Harry Martin

MARTIN, Harry


February 4, 1927 to February 17, 2008

Remembered for: Loving husband, father and grandfather; Local television personality at KCRA TV station for 33 years; Navy veteran of both WWII and the Korean War; Earned a B.A. Degree from College of the Pacific (now University of the Pacific), majoring in radio communications, and Pacific Alumni Board of Directors; Member of Rho Lamda Phi Literary Fraternity and Alpha Epsilon Rho Fraternity; Member of the Masons since 1947; Honorary Chairman of Multiple Sclerosis; Charter season ticket holder of the Sacramento Kings basketball team and named "The 6th Man" by The Kings in 2006; Inducted into San Francisco Broadcast Legends and Northern California Silver Circle; A wonderful sense of humor and by generally being a nice guy.

Preceded in death by: Wife of almost 52 years, Paulyne "Polly" (Peterson) Uhlenberg who passed away just 6 months ago in August 2007; his father, Christian George Uhlenberg and mother, Edith June Uhlenberg. Survived by: brother, Robert Uhlenberg and his wife Rose of Redwood City; daughter, Dayna Larson and her husband Stephen of Sacramento; son, Steven Uhlenberg and his wife Shari of Los Angeles; and grandchildren Erik Tinseth, Christopher Tinseth, Stephanie Tinseth, Daniel Uhlenberg and Lauryn Uhlenberg.

Born and raised in Redwood City, California, Harry, whose real name is Harry Martin Uhlenberg (he dropped Uhlenberg for show biz reasons) moved to Sacramento after graduating C.O.P. and attending the Stanford University TV Institute to pursue the new medium of television at the city's first station KCCC TV as announcer/director and children's show host Bonanza Bill. Here Harry met his future wife, Polly. They married September 11, 1955.

In 1956 Harry moved to KCRA as announcer/director and popular children's show host Captain Sacto. Each show began with a shot of Harry landing a jet and radioing to the tower "Tell all the boys and girls I'm coming in!"

After 7 years as Captain Sacto, KCRA began phasing out of kid's programming and Harry became the afternoon movie host of "Martin at the Movies."

As the station grew in its efforts to put on news and information programming, Harry became an anchorman. Soon, it became clear the public was interested in news about movies, TV and stars. The print media began covering a lot of it, but no other television station had reporters on that beat. KCRA assigned that job to Harry who was the consummate fan of movies and stars and had a terrific memory for entertainment trivia.

Harry conducted show biz interviews that even the stars enjoyed, especially after he'd surprise them with an obscure fact about them, or their work, that he simply pulled out of his proverbial hat. He was always nice and never tried to embarrass or shock the stars, and he made them laugh. His Show Biz reports were also syndicated in Phoenix and the Bay Area.

He traveled to Hollywood, Las Vegas, London, The Cannes Film Festival, and Canada. He was the first person to film the Hollywood Playboy Mansion. To name a few interviewees: Arnold Schwarzenegger; Ronald Reagan; Tom Hanks, Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Meg Ryan, Johnnie Carson, Angie Dickenson, Bill Cosby and Tom Cruise. He interviewed close to 2,000 celebrities. He was the first person to ever interview Goldie Hawn and the last person to interview Boris Karloff.

While still at channel 3, Harry also became a movie host in Seattle at KCPO, Channel 13 with another version of "Martin at the Movies." He had other assignments at other stations as well.

Channel 3 then created the first local magazine show called 7:30, later renamed "Weeknight," with Harry as host. Betty Vasquez co-hosted with Harry for many years, and their chemistry worked well.

He retired in 1989 and spent four months every summer at his summer home on Lake Cobbosseecontee, Maine. He was an avid Kings fan and collected Kings memorabilia. He was very proud to have been named the King's honorary 6th Man in 2006.

One of his latest adventures was one of his happiest. Late in 2005, Harry and Polly celebrated 50 years of marriage by taking a week-long cruise to Mexico with their children and all 5 grandchildren.

Services for Harry's family, friends and coworkers will be held 3:00 pm, February 25th, at Andrews and Greilich, 3939 Fruitridge Road, Sacramento, CA. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to The March of Dimes or the Sacramento Children's Home.