Mr. Jingeling (Earl Keyes)

Mr. Jingleling (aka Earl Keyes) was part of the many holiday memories and traditions of Cleveland.   Earl Keyes wasn’t the first Mr. Jingeling, but he was certainly one of the most memorable. Earl wore a lot of hats on and off the screen at WEWS. He was “Mr. Nicklesworth” on the Captain Penny show, and produced a lot of the programming aired on Channel 5 in its early days. That includes Mr. Jingeling, the keeper of the keys who did a daily segment on WEWS usually based on him helping to save the holiday and inviting kids to Halle’s seventh floor for a visit. After Max Ellis and Carl Mackey’s time as Mr. Jingeling, Earl Keyes took the role in 1965 and eventually relocated the character to a new store (Higbee’s) and a new TV station (WUAB). He loved meeting the public and carried on the Cleveland Christmas tradition longer than anyone before him. Earl’s wife, Nadine, helped out as well occasionally playing the role of, who else, Mrs. Jingeling.  Earl eventually acquired the copyright for the character and continued to make appearances until the 1995 Christmas season when he hung up his keys for the final time. Earl Keyes died of congestive heart failure in December 2000, the day after Christmas.

Happy Holidays from CAB and Mr. Jingleling, Cleveland’s keeper of the keys to our holiday memories…