The Old Rebel

(Greensboro, NC)  Jeri Rowe:

Timm Perry admits it’s hard.He’ll auction off some of his dad Sunday afternoon. [snip]

Timm’s dad was George Perry. Ask any longtime local over 40 and they knew him by another name: The Old Rebel.

The Old Rebel was vintage TV, the Triad’s own Santa Claus. He was the guy in the fake moustache, round glasses and top hat who helped an entire generation learn how to laugh on “The Old Rebel Show.’’

For more than 20 years beginning in the early 1950s, The Old Rebel helped children onto a set at WFMY (Channel 2) and entertained them with cartoons and vaudeville skits.

I remember well my several visits to the Old Rebel Show in the early 70's (that's the 1970's). The Old Rebel would find a few seconds between skits and birthday announcements to put me on camera to announce my Muscular Dystrophy carnivals, which made them wildly popular with the other kids in Rolling Roads. George Perry and his supporting cast were a local treasure the likes of which we haven't seen since. It's too bad his son is having a hard time. You can wear your nostalgia and assist Timm Perry at the same time with Old Rebel t-shirts.