Clellan Card (June 24, 1903–April 13, 1966) was a noted on-air personality at the Minnesota station WCCO most well_known for the dozen years where he played Axel Torgerson on the local children's show Axel and His Dog. Card was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and spent most of his life in the Twin Cities region, although he attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 forced him to briefly move in with his parents before he got into radio. His first broadcasting job was doing voice work for a fishing tackle commercial.

Card is one of the first Minnesotans to have ever appeared on television. In 1933, he appeared on an experimental 120-line transmission from station W9XAT, which was put together by the owner of radio station WDGY (today known as KFAN). Sportscaster Jack Horner of KSTP is considered the first to have appeared on a modern all_electronic broadcast, in 1947.

The Alex Torgerson character, a loony "Scandihoovian," was created by Card in the late 1930s when he had a popular morning radio show on WCCO AM called Almanac of the Air.

A devoted family man, Card suffered great losses in 1952 and early 1953 when two of his children died in separate incidents four months apart. His son Peter died in a plane crash in Texas, and John died in a car crash in the Twin Cities. It is believed that these events led Card to focus his broadcast talents toward children. Axel and His Dog went on the air for the first time on August 5, 1954. Don Stolz played a cat and dog on the show, and local singer and entertainer Mary Davies played Carmen the Nurse. Two months later, the show became the first in the Twin Cities to be broadcast in color, probably using an early RCA TK-40/41 setup, the first NTSC color camera system.

The show proved to be extremely popular. One live event at Excelsior Amusement Park at Lake Minnetonka in 1958 saw an attendance of 12,000.

In the 1960s, Card began to suffer from the effects of cancer, though few people outside of WCCO knew of the condition. He delayed going to the hospital as long as possible, but was finally admitted to Abbot Hospital in April 1966. He died just eight days later. Carmen the Nurse went on the air the next day to inform viewers of what happened. A memorial fund was set up, with $5,600 raised in the next two months. Roughly half of the money came in small donations of coins from children.

The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting inducted Card into their hall of fame for Minnesota broadcasters in 2002.

References

• (1995). Axel and his Dog. (http://www.ktca.org/lostcity/tv.html) Lost Twin Cities 2. Twin Cities Public Television.
• Axel. (http://www.pavekmuseum.org/axel.html) Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.
• Clellan Card. (http://www.pavekmuseum.org/Card.htm) Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.
• Axel and His Dog. (http://www.axelstreehouse.tvheaven.com/tvshow/axeltvshow.html) Axel's Treehouse.