Ding Dong School with Miss Francois 1953

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If your a baby boomer of a certain age growing up in the 1950's you remember Ding Dong School with Miss Francois. I have about a dozen 16mm Ding Dong School , 30 minute episodes I need to rescue from decomposing in storage. This viewing copy is a 16mm film to 3/4 tape transfer, then to digital during the analog era.

Each program began with Miss Frances ringing a hand-held school bell, and if your a boomer who grew up on the show, when you hear the bell and tune can sing the opening song.

Ding Dong School, billed as "the nursery school of the air", was a half-hour children's TV show which began on WNBQ-TV (now WMAQ-TV) in Chicago, Illinois. It is the earliest known preschool series to be produced in the United States, predating Romper Room by a year.

Think about what a three year old kid is experiencing today with their hand held devices connecting them to the world wide web and in 1953, when Ding Dong School first aired I was three years old and this was the level of knowledge I had access too.

The program was shot like a zoom class today in the 21st Century of the teacher talking at you one for one, only with a Kindergarten mentality as a reference presented from a child's point of view sitting in front of a round B&W TV Set Screen.

A 1953 magazine article reported, "Low-angled cameras see everything at Lilliputian eye-level, stories and activities are paced at the slow rate just right for small ears and hands."

A precursor to Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the show was hosted live by Frances Horwich (aka "Miss Frances"), and at one point was the most popular TV series aimed at preschoolers. The program began in 1952 at Chicago's WNBQ television. After six weeks on the air locally, the program was picked up by the NBC television network. At the height of its popularity, Ding Dong School had three million viewers.

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