May 8 Radio History

Arthur Q Bryan

➦In 1899...Arthur Quirk Bryan born (Died from a heart attack at age 60 – November 18, 1959). He is best remembered for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr. Gamble on the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly and for creating the voice of the Warner Brothers cartoon character Elmer Fudd.

DeeBax · The Grouch Club (2/21/1940)

In the late 1920s, Bryan was an announcer at WOR radio in New York City. Contemporary radio listings in a daily newspaper indicate that he was still at WOR as late as September 13, 1931. In October 1931, he began working as an announcer at WCAU in Philadelphia, and in 1933 he moved to Philadelphia's WIP.  By 1934, he was heard on WHN in New York. In 1938–1939, he was a regular on The Grouch Club on the CBS Pacific network and was featured in some short-subject films made by the group.

Bryan's work in animation did not go unnoticed by radio producers. Although his first forays into that medium were accompanied by instructions that he use the Fudd voice, Bryan soon came to the attention of Don Quinn and Phil Leslie, the production and writing team responsible for Fibber McGee and Molly and their supporting characters, two of whom spun off into their own radio hits, The Great Gildersleeve and Beulah. The Gildersleeve character, played by Harold Peary, became series broadcasting's first successful spin-off hit; that plus the onset of World War II (which cost Fibber McGee & Molly their Mayor La Trivia, when Gale Gordon went into the Coast Guard in early 1942, and "The Old Timer" Bill Thompson was drafted almost a year later) nabbed nearly every other remaining male voice.

Bryan was first hired for the new Great Gildersleeve series, to play the part of Cousin Octavia's secretary/assistant, Lucius Llewellyn (using the Elmer Fudd voice), and later one of Gildersleeve's cronies, Floyd Munson, the barber. His work on the series (in Bryan's natural voice) so impressed Quinn and Leslie, that Bryan was added to the cast of their main show, Fibber McGee and Molly, in 1943.

In the early 1940s, Bryan played Waymond Wadcliffe on the Al Pearce & His Gang program on CBS. Bryan starred as Major Hoople (from June 22, 1942 to April 26, 1943) in The Charlotte Greenwood Show. and played Lt. Levinson on radio's Richard Diamond, Private Detective (from September 6, 1950 to June 29, 1951). In the mid-1940s, he had the role of Duke on Forever Ernest.

➦In 1915...John Archer was born in small town Nebraska.  He is best remembered as the radio voice of Lamont Cranston, The Shadow, for a year in the 1940’s.  Later in life, as a resident of Greater Seattle he was a founding member of REPS, the Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound.  He died of lung cancer Dec. 3 1999 at age 84.

➦In 1940...Eric Hilliard "Rick" Nelson born (Died – December 31, 1985).  He starred alongside his family in the radio and television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In 1957 he began a long and successful career as a popular recording artist.

As one of the top "teen idols" of the 1950s his fame led to a motion picture role co-starring alongside John Wayne and Dean Martin in Howard Hawks's western feature film Rio Bravo (1959). He placed 53 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, and its predecessors, between 1957 and 1973, including "Poor Little Fool" in 1958, which was the first #1 song on Billboard magazine's then-newly created Hot 100 chart. He recorded 19 additional Top 10 hits and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 21, 1987.

Nelson began his entertainment career in 1949 playing himself in the radio sitcom series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In 1952, he appeared in his first feature film, Here Come the Nelsons. In 1957, he recorded his first single, debuted as a singer on the television version of the sitcom, and released the #1 album titled Ricky. In 1958, Nelson released his first #1 single, "Poor Little Fool", and in 1959 received a Golden Globe nomination for "Most Promising Male Newcomer" after starring in Rio Bravo. A few films followed, and when the television series was cancelled in 1966, Nelson made occasional appearances as a guest star on various television programs.

He, his fiancee & 5 others were killed in a plane crash Dec 31, 1985 enroute to a New Year’s Eve performance in Dallas.  Nelson was 45.

➦In 1959...NBC Radio aired the final broadcast of “One Man’s Family” after being on the air 27 years. The Carleton E. Morse creation had completed 3,256 episodes since its beginnings in San Francisco back in 1932.

➦In 1962…Beatles manager Brian Epstein had a chance meeting with engineer Ted Huntly at a London record store. After Epstein related his discouragement about the Decca label rejecting the band, Huntly suggested he send a demo recording of the Beatles to EMI and, in particular, to one of their producers, George Martin.

