The ever-shrinking brown paper sack of
goodies given to any kid who was lucky enough to make it onto the
Wallace and Ladmo Show, which ran locally on
Phoenix television in one form or another from 1954-1989.
Aside from the usual
candy, like
Twinkies and foot-long
Tootsie Roll canisters, the Ladmo Bag also included tickets to local
amusement parks like
Big Surf and
Legend City (now
defunct).
Although I never made it on the show myself, it seemed like it wasn't too difficult, since the vast majority of kids who made it onstage were either in
Cub Scouts or had previously mailed in some
ham-fisted crayon drawing of the show's straw-man spoiled brat foil, Gerald, meeting his demise in any of a variety of ways, ranging from silly to downright disturbing.
The Ladmo Bag really did shrink over the years, going from a full size brown paper grocery sack to a skimpy bag to one of those skimpy liquor store bags that couldn't even hold a two-liter bottle of soda. A Ladmo Bag full of
liquor, now that would be cool...