u/Tripwig53

Everyone in OTR-Land has heard of The Lone Ranger, WXYX and George W. Trendle. How many of you can name the man who CREATED the iconic character and WROTE the scripts for the Lone Ranger? Yes, many can. He’s rather unique in that regard – but what else do you KNOW about Fran Striker?

(Ok, Mr. Trendle mapped out the basic characteristics he wanted in the main character and Jim Jewell, WXYZ director, was the man between Trendle and Striker, and the man who took the scripts, actors and sound effects and brought it to LIFE – so the three ‘created’ the character – but Striker wrote the scripts, creating the Lone Ranger and Tonto, the good guys, the bad guys, set the scene, the plots, the whole story in the early years of one of the most successful serials in the history of radio.)

Francis Hamilton Striker was born and raised in Buffalo, NY to Frank and Addie Striker on Aug 19, 1903.

He was fascinated with writing and sold his first stories at the age of 15. In high school he lettered in track and played saxophone in the band. He was involved in church clubs, science clubs, the Red Cross where he earned an award in support of the Liberty Loans programs of WWI.

After high school, he enrolled in the University of Buffalo and studied chemistry while staying active in sports, music and theater. In fact, one of the combos he played with got to play occasionally on Buffalo’s first radio station – WGR.

He left school his junior year – chemistry was not for him. One of the jobs he held was writing the company newsletter for his employer. Then he got a job in New York with the Harry Miller Production Company. He was hooked on producing and directing and by 1928 he was back in Buffalo looking at doing theatrical work. To pay the bills, he also got a job with the new radio station in town - WEBR.

Everybody in early radio wore many ‘hats’ in their jobs. So too, Fran – actor, announcer, director, studio manager, writer and probably opened or closed the station and occasionally took the trash out. He was IN radio and learning everything he could about this new fascinating world!

Got married to Janet Giesel, whom he had known since they were kids. They would have four kids. His time at WEBR led to a bigger job and a bigger station in Cleveland, OH – WTAM in 1929. That’s where he really got the itch to WRITE radio dramas. Whether he adapted stories from works of fiction, or created his own shows – he was learning and was happy. While at WTAM he wrote nearly 200 episodes of Betty and Jack (story of a newspaper– one of his first radio creations). That led to Hank and Honey, an early sitcom. Also wrote a radio play on the life of Stephen Foster and the radio show Crystal Gazer.

He returned to WEBR in 1930 as the studio manager writing and directing the station’s new dramas. Soon he was cranking out Adventureland, Adventures in the Air (aka Air Stories), Arctic Devils, Behind the Headlines, Campus Nights, Clippings, Copper Cylinder, Covered Wagon Days, Dr. Fang, Sky Boat (later re-named Skylarks), adapted Dicken’s “Pickwick Papers” for a 13-week series, Dromedary, Footprints on the Sands of Time, The Ghost Ship, Ultra Violet (early SciFi sold to NBC’s Pacific Coast network), Steppin’ Out, The Falcon (different from the later version that most people know), Hicksville Folks, Hiram and Belinda, Hunters of Men, Limelight of Purple, Loup Garou, Love, Mad Hatter, adaptations of Mark Twain stories, Musicus,  Ned Jordan – Secret Agent, Phantom of Mort Manor, Phantom Pirate, Radio Romances, Rhinestones, Way Out West. Dr. Dragonette, Phantom Pirate, Radio Romances, Stories From Life, Subconscious, Temple Bells, Thrills of the Secret Service (aka Patricia Dare), Ultra Lavender (a few episodes for Carlton E. Morse in San Francisco), Vernor’s Ginger Ale Gnomes, Warner Lester – Manhunter, Way Out West and Weird Tales. He was a writing machine! Most had 15 or fewer episodes – this drama thing was still new and he’d only been writing since 1929. By this point he had written and directed hundreds of dramas on WEBR. Of his writings of Sky Boat/Skylarks – a newspaper article stated that these scripts, covering 3 years, would fill “five full-length novels.”

He left WEBR in Aug. 1932, to become a free-lance radio script writer and within months had programs on the Yankee network, the Pacific Coast network of NBC and the Michigan network.

One of his big shows was Covered Wagon Days – a drama about life on a wagon train going up the Oregon Trail. He sold most of his scripts at $4-6 per episode and some were purchased by Jim Jewell of WXYZ in Detroit, who was looking for more dramas for his radio station. Other stations were doing the same thing. By the fall of 1932, Striker’s programs were heard on more than 90 stations.

Meanwhile, Jewell, who was already running several of Striker’s programs (Patricia Dare - Thrills of the Secret Service (spy series), Warner Lester, Manhunter, Covered Wagon Days and three more Striker series, had been talking with the station owner, George W. Trendle, about a possible new program – a western with a good guy who’s not involved with women, walks the straight and narrow, and speaks correct English. Jewell reached out to Striker in December, 1932…

“…will you please write up three or four wild west thrillers… including all the hokum of the masked rider, rustler, killer Pete, heroine on the train tracks, fight on the top of box cars, Indian badmen, two-gun bank robber, etc.”

The letter would change his life.

Striker and Jewell traded several possible concept scripts that were modified Covered Wagon Days scripts (with lots of changes) over the next month – ending up with the iconic – The Lone Ranger. While normally considered a juvenile show, Striker wrote it with kids AND adults in mind – nearly half of the listeners were adults!

