Clellan Card

Who was Clellan Card?

Clellan Card was an on-air personality at the Minnesota Television station WCCO best known for the dozen years when he played Axel Torgeson on the local children's show Axel and His Dog. Card was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and spent most of his life in the Twin Cities region, although he attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He dropped out of Rutgers in 1926, moved back with his parents, and worked at various jobs before starting in radio. His first broadcasting job was doing voice work for a fishing tackle commercial.

The Axel character, a loony "Scandihoovian," was created by Card in the late 1930s on a morning radio show on WCCO AM called Almanac of the Air.

Card suffered great losses in 1952 and early 1953 when two of his three children died in separate incidents four months apart. His son Peter died in a airplane crash in Texas, and John died in a car crash in the Twin Cities. It is believed that these events led Card to focus his broadcast talents toward children.

Axel and His Dog went on the air the first time on August 5, 1954. Donald Stolz, founder of the Old Log Theater, played Towser, the dog, and soon added Tallulah the cat as well.