Princess Mary's Castle (1957)

This half hour children show ran Monday thru Friday at 10am mornings in Chicago. It lasted only one season on WBKB. Mary Hartline played Princess Mary. Her loyal subjects and other frequent characters of the castle were played by puppets, props, and other inanimate objects. Sir Night and Sir Day were but two armor helmets that talked. The "Tree of Knowledge" was a tree that was created by Bruce Newton for the show. The Tree would talk and move its eyes and mouth. Hanky Panky was a kerchief that lived in a bottle. The "Wishing Well" was a Piano made to look like a wishing well. Mary would play a few notes and the well would talk to the Princess, voiced by a off-screen Bruce Newton. This is when they would read the letters from children that were sent in to the show. The only other live character of the castle was Sir Dono, played by Don Alan. Don was a magician, and played the castle Wizard. He performed all type of tricks during the show. Don Alan also did the voice narration at the beginning and end of the program. He also was the voice for the "Tree of Knowledge". WBKB didn't have the foresight to keep any of the shows episodes for further viewing. All of the shows were recorded on kine-scope and were recorded over each week. Only one show remains intact today. Possibly a second one exists.