Wednesday, March 4, 2015

RUTH LYONS MEMORABILIA ADDED TO MEDIA HERITAGE TV COLLECTION

Ruth Lyons Memorabilia Added to Media Heritage TV Collection
National VOA Museum Open Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013
Personal memorabilia from Cincinnati’s own Ruth Lyons have been added to the Media Heritage collection at the National Voice of American Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester.  
In the 1990s, local collectors David and Joanne Kikly acquired three boxes of Lyons’ memorabilia at Lyons’ estate sale. Lyons died in 1988. She was a gifted pianist, songwriter and a pioneer radio and television broadcaster in Cincinnati from the late 1920s through 1960s  Her 50/50 Club started on WLW radio in 1949 as The 50 Club: a group of 50 women invited to a daily one-hour lunch, which was broadcast live. The show was renamed the 50/50 Club in 1955 when 100 women were added. The show was very popular throughout the Midwest and guests included national celebrities like Bob Hope, Arthur Godfrey, Peter Nero and Pearl Bailey.
This summer, a donation from Harold Dunlap allowed Media Heritage to acquire the collection.  Among the photos, awards, personal notes and letters belonging to Lyons and her family were two pages removed from the 50/50 Club celebrity autograph books.  The Cincinnati Historical Society owns the autograph books. Every celebrity who appeared on her popular 1950s TV program signed a page in one of the five scrapbooks.  “The two missing pages were accounted for on the cover of one of the books in Ruth’s own handwriting,” said Mike Martini, Media Heritage president. “They said, ‘Peter Nero—first appearance 4/20/61 and Troy Donahue with Candy.  Probably Candy’s most memorable appearance with her mother on TV.’  It seems Candy, Ruth’s teenage daughter, had crush on actor Troy Donahue and asked her mother for the pages.”  The missing pages have been donated to the Cincinnati Historical Society for inclusion back in the scrapbook for the first time in 52 years, said Martini.   
Mike Martini, Scott Gampfer (CHS) , David Kikly, Joanne Kikly                                                             Ruth Lyons Memorabilia Added to Media Heritage TV Collection National VOA Museum Open Saturday, Oct. 19            Personal memorabilia from Cincinnati’s own Ruth Lyons have been added to the Media Heritage collection at the National Voice of American Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester.                                                                                                               In the 1990s, local collectors David and Joanne Kikly acquired three boxes of Lyons’ memorabilia at Lyons’ estate sale. Lyons died in 1988. She was a gifted pianist, songwriter and a pioneer radio and television broadcaster in Cincinnati from the late 1920s through 1960s                                                                                                                     Her 50/50 Club started on WLW radio in 1949 as The 50 Club: a group of 50 women invited to a daily one-hour lunch, which was broadcast live. The show was renamed the 50/50 Club in 1955 when 100 women were added. The show was very popular throughout the Midwest and guests included national celebrities like Bob Hope, Arthur Godfrey, Peter Nero and Pearl Bailey.      This summer, a donation from Harold Dunlap allowed Media Heritage to acquire the collection.                                                                                                    Among the photos, awards, personal notes and letters belonging to Lyons and her family were two pages removed from the 50/50 Club celebrity autograph books.  The Cincinnati Historical Society owns the autograph books. Every celebrity who appeared on her popular 1950s TV program signed a page in one of the five scrapbooks.                                                                                                        “The two missing pages were accounted for on the cover of one of the books in Ruth’s own handwriting,” said Mike Martini, Media Heritage president. “They said, ‘Peter Nero—first appearance 4/20/61 and Troy Donahue with Candy.  Probably Candy’s most memorable appearance with her mother on TV.’  It seems Candy, Ruth’s teenaged daughter, had crush on actor Troy Donahue and asked her mother for the pages.”      The missing pages have been donated to the Cincinnati Historical Society for inclusion back in the scrapbook for the first time in 52 years, said Martini.                                                                                The National VOA Museum of Broadcasting contains exhibits featuring the Voice of America at the VOA-Bethany station; Media Heritage’s Greater Cincinnati Museum of Broadcast History; the Gray History of Wireless Museum; and the West Chester Amateur Radio Assn.                     The VOA museum will be open Saturday, Oct. 19 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the historic VOA-Bethany station building at 8070 Tylersville Road in West Chester.                Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children under 12. For more information about VOA museums, go to www.voamuseum.org .   
Mike Martini, Scott Gampfer (CHS) , David Kikly, Joanne Kikly
The National VOA Museum of Broadcasting contains exhibits featuring the Voice of America at the VOA-Bethany station; Media Heritage’s Greater Cincinnati Museum of Broadcast History; the Gray History of Wireless Museum; and the West Chester Amateur Radio Assn.       
The VOA museum will be open Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the historic VOA-Bethany station building at 8070 Tylersville Road in West Chester.   Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children under 12. For more information about VOA museums, go to www.voamuseum.org . 
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