The Joy Boys held a personal appearance in September 2012! Click here, or on the picture, to read more about this reunion.

Willard Scott, friends and family gave Ed Walker a surprise 75th birthday party at the Prime Rib Restaurant in Washington, in April 2007. Click here or on the picture to see the fun.

Jane Pauley, Willard Scott and Bryant Gumbel celebrated the Today Show program's 35th anniversary on Saturday, January 31 1987. The program made its debut in January 1952.

Willard posed for a Florida grapefruit promotional piece in 1988, celebrating the 100th year of Florida baseball spring training. This photo appeared on a leaflet containing the spring training schedule, plus recipies for Grapefruit Surprise and Tampa Grapefruit Pie. "Watch carefully to avoid burning," it says! Photo by Jerry Perkins.

Willard Scott flips his wig, in this promotional photo from about 1992.

(It didn't really matter... he only wore the thing about half the time anyway.)

The Joy Boys show moved from WRC to WWDC in October 1972, with much fanfare and advertising. This large newspaper ad ran in the Evening Star, Monday, October 23, 1972. Both Joy Boys are carrying their bags, and in Willard's right hand is the infamous trash can sound-effects device that so many guests "tripped" over. (Thanks to Kap at Kaptain Kidshow for this picture.)

Scroll down or click here for more about the Joy Boys, WWDC, and Johnny Holliday.

Every Christmas, the Joy Boys show moved upstairs to the WRC lobby to raise money for the station's charity fund, the Doll House. Here are a couple of pictures from one Christmas season. You can also listen to this sound clip from the 1966 Doll House shows. More on our Audio page.

   

Ed Walker was a special guest at the Radio & Television Museum in Bowie. For the full story and more pictures, courtesy of the Metro Washington Old Time Radio Club, click here or on the picture.

Until his passing in 2015, Ed Walker remained on the air at WAMU-FM, doing his program The Big Broadcast on Sunday nights at 7 PM. It's still heard on 88.5 FM in the Washington area, and also on the web at www.wamu.org. Ed often participated in their fund-raising drives, sometimes with Joy Boys CDs given away to donors. Here are two pictures of Ed in action at a recent fund drive. (Photos by Frank Hamilton.)

  

Here are two pictures from the WRC-TV studio in 1975. On the left, Willard Scott clowns with John Lynch. Right, a behind-the-scenes view of the news set with Jim Vance and Glenn Rinker at the desk. (Photos provided by Mark Aceto.)

   

Willard Scott poses with Smokey the Bear in this poster from the Virginia Department of Forestry, circa 1982.

An interesting side note: Smokey's radio and TV voice was provided by Jackson Weaver, half of the WMAL radio team Harden and Weaver. As the Joy Boys entertained Washington DC at night on WRC, Harden and Weaver provided comic relief during morning hours on WMAL. You can read their story in On The Radio, published in 1983 by William Morrow and Company, with a foreword written by Willard Scott.

These NBC publicity photos show the cast of the Today Show in various years. To your left, in 1991: Faith Daniels, Gene Shalit, Katie Couric, Joe Garagiola, Bryant Gumbel, Willard Scott. Below left, in 1988: Jane Pauley, John Palmer, Bryant Gumbel, Gene Shalit, Willard Scott. Below right, in 1992: Gene Shalit, Margaret Lawson, Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric, and Willard.

  

Here are two long-lost pictures, given to your webmaster by Willard around 1969 (but taken much earlier). It's a very small world... the dining-room photo was taken at our next-door neighbor's house in Arlington Virginia. Willard used to visit her there, many years before my family lived next door to her, and long before we met the Joy Boys.

In July 2000, Ed Walker and Dick Spottswood shared the cover of the WAMU 88.5 Newsletter.

This postcard from 1987 shows everybody's favorite weatherman, Willard Scott, waving the checkered flag at a Howard Johnson's Road Rally.

You can see that through the magic of computer graphics, Willard was able to appear in several different environments. Willard has also been known to visit NASCAR races, and gave the "start your engines!" command in Atlanta, in March 2001.

This fine portrait of Willard and Ed was taken around 1970. It was provided to us by Nancy Walker (Ed's wife).

In 1990, Arnold Schwarzenegger was appointed chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Here we see Willard Scott discussing fitness tips with Arnold.

Willard and Ed were pleased to meet the First Lady, Pat Nixon. What does proper ettiquette demand that you say in a reception line? Ed recalls Willard said "Don't you just hate things like this?" and received a kind laugh from Mrs. Nixon.

Your webmaster had a great time visiting with Willard Scott and Ed Walker in Washington DC. Click here or on the picture to see more.

Borrowed from Willard's office: here are two pictures of the Joy Boys on the air at WMAL radio (probably from 1990).

How not to lay out a newspaper front page! At first glance, it looks like Willard is the subject of the bank robbery headline. But on closer reading, we see the story (right, with a much smaller headline) about his visit to York, Pennsylvania in July 1991.

Ed Walker was recently honored as the recipient of the American Council of the Blind's Ambassador Award. Willard Scott presented the award to his old friend. Click here or on the picture for the story, pictures, and sound clips from the award program.

Willard Scott, dressed in a kilt, hugs the somewhat shorter Betty Groebli. Betty hosted a talk show on WRC. Her interview with the Joy Boys can be heard on our CD #JB120. (Photo contributed by Amy Rinker.)

It's not often we have a modern picture of the Joy Boys, but here they are, together at Willard's book signing at the Smithsonian, June 12. You can see more pictures of the appearance or read more about Willard's latest book.

The Joy Boys at WWDC, with Johnny Holliday. This photo is dated October 23 1972, making it the first Joy Boys afternoon drive program on WWDC. Click here to read more about Johnny and the Joy Boys. (Photo by Norman J. Tavan)

Smile for the camera! Here are two publicity photos from the WRC Graphics Department, probably taken during the late 1960s.

