Glendora (television producer)

Glendora Folsom is a cable TV producer from New York. Her birth name was Glendora Vesta Folsom. She is the host of A Chat with Glendora, which has cablecast over 14,230 shows since 1971 on the Public-access television channels of cable systems all over the United States.

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Career

Folsom began her television career circa 1953, as a children's show host. Her first show was Glendora and her Picture Party on channel 19 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It was sponsored and ran for 15 minutes per week. She was then hired at WMUR-TV in Manchester NH, where she began her program, SS Glendora, in 1956.[1] She was the skipper of the mythical Fun and Games ship, the SS Glendora.

By 1955, she had brought her SS Glendora to WBZ-TV, the Westinghouse station in Boston. She was there for 6 years, Monday through Friday. Five days a week she was the captain of "Satellite Six," a 1950s-style sci-fi spaceship set, where she also aired cartoons.

Cable TV public access

In 1971, after being away from television for a decade, Folsom entered cable TV public access with A Chat with Glendora. This aired on Lackawanna Cable TV in Buffalo. This was followed by Maine Cable Television, Bangor. Then came Valley Cablevison Ansonia, Seymour, Derby, CT and Shelton. The last one was Colonial Cablevison near Glens Falls, NY.

These cable companies hired Glendora as their public access TV packager. She owned the video equipment, did the videotaping and then returned to the "head-end," ran a coaxial cable from her video equipment to the public access TV module, and cable-cast on to the cable TV viewer.

Folsom remained on cable and public access television throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1987, she appeared as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman. By the 1990s, she was living in White Plains NY, according to the New York Times, which noted that she was the host of a weekly talk show on local public access there ("L.I. Cable" 44).

In 1994, she sued and won when a Long Island NY cable system removed her program in a way she felt violated Federal, State and municipal law that no cable operator can exercise editorial control over Public Access TV. The court ruled "plaintiff has a statutory right to be on TV and must be returned to TV" ("L.I. Cable" 44).

On October 13, 2018, Folsom was inducted into the Hall of Fame American International College Springfield Massachusetts.[2]

As of June 1983, Glendora has been in public access 53 years, done 14,225 TV shows and is on 72 TV stations from Boston to San Diego.


References
  1. Shulman, Jim (22 June 2017). "Baby Boomer Memories: 1950s TV Celebrity, Glendora, holds Record for Public Access Shows". The Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  2. "A Chat with Glendora". Lucent. American International College. 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2023.

Further reading
  • "Aboard Milton Bradley Liner." Springfield (MA) Union, September 9, 1955, p. 29.
  • "Long Island Cable Ordered To Restore A Public Access Program." New York Times, August 14, 1994, p. L44.
  • Smith, Betty. "The Little People Rate Big In TV Chat With Glendora." Bridgeport (CT) Post, February 17, 1974, p. D1.
  • Tavel, Emilie. "Children Jam TV Ship For Fun And Learning." Christian Science Monitor, December 14, 1955, p. 6.
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