Gene London, Philly children’s TV host, dies at 88 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Eugene Yulish, the former children’s TV host known to a generation or more of Philadelphians as Gene London, died on Sunday in Reading at the age of 88.

The cause was a cerebral hemorrhage, after a fall last Friday, according to his family.

One of the last to be lost from a pantheon of local stars that included the late Sally Starr, Captain Noah, Pixanne, and Chief Halftown, London hosted a show on WCAU (Channel 10) from 1959 to 1977 that aired under a variety of titles, including Cartoon Corners and The Wonderful World of Gene London.

After the TV show ended, he went on to work in the fashion industry as a designer in New York for Broadway shows, television, and films, as well as for private clients. Fashion was also his hobby, and he regularly exhibited selections from his 60,000-piece collection of Hollywood costumes and accessories. A recent exhibit at the Allentown Art Museum, “Designing Hollywood: Golden Age Costumes from the Gene London Cinema Collection,” included the Cecil Beaton costume Leslie Caron wore in Gigi and a costume Morton Haack designed for Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

He was planning future exhibitions when he died.

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“In this time of darkness, Gene truly was a light to so many people,” John Thomas, London’s husband and his partner of 39 years, said Tuesday. The couple, who married in 2016, met through mutual friends in 1981.

“I had grown up in Jersey outside of New York, so I had not been familiar with his show. I had just met him as a person and we clicked on the old movies and the costumes," Thomas said. “He had fond memories [of his TV career], but he didn’t live in the past. He was the type of person who was always planning his next adventure. … He lived in the here and now. But he did enjoy reminiscing and he loved it when he would be with fans and take a selfie or give someone a hug. He was truly touched by the outpouring of love.”

“At his events, people would wait in line for an hour to get three minutes with him just to share their personal story of their relationship with him, watching him on TV,” said London’s niece, Sherri Brenner. “He was a storyteller. He was the same storyteller throughout his life that he was on the show.”

Her uncle made a point of being “current,” she said, talking about subjects on his children’s show that viewers might not have heard discussed elsewhere. "He always said he never talked down to them. He treated them like fully realized human beings, and they appreciated that because they didn’t get that at home.”

Charles Yulish said that as good as his brother had been on television, he was “electric” before a live audience.

“Gene was a magic person, and I think anybody in Philadelphia would endorse the use of that word,” said Yulish, who, while calling Amtrak’s reservations line to try to reach Reading after his brother’s fall, happened to mention to the agent that his brother was Gene London.

“What! Gene London? I love him!” she told him. “And that’s not unusual,” he said.

In 2009, London was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s Hall of Fame.

His funeral service will be Thursday at the Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, with plans for a celebration of his life for fans in Philadelphia sometime this spring, according to his family.

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Gene London, Philly children’s TV host, dies at 88 - The Philadelphia Inquirer
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