By Dr. Christine Marin
Ladimir Kwiatkowski –( July 13, 1928-March 2, 1994). Yes, you know him: the thin, tall, clumsy kid with a top hat, rubber-faced expressions, and who wore long funny ties that came down to his knees. His best friends were Wallace and Gerald; he’s better known as Ladmo, the Arizona television personality and Emmy award-winning comedian who co-hosted “The Wallace and Ladmo Show”, a daily children’s variety show broadcast on KPHO: Channel 5, in Phoenix from April 1, 1954 to December 29, 1989–a period of 35 years!
The program featured clowns, cartoons, dumb jokes and short comedy skits. The guests who appeared on the show were local and state politicians, popular entertainers, city council town representatives, police officers, the movers and the shakers of Maricopa County—all ready to deliver public service announcements or banter with Wallace and Ladmo, only to have a pie thrown in their faces or read the wrong cue cards—no one kept a straight face on camera when Ladmo, Gerald or Wallace ad-libbed funny stories or told dumb jokes. And Ladmo and Wallace gave away a prized brown paper sack to kids and called it “the Ladmo Bag: filled with candy, cans of soda pop, potato chips and prizes. –Today’s generations of fans confess: “I never got a Ladmo Bag when I was a kid.”—a metaphor for “I had a deprived childhood!”
As a young boy in his Cleveland neighborhood, Ladimir was known by his hometown boy-pals as “Laddie”, or “Lad” or “Slats”, because he was skinny. He loved baseball and wanted to be a major league player when he grew up. He often wore his public school’s baseball uniform to Sunday Mass, to waste no time to run out of the church when Mass ended to join his buddies at the baseball field ready to pitch or catch or hit baseballs with the best of them. Lad was a stand-out and gifted baseball player while attending Adams High School, a Class of 1947 graduate.
He left Ohio to attend Arizona State College in Tempe as a Freshman in 1949 and wanted to be a sports broadcaster. Lad played on the ASC varsity baseball team from 1950 to 1954. In 1951, he led ASC in hitting, with a .358 average, including a single, two doubles, and a triple, in a game against the University of Arizona Wildcats. In 1952, Lad became Captain of the baseball team. It was said that he brought some respect to the ASC baseball program after being neglected by college sports personnel who paid more attention to other sports programs that brought in money. While at ASC, Lad majored in Journalism and wrote the sports column for the college newspaper, “State Press “—known as “Kwiat’s Kwikies”—a word play on his surname, Kwiatkowski. Lad caught the attention of Ohio’s baseball scouts, who offered him an opportunity to play baseball for the Cleveland Indians farm team, playing in the minor leagues and maybe move on up to play professional ball one day. The thought appealed to him, but the “wait-to-play-ball-one-day” rhetoric didn’t. What appealed to Lad more was this new thing going on in the Salt River Valley and in Arizona homes. It was called “television.”– KPHO-TV, Channel 5.—the perfect place where his journalism skills of writing, reporting and telling new stories would be more important.
The morning after Lad graduated from ASC, he went to the KPHO-TV office at 9:00 am, and at 11:00 am, he received a call: when can you begin? The next day, Lad began a new job at KPHO-TV, doing whatever he was assigned to do: sweep the floors; fold office chairs; run the tv cameras during live broadcasts, and eventually produce and direct television shows. Among the more popular kids’ shows in 1956 at KPHO-TV-5 was called “It’s Wallace”, with Bill Thompson being the funny guy, “Wallace”, with the jokes and routines. Lad became fascinated with the program because of its wide appeal to children, young boys and girls. It made him laugh a lot too. Bill Thompson noticed Lad. One day, Bill convinced Lad to appear with “Wallace” and perform a funny skit: it worked! The character forever known as “Ladmo” was born. Joining them in 1959 was the hilarious character known as the spoiled rich kid, “Gerald”, portrayed by the gifted comedian, Pat McMahon. They were the complete opposites, which made for some great character sketches and skits: Ladmo loved sports. Gerald didn’t. Ladmo made “C’s” in school. Gerald made “A’s”. Ladmo loved the kids. Gerald thought they were “public school brats”. Ladmo liked rock-n-roll. Gerald loved classical music. Gerald’s goal was to make Ladmo’s life miserable. And it was “Wallace and Ladmo” and Gerald– making comedy history on KPHO-TV-5 for 35 years: appearing as buffoons, funny guys, pranksters, clowns, jokesters, at public parks, popular theatres, at Legend City, schools, football stadiums, —all making children laugh. On December 29, 1989, the last “Wallace and Ladmo Show” was aired on Chanel 5, KPHO-TV. The longest-running kids’ television show in broadcast history that featured the same characters/actors: Wallace: Bill Thompson. Ladmo: Ladimir Kwiatkowski. And Gerald: Pat McMahon. Ladmo’s interest in baseball kept him busy after his retirement. When he learned that there was no baseball program for children in Tempe, he initiated in the summer of 1955 a “pee-wee league” for children aged 5 and 6 years of age; and a “rookie league” for children aged 7 and 9 years of age. The Summer games were played at Tempe High School on Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 10 am. By 1961, Ladmo began coaching night leagues for children aged 10 to 18 years of age. The Tempe Junior Chamber of Commerce named Ladmo “Man of the Year”. In 1963, the Arizona Junior Chamber of Commerce added his name to their “Outstanding Young Men” award. —-Ladmo: a friend to the child in each of us. Ladmo: a Tempe Legend.