When I think about my childhood growing up in little old Lethbridge in the early 60s I would have to say that a big part of it was watching TV. What baby boomer wasn’t brought up on the variety of entertainment offered on The Ed Sullivan Show Sunday night at 8pm followed by the exploits of the Cartwrights on Bonanza at 9? (We often had to go to bed at 9:30 unless Little Joe was hanging perilously from a cliff and we had to make sure Hoss was going to show up to save him.) The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour was a tradition on Saturday. Saturday was always hamburger night unless someone “took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.”

And then there was Razzle Dazzle. It was a half-hour kid’s show produced by CBC that came on Monday to Friday afternoon and featured characters like Howard The Turtle, Percy Q. Kidpester, and Mr. Sharpey. You could write in and get an awesome secret decoder wheel, there was a segment on kid’s news and in the final five minutes we could watch continuing episodes of The Adventures of the Terrible Ten or The Forest Rangers.

Usually I sat at home and ate an entire bag of Old Dutch Potato Chips which I then saved for an appearance on Kids Bids. I digress.

I loved Razzle Dazzle.

It can be argued that Howard The Turtle was the star of the show but the two original hosts, Alan Hamel and Michele Finney were its backbone. They welcomed you into their fun, adventurous lives, kept things moving as smoothly as possible and had a tremendous chemistry between them. As an 8-year old boy there was a sense of comfort that made me feel like I was a part of their family. As far as I was concerned, Razzle Dazzle was required viewing. It could not be missed. And of course like so any other kids my age, I had a crush on Michele.

Michele & Al Hamel

Flash forward to 2019. I don’t know what stirred my memory banks but I felt a compulsion to Google Razzle Dazzle to see if there was any archival photos or videos. I found a write-up and a few photos on Wikipedia and I discovered that Michele Finney was on Facebook. Could this be THEE Michele Finney? Turns out it was. I sent her a message and asked if she would be willing to do an interview about her time on Razzle Dazzle and what she’s been up to since. To my utter joy she agreed and we set up a phone call. For me it was a glorious hour and a half conversation. I was still an 8-year old fan talking to who I considered to be one of the biggest stars in the world.

Michele was an only child of British parents. Both were involved in theatre. Her mom was in Vaudeville and her father was a theatrical manager. They immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto. When Michele was born her mom gave up the theatre life and her dad started working with CBC.

Michele says she was painfully shy but started to do some childhood modeling at eight years old. Walking the runway helped her overcome that shyness. She also did TV dramas, some magazine print work and performed on many live children’s radio programs. She says she was able to work with wonderful theatrical actresses who really taught her the craft.

At the age of 11 she auditioned for a TV adventure series. She didn’t get that role but she was asked to be part of a new kid’s show. And that’s when her career on Razzle Dazzle began.

Michele had a lot going for her. She was mature for her age, had been honing her skills for about three years and she had close to a photographic memory which definitely helped in memorizing the daily 30-minute script.

After her first day she didn’t want to do the show. Her father told her to try to take it one day at a time. She took the advice and grew to love the gig. Her co-host, Al Hamel was 10 years older than her. She says he had a wonderful sense of humor and got along really well with him. While Michele had memorized the script, Al needed his lines taped everywhere.

John Keogh was the puppeteer behind Howard The Turtle. It was Howard who was not only beloved by the audience but became a second father to Michele. She says Howard was very real to her and had great conversations during breaks and after the show. Howard was also the only one who had the script. As things would occasionally derail during the show, Howard was the one who was able to get things back on track.

Michele still went to school every day, did the show and then had two hours with a tutor. She would get occasional ribbing at school from other students. She admits she wasn’t a great student but when it became known by her teachers that she was making more money than they were, she somehow began to get failing grades.

The show truly was the best and worst of times for Michele. There was great joy in being on the set performing and being an artist. But she hated the business side of it all and the need to please a lot of people ranging from the show’s producers to her tutors to her parents.

The show had a lot of fans and people would write in. She recalls one day being with her father and seeing a stack of mail bags. He asked what was in the bags and what they were doing with it. They were letters to Michele and it was all going to be tossed. Her father said, “From now on, all that mail comes home to us.”

Reading those letters shaped her as a human being. Many of the kids wrote in about having a difficult time at home. Michele became very empathetic and learned how important it was to just listen. She tried to write to everyone and in fact still has those letters.

Michele did 20 shows a month for four years. The time had come for her to make a change. It was time to move on and it was a mutual agreement between her and the CBC. Michele started doing a one hour teen show called Time of Your Life. Trudy Young and Ray Bellew became the second generation of Razzle Dazzle hosts.

Because Michele was a bona fide child star there was this up and coming group about to play in Toronto. The Telegram Newspaper asked if she would be interested in doing an interview with these four guys from a place called Liverpool, England. Yes. The Beatles. She got to see both of their shows at Maple Leaf Gardens and hang out with them at the King Eddie Hotel. She says it was an exciting time and they were all great, funny, affable people. And who was her favorite? Paul.

At the age of 15, Michele’s parents decided they wanted to try California. She hated it. She was not like Gidget who was hugely popular at the time. She was not blonde, she was not 5’2” and she was under 18. There were a lot of labor laws about under-age kids at the time and it was a struggle to get a job. She went back to Toronto and picked up her career where she did some voice over work and commercials. She married at a young age and was divorced at a young age. There was another marriage and another divorce.

Today she is married to musician Danny Weis who was from San Diego and was a co-founder of Iron Butterfly. They had originally met in 1971. There was a brief romance and they went their separate ways. Thirty years later she got a message that he had called. Both were single and apparently there was a spark that was alive and very well. They have now been married for 15 years. Michele moved back to California for 7 years but they have returned back to Ontario in the Georgian Bay area. As an interesting aside, Vern Dorge of Lethbridge plays on Danny’s latest CD.

As we closed up our conversation I asked Michele to reflect on her past. She says she has had an amazing life. She had strict parents which she now appreciates and they instilled a great work ethic in her. As she put it, “I got into just enough crap to be normal.” She has no regrets other than maybe wishing she had become an archeologist or treasure hunter.

When I asked if she had any kind of philosophy of life I think she reflected back to those mail bags sitting in a storage room at CBC.

“Most of us feel unheard. We need to listen. We are all one.”