Fran half-joked years later about how hard it was to write The Lone Ranger: “You put the mask business together with no sex, no cruelty, no gambling and no drinking and it’s very limiting.” But it worked – lasting for 21 years, then books, movies, TV and comics.

In May, 1934, WXYZ offered him a permanent position – with salary, but with a caveat. He had to give up his rights to The Lone Ranger and give it to WXYZ. He was suddenly caught between a rock and a hard place. All the features he had done prior to this were HIS. This would be different. Added to that were the people who he was supporting – wife, kids, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles – many of them lost everything in the Depression. Fran hesitated, but put family security paramount in his life, and signed the contract. He was a WXYZ man, and making pretty good money. But the writing was never-endiing. – normally about 14 hours per day – even when on vacations with his family!

He wrote every episode himself for the first several years of the hit series then, in the late ‘30s took on of 2 assistants to keep up the production. (By this time he was also involved with the Republic motion picture company’s Lone Ranger serial and writing Lone Ranger books and comic strips.)

Some of this came to a grinding halt when, in 1943, Trendle replaced him with Felix Holt as the Lone Ranger senior editor over a salary dispute with Striker. Holt added more writers (Striker was now just another free-lance writer). But Holt had an ego and he wanted to own the masked man. He told his writers to add some romance, alcohol, etc. into the stories to punch them up. The writers were furious – it’s a kids show! – and actually talked to Trendle. Result, in ‘44 Holt was GONE and Striker was ‘back in the saddle.’

In 1949, Dave Parker was a graduate student at Wayne University. He wanted to do his PhD Thesis on popular culture focusing on The Lone Ranger. While pursuing his academic goal, he ventured into the world of radio acting at WXYZ to get a better insight into the workings of The Lone Ranger. He interviewed Striker and many others at the station. Focusing on Striker, Parker wanted to know HOW the writer was able to produce 156 different Lone Ranger scripts per year, year in and year out, without reusing the same plot. Fran obliged…

“There are eight major elements in the Lone Ranger stories,” he told Parker and then articulated each:

1. Establish character

2. give him a problem he can’t solve

3. explain why he can’t solve it

4. the Ranger learns about it and mixes in

5. the bad guy sets a trap for the Ranger

6. the Ranger out-fights or out-wits the bad guy

7. the Ranger solves the situa­tion

8. all’s well that ends well.

“Fran then explained how he created the story: “Under element number one, ‘establish a character,’ I list 10 possible choices like old man, young rancher, army officer, prospector, old prospec­tor, escaped prisoner, big rancher, young tenderfoot, deputy sheriff, stage driver. Then with ‘give him a problem he can’t solve’ I list maybe he’s going to lose his ranch, or he’s had a lot of gambling debts, or his kid brother is a crook, or he’s be­ing blackmailed, or his son is kidnapped. Maybe his best friend is in jail or people think he’s a crook. Or maybe he’s a cow­ard, his wife is dying or he’s been falsely accused of a crime.”

“Fran added that such an outline as this if fully expanded would permit combina­tions totaling eight to the tenth power of possible plots. “This story,” he said, “could go on forever.” (and it almost DID!)

Or as Dick Osgood put it in his book, WYXIE Wonderland… “Fran reduced the mass production of plots and characters to a formula so clearly laid out that he could take 10 playing cards, each designating a type of character, the problem the char­acter could be stuck with, the manner the Ranger learned about it and how he and Tonto licked it. After shuffling the deck and placing the cards face up, the rest was almost automatic.”

But Osgood never forgot the story Fran, with a twinkle in his eye, shared with him: “If I ever get completely stuck, I’ll go to a drugstore, or someplace, and buy one of those Western pulp magazines… and I’ll read the first half of the story. Then I’ll toss the magazine and finish the story myself. Then I’ll go back and re-write the first half!”

In 1936, Trendle wanted a modern-day cop show – and so Striker developed (and wrote) The Green Hornet (and linked up the Hornet character to The Lone Ranger) and Challenge of the Yukon in ’39 – same basic cop show except on a dog sled in Canada with a very smart lead dog).

Many people knew Striker had written some radio shows – but probably not to the extent he actually wrote. Most are no longer extant except a few scripts. In his heyday (’30 - ‘54), Fran typed (on his trusty Remington Sixteen) 55 – 60,000 words a week. That’s over 3 million words a year. (He went through FOUR desk-top typewriters in his career.) To put it in perspective, consider the Bible. Fran wrote the equivalent of FOUR Bibles a year – for 25 years! It wasn’t just radio scripts. He wrote the Lone Ranger Comic strip, Green Hornet comic strip, The Sea Hound comic strip (from the radio show he created and wrote), 27 Lone Ranger adult novels, 8 Order of Tom Quest Adventure books, 11 children’s books, screen play for two Lone Ranger movie serials and was writer/editor for all scripts for the TV version of The Lone Ranger. Oh, and he and Trendle helped pick Clayton Moore for the TV show! (It's really not that hard when you work 40 hours/day and don't take weekends off EVER - and your family loves you in spite of the preceding statements!)

James Jewell, the WXYZ director who brought The Lone Ranger to the airwaves KNEW Striker. Here’s what he said:

“Fran Striker was in my estimation the greatest hack writer who ever lived. Now I’m not casting any crumbs to the man when I call him a hack writer, because a hack writer was a person who could hack it out day after day. When you figure that man was in there writing – I mean actively writing for twenty-five years, you don’t demean a person like that. That’s a great job. – Mr. Trendle had nothing whatsoever to do with the creation of the ‘Lone Ranger.’ He never put anything on paper but his signature to a check.”

