Obituary
April 14, 2004
Deane Parkhurst "...John Scott passed away April 14th, 2004. He was 73 and died of congestive
heart failure. He was program director of WHEN when he hired me in 1960, put me in thePD's
chair when he was named Station Manager. Lost his job when he and Bud Stiker did not see
eye-to-eye... which opened the door for John Patton. " DP
A generation of kids watched 'Uncle Skip'
The late John "Skip" Scott made "presto-chango" a household phrase in
CNY.
April 22, 2004
By William LaRue
Staff writer - Syracuse Post Standard
He was known to youngsters in the 1950s and 1960s as "Uncle Skip," the Syracuse TV host who launched cartoons with the phrase: "Presto-chango, by-jingo, get going projector. John Lawrence "Skip" Scott, 73, died April 14 at his home in Peterborough, N.H. The family said the cause of death was congestive heart failure. A native of Portsmouth, N.H., he went to work at WTVH-TV (Channel 5), in 1954 when the station was known as WHEN-TV (Channel 8). He previously served in the U.S. Air Force in the Office of Public Information at Sampson Air Force Base in Geneva. At WHEN, he was hired as an announcer for the TV station and program director for WHEN-AM (620). But much of the public best knew him for work in front of the camera, first in the 1950s as Uncle Skip, host of "Cartoon Clubhouse." His "presto-chango" phrase came about...
For additional reading see the Post Standard April 22, 2004 - "Fair Use" laws permit us to only offer a limited number of words from this article.
