Windy Wonderful

Windy Wonderful went on air before he ever really existed. "We had ordered this horse's head puppet, but it hadn't arrived yet," recalled Henry Allin, who was the voice of Windy. "So we faked the first shows by having Donna Reed, who was then the hostess, talk to Windy on the telephone. By the time we got the puppet, we had hundreds of letters from children who wrote in even though they'd never seen him." That was about 1959. And the "Windy Wonderful" Show on WKYT soon became one of the most popular in Central Kentucky. In 1960, Reed (not the movie star of the same name) was replaced by Mary Ann Williams, then still a senior at Bourbon County High School. Known to the kids simply as Mary Ann, she became Windy's permanent partner, remaining with the show until it left the air. Along the way, she met and married Jerry Kuykendall, who was a prop man on the show. "I don't remember a thing about the first show I was on," Mary Ann said. "I probably was scared out of my ever lovin ... Fortunately, Henry made it easy for me." Allin, a Lexington native, had worked extensively in radio and was an announcer at Channel 27 when the "Windy" show was conceived. He said he played Windy "mostly because no one else was interested." According to Allin, the show was conceived by Bob Weigand, a Channel 27 executive who thought a talking horse would be popular with kids in the Bluegrass. A simple set was built to resemble a stable. Allin sat behind it, poking his arm through an opening to operate the Windy hand puppet. Mary Ann, decked out in riding togs, stood in front. The show featured lively banter between Windy and Mary Ann, interspersed with Popeye & Mr. Magoo cartoons and the Three Stooges comedies. Windy frequently poked fun at weatherman Frank Faulconer, calling him "the weather hawk." But the high point of each show was when the kids came on to pet Windy's nose and say hello to their friends at home. Everything was done live, without scripts and there were more than a few rough spots. Like the time a small monkey was brought on the show. "That monkey took one look at Windy and leaped, screaming up into the over head studio lighting equipment," Faulconer recalled. "After the 11 '0 clock news went off that night they were still trying to coax it down." Regular visitors included Maurice Cheval, Windy's "French cousin," and Harold Zink, a ventriloquist's dummy that Allin also operated. Windy, however, was the real star. "The idea was that Windy came from another part of the country; he had this accent that was sort of like Brooklyn," Allin said. He was kind of like a child, always in trouble. And he had these words of wisdom. One was 'don't point your finger and laugh, hold out your hand and smile.' " Allin added that Windy actually went on the air before "Mr. Ed," the network show about a talking horse. But about 1965 Allin tired of the role and moved to California to pursue an acting career. Windy was put out to pasture. Many Ann however remained on local television until the late '60s with her own popular show, "Mary Antics." Until the mid 1970s, she also was hostess for various Santa Claus shows each Christmas. She and her family still live in Lexington. And people still stop her to ask whether she is "that Mary Ann." "I never thought of myself as any kind of celebrity," she said. "Mostly, TV was just a way to work my way through college. I know there were other women at the station who yearned for a job like the one I had, but I guess I took it for granted. "Doing the shows live, there were mistakes that would be horrendous today. But there were lots of days when the kids just had so much fun that you came away with a good warm feeling." Allin retired in California and recalled the Windy Show as "a wonderful experience. Everywhere I went, kids wanted my autograph because they knew somehow that I was Windy. I think back to that time with great pleasure. So much so, that Allin hung onto the puppets that made the old show work. Said Allin, "Windy and Harold Zink are side by side in my closet where they've been for many years."

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