When his radio career ended in the ‘50s, he returned to the University of Buffalo to TEACH classes on creative writing – even though he, himself, never quite got around to graduating back in the 1920s.

His end? It was simply moving from one house to another in the Buffalo area – to a house closer to the University where he was teaching. There was a traffic accident while he was hauling the last car load out of their old home. He was killed. He was only 59.

His last book, “One More River,” wasn’t finished at the time of his death. Fran Jr. finished the last chapter and published it in 1993.

He was a humble man who wanted to provide for his family in the only way he knew – as a writer. And write, he did and created a hero and his faithful friend that were used in WWII as passwords and are still widely known today – nearly a century later. Thank You, Mr. Striker!

I can’t end without mentioning three great sources on Fran’s life – Terry Salomonson and Martin Grams, Jr. 2 volume (so far) set on The Lone Ranger; Francis Striker, Jr’s “His Typewriter Grew Spurs,” and “WYXIE Wonderland” by Dick Osgood. If you are a Lone Ranger fan, these are “MUST reads.”

“Hi-Yo, Silver, Awaaa-y!”

Fran Striker - publicity photo as he NEVER used a portable typewriter! (ca. 1934)

Some actors have the look and voice to be leading men or women; others are invariably cast as ‘background’ or character actors – the truck driver, the store clerk, the mechanic – someone who is needed in the scene, but who will probably not get the lead in any production.

Then there is Wally Maher who labored for years as a background actor but who broke the glass ceiling and made it to the leads in several radio shows.

I’ll admit that when I first heard him as Mike Shayne, I pictured a guy in his mid-50s (he was actually in his 30s) with that no-nonsense approach and raspy Midwestern voice. But I kept listening and started softening – he still hit me as an experienced detective with lots of tricks-of-the-trade to share with the young ones coming up but he also had a heart.

As usual, I’m ahead of myself.

Walter Anthony Maher, Wally, was born on Aug. 4, 1908, in Cincinnati, OH to Daniel and Mary Maher. He didn’t quite make it through high school – he wanted a life in the entertainment world. His father was an old-time song and dance man for many years and he tried to discourage Wally on an entertainer’s life – to no avail. Wally got a job with the Southern Pacific railroad where he heard people coming through the station with many different dialects. More importantly, he LISTENED to them and practiced mimicking them. That would prove a big boost down the entertainment road he still had his eyes fixed on. He also got into a Cincinnati theater stock company and started getting experience.

WLW (and its newspaper owner) decided to get into drama. In 1929 the newspaper had a daily serialized version of the big hit “All Quiet on the Western Front.” They decided to couple that to a 15-minute acted version every afternoon on WLW radio. From his local acting experience they brought Wally in for an audition. Looking back on it, Wally said the audition was a disaster, but WLW liked him as an actor and cast him as the lead, Paul Baumer. The serial started in November, 1929, as indicated in the local newspaper.

Perhaps it was the stock market crash – but whatever it was, his lead in “All Quiet” didn’t get him much of anything.

While still doing local stock work he was hired by WLW as an actor, director and producer – in those days, stations got their money’s worth out of everyone. One show he was associated with was Tangee Musical Dreams as its star! He also met someone at the station who would be a future partner in radio – Tommy Riggs. They developed a fast and long-lasting friendship. Tommy was half of the Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou – or I should say the half and half – as Tommy had a medical condition where he could speak as himself, a baritone, AND as a 7-year-old girl. It was dubbed ‘bi-vocalism.’

In no time, Tommy invited Wally to be Betty Lou’s boyfriend, “Wilbur” on his WLW show.

We’ll, Wally wanted to get into the bigtime and while Cincinnati was home of ‘The Nation’s Station,’ he had his radio eyes set on New York.

When he arrived in New York, it was summer and the summer shows had all their personnel lined up. Wally took the time for him and Molly to get married. That’s when it dawned on him that he really needed a job NOW as the show he contracted with before leaving Cincinnati wouldn’t start until the fall and his bank account was being depleted fast.

That’s when he prayed like never before. He went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and prayed hard for a job – any job.

Later, walking past NBC, he saw 50 men lined up, and inquiring as to the excitement, heard that an audition was being held for the part of a baby ape, whose noises were required for a children's series. "Let me get a chance at it," Maher asked the audition director. Wally won the audition and made baby ape noises and $75 a week for the next three weeks. He was working!

"I had no idea how a baby ape should sound," Wally recalls. "I guess the crazy noises I made were okay. because I got the job – and money to keep Molly and me until fall came around!"

What were some of his shows in New York? Circus Days (regular), Eno Crime Clues, Camel Caravan, Gangbusters, Just Plain Bill and Sherlock Holmes.

He left for Los Angeles about 1935. Found some film work as a ‘everyman’ and ‘background character’ (over 60 movies to his credit over his lifetime – drama and comedy, editors, reporters, tough guys, etc.) and found a few acting jobs in radio. His dialect work from his days with the railroad really started opening doors as he was on the first Lux Radio Theatre produced in Hollywood (and would be a regular on the program for years to come).

In the late ‘30s he was heard on Lux and a few other Hollywood shows like Brent House (Lance Dudley) and Carleton E. Morse’s I Love A Mystery (he’ll be with them as a supporting actor through ’44).

