If you were a kid in the 1950’s, it didn’t get much better than going to the television station with your friends to celebrate your birthday on the local kid’s show. The hosts of these programs were hugely popular to generations of children. Such is the case with Birmingham’s very own “Cousin Cliff.” Even these many years later, to those of a certain age, hearing his name is all it takes to produce a smile, and really, what could be more important than to bring decades of joy to countless boys and girls? For that, and for his many other contributions to the industry, the Alabama Broadcasters Association is proud to posthumously induct James Clifton Holman, Jr into the Hall of Fame.

 “You know back in the fifties, people were just starved for anything on television. Dad used to say that he could remember watching other people’s shows and they would literally put on a record and you would watch the records spinning,” laughs Holman’s son, Kyle. “They would do little windup toys to hop around because people just hadn’t figured out what television could do yet.”

That was the state of locally produced TV programming at the time Mobile native Holman started his broadcast career in Birmingham.  “Loveman’s department store was looking to make … what we would call an infomercial … an extended spot,” explains Kyle. “Dad was doing magic and puppets and that sort of thing and they hired him to sell products using his puppets.  It just broke out from there to get bigger and bigger.”

“When they decided to put him on a full-blown TV show, he was still very young – in his early 20’s, and you know everybody had an ‘Uncle This’ or an ‘Uncle That’”, says Kyle. “Dad was too young to be an ‘Uncle’ so they decided to make him a cousin. And that’s where ‘Cousin Cliff’ came from.”  From 1954 to 1968, Holman starred in WVTM’s “The Tip-Top Clubhouse” which eventually morphed into “Cousin Cliff’s Clubhouse”.

Holman left television for a while, working both in and out of media, until 1985, when he brought the character and show back to life on cable television. For a time, the program also aired on WDBB-TV. In 1990, in a move to a Saturday timeslot on WBRC-TV, the program was renamed Cousin Cliff’s Clubhouse, where it ran for two years.  After which, Holman again produced a cable version for Jack’s Hamburgers. After this short run on cable, Holman retired from television altogether.

He continued to perform his magic and comedy act and worked as a manager for the Parliament House hotel, public relations manager for the local chapter of the American Lung Association and an announcer for WCRT radio. Holman also served a term on the Vestavia Hills city council.

Clifton Holman, Jr. passed away in 2008 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  His battle with the disease was highlighted in the 2009 HBO documentary The Alzheimer’s Project.  Even that heart-breaking illness couldn’t completely rob Cousin Cliff of his deeply embedded entertainment skills.

Kyle Holman tells a story about a time he went to visit his dad in a hospice care facility. His mother told him that his father wasn’t “here” on that day, but Kyle gave it a try saying, “Hi Dad, we’re here because we wanted to see you.” His father kept his eyes on the TV and didn’t respond. Then Kyle had an idea: maybe he could reach his dad in a different way.

“Hey, Dad. You got ten dollars in one pocket; you got twenty dollars in the other pocket. What’ve you got?”

Without missing a beat Holman says, “Somebody else’s’ pants.”