For those who might have been influenced by Engineer Bill Stulla, this came
from another friend of mine..
Enjoy!
Bill Winans
Prescott Valley, AZ
All,
Growing up in SoCal, I watched Cartoon Express (Channel 9, KHJ TV)
from the mid-1950's until the mid-1960's (ages 4 to 16). Despite the
fact that I wanted to appear on the show during the 1950's, my parents
never submitted the requisite postcard request which Engineer Bill
used to receive in the form of the "kicked off" mail bag from a Santa
Fe streamliner run by by "Casey Jones" (you all might remember the
great camera shot from a between-the-rails pit shot looking up as a
passenger train powered by a war bonnet-painted F7, streaked over the
camera). Those of you who watched the show will remember that you'd
hear diesel air horns and EMD 567's droning in the background and then
Engineer Bill would announce that Casey Jones was high-balling through
to deliver the mail. At that point, an RPO mail bag would "fly"
(after being tossed by a stage hand) onto the set and Engineer Bill
would catch the bag (which sometimes was tossed extra hard and would
knock Engineer Bill off his stool). Bill would then open the mail bag
and draw out two new postcards for two lucky kids to attend a future
show; early on, each kid used to receive a freight car kit which they
would build at home and then bring to the show to run on the layout.
As a result of poor parenting, I never got to play Red Light, Green
Light in glorious B&W on kinescope. Probably what is worse, I never
got the feel the chills running up and down my spine while getting
rewarded by "The Real Bell for engineers who never run a red light"
while Engineer Bill (with wet milk still on the bandanna encircling
his neck) would get "The Lead Bell for me and those who missed".
Another great game that Engineer Bill had was, "The Big Whistle" which
was a board with six (if memory serves) numbered valves, one of which
was connected (out-of-direct-sight) to a real steam locomotive chime
whistle while the other the other five valves were connected to a
peanut whistle. The kids had to guess which numbered valve was
connected to the Big Whistle with the winner(s) getting a prize.
Personally, I think that "Red Light, Green Light" and/or "The Big
Whistle" could be made into great reality TV shows - just imagine Ryan
Seacrest spitting milk out or blowing the Big Whistle - truly
instances wherein fantasy would recapitulate reality!!! <g>
The 1950's show had a catchy theme song:
Engineer Bill's Theme Song
See her rollin' down the track,
See her puffin' smoke so black---
Who's at the throttle?
(Woo-Woo) that's Engineer Bill!
See those drivers whirlin' 'round ---
See that engine cover ground,
Who's at the throttle?
(Woo-Woo) That's Engineer Bill!
>From the round-house every day,
He always get the right of way,
Folks all know the whistle's cry.
Means Engineer Bill is passing by.
See her steamin' into town---
>From the cab who's wavin' down,
Who's at the throttle?
(Woo-Woo) That's Engineer Bill!
When they revamped the show in the early 1960's, they changed the
opening footage to include the famous chase scene from the D.W.
Griffith classic: "A Girl and Her Trust", shot in 1912 on the AT&SF
Redondo Harbor Line (between Inglewood and RR-east of Lairport.
Lairport is still a Station w/ the old (i.e., really old, jointed
rail) siding remaining in use and located about 1/2 mile west of El
Segundo Blvd - if you watch the movie closely you will see station
hands standing on the station platform watching the camera car running
on what is now Aviation Blvd (back then, I've heard that it was called
Redondo Hermosa Road). The huge open field in the back ground is now
LAX). That great pacing shot is an absolute classic as is the entire
movie.
I finally got an opportunity to meet Bill Stulla back in 1993, when I
was supervising the construction of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts
Center. There was a non-profit organization set up to solicit
contributions for the 2,000 seat performing arts theater; the
non-profit was run by a gentlemen named Robert Johnson. One day we
were shooting the beeze during lunch and Robert happened to tell me
that he was formerly a Stage Manager at KHJ TV. I asked him if he
ever knew Engineer Bill and he told me that Bill was a close friend
and lived nearby in Westlake Village. Robert also told me some great
stories about Flat Car Fred, Tank Car Ted and other behind-the-scenes
personna who had worked on and contributed so much to the show.
On friday afternoons after we had shut down for the day, I would give
special behind-the-scenes construction tours to potential donors to
the non-profit. One friday afternoon in late August, 1993, I was
taking Robert and a group of donors on the man-lift twelve-stories up
to the top of the fly tower, when Robert made a comment: "Eric, we
know you have a lot of engineers working on this project, but today we
brought along a real Engineer to meet you!". At that point, Engineer
Bill stepped out from the back of the group wearing a hickory-stripped
RR-cap, bandana and bib overalls and introduced himself. I quickly
sped the group through the rest of the tour and then sat down with
Bill and talked for about an hour.
Bill was a very nice gentleman and was very pleased that his old fans
still remembered him. After leaving television in the mid-1960's, he
went into stock brokerage and did quite well. He was enjoying a very
comfortable retirement. Bill confirmed that he was a terrible Red
Light, Green Light player and that the scenes with him laughing and
spitting milk out his nose, etc., were the result of Tank Car Ted and
others playing gags and purposefully distracting him off-camera while
he was trying to concentrate on the game. Bill gave me a
hickory-stripped engineer's cap (gee, it only took me 39 years to get
one after I first started watching the show in 1954) and and we took a
picture together which Robert later had framed and autographed by
Bill, and then had presented to me. I still have the picture.
All in all, Bill Stulla was a very fine gentleman who loved the
personna of Engineer Bill and loved entertaining kids. People like
Engineer Bill, Sheriff John, Skipper Frank (Frank Herman left TV and
opened up a Chicken Delight franchise in Laguna Beach; I went to
school with his son Greg), Tom Hatten (in 1961, Tom opened the Scoop
Deck retaurant and ice cream parlor located opposite the Hotel Laguna
on Coast Hwy), Chucko, Bozo, et al, were all a huge part of the lives
of those of us who were fortunate to grow up in SoCal in the
1950's-1960's.
As Engineer Bill used to say at the close of each show, "Happy
High-Balling, Engineers!!"
Eric
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