Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Gene Nelson collection
- Dates:
- 1919-2003, bulk 1950-1980
- Creators:
- Nelson, Gene (1921-2008)
- Abstract:
- The collection documents the personal and professional life of Gene Nelson, a Sacramento television broadcast pioneer. Material spans most of his life, dating from 1919 to 2003, with the bulk from 1950 to 1980. Both his personal and professional life is documented through photographs and negatives; documents; correspondence; film, video, and audiotape; and artifacts. Personal items include photographs, documents, and artifacts related to his schooling, time in the military, and family. Items documenting his professional career include contracts, programs from his shows, ephemera, magazines and clippings, and a large number of audio, film, and video recordings of his shows.
- Extent:
- 2 linear feet (2 boxes)
- Language:
- Languages represented in the collection: English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Gene Nelson collection, MS0090, Center for Sacramento History.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection documents the personal and professional life of Gene Nelson, a Sacramento television broadcast pioneer. Material spans most of his life, dating from 1919 to 2003, with the bulk from 1950 to 1980. Both his personal and professional life is documented through photographs and negatives; documents; correspondence; film, video, and audiotape; and artifacts. Personal items include photographs, documents, and artifacts related to his schooling, time in the military, and family. Items documenting his professional career include contracts, programs from his shows, ephemera, magazines and clippings, and a large number of audio, film, and video recordings of his shows. Photographic material in this collection has not yet been rehoused.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Sacramento broadcasting pioneer Gene Nelson was born in 1921 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. He began his show business career at the local college radio station, then joined the marines in 1942, fighting in World War II until 1945.
Nelson’s career took off after the war with several stints as a radio host for stations in Oregon and California. His first large-scale weekly show, Queen for a Night, was with an Oregon station. He hosted the show--where contestants competed for a night of pampering in Hollywood--for three years. The show’s success drew the attention of Ewing Kelly, the founder of Sacramento’s KCRA 3 radio station, who offered Nelson a five night per week radio show. Nelson declined the offer and instead accepted a disk jockey position at Sacramento’s fifth most popular radio station at the time, KGMS. Gene began hosting the KGMS shows Alarm Clock Club and The Gene Nelson Show in 1952.
While at KGMS, Nelson also worked for two San Francisco television stations: He hosted a Friday-night TV show on KPIX-TV and did commercials on KRON-TV for the Monday Night Fights. Following these shows and his success as a radio host, Nelson began working for Sacramento’s KCCC-TV.
Beginning in January 1954, Nelson hosted three television programs, which ran for four years: Sacramento Varieties, Breakfast With Gene, and Club 40. In 1958, he took his shows to Channel 10, and later to Channel 13 for roughly one year. After this, Nelson retired from show business, appearing only in a few small-budget documentaries produced by friends. He and his wife, Barbara Harris (married November, 28 1954), lived in Tiburon and Calistoga before returning to Sacramento. He was a member of the Valley Broadcast Legends. Nelson died in 2008.
- Acquisition information:
- Donated by Chris Peterson in 2009 (accession number 2009/012).
- Processing information:
-
Processing and finding aid by Travis Menne, 2009. Finding aid edited by Kim Hayden, 2020.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- © 2020
- Date Encoded:
- Machine-readable finding aid created by Kim Hayden. Date of source: June 22, 2020.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research use.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests to publish or quote from private manuscripts held by the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) must be submitted in writing to csh@cityofsacramento.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of CSH as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Gene Nelson collection, MS0090, Center for Sacramento History.
- Location of this collection:
-
551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.Sacramento, CA 95811, US
- Contact:
- (916) 808-7072