Then he gets that Broadway itch and is hired for a Broadway play – “Every Man For Himself” – and goes to New York for rehearsals. While there he picked up a few radio jobs – Mr. District Attorney, Famous Jury Trials and probably a few more.

Then it’s ‘Curtain Time’ on Broadway! Alas, the play gets poor reviews and closes after only 3 performances! Wally gets a pretty good review himself, “…who plays the gangster as naturally as though he had had a long Broadway experience which he hasn’t had.”

But when he returns to the career he now realizes is radio and in Los Angeles – things start looking up rather quickly!

Wally, the ‘40s and Radio in LA

World War II breaks out for the U.S. Is Wally to be drafted? No, due to a chronic respiratory problem, he is 4-F – barred from military service. It’s actually a boost for him as MANY radio people are called into military service – and radio ‘must go on.’

In a word, he’s BUSY in the ‘40s.

1941-42 – A regular on Cavalcade of America (and will continue through 1944), Blondie, It Happened in the Service, Horace Heidt, Junior Miss, Latitude Zero, Lights Out (Regular), Maxwell House Coffee Time, One Man’s Family (Dan Murray - he’ll be in the ‘family’ off and on until at least 1949), Point Sublime, Red Ryder, Creighton Leighton on This Is Judy Jones and Arch Oboler’s To The President. Also, in ’41, Norman Corwin came out to Hollywood and did a few of his Columbia Presents Corwin there – 3 of which were with Wally. He has been NOTICED! Lastly, for 42 – he’s reteamed with Tommy Riggs as Wilbur and will continue the partnership through ’46.

1943-44 – Adv. of Ozzie and Harriet, Ceiling Unlimited, G.I. Journal, Hollywood Mystery Time, Hollywood Theater of the Air, The Jack Benny Program, The Mainline (about the workings of a railroad – which he did for a while in Cincinnati – as the Narrator – the ONLY ‘regular’ character heard each week), NBC’s Mystery of the Month, Screen Guild Theater, Silver Theatre and This Is My Best.

Additionally, the two biggest things in his career will happen in ’44. First, he’s named a regular on Suspense (continuing through ’49) and he’s named the star of Michael Shayne (continues through ’47). He’s no longer a ‘character’ actor – he’s hit the bigtime – gruff voice and all – with a touch of sarcasm. He’s part of LA’s “Radio Row.”

Said Radio Life in 1947: ‘Back-mike on Shayne stand Mr. and Mrs. Personification of Radio in stars Wally Maher and Cathy Lewis. Established as two of the finest dramatic voices in the business, Wally and Cathy make a wonderful team for the show. Wally, who has a capacity for rough characters, and who calculates he's been knocked off more than any actor in radio, especially likes his Shayne role because he's at last on the right end of the gun. And they're both all for the Shayne script, written to give outlet for comedy combined with drama. Like the show's following, Cathy and Wally are enthusiastic when they say that the quick quips twixt Mike and Phyl, even on the brink of tension, are what make the program.’

He also found time in ’43 to get elected to the local LA Chapter of AFRA as VP and was a board member in ’45! He also made a few cartoons for Tex Avery and MGM during this time.

Of his time on Suspense, he told a radio fanzine in 1946 that he’s killed 31 persons and embezzled five million dollars, been killed 18 times himself and served just about 1000 years in prison.

One of my favorite stories about Wally was told in a 1943 radio fanzine. It has to do with warming up the studio audience before the broadcast begins on the Tommy Riggs show…

Wally Maher comes in, reading from a script that reeks of the familiar "horse opera" style, startles the audience with a series of revolver shots. Accosted by Riggs, he looks up from the script and out over the footlights, amazed, then exclaims, "Oh, wrong audience! I thought this was the Red Ryder show." (Yes, he was adept at comedy!)

1945-49 – The war’s over; radio actors are coming home from the military and he may be a lead and a regular on a hit series, but that only increases the calls for his use on other programs. Abbott and Costello, Adv. of Maisie (Maisie’s boyfriend), Adv. of Philip Marlowe, Adv. of Sam Spade (semi-regular), Arch Oboler’s Plays, Burns and Allen (continuing until ’50), Crime Club, The Eddie Bracken Show (regular), Family Theatre, Gene Autry, Hallmark Playhouse, Hopalong Cassidy, Jeff Regan, Let George Do It (the sardonic Lt. Riley), more Lux Radio Theatres but not as a regular, Meet Me At Parky’s (Regular), Merry Life of Mary Christmas (Regular), My Favorite Husband, NBC University Theater, Out of the Deep (Capt. Gunnar Carlisle – star), Phil Harris/Alice Faye, Richard Davis, Private Investigator (star), Richard Diamond, Screen Directors’ Playhouse (semi-regular), Sealtest Variety Show, This Is Your FBI and The Whistler (Regular). The producer of The Whistler, George Allen, had this to say about Wally – “Wally has the quick touch. He can be emotional in a flash. He makes a perfect blowtop. He can make his character sound very natural, with an undercurrent of emotion.”

How busy was he? Wally estimated that he works and average of about 36 hours per day!

Sad note – Wally’s Burbank home burned to the ground in the spring of ’47. Took a while to rebuild.

1950-51. In 1950, Wally had a cancerous lung removed but still had time for a few more shows for us all to enjoy. Amos ‘n’ Andy (YES, really!), Bob Hope, Cisco Kid (recorded in ’51, broadcast in ’53), Dangerous Assignment, Escape, Harold Peary Show, NBC Presents Short Story, The New Adv. of Nero Wolfe (Sidney Greenstreet’s first Archie Goodwin), Night Beat, The Penny Singleton Show, The Story of Dr. Kildare, more Suspense, Tales of the Texas Rangers, T-Man, Wild Bill Hickok and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar!

