Letter from the Editor
As we were wrapping up production on this, our third issue of DEMO, I got a call from Bill Parker, a 1948 graduate of Columbia’s television program. Parker is one of several alumni interviewed by Mara Tapp for “Radio Days,” her feature looking back at Columbia’s role as a training ground for broadcasters of the 1940s and 1950s. After graduating from Columbia, Parker enjoyed a decades-long career in broadcasting in Upstate New York as the beloved star of local children’s television programs including “TV Ranch Club,” “Captain Galaxy,” and “The Officer Bill Show,” as well as several radio talk shows.
As we talked about Columbia College then and now, Parker told me a story about a trip he and his wife made to Chicago a few years ago. They were leading a tour group on a trip from Upstate New York, through Windsor, Canada, then down to Chicago for a few days. In Chicago, the group spent an evening taking in the entertainment at Tommy Gun’s Garage, a dinner theater that stages a lively, crowd-pleasing rendition of a 1920s vaudeville show, replete with flappers and gangsters. “There was part of the show,” Parker told me, “where the actors got ‘volunteers’ from the audience to come up and participate in an old 1920s radio show. My group pushed me up there, and I played along pretty well, I think.”
“Well,” Parker continued, “the young actors caught on that I’d perhaps done this before.” After the show, they asked Parker about his background, and he told them about studying broadcasting at Columbia in the 1940s, and his subsequent career. “They said, ‘You’re kidding!’” said Parker. “It turned out they were all theater students at Columbia, working in the show at Tommy Gun’s to pay for school.”
Columbia College has changed dramatically since Parker was a student here, yet a common thread of creativity and determination runs through its alumni, from his small cohort of pioneering broadcasters to the some 2,000 students who graduated this past May. This issue concludes our first year of publishing DEMO, and we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to tell the stories—and demonstrate the contributions—of some of those alumni, students, and others whose hands and minds have formed Columbia’s culture of creativity over the years. We look forward to bringing you many more.
But first, we want to know what you think. Please take a moment to complete a short online reader survey. The survey gives you, our readers, a chance to tell us what you like—or don’t—about this publication. It should take less than ten minutes to complete.
Regards,
Ann Wiens / Editor
Demo Magazine
Columbia College Chicago,
600 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 400,
Chicago, IL 60605
Email: demo@colum.edu