➦In 1968...George Dewey Hay died at age 72 (Born -November 9, 1895).  He was the founder of the original Grand Ole Opry radio program on WSM-AM in Nashville, Tennessee, from which the country music stage show of the same name evolved.

George D Hay

Hay was born in Attica, Indiana. In Memphis, Tennessee, after World War I, he was a reporter for the Commercial Appeal, and when the newspaper launched its own radio station, WMC-AM, in January 1923, he became a late-night announcer at the station. His popularity increased and in May 1924 he left for WLS-AM in Chicago, where he served as the announcer on a program that became National Barn Dance.

On November 9, 1925, he moved on to WSM-AM in Nashville. Getting a strong listener reaction to 78-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson that November, Hay announced the following month that  formed a booking agency.

WSM would feature "an hour or two" of old-time music every Saturday night. He promoted the music ahe show was originally named WSM Barn Dance, and Hay billed himself as "The Solemn Old Judge."  The Barn Dance was broadcast after NBC's Music Appreciation Hour, a program featuring classical music and grand opera. One day in December 1927, the final music piece on the Music Appreciation Hour depicted the sound of a rushing locomotive. After the show ended, "Judge Hay" opened the WSM Barn Dance with this announcement:

“ Friends, the program which just came to a close was devoted to the classics. Doctor Damrosch [host of the program] told us that there is no place in the classics for realism. However, from here on out for the next three hours, we will present nothing but realism. It will be down to earth for the 'earthy'. ”  Hay then introduced the man he dubbed "The Harmonica Wizard," DeFord Bailey, who played his classic train song, "The Pan American Blues," named for the crack Louisville and Nashville Railroad passenger train The Pan-American. After Bailey's performance, Hay commented, "For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry."

During the 1930s, he was involved with Rural Radio, one of the first magazines about country music, developing the Opry for NBC and working on the movie Grand Ole Opry (1940). He was an announcer with the radio show during the 1940s and toured with Opry acts, including the September 1947 Opry show at Carnegie Hall. He was featured in Hoosier Holiday, a 1945 film from Republic Pictures, in a cast that also included Dale Evans.

➦In 1982...Personality Ron Lundy aired final regular show at 77 WABC, prior to format change to Talk.

Ron was on the air in New York City starting in September 1965, first on the overnight shift at WABC before shifting to mid-days in 1966. He remained at WABC right up until its last day as a music station on May 10, 1982.

In February 1984, Lundy resurfaced at New York's oldies station WCBS 101.1 FM in the mid-morning slot, following former WABC colleague Harry Harrison. According to program director Joe McCoy, the station created the slot especially for Lundy, reducing other shifts from four hours to three.

Lundy retired from WCBS-FM on September 18, 1997.  He died at the age of 75 in Bruce, Mississippi on May 15, 2010.

Melissa Gilbert is 59

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Singer Toni Tennille is 83. 
• Country singer Jack Blanchard is 81. 
• Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett is 78. 
• Actor Mark Blankfield (“Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” ″The Incredible Shrinking Woman”) is 75. 
• Drummer Chris Frantz of Talking Heads and of Tom Tom Club is 72. 
• Singer Philip Bailey (solo and with Earth, Wind and Fire) is 72. 
• Country musician Billy Burnette is 70. 
• Drummer Alex Van Halen of Van Halen is 70. 
• Actor David Keith is 69. 
• Actor Raoul Max Trujillo (“Mayans M.C.”) is 68. 
• “The NFL Today” commentator and former NFL coach Bill Cowher is 66. 
• Actor Melissa Gilbert is 59. 
• Drummer Dave Rowntree of Blur is 59. 
• Drummer Del Gray of Little Texas is 55. 
• Singer Darren Hayes (Savage Garden) is 51. 
• Singer Enrique Iglesias is 48. 
• Singer Joe Bonamassa is 46. 
• Actor Matt Davis (“The Vampire Diaries”) is 45. 
• Actor Domhnall Gleason (“Peter Rabbit,” ″Unbroken”) is 40.
• Drummer Patrick Meese of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats is 40. 
• Actor Julia Whelan (“Once and Again”) is 39.

✞DEATH ANNIVERSARIES

• In 2008..Eddy Arnold, Country music singer ("Make The World Go Away"; "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye"), dies at 89
• In 2008..Larry Levine, Sound engineer (Phil Spector's wall of sound; Herb Alpert; Beach Boys), dies of emphysema on his 80th birthday