About Bill Thompson (television host)
William Earnest Thompson (December 18, 1931 – July 23, 2014), better known as Wallace, co-hosted The Wallace and Ladmo Show, a daily children's variety show broadcast on KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona for 36 years. The program featured short comedy skits and cartoons and was known for humor that appealed to adults as well as children. == Personal life == Thompson was born in New York City on December 18, 1931, to William and Marie Thompson, who had met while attending the University of Arizona. The Thompsons were a wealthy family who had made a large part of their fortune through mining operations in Arizona carried out by Bill's great-uncle, William Boyce Thompson, and grandfather, J. E. Thompson. As a child, Bill visited J. E. Thompson's estate in Phoenix, the Rancho Joaquina House, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the historic register for the City of Phoenix. Bill's father traded stocks on Wall Street. When Bill was three, the family moved from Manhattan to Bronxville, New York, where he grew up near the Thompson family's mansion. After graduating from Bronxville High school, Thompson attended DePauw University, where he studied art and acting, but was not an enthusiastic student. Around that time, he began writing children's stories featuring a character named Wallace Snead. In 1952, Thompson dropped out of college, moved to Phoenix, married Donna Cope and started a family.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.