Bruno “Junior”
Zielinski
Pioneer Category – Inducted 1986
Born in Jaslo, Poland in 1911, Bruno Z. Zielinski
came to this country with his mother, Anna, as a one year old boy. The
joined his father Zygmunt, who earlier settled in Chicago’s
neighborhood, Bridgeport. After elementary education at St. Barbara
Parish Catholic School he attended Harrison High School graduating in
1926.
Tremendously fascinated by the radio as a new media
of communication and entertainment, in 1930 Bruno started spinning polka
records on his own radio show: “Godzina Grunwaldzka” [Grunwald
Hour] at radio station WEDC, which is in existence today as station WCEV.
For many decades one of the most interesting
fragments of the program was a radio story, “Klopoty Rodziny
Siekierkow” [Troubles of the Siekierki Family], performed on the
basis of radio scripts by Bronislaw Mroz. This was a family show, which
presented exciting popular characters of a Polish immigrant family in the
Chicago area, experiencing its life in a completely new environment by
comparison to the old country setting.
Mrs. Pelagia Mroz as the mother, Mr. Mroz as the
father, and Bruno as their son, Juniorek (Junior), with many other
professional and amateur actresses and actors, among them Antoni
Bednarczyk, Kazimierz Kasperek, Stanislaw Kajkowski, Wladyslaw
Krassowski, Felicja Lichocka-Kulakowska, Tadeusz Krauze and Wladyslaw
Panka, fascinated and entertained thousands of Polish listeners touching
them by reflecting the average life of a common Polish family.
This radio show had been also performed on stage,
always evoking tremendous applause of the general public.
Bruno was also credited with the opening in 1957 of
the first Polish American TV Program, “It’s Polka Time," which was seen
on television as an ABC network program in 36 states of the nation for
over two years.
Finally, Bruno was a very popular PR man in
Chicago’s political circles of both parties. He organized the Bruno
Zielinski Advertising Agency, specializing in political radio and TV
campaigns.
Sociable and amicable, equipoise and abstemious,
Bruno was a man of character and integrity as a PR man, as a radio
producer and director, and as a co-worker and a friend of many.
Deceased, he is fondly remembered. |