     

From the Washington Post, May 1 1971: This photo shows Ed's sound-effects door, Willard and Ed on the left, and engineer Mike Berry in the control room on the other side of the soundproof glass. Willard appreciated the engineers, saying when you lay a complete bomb, the engineer plays the music up and saves you. He's Salvation Central! The article mentions that the show is on from 7 to 10 PM and draws about 57,000 listeners weekly. Read more about the WRC studios at The Great 98 web site. (Contributed by Joan Baxter.)

After the Joy Boys left WWDC, Ed Walker co-hosted A.M. Washington, a morning talk show on Washington's ABC affiliate WMAL-TV. The show ran during 1975-76 and followed Good Morning America. Ed and co-host Ruth Hudgins appear in the photo to your right.

Broadcast legend Arthur Godfrey visited the show in April 1975, and you can hear a clip from that show by clicking here (MP3 file, 549K). This is from our CD #JB125. Compare his voice to Arthur Codfish, which was Willard's version of Godfrey's famous voice. You can click this link (MP3 file, 375K) to hear the story of "Arthur Codfish and the self-rising pie filling" from CD #JB253 in our audio archives.

NBC's "Joy Boys," Willard Scott, left, and Ed Walker, right, discuss the radio business with Jerry Strong, a former radio man, as they speak at the Potomac Rotary Club. (Photo from The Sentinel, October 30 1969, contributed by Joan Baxter.)

Ed Walker, Sue Harmon, Willard Scott, and Liz Hopwood, in formal attire at WAMU-FM's "Annie" benefit, May 16 1978. (Photo provided by Joan Baxter.)

Last month we presented this photo, with Ed, Willard, and an actor playing Charlie Chaplin. The actor turned out to be Bill Starks, who writes:

The black and white photo, I think is from 1972. I was still in high school, and was working for the Roth Theatre chain at the time. Chaplin's film, "Modern Times" had been re-released in theatres, that was the occasion of my visit. The picture was taken by the regional manager for the theatre chain -- he was the promotional genius who dreamed up the idea of having a kid dressed up as a silent movie star, interviewed on radio.

After the photo was taken, Bill got a job at NBC, working with Willard and Ed. This color photo was taken by Walt Starling.

Here's a clever takeoff on Willard's TV work. Weather cat Willard Scatt predicts the rain and celebrates a 100-year-old feline fan. (That's about 20 in cat years.)

The cat picture was printed on a tin sign we purchased from eBay, but seems to have originated in a book called The Cat Hall of Fame: Imaginary Portraits and Profiles of the World's Most Famous Felines. According to the Barnes and Noble web site, the book also contains portraits of William Shakespurr, David Litterman, Pablo Picatso, Chairman Meow, General George C. Catton, Liza Mewnelli, Cats Domino, and many more.

In 1974 the Joy Boys, with the help of John Hickman and Robert Parish, sold their comedy bits in syndication to several radio stations including WETT in Ocean City, Maryland. This photo came from one of the syndication brochures. (Thanks to Suzanne Adamko at the Library of American Broadcasting, University of Maryland.)

Willard Scott meets General Norman Schwarzkopf. This photo is obviously from the 1991 Persian Gulf War era, during Operation Desert Storm. Judging by the smiles, it was taken after the struggle was clearly going our way.

Two small photos of Ed and Willard, hard at work in their WRC studio. In the right-hand picture, Ed is opening the sound-effects door. Many of the character voices "entered" and "exited" through this door. (You can click on that picture for a larger view.) Click here (MP3, 154K) to listen as Ed tells about the sound-effects door. (This clip is part of our CD #JB115.)

The Joy Boys appeared on the cover of Programmer's Digest magazine in 1973. Click here or on the photo, to read more about the publication and see some larger pictures from this edition.

Howard Reynolds sent us a copy of his Joy Boys Fan Club Card. You can also see the flip side of the card, and read Howard's letter, by clicking here.

What would this site be, without one of the all-time great Willard Scott portraits? This publicity shot has had very wide distribution, with most copies personally autographed by Willard. You can often find copies of this photo on eBay.

In 1974, Ed Walker was interviewed at the University of Maryland, and this photo was taken during the interview. You can read the complete interview by clicking here.

This photo of Willard comes from two of our visitors. Click here to read the story behind this picture, or click on the photo to see a larger view.

Since this was taken after WRC dropped the Joy Boys show, perhaps "get stuffed" had several meanings?...

One of the advantages of packing and moving, is that you get to look at all the stuff under the stairs. That's how I found this 7", 33 RPM record, which was released to radio stations in 1971, with eight Red Cross public service announcements (PSAs). Three of these PSAs feature the Joy Boys in a rare stereo recording. The bottom is signed by Willard and Ed.

Jim Weaver took this photo of Ed and Willard in the WRC studio, in January 1970. Ed's copy book and clock are in the foreground. On the right is the rear of the control box, which contained the microphone switch and studio volume control. (From Ed Walker's personal collection.)

Mike Berry adds: The box in the middle under Eddie's hand was a telephone effects microphone. It was simply a poor quality telephone style microphone mounted in the box with a key to turn it on and off. Eddie could pick it up and talk in it and it sounded like he was on the telephone.

Visit the Great 98 web site for an excruciating (read boring) discussion of the controls on the 'idiot's delite' box on the right of the photo... Go to VINTAGE WRC, scroll all the way to the bottom and click on TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, scroll down about 5 pages.

Eddie's Braille clock was a set of minute and second hands, driven by a synchronous motor. He plugged it in just before the show every evening and we synced it up with the precision time.