Toy magnate delighted kids with TV show
NORMAN ROSENBERG 1918-2016
Norman Rosenberg, a businessman and television personality who reigned for years as King Norman at San Francisco’s Norman’s Kingdom of Toys, died Dec. 28 at an assisted care center in Roseville (Placer County). He was 98.
Mr. Rosenberg built a toy empire from a small shop on Clement Street in the Richmond District. With his wife, Doris, he turned the operation into a 21-store chain with branches all around the Bay Area and in Oregon and Washington.
He was best known, however, for his starring role on “The King Norman Show,” a Saturday morning offering for
children that ran on KGOTV from 1954 to 1961.
Mr. Rosenberg was a born showman. He wore regal robes and a crown and performed before a live audience of children, bestowing kindly advice and gifts from his store.
His wife also appeared on the show, in tights and a tunic, as Page Joy. She escorted selected children to an audience with the toy king.
King Norman reigned in an era when children’s shows were popular in the Bay Area, including “Captain Satellite” and “Mayor Art.” He had good ratings and star power — his guests included James Garner, Hugh O’Brien, Art Linkletter and Rin Tin Tin, Hollywood’s most famous dog.
But he made the children in the audience the stars. “Children were the main part of the action,” said Gale Mosheim, Mr. Rosenberg’s daughter. “It was great fun.”
Her father was a celebrity as well. Mr. Rosenberg and his wife led Halloween parades on Clement Street. In the heyday of the kingdom, Mosheim remembers, her father drove a decorated Volkswagen bus with a horn that played “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” to be sure that children knew who he was.
Doris Rosenberg was an equal partner. Besides appearing as Page Joy, she co-produced the show and handled the toy company finances.
Mr. Rosenberg was born in Chicago in 1918, graduated from the University of Michigan and earned a law degree at DePaul University. He enlisted in the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor and served as an officer aboard a troopship.
When his ship docked at San Francisco, he met Doris Brodofsky on a blind date and married soon afterward. Her parents had a toy store at 16th and Mission streets, and after the war ended, the newly married Rosenbergs opened a small toy shop on Clement Street.
“That’s the city we remember,’’ Mosheim said, “with family-owned businesses on every corner.” The Rosenbergs were able to expand into the suburbs and beyond — they even had an amusement park next to their Concord store.
Eventually, they were unable to compete with big national discounters like Toys R Us, and the Rosenbergs sold the chain in 1982. Under different ownership, the original Kingdom of Toys store on Clement Street closed in 1990 after a run of 44 years.
Doris Rosenberg died in 2008. Mr. Rosenberg is survived by his second wife, Gilyn Rosenberg of Roseville; son, Mark Rosenberg, of Huntington Beach (Orange County); daughters, Gale Mosheim and Linda Levison, both of San Francisco; and four grandchildren. Private services have been held.