The Willard Scott Story

I had been creating Travalanche for many years before I began taking note of centennials and other major anniversary benchmarks here (I think 500 may be the oldest I’ve observed). I didn’t begin the practice in emulation of Willard Scott (1934-2021), though I do think of him every time I’ve had occasion to do it. I confess it’s not precisely a positive emotion. Usually I sort of wince and regret what I’m doing (“Tsk, oh God, this is so Willard Scott-like!) For those too young to understand, Willard Scott was a long-time Today Showcontributor (1980-2015), initially the weather man, but he also became famous for wishing affectionate happy birthdays to centenarians. Sometimes he would have them on the show and make a fuss about them, one huge bear paw around their shoulder, give them a sloppy kiss. It was unapologetic kitsch, but it was sock-o with the audience, one half of which wiped their eyes, even while the other rolled theirs.

Willard Scott was an American character, the kind we (regrettably) seem not to embrace any more. Nowadays everyone has to be svelte, good-looking, and sexy. It’s an anti-humanist impulse, one I object to so strongly that by now I must seem like a dog who barks every time a car goes by. But I haven’t become extreme. The world has. It has become intolerant of deviation. I’ll cop to the fact that Willard Scott was embarrassing. Weighing nearly 300 pounds, he had this big goofy, gap-toothed grin, and a husky voice that was so vulnerable in its cheerfulness that it made you want to climb into a hole. He was all sweaty and unkempt. Thank god for that brown suit jacket covering his armpits. He reminded me of one of those substitute teachers who try to win the class over with the methods of 40 years ago: corny jokes, puppets. Something that was foisted on you by the institution that you were trapped in, but somehow was also a misfit within it. But you accepted such things. In today’s culture there seems to be an impulse to hound such people off the face of the earth. Audience feedback is immediate, like Romans encouraging a victorious gladiator to dispatch his bested opponent. In Scott’s day, people wrote letters to the television station. Some would be letters of appreciation, and a certain percentage would be negative. The latter were from “kooks” and they’d be thrown in the wastepaper basket. In the age of social media, the kooks have been allowed to get the upper hand.

David Letterman (also a former weatherman) was a fan of Willard Scott’s and early appearances by America’s weatherman on the Indianan’s late night show helped amplify his fame, and allowed us to learn a little about his legend, for he did possess one before landing his network gig. We learned, for example, that he was one of the original guys to play Bozo the Clown, and that he originated the character of Ronald McDonald. He brought those clown skills to the Today Show gig, going so far as to impersonate the likes of Carmen Miranda and Boy George on occasion for a laugh. But as any professional clown will tell you, a red nose and slap shoes are not work clothes that automatically earn respect. Delving into Scott’s background, I learned some things that ought to make anyone respect him a good deal more.

Willard Scott grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, which is just seven miles south of Washington, D.C. When he was just eight years old he had the opportunity to watch Eric Sevareid do a radio broadcast from a local CBS affiliate while his mom went shopping. Already a radio fan, his lifelong love of the production end began there. When he was only nine he built his own amateur station in the basement of his host, with a working low-power transmitter that could reach his neighbor’s houses. He worked at several local radio stations as a teenager, with page jobs leading to occasional on-air announcing. He then had his own show at the college station at American University as a student there.

At American, Scott hit off with a student named Ed Walker. Like Scott, Walker lived and breathed radio, though for a different reason — he was blind. Upon graduation in 1955, the pair launched a show on NBC’s Washington affiliate WRC called The Joy Boys, featuring comedy sketches, banter, and songs. The show was interrupted from 1956 to 1958 while Scott served in the navy, during which time he was a disc jockey on Norfolk’s WAVY. Then The Joy Boys resumed, becoming a DC institution through 1974.

Meantime, he also became a local TV star. He starred in kiddie shows like Barn Party (1954) where he played Farmer Willard, and Commander Retro (1966-68). The most noteworthy of these early shows was Afternoon (1955), for he got to interact with Jim Henson during his Sam and Friends period, a bit of foreshadowing for The Muppets.

From 1959 to 1962 Scott played the title character on Bozo’s Circus, WRC’s local take on the national franchise. As part of the gig he promoted McDonald’s restaurants. When the show was cancelled, McDonald’s sought another clown character, and that’s how Ronald McDonald came into being:

He played Ronald from 1963 to 1967. During the last year he even hosted his own local program The Ronald Show. Shortly after this he was replaced by other actors, and the character became part of the long lasting national ad campaign.

Meanwhile, Scott stepped into the role of weatherman at WRC, remaining there throughout the late ’60s and ’70s, until he was hired to do the job at The Today Show in 1980. Did they know they had a phenomenon on their hands? It’s rare for someone doing that job to become honest to goodness personalities, but Scott brought unprecedented flair to the job. He rapidly became an American institution. Naturally the Letterman spots helped raise his profile. He also anchored NBC telecasts of the Kentucky Derby and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (an excellent gig for a former clown) and played Santa Claus for the national Christmas tree lighting ceremonies. He began celebrating centenarians in 1983, and Smuckers began underwriting his spots. He even had a recurring role on Valerie (the show that later became The Hogan Family) opposite Edie McClurg (they played neighbors, the Pooles).

Scott handed off the Today Show weather gig to Al Roker in 1996, though he continued to do other spots on the program for decades. Roker, of course, proved just as huge a phenom as Scott had been, but that’s another story.

For more on show business history,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and please stay tuned for the upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.