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| Santos Ortega |
➦In 1899...Early radio actor Santos Ortega was born in New York City. In the early 30’s he served as foil for Frank Crumit and Julia Sanderson, ‘The Singing Sweethearts of the Air,’ and starred in Bulldog Drummond (1942-43), The Adventures of Nero Wolfe (1943–1944) and The Adventures of Charlie Chan (1947-48).
Perhaps his most notable radio role was Commissioner Weston on The Shadow. Ortega was heard in the daytime radio serials Valiant Lady and Perry Mason, and lent his remarkable range of voice characterizations to other radio dramas such as Inner Sanctum, The Mysterious Traveler, Suspense, Casey Crime Photographer, The Eternal Light, The Columbia Workshop, The Big Story, You Are There, and X Minus One. For 20 years he played Grandpa on CBS-TV’s As the World Turns.
He died April 10 1976 at age 76.
➦In 1913...Harry Wismer born (Died – December 4, 1967). He was a sportscaster and the charter owner of the New York Titans franchise in the American Football League (AFL).
Wismer played college football at both the University of Florida and Michigan State College, his playing career ending at the latter school when he damaged a knee severely during a game against the University of Michigan. He then began broadcasting Michigan State sports on MSC's radio station WKAR. In 1934, he was hired as the public-address announcer for the Detroit Lions. The Lions were in their first season in Detroit and were owned by George A. "Dick" Richards, who also owned Detroit radio station WJR. Wismer soon began doing a ten-minute daily radio show covering the Lions in addition to his PA duties, while continuing as a student at Michigan State.
After the 1936 season, Wismer was encouraged by Richards to abandon his studies and come to work for WJR on a full-time basis as the station's sports director. Among Wismer's WJR duties was serving as play-by-play announcer for the station's Lions broadcasts. He stayed until 1941 when he was hired by the NBC Blue Network, the predecessor to ABC. During the 1940s Wismer was named Sportscaster of the Year three years running by Sporting News magazine.
Wismer achieved the height of his fame as the voice of the Washington Redskins. His first game for the Redskins was a most inauspicious one in December 1940, their 73–0 loss to the Chicago Bears' great "Monsters of the Midway" team in the 1940 championship game. At one point Wismer was a 25% owner of the club as well, with the majority of the stock being retained by founding owner George Preston Marshall. However, the relationship between the two had greatly degenerated by the mid-1950s over several issues, not the least of which was Marshall's steadfast refusal to sign any black players. The relationship dissolved in claims, counterclaims, and litigation, and Marshall then set out to destroy Wismer's future as a broadcaster, with some success. Wismer was also involved for a time in the broadcasting of Notre Dame football.
He died Dec 3 1967 of a cracked skull suffered in a drunken fall the day previous, at age 54.
➦In 1921…RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, was formed. RCA was the dominant electronics and communications firm in the United States for over five decades. RCA was at the forefront of the mushrooming radio industry in the early 1920s, as a major manufacturer of radio receivers, and the exclusive manufacturer of the first superheterodyne models. RCA also created the first American radio network, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
