Romper Room, WGAL-TV, Lancaster, Pa., ca. 1950s

In this real photo postcard, the hostess for the local WGAL-TV version of the Romper Room children's show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is standing in front of the station's "Color Television" camera (the show was broadcast in color beginning in 1957).

The unnamed hostess is holding a drawing of the show's logo, which featured a jack-in-the-box. Behind the hostess is a board with illustrations of "Don't Bee" and "Do Bee." The message on the right-hand side of the board is "Don't be toy selfish," and although we can't see the left side, the sentiment there was probably "Do be toy sharing."

Wikipedia's Romper Room article mentions the Bees in its description of a typical episode: "A recurring character was Mr. Do-Bee, an oversized bumblebee who came to teach the children proper deportment; he was noted for always starting his sentence with 'Do Bee', as in the imperative 'Do be'; for example, 'Do Bee good boys and girls for your parents!' There was also a 'Mr. Don't Bee' to show children exactly what they should not do."

Perhaps the most interesting and perplexing Romper Room prop--not visible in this photo postcard, unfortunately--was the magic mirror, whose appearance on the screen was always accompanied by a psychedelic mass of swirling colors (see the 1980 Romper Room Magic Mirror Clip on YouTube for an example).

As Wikipedia explains, "At the end of each broadcast, the hostess would look through a 'magic mirror'--actually an open hoop with a handle, the size and shape of a hand mirror--recite the rhyme, 'Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic Mirror, tell me today, have all my friends had fun at play?' She would then name the children she saw in 'televisionland,' saying, for example, 'I can see Kathleen and Owen and Julie and Jimmy and Kelly and Tommy and Bobby and Jennifer and Martin' and so on. Kids were encouraged to mail in their names, which would be read on the air--first names only."

I'm not sure how long Romper Room continued on WGAL-TV, but the show apparently lasted into the 1990s in some areas.

For another Romper Room-ination on Ipernity, take a look at arts enthusiast's Romper Room Exercise Book.