And finally, his last co-starring role, as working-class Sgt. Matt Grebb in the police procedural The Line Up. (Although I like Dragnet, I like The Line up even better. They seem more like real cops with real lives.)

He worked right up to almost the day he died of lung cancer in December 1951.

He was only 43. He only had 20 years in radio. He left a widow and three kids.

Comedy, Variety, Drama, Soaps, Narration – he had the versatility and comic timing to do it all (including many ‘doubles’ and ‘triples’ in broadcasts) and starred or co-starred in four network series. The quintessential ‘everyman.’ That’s a pretty good accomplishment for any radio actor. Try listening to a Lux, Cavalcade, Suspense, Mike Shayne or Line Up episode with Wally in it. His ‘regular guy’ shines in every role. You’ll be glad you listened. I liked how Elizabeth McLeod summed him up concerning the light humor he brought to drama and procedural shows - He was the rare actor with the gift of being amusing without being funny. She ended her article on Maher - an actor whose roles seem, even now, to be so full of vibrant, everyday life.

For this past 4^(th) of July, I listened to Corwin’s “Home for the 4^(th).” Well done by Wally and the rest of the cast. Take a listen.

 

Some in the OTR world were actors. Some were directors, producers, announcers, sound effects people, musicians. But none of them would have a career if it were not for the authors who created characters in novels, plays and short stories – to give the advertising agencies, producers/directors IDEAS for new shows.

One such show that had an impact on the crime/detective world was the hard-boiled world of Michael Shayne, Private Detective. The show was based on a character seen in a LONG series of novels and short stories created by a writer named Brett Halliday.

Or was it?

Many writers adopted a nom de plume to remain a bit of a mystery person.

Davis Dresser was one such person who adopted that pen name – but not the only one.

Davis “Dusty” Dresser was born on July 31, 1904, in Chicago to Justus and Mary Dresser. He grew up mostly in West Texas. At 13 a horse threw him into a barbed-wire fence resulting in the loss of most vision in his left eye (ergo, the eye patch). The following year he enlisted in the 5^(th) Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss TX and spent a year on the US/Mexican border in southwest Texas. After his Army service (they found out he was under 18), he returned to his home and completed his high school education. Then his real adventures started.

He was KEEN on adventure as were his characters.

Dresser traveled throughout the American Southwest working off-and-on as a farm hand, muleskinner, deckhand on an oil tanker, laborer in the California oil fields, short-order cook, even a gravedigger. Those experiences would come back to him later in life as a writer. He attended college for two years and received a certificate in Civil Engineering. Back in Texas, he worked as an engineer and surveyor for several years. He started writing in 1927, while working as an engineer with the Los Angeles County Highway Department. He adopted the pen name of ‘Brett Halliday.’

His first Michael Shayne novel received 22 rejections from publishers until Henry Holt & Co. decided to take a chance on this new writer. His red-headed, Irish-American, hard-boiled private detective immediately caught on with the public and he was cranking out more short stories and novels. Total – over 70 novels and 300 short stories!

Seven novels were made into B-movies starring Lloyd Nolan. Then radio came knocking on the door and Michael Shayne hit the airwaves, with Wally Mayer as the star (’44-’47), followed by Jeff Chandler (’48-’49) and Donald Curtis & Robert Starling (’52-’53). Looked like the Irish detective was a hit. He even made it to TV with Richard Denning in the Shayne role. In fact, for Maher – it took an obscure background character actor and made him a star.

Was Michael Shayne based on a real person? Dresser said ‘Yes.’

In a 1951, Springfield, MA newspaper article on Dresser and his wife, writer Helen McCloy, he spoke of how he “met” the real ‘Mike Shayne’ when he was a deckhand on an oil tanker in a bar in Tampico, Mexico…

The author actually met the original Michael Shayne several years ago in a Tampico bar where he and a group of sailor companions became embroiled in a waterfront brawl.  The then as yet unrecognized budding author was slugged on the head with a gun butt and lay helpless under a table when a very real ‘Michael Shayne’ came to his rescue.  As Dresser tells it:

"Suddenly there was a crash; a big red-headed Irishman who had been sitting alone watching the battle between frequent drinks of tequila chased down with ice-water, unexpectedly leaped from his chair and joined in the battle.  Half a dozen men fell before his accurate fists before he reached me and heaved me bodily through the door.  He remained inside, fighting alone."

It was many years later before Mr. Dresser saw the competent fighting man again.  On this second occasion, broke and jobless, he had wandered into a New Orleans Rampart St. bar to seek shelter from the cold.  The first person he laid eyes on in the room was the same burly character who had probably saved his life in the Tampico brawl of many years before.  The setting was almost exactly the same.  The only difference being that the rangy Irishman was drinking cognac instead of tequila.

Dresser introduced himself to his former benefactor who immediately recalled the Tampico incident and insisted on staking the youth to a good meal and a night's lodging.  It was then that Dresser discovered that Connor Michael Shawn was the Irishmen's proper name.

It was a name he never forgot.  Shortened to "Michael Shayne" it became the symbol of diamond-in-the-rough gallantry and efficiency to millions of Mr. Dresser's readers. 

