Major Astro’s moonscape now history

It may or may not be Major Astro’s moonscape.

Chances are, it is. The time period and location are right.

The Kansas Museum of History in Topeka has it now.

“I picked it up a week ago Friday,” said Blair Tarr, the museum’s curator. “It is here; we’ve got the moon.”

And that is great news for the many baby boomers who idolized Kansas’ beloved – albeit fictional – space hero.

Major Astro was a TV character they watched daily after school. He interspersed his show, also called “Major Astro,” with cartoons, right before reruns of “The Rifleman” and “Bonanza.”

The afternoon show first ran from 1962 to 1973 on KARD, now KSN, and for a short time in 1985 for KSAS. Major Astro was a character created by Wichitan Tom Leahy Jr., who created the space traveler in large part because of America’s focus at the time on outer space and astronauts.

Now fast-forward to the late 1970s, when Jeff Schwab was a cameraman at KARD. A prop room at the studio was being cleaned out, and items cast aside were thrown in a dumpster.

Schwab retrieved the hand-crafted moonscape from the TV show.

“They weren’t using these items and needed the extra space,” Schwab said. “They were throwing away fake walls, trash and scrap wood. And they threw away the moonscape. I thought it was an art piece. I collected oddities. I’ve got an eccentric taste in objects.”

The moonscape is about 14 inches wide and 4 feet long, Blair said. It is made of plywood and had plaster of Paris spattered across the surface, showing pits and craters on the moon.

It had been created in the days of black and white television – when the right lighting could cast shadows and depth. The camera would zoom in and slowly pan past the moonscape as Major Astro talked about his travels.

“I don’t know why, (but) I held on to it,” Schwab said.

The plywood board has nothing on it to indicate it was Major Astro’s moon.

“But what else could it be?” Tarr said.

“It was made back in the days when we made our own sets,” Schwab said.

At first, Schwab’s moon was stored in a closet, then inside his garage, he said.

Three years ago, Wilma Leahy donated several items that her husband, Tom, had used in his TV career to the Kansas Museum of History. Tom Leahy died in June 2010 at age 87. Items Wilma Leahy donated included the NASA-style jumpsuit her husband wore in the final years of “Major Astro” and the jacket he wore as “The Host,” along with a bumper sticker and a certificate for the Space Patrol.

Schwab said Sunday that he wanted the moonscape to be part of that collection and donated it to the state museum.

Wilma Leahy was unavailable for comment on Sunday.

The moonscape and other “Major Astro” items may someday be part of an exhibit at the museum. Tarr said Sunday that radio and television historical artifacts are sometimes hard to come by.

“There is a great broadcasting heritage,” Tarr said. “Wichita was not unlike a lot of cities where there were children shows. ‘Major Astro’ was big in Wichita, western Kansas and up to Nebraska. There are many people who will fondly remember the major. Something about this touches people.”

Or as fans will remember Leahy’s signature farewell at the end of each show: “Happy orbits, boys and girls. ... Everything will be A-OK, and all systems will be go.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2016 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Major Astro’s moonscape now history."