Sad news for all of us aging, cartoon-loving baby boomers:
A pioneer of local television in Fort Wayne, John Manahan Siemer passed away over the weekend.
Siemer known fondly as “Engineer John” for a generation of baby boomers served the Fort Wayne area as the host of morning cartoon show 'The Cartoon Express."
He was employed at WKJG Channel 33 from 1954- 1971.
When Siemer became as popular as the cartoons on the show, they actually changed the name from 'The Cartoon Express' to 'The Engineer John Show.'
So many places had their cartoon show with a goofy character introducing the bits and making silly chatter and pitching whatever product was sponsoring the show. Engineer John was ours. It would be overthinking it to wonder why he appealed to us. He was a friendly adult figure who showed cartoons -- and the classic Warner Brother ones at that. Man, what a lot of memories.