Dresser never forgot the man, and when he decided to write a mystery novel “there was never any question as to who my hero would be.”

Did Dresser write for the radio show? Some sources say yes, but most say, NO. He was an author, not a radio writer – way different skill set.

Why ‘Brett Halliday’? – Dresser explained that also in the 1971 newspaper article. Dresser’s first mystery novel published by Stokes publishing had as its main character ‘Matt Halliday.’ One of Dresser’s best friends was Brett Stokes, the son of the Stokes Publishing executive – so insert Brett where Matt had been and, voila, a nom de plume is born!

Did Dresser write all 77 Michael Shayne novels? No. There were others who adopted the ‘Brett Halliday’ name – (many who were hired by Dresser as ‘ghostwriters’) – Bill Pronzini and Robert Terrell are but two of them. Ditto for the magazine stories and Dell paperbacks.

Dresser did not limit his own nom de plume to ‘Brett Halliday.’ He also went by Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, Anderson Wayne and probably others – depending on what he was writing! And it wasn’t just Mike Shayne stories. He wrote many crime stories to be sure, but also mysteries, westerns (mostly set in West Texas) and even romances!

Due to his notoriety, ‘Brett’ was selected by the Murder By Experts producers to be a host of that radio program when John Dickson Carr left the series – although some sources say they actually hired an anonymous radio actor who assumed the name of ‘Brett Halliday.’ The truth? Who knows.

In a day when most radio detectives tended to have more humor than basic detective work, it’s noted by several sources that Dresser liked Wally Mayer in the role as Michael Shayne – as he did Lloyd Nolan in the film version.

Personal note – when I first heard Shayne, it was the Wally Maher version – and his no-nonsense, tough guy (with a heart of gold) and gruff voice had me spellbound. When I finally saw a photo of Wally, I thought it was a mistake. That’s NOT Mike Shayne!? But he’s MY Mike Shayne.

Dresser was a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America, and he (and his then wife, Helen McCloy) were presented the Mystery Writer’s Edgar Award for their writings in 1954. Helen later received the Edgar Allen Poe Grand Master Award in 1990.

Other authors gave us great books, movies and radio dramas – but Dresser was in a class by himself. Don’t take my word for it, look him up and see for yourself. Another cognac, please!

Today our focus is on an announcer who backed into a radio career – Glenn Riggs.

Backed in?

Riggs got his start in broadcasting entirely by accident in Feb. 1929 when he applied for a factory job at Westinghouse in Pittsburg, PA. Directed to the nearby KDKA studio for an interview, an office boy rushed in stating the announcer had failed to show. Riggs was handed a sheet of stock quotations and told to "Read," immediately launching his decades-long career in radio. (Some sources say 1925 but there is a headline in a 1929 Pittsburgh paper welcoming Riggs to the KDKA announcing staff.) He remained at KDKA until 1938 hosting The Musical Clock, Stroller’s Matinee and other programs and rose up through the ranks to Chief Announcer.

But I’m getting ahead of the story…

Glenn Everett Riggs was born July 24, 1907, in East McKeesport, PA to Edwin and Pearl Riggs. He grew up in Pennsylvania and was involved with local theater productions. He started his career in Pittsburgh, PA. In addition to his regular programs and announcing duties, he was occasionally an ‘on-scene’ news reporter as in 1936 he reported from Johnstown, PA on ‘the flood.’ The leadership of NBC Blue was taking notice of the guy at KDKA. In 1937, for a 4-network special on FDR’s “Mobilization of Human Needs,” he was chosen to be the Blue network announcer for the special. In 1938 he left KDKA and went to New York where he would remain for the rest of his career.

In New York he would appear on MANY programs, primarily as an announcer, but on occasion as an MC/Host. As a network staff announcer, he immediately started announcing on Morning Patrol – a morning show from 6:30 to 8 a.m. Also in August, he was assigned announcer duties on Vic & Sade. He was moving fast.

From 1939 to the early ‘40s, Glenn could be heard on: Adventure in Reading (39-40), Musical Varieties, Gallant American Women, Dinner Date, Dr I.Q., Lavender and New Lace, Music by Kostelantz, New Prescott Program, Olivio Santoro (a 12-year-old yodeler, singer & guitar player), Who’s Blue?, The Three R’s and Wake Up, America.

With World War II he was assigned to interview British war heroes (a transcription series). He was also heard on Nothing Serious, What’s New and True Story hour.

By 1944 he was heralded as one of Blue’s top announcers and his announcement for the Blue network – made the papers! (“This is the BLUE network!”) When Blue became ABC, he reprised his announcement – This is the American Broadcasting Company with a note of pride in his voice.

His biggest announcing job was probably the Hall of Fame (aka Philco Hall of Fame) with a big man himself, Paul Whiteman. When the show was off the air during their breaks in the summers of ’44 and ’45, he announced the summer replacement series – Philco Summer Hour. If you were a teenager, you probably didn’t listen to Whiteman, but you did hear Riggs announcing Hop Harrigan from ’42-‘48.

In Feb. 1944, he was honored by his announcing brethren for his 16 years of announcing experience. In 1944, a new show appeared on the network that Glenn was assigned to – Ethel and Albert! Another program he announced in ’44 was The Kemtone Hour featuring Dunninger the Mentalist!

