I moved to Portland in 1959 for a job offer from Mrs. Dorothy Bullitt, owner of KGW Radio and TV. It was a chance to get TV exposure I couldn’t get in Vancouver, with only CBC-TV on the air here.
Portland Bandstand, sponsored by Coca-Cola, followed Dick Clark’s American Bandstand live on KGW-TV Monday nights. The show lasted four months before being cancelled when KGW-TV changed networks from ABC, which carried American Bandstand, to NBC.
Co-host Glenna Page was a total professional. Glenna was a successful actress and was acclaimed by Variety magazine as “the #1 lady in Northwest television”. I had absolutely no TV experience and it was a delight to work with her.
I recently received some sad news from Glenna’s granddaughter AJ that she passed away in February, two weeks short of her 90th birthday. Read Glenna’s obituary here.
Rest in peace, Glenna, and thank you for introducing me to an exciting new medium – Television!