1963 - 1968

Through an old acquaintance from his days with WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, Clay is brought to the attention of WPIX-TV (Channel 11).  At the behest of the station, Clay tapes a pilot, The Young World of Clay Cole, with Chuck McCann as Clay's announcer/sidekick and Bobby Darin as the guest.  The station is sold on the show, which will begin airing that fall; Chet Dowling, the person who'd brought Clay to the station, will be the producer.  In the meantime, Clay, now employed by Channel 11, returns to Freedomland in July for a late-night, live summer series, Clay Cole at the Moon Bowl.  Clay also films a commercial for Wrigley's Doublemint Gum.  On his way to the Peppermint Lounge to celebrate having won the audition, he is mobbed by fans and, somehow, accidentally injured by a police officer's baton and arrested for striking a law enforcement officer.  It will take Clay several months to navigate through the legal system and obtain an acquittal in court.

The Young World of Clay Cole debuts in October of 1963.  It's in a talk-show format and features primarily (but not exclusively) musical artists, with a secondary emphasis on comedy, and airs at 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday nights.

That December, Clay begins hearing a song called "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" on the radio, sung by a British band called The Beatles.  As 1963 surrenders to 1964, Beatlemania has begun.

After Dowling's departure from The Clay Cole Show, a replacement producer introduces a new segment to the show - "Clay's Cole Bin," which features the musical guests doing comedy skits for the show's final quarter-hour.  This is a hit with both the fans and the participating guests, who embrace the chance to show off their comedic sides.

The Clay Cole Show is not only the very first American television program to present The Rolling Stones, it is also the only program ever to have both The Stones and The Beatles on the same show, thanks to a live satellite feed from Channel 11's sister station, WGN, in Chicago, IL.  The Stones are live in-studio, and The Fab Four are shown performing in concert at a Chicago arena courtesy of live footage.  This broadcast, which Clay playfully dubs "The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones," sends the show's ratings through the roof and is re-broadcast on three other nights.  (Sadly, the videotape of this, as well as all of Clay Cole's shows, is erased and re-used by the station to save money and lost to history forever.)

As the show celebrates its first anniversary in the fall of 1964, Clay is given a second hourlong show, which will air on Sunday nights.  Clay makes personal appearances in addition to his TV work and is regularly featured at a New York supper club called The Living Room; history repeats itself when Clay's Christmas-through-New-Year engagement at the club breaks the all-time house record.

Clay becomes a partner in a nightclub venture; the room is called Clay Cole's Happening Place.  His partnership and endorsement ends after a destructive fistfight and the infiltration of a criminal element with which Clay cannot afford to be associated.

Nineteen sixty-five is a year of upheaval.  Clay's mother, Evelyn Rucker, has a stroke and passes away at the young age of 52.  Still devastated from the loss, two months later, Clay enters into a short-lived marriage.

The Clay Cole Show is reformatted into Clay Cole's Disk-O-Tek.  Both the studio audience and the home viewers are a few years older than the 14-to-17-year-olds who'd previously made up the demographic, and the dress code is more relaxed.  The show continues to feature comedians as well as musical acts.  Clay's program has also gained a reputation as a solid stepping-stone for the British Invasion groups towards American network television appearances.

Clay continues to make personal appearances, mainly within New York City's boroughs and in New Jersey, including a return to Palisades Amusement Park to host the Free-Act stage and the Miss American Teenager pagaents, and a couple of summers entertaining at the New York World's Fair.  In 1967, Clay's show, now 90 minutes in length, begins broadcasting in color.

By this time, it is the beginning of the end of Clay's career as a rock and roll TV-show host.  Music is heavier, more psychedelic, and the hippie counterculture is moving into the forefront and exerting its influence - an influence with which Clay, a self-described "black-tie [and] tuxedo guy adrift in a tie-dyed, tee-shirt world," is becoming more and more uncomfortable.  The taping of the program isn't fun any longer; he is tired and ready to walk away from the mic.  After a weeklong appearance at the New York Paramount Theatre, hosting four shows a day at the legendary venue but feeling none of the old razzle-dazzle, and opening and closing a dance club called Clay Cole's Land of 1000 Dances at the Essex House Hotel in Newark, New Jersey, Clay gives WPIX-TV eight weeks notice.  The time has finally come for Clay to resign from the still well-received Clay Cole's Disk-O-Tek and his days as one of the New York-Metro area's most popular rock and roll emcees.

Clay's final show for Channel 11, which includes guests Paul Anka and The Cowsills and features a surprise live telephone call from Jerry Lewis, airs at the end of 1967.  As '67 gives way to '68 and Clay Cole celebrates both the New Year and his thirtieth birthday, he is also marking the end of an era, for himself as well as for the millions who tuned in to his show every week and caught him at his numerous personal appearances.

After Clay's departure, the show he had given life to, and instilled magic in, does not last another year.  It had been Clay Cole the youngsters had been tuning in to watch.

All told, Clay Cole has been a fixture on TV in the New York-Metro area for more than eight years, during which time he has not only presented many of the best-known names in the world of music and comedy but has also developed his very own fan base.  Now, the time has come for Clay to begin a new phase of life, and a brand-new career behind the scenes.

1968 - 2010

Although he has stepped away from the mic, Clay is far from retired; he will remain active in the business he loves until 2002.  Ultimately, he will be involved in the production of more than 3,500 TV shows, including the CBS-TV show People, based on the magazine of the same name, which he creates along with Raysa Bonow and David Susskind in 1979.

Clay's final stage appearance takes place in 1970 at New York's Academy of Music, where he presents a three-day Christmas show.  With a few exceptions, most of Clay's work after he leaves his popular television program takes place behind the scenes.  He has become a freelance TV producer who enjoys the independence and travel associated with his career as well as being out of the spotlight; in later years he will tell interviewers (and state in his book) that he had not enjoyed some of the aspects of the fame that his TV show and personal appearances had brought to him.