With the end of the war, things really got jumping and throughout the rest of the ‘40s we hear Glenn on: Adventures of Jungle Jim (although I can’t find his start/end dates – anyone have a good source?), Adv. of the Thin Man, Boston Blackie, the famed Esquire Jazz Concert of 1945 (the New York segment announcer), Forever Tops, Henry Morgan Show (he replaced Charlie Irving in ’48. The producers thought Charlie sounded too much like Henry!), Ladies Be Seated, My True Story, Three Suns and a Scarlet, True or False – and he met Bing Crosby.

Bing had left the Kraft Music Hall over his request to transcribe his show. He was lured by Blue (we’re FINE with transcription if it’s for Mr. Crosby!) and Philco, and began his Philco Radio Time show in New York with Riggs as his announcer. Later Bing moved the show to Hollywood and used Ken Carpenter – but anytime he broadcast from New York, Riggs was his ‘mikeman.’

In the late ‘40s he started his migration to the ‘boob tube’ side of the ABC house – but still stayed busy on the radio in the ‘50s – Bob and Ray, MC on Kitchen Keepers, Mark Trail (in the 15-min. episodes), Herb Oscar Anderson Show and continued on My True Story.

I’ve seen sources saying he was announcing on Big Sister while other sources don’t say anything about Glenn and Big Sister. OK, you ‘washboard weeper’ fans out there – which was it and when? There are so few sources that cover soaps.

He also had an interesting side career – narrating kids’ stories on 45 RPM records (Goldie Locks and the Three Bears; Chicken Licken; Little Red Riding Hood; Ginger Bread Boy, etc.) – for sale by RCA Victor through Bruno recordings of New York City.

The rest of his ABC career was in TV until his retirement in 1971 when he pulled up stakes and moved to Malaga Spain, where he died in 1975.

From Pittsburgh to Paul Whiteman to Bob and Ray and Bing – there were few ‘Blues’ in Glenn’s nights! Thanks for the memories.

Normally I’m fairly aware of the significance of the OTR person I write about – but this week’s guest threw me for a loop! Yes, I knew the basics of him, but I had NO idea of the sheer number of shows he worked on as actor or announcer and knew even less of his hundreds of voices he used in radio. He was a writer, actor, director, announcer, narrator, poet and walking encyclopedia – a Renaissance man of radio.

Up front – an apology for the length. I learned so much about him, I couldn’t help myself.

I’m speaking of Marvin Miller. While my generation knew him primarily as Michael Anthony, executive secretary to billionaire John Beresford Tipton (voiced by Paul Frees, but never seen) for handing out tax-free $1,000,000 checks on the TV series “The Millionaire,” he had a huge impact on radio before making the transition to TV.

Marvin Elliott Mueller was born on July 18, 1913, in St. Louis, MO to Herman and Teresa Mueller.

As a kid he wanted to be a newspaper man, but from his job as a copy boy, he saw more of the drudgery that goes into a newspaper man’s life, so thought about a college professor as he loved learning and wanted to pass it on to others. But the Depression got in the way, and in order to finish college (Washington University in St Louis) he took a job at a St. Louis radio station at KWK. Or should I say, he lost his audition as an announcer but as a parting shot, offered to do a summer radio show, Lord Algy, including the writing, directing and all the voices. They hired him; he was able to pay for and complete his bachelor’s degree in Languages (fluent in French, Spanish and German). In the summer program’s first episode he played two Englishmen, two negroes, an Italian, a Frenchman, an American gangster and a straight man. He made $5/week. By the end of the 13-week summer run, he had done more than 45 roles. He was still a teenager.

With his degree in hand, he went back to radio in St Louis – to KMOX as announcer, actor (characters aged 16 to 60), newscaster and music commentator.

By 1939, with more than 7 years in St Louis radio, he moved to Chicago and repeated his successes with more than a dozen dialects; by 1944 was appearing in 45 programs a week. ‘Variety’ dubbed him, “Chicago’s one-man radio industry.”

He was a part of the Chicago radio world from 1939 to 1944. In that time, he really earned the Variety ‘award.’

Since he was in Chicago, that meant he was probably on a soap or two – (who didn’t?) or almost 20 (between Chicago and Hollywood)! FEW actors, male or female, were associated with more than Marvin.  Affairs of Anthony (Anthony Marley, Sr.), Arnold Grimm’s Daughter (‘Voice of Conscious’), Guiding Light (Ellis Smith), Judy and Jane  (actor-announcer), Lonely Women (announcer and ‘Voice of Doubt’), Ma Perkins (announcer), Midstream (Howard Andrews), Right to Happiness (actor and ‘Voice of the past’), Road of Life (Tom Brando), Romance of Helen Trent (Gil Whitney), Scattergood Baines (Arturo Valdi and ‘Hands’ Bannister), Stepmother (‘Voice of Conscious’), Today’s Children (Regular), Woman From Nowhere (announcer) and Woman in White (Dr. Lee Markham).

But he was MUCH more than a ‘soap’ actor/announcer…

Did somebody say drama, comedy, variety, quiz and juvenile shows?

Yes!. In Chicago he appeared on: Aunt Jemima (Announcer), Author’s Playhouse (Regular), Beat the Band (Announcer), Captain Midnight (Capt. Einman – a Nazi, and Rogart), the ‘high-brow’ Chicago Theater of the Air (Regular), Coronet Little Show (Announcer), Coronet Storyteller (storyteller)*, Cruise of the Poll Parrot (Captain Roy Dalton of the ‘Poll Parrott’), Dear Mom (Sgt. Mike Monihan), First Nighter (Mr. First Nighter and actor), Great Gunns (Actor-announcer), Harold Teen (Beezie Jenks), Jack Armstrong (Regular), Knickerbocker Playhouse (Regular), National Barn Dance (Announcer), Peter Quill (Peter Quill – star), Play Broadcast (Host), Press Club (Mark Brando – star), The Quiz Kids (Announcer), That Brewster Boy (Announcer), Treet Time (Regular), Uncle Walter’s Dog House (Regular), and Wings of Destiny (Regular).

