telecast on July 7, 1963.

By his own admission, when the cameras werent rolling, Jay was abused regularly by his legal guardian aunt and uncle, yet hid it from his mother Dorothy until after they died in quick succession, Hal from Emphysema in November 1970, at age 57, and Marie died of a Massive Stroke soon after.

After coming out of the abuse closet privately to mom Dorothy, Jay, by this time aged 38, decided to come out publicly of the abuse closet via talk show appearances on such shows as The Geraldo Rivera Show; by 1993, aged 42, Jay decided to physically remove himself from Los Angeles and move to Lake Butler, Florida soon after meeting Cindy Hackney, to whom he is now married and a father of her 3 teenaged sons--and works as a prison officer, planning to retire in a few years (according to a KTLA interview in August 2011).

In 1959, Hanks wife, Alice, died of an accidental drug overdose; soon afterwards, Hank relocated with his then-teenaged son Dennis to Switzerland, where he was involved in a brief marriage ending in divorce.

By 1977, Hank, aged 57, decided to move back to America, but by then, his son Dennis (who was then married and a father of 2 young daughters) was estranged from Hank.

In 1994, Hank decided to retire from drawing Dennis the Menace, giving the reigns to the duo of Marcus Ferdinand and Ron Hamilton; 7 years later, on June 1, 2001, Hank, aged 81, died of Prostate Cancer.

Hank was survived at the time of his death by his 3rd wife, 2 teenaged children, Scott and Dania; his 55-year-old son Dennis; and 2 granddaughters.

[Zoneboy]

Hi, Poof.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/...d.php?t=290610

[TV_on_the_Porch]

X-poof