Plunk your magic twanger, Froggie

In a meeting today, to plan a tornado drill, I asked, "Who is going to 'plunk the magic twanger?'" Meaning, I intended, "Who is going to actually pull the alarm, when the time comes to hold the drill?

Well, the chief executive got it, but most of the others in the room thought I'd said something obscene. They did not know about Froggie the Gremlin and Froggie's associate, Midnight the Cat!!

To help out, I asked Google about "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggie," and I got 125 websites to give my co-workers that discussed the "...mischievous, wise-cracking little frog puppet..." Since you asked, here are some excerpts from the best of the 125, with an artillery postscript at the close:


Froggie the Gremlin
http://www.tvacres.com/frogs_froggie.htm
"...Wide-eyed puppet frog on the children's program called "Smilin' Ed's Gang" (NBC/CBS/ABC/1951-55). Froggie (voice of Ed McConnell, Arch Presby & Frank Ferrin) was a mischievous, wise-cracking little frog puppet who dressed in a tuxedo jacket and bow-tie. He delighted and perplexed the show's host Ed McConnell and later Andy Devine on "Andy's Gang" (NBC/1955). He appeared each week in a puff of smoke saying "Hi ya kids, hi ya, hi ya, hi ya!" after Smilin' Ed said "Now Froggie, you better become visible. Plunk your magic twanger, Froggie." On the later spin-off series, host Andy Devine summoned Froggie by saying "North or south, east or west, wherever you are, Froggie the Gremlin, we want you to become visible. Plunk your magic twanger, Froggie!"


Radio Archives Presents
http://amazinggrace.org/radioarch.html
"...Every Saturday morning without fail I would sit in front of my Philco radio & listen to Smilin Ed You couldn't wait to hear him say "plunk your magic twanger froggie." The kids would laugh and scream and have a ball..."


Plunk Your Magic Twanger, Froggie!
http://resources.heinemann.com/social_studies_methods/plunk.asp
"...You may not remember the immortal Ghouldini of Parma, Ohio who introduced late-night monster movies on obscure tv channels...the Ghoul, a tasteless reprobate wearing a fright-wig and sun-glasses with only one glass, was plagued by a plastic frog that would leap out from behind him and mock him from time to time (plunking his magic twanger) during the show. Froggie screaming, "Hi ya, Kids, Hi ya, Hi ya, Hi ya!" and exposing the Ghouldini as a fool. Invariably, at show's end, Froggie found himself being blown up by a cherry bomb in a toilet bowl-a sad end to a great Frog..."

Old Time Radio Memories
http://atomicbride.com/bobradio.html
"...One of my favorite things was when Smilin' Ed would yell an order to Froggie , "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggie!" And Froggie would say, "Hi ya, Kids, Hi ya, Hi ya, Hi ya!" and Midnight the Cat would say, "Nice!"


Froggy Memories
http://michelesworld.net/dmm/frog/gremlin/memory.htm
"...What did I remember about Froggy the Gremlin and the Buster Brown Show from my childhood?...I remember the phrase, "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!" I guess I thought plunking his magic twanger referred to plunking on a guitar, because my children drew a picture of Froggy for me in the early 70's based upon what I told them about him, and their drawing was of a frog with a guitar..."


During my time as an Marine artilleryman, when the time came to fire the six-gun howitzer battery, we’d say “Plunk the magic twanger, Froggie” and the gunners would pull the lanyards and the big guns would speak. Then usually some smart-alecky Marine would come on the line and say,"Hi ya, Kids, Hi ya, Hi ya, Hi ya!" and another gunner would add, "Nice!"

Those were the golden days of very funny artillery.