Reminisce on the talent at the Show Wagon [Video]

The Show Wagon was born as a collaboration between the Parks and Recreation Department and the Omaha World-Herald’s Goodfellows charity in 1951. The Goodfellows program provided money to build a show van complete with stage curtains, lights, sound system and a small piano. The newspaper sponsored a contest to name the van, thus giving the city its Show Wagon.

In its heyday in the 1970s, the Show Wagon drew hundreds of contestants and thousands of audience members from the Omaha area and beyond to its summer shows in the parks.

Children ages 1 to 18 would compete in five age categories. Kids perform everything from tap-dancing baton twirls to two-steppin’ songs. They sang, danced and played the accordion — and other instruments.

They were cute, charming and creative. This was Omaha’s free, friendly and fun children’s talent show, where anyone could win and everyone, in many ways, did.

Did you …