When Jack and I first began promoting our book “OKC Second Time Around,” one of early stops was at KOKC 1520 AM radio for an interview with Randy Renner. Arriving at the crack of dawn, we parked at the side of the studios shared by KOMA and KMGL and made our way to the side entry.
And there he was, living history, puffing a cigarette and ready to say a friendly “hello.”
Danny Williams. He’s off the airwaves now, but he’s still the guy who entertained multiple generations of Oklahomans dating back to his earlyday show on WKY TV (now KFOR), 3-D Danny.
Danny and his alter ego, Dan D. Dynamo, superintendent of the Space Science Center and Supreme Galaxy Chief, are a part of the permanent television display at the Oklahoma History Center museum.
Yes, he’s that historic.
Williams was a fixture in television, and then radio, for four decades. In the early 1950s, he left San Antonio and came to WKY- TV. On his first show, he read children’s story books with a puppet named Gizmo Goodkin. He progressed to an afternoon show in which he interviewed seniors who had made the Land Run of 1889. He then co-hosted “Dannysday,” a 1970s daytime talk show, with none other than a young Mary Hart (yeah, the one that became famous, along with her legs, on “Entertainment Tonight”).
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(BONUS! Dannysday live from a newly opened Crossroads Mall!)
Ah, but this about 3-D Danny. So let’s go back to 1954, when WKY-TV premiered a daily after school show that would star Williams with his own scripts. Long before “Star Trek,” 3-D Danny lured his audience into outer space, by means of his magic time machine, the synchro-retroverter he made from a jello mold.
His suit on the show was inspired by comics hero Flash Gordon. Williams wrote the scripts, but parts were created on live TV, and the show was creative and zany. He confessed some terms for the science-fiction plots had nuances just for adults.
Ratings were high enough to beat out “The Mickey Mouse Club” in this market, and for a while NBC dangled a network job. And while Danny Williams stayed local, his 3-D Danny did not. For that story, visit http://www.big13.com/3D%20Danny/3ddanny.htm.
Or better yet, visit Danny’s site at http://www.dddynamo.com/
– “Oklahoma History Center honors TV’s 3-D Danny,” by Ann DeFrange, The Oklahoman, March 14, 2006