Biography
Joe Bolton served as an announcer and sportscaster for WOR Radio and for CBS Radio during the 1930s. He also appeared in sports newsreels for Warner Brothers and for Paramount Pictorials. Following his service in the army, he briefly served as executive director of The Office of War Information. Bolton returned to NYC radio, where he worked again as an announcer for WOR Radio. He also hosted a late-night talk show and a jazz music show for WNEW Radio. Before he made his NYC TV debut in 1948 on the Dumont network, he served as announcer for Dumont's TV talent show Doorway to Fame (1947). He left Dumont and joined WPIX TV (Ch. 11) in NYC on May 15, 1948. He worked in many capacities: announcer, sportscaster, news anchor and co-host of a late night old movie TV show, "Night Owl Theater" with Cliff Edwards, in addition to functioning as a game show host. From Monday night January 17, 1955 to Friday September 13, 1957, Bolton began his long and successful stint as "Officer Joe" on "The Clubhouse Gang". Seen Monday to Saturday evenings, "Officer Joe" entertained and informed his studio audiences and his viewers in between the reruns of "The Little Rascals" films. Bolton also hosted "The Three Stooges Funhouse" and "The Three Stooges Show", and was the Police Chief host of "The Dick Tracy Show" on Ch. 11 from Thursday September 7, 1961, to Friday August 31, 1963. He appeared with Paul Winchell and The Marquis Chimps in Stop! Look! and Laugh! (1960) as "Officer Joe" in 1960 and as "Rob Dalton" in The Three Stooges' last feature film, The Outlaws Is Coming (1964). He hosted two more NYC-based kids TV shows on Ch. 11, "The Felix The Cat Show" weekday afternoons from Monday May 11, 1970, to Friday November 19, 1971, and "The Little Rascals Show" weekday mornings from Monday, November 22, 1971, to Friday, June 30, 1972. Bolton continued working at WPIX TV Ch. 11 in NYC as a booth announcer from 1971 to January, 1976.
