“HOWDY, HOWDY, HOWDY ”
That was a familiar greeting that everyone in their 50s and 60s grew up with in San Diego. It was the greeting from Johnny Downs, former child actor, silent film star and major motion picture actor, who later hosted a television cartoon show for local audiences.
A brief segment on Johnny Downs will air this month on Ken Kramer’s About San Diego. “A look back at Johnny Downs Career” airs on Thursday, January 30, at 8 p.m. It repeats the following Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
Kramer is the creator, producer and host of the series that began more than 30 years ago at KPBS documenting little known historical anecdotes in San Diego history. For the past month Kramer has been putting together a segment remembering Johnny Downs.
Kramer’s show has featured many Coronado stories over the years that have included segments on the ferryboats, the Hotel del Coronado, Tent City, the sand dune letters on our beach, the 1923 Hotel Del Laundry truck, the shipwreck Monte Carlo, author L. Frank Baum, the Kingston Trio, the Flower Lady and various personalities.
In 1995 the show moved to NBC 7/39. In 2010 it returned to KPBS, where it continues to have an enormous following. In Coronado, KPBS can be found on Time Warner channel 11, or in high definition on channel 711.
Johnny Downs frequented Tent City as a child. His father was a naval officer stationed in San Diego. He starred in a movie filmed here in 1935 called, “Coronado.” Downs moved to Coronado in 1953, where he lived until his passing in 1994.
His career began at the age of ten (1923), when Hal Roach hired Downs to play in the original “Our Gang Kids.” Those silent film shorts ran through 1927. Downs acted in 24 of the famous two-reelers, playing everything from heroes to bullies.
His break out performance occurred in the movie “Rhapsody in Blue: The George Gershwin Story” (1945). Johnny Downs was frequently referred to as “The All-American Boy.” He made 100 films starring alongside the likes of Hedy Lamarr, Ronald Reagan, Charles Boyer, Betty Grable, Judy Garland, Ingrid Bergman, Susan Hayward, and comedians Laurel and Hardy. In the real world, he was Judy Garland’s first date.
Semi-retired from show business, Downs set up home in Coronado where he and his wife June had five children. Johnny Downs was a familiar sight on the tennis courts, and at the Hotel del Coronado’s Beach & Tennis Club.
He sold real estate here for years, and supplemented his earnings by hosting “The Johnny Downs Show,” a kiddies TV show in San Diego that ran from 1953-1968.
Johnny Downs and his family, on the tennis courts at the Hotel Del. His favorite tennis drill was getting the whole family on the court and, as he would say, “keep the ball in play.” They would do this for great lengths of time. Photo by Joe Ditler.
For more information on Ken Kramer, or to watch past episodes from his vast archive of historical documentaries, visit www.kenkramertv.com.
