July/Aug 2022 (Volume 14, Issue 4)

 

By John Busbee

 

Window /ˈwindō/ 1. a small area of something that you can see through; 2. a way of seeing and learning about something. The first describes the visual invitation used to bring young viewers into the show; the second serves as an apt metaphor for Betty Lou Varnum’s “Magic Window.” Her beckoning demeanor created a magic, safe-space environment. 

 

For central Iowa children, from Baby Boomers to Millennials, “The House with the Magic Window” was an essential part of life. Betty Lou Varnum delivered much more than a must-see program for young ones. She was a consummate teacher, an encourager of child development. She fed young minds with a blend of entertainment, education and engagement, sparking those minds to explore what the world offered. 

 

Beyond her “Magic Window,” Betty Lou also provided viewers with thought-provoking, pioneering programming. Television was a new frontier, and she was willing to blaze trails through these new creative lands, bringing viewers through the television window to share discoveries with her. She led with a zeal and candor that allowed her to introduce hot topics of the day through meaningful dialogue.

 

In 1954, Betty Lou launched what would become the cornerstone of her legacy. 

 

The House with the Magic Window

Betty Lou’s career was most popularly defined by her children’s show. Her career had other cornerstones, but “The House with the Magic Window,” from 1954 to 1994, are the years when the magic happened. 

 

She described her show as a “very gently, friendly, accepting kind of program.” All of the adventures and action were set in a house in the Magic Forest. Betty Lou led crafts for pre-schoolers, guests shared animal stories and other topics of interest, and occasional shorts were peppered in, such as “Felix the Cat” cartoons and “Tales of the Riverbank” episodes. Visits from her puppet friends were a staple of each show. Catrina, a witch who had turned herself into a crocodile; Gregory, a 4-year-old lion; and Dusty, a 3,000-year-old unicorn, who came to her through the Magic Window, livened the activities with their conversations, mostly improvised.

 

With no funding to build puppets, they were created outside of the WOI-TV budget. Betty Lou’s husband, James “Red” Varnum, voiced Gregory and Dusty, a secret that didn’t become public until years after the show’s closing. 

 

“Betty Lou Varnum really set the standard for educational children’s programming in central Iowa,” said Leo Landis, curator for the State Historical Society of Iowa. “[She] always treated children as real people.”

 

Early framing of Betty Lou’s window

Betty Lou McVay was born on May 3, 1931, in a Chicago, Ill., orphanage. Glen and Louise McVay from Platteville, Wis., drove to the orphanage looking for a baby boy. As the story goes, when Glen McVay walked into the nursery his gaze was met by the big brown eyes of a tiny baby’s unwavering returned stare. When he reached into the bassinet, the baby grabbed his finger and wouldn’t let go. The McVays went home with a little girl that day, and theirs became a family of three.

 

Betty Lou’s parents were completely devoted to her and she never sought the identities of her biological parents. After public school in Platteville, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in English literature. Her love of Shakespeare became a manifest part of her. After college, she returned to her hometown to work as a teacher.

 

From Wisconsin to Iowa 

While beginning a teaching career in Wisconsin, pieces were falling into place elsewhere that would provide Betty Lou a more expansive platform as an educator. 

 

On Feb. 21, 1950, WOI-TV became the first commercial television station in the United States to be owned by a major college, then known as Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in Ames. In 1951, producer Dick Hartzell and WOI-TV artist Joy (Ringham) Munn developed “The House with the Magic Window” as an educational children’s program, which Munn hosted. Since its beginning, the show featured hand-crafting activities, news items and birthday recognitions for the children viewing the show.

 

A college friend from Ames suggested that Betty Lou apply to work in this new creative media field in Ames. She applied and the producers contacted her to work at WOI-TV.    Betty Lou had never been in a television studio before. She embraced the job, complete with its challenges and opportunities. Her willingness to fearlessly plunge into new territories was a trademark of hers. Within two days of arriving in the studio, she became host of “The House with the Magic Window.” 

 

From 1954 through 1994, she guided the show with steadfast reliability, giving her young audiences, and their families, a benchmark program that was a trusted part for countless households. Five days a week for 15 minutes, their view through Betty Lou’s Magic Window inspired and encouraged young minds to flourish. With a run of 43 years, “The House with the Magic Window” became the longest running children’s show in U.S. broadcast history, a record likely to remain intact considering the saturation of media options today. (Technically, “Bozo’s Circus” had a longer run; albeit, in many different markets by different producers, making it more of a franchise than a uniquely independent show.)

 

“It was pre-Fred Rogers, pre-‘Sesame Street,’” said Landis, “when local broadcasting, really, for children’s educational television, was the go-to source.”

 

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