So, was he an actor or announcer as he did many of both? It could get confusing. As he noted to Chuck Schafer in a 1973 interview speaking about his work in Chicago… “…the only way I actually got around it in Chicago was to tell the advertising agency people that I was an announcer, and tell the directors that I was an actor—and sometimes I met myself coming and going. I’d be announcing a show and suddenly get a part on it!”

In June of 1944, Marvin, along with his wife and son, moved west to Hollywood. As he discussed in a 1945 radio ‘fanzine’ interview…

"Hollywood is an odd place. In radio in Chicago, an actor has a chance to make a name for himself, and by his merit, work himself out of the AFRA minimum scale of pay, while an announcer seldom does. Out here the situation is reversed. An announcer can build himself a fine reputation with corresponding hikes in salary, while the average actor, no matter how good he is, works on the various dramatic shows for scale. Having quite a few financial responsibilities," he grinned, "you'll see why I'm better known out here as an announcer and storyteller."
So, he again did BOTH.

When he left Chicago, he brought a program with him – Coronet Storyteller – that would last for years.

His Hollywood resume:

On the ‘Soap’ front in Hollywood: Aunt Mary (Announcer), Family Skeletons (actor) and One Man’s Family (Roderick Stone and others – in fact it’s said he played more than 20 roles on the show – more than any other actor).

Non-Soaps he was on: Adv. of Maisie, Adv. of Ozzie and Harriet, Andrews Sisters (Announcer), Armchair Adventures (did ALL voices), Barrie Craig (Regular), The Beulah Show (Announcer), The Bickersons (Announcer), Billie Burke Show (Col. Fitts, banker Guthrie and Announcer), Bold Venture (actor-Announcer), Broadway Is My Beat (actor), Burns and Allen (Regular 49-50), The Cisco Kid (actor), Confession (Regular), Cousin Willie (Marvin Sample), Crime Classics (actor), Crisco/Dreft Star Playhouse (Announcer)**, Dark Venture (actor), A Date With Judy (Announcer), Don Ameche/Old Gold Show (Announcer), Dragnet (actor), Duffy’s Tavern (actor-Announcer), Eternal Light (actor), Family Theatre (semi-regular), Father Knows Best (Announcer), Favorite Story (actor), Fibber McGee and Molly (actor), Songs by Sinatra (Announcer), Great Gildersleeve (actor), Guest Star (Announcer, Host), Gunsmoke (actor), Have Gun, Will Travel (semi-regular),  Hotpoint Holiday Hour (Special, Announcer), Inheritance (actor), I was a Communist for the FBI (actor), Jeff Regan (Regular, Announcer), Jo Stafford Show (Announcer), Lassie (Narrator), Lux Radio Theatre (actor), Martin and Lewis (Announcer), Me and Janie (actor), Moon Dreams (Host-Narrator), Music By Ray Noble (Announcer), Name the Movie (Host-Announcer), NBC Presents Short Story (actor), NBC Star Playhouse (actor), NBC University Theater (semi-regular), Night Beat (actor), Pacific Story (actor), Phil Harris/Alice Faye (actor), Railroad Hour (Announcer entire run), Red Skelton (Announcer), Rocky Fortune (actor), Roy Rogers Show (semi-regular), Rudy Vallee Drene Show (actor), The Six-Shooter (actor), Smilin’ Ed’s Buster Brown Show (actor), Space Patrol (actor), Stars for Defense (regular), Stars Over Hollywood (semi-regular), Stop That Villain (Co-Host), Strange Wills (actor), Symphony Under the Stars (music commentator), Tarzan (actor), Tell It Again (Host-Narrator), Theater of Famous Radio Players (Regular), The Whistler (The Whistler and Announcer), The Witness (actor), Woodbury Journal (Louella Parsons Show) (Announcer), Your Movietown Radio Theater (actor) and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (Regular 55-60).

While never in the military or officially part of AFRS, he still volunteered his time on several AFRS programs: Command Performance (Announcer), The Haunting Hour (Announcer/AFRS), Hollywood Bowl Series (Announcer), Jubilee (MC), Mail Call (actor) and Pendleton Story (actor).

With the end of radio drama in 1962, he just couldn’t stay out of radio. With the several attempts to bring back radio drama in the ‘60s and ‘70s, he was there – CBS Radio Mystery Theater (actor), Heartbeat Theater [Salvation Army] (actor), Sears Radio Theater (24 appearances), Theatre Five (actor) and The Zero Hour (aka Hollywood Radio Theater) (Regular).

What a LIST!

 

*The Coronet Storyteller originated in January, ’44 on NBC Blue in Chicago as a 15-minute, 5 nights-a-week program. It morphed into The Story Behind the Story when on Mutual; then to Behind the Story for 9 years on the Don Lee network, and finally as Marvin Miller, Storyteller after Mutual cancelled the program in 1958 and Miller continued the program out of KNX in Hollywood. Miller recorded his 1,000^(th) episode of the show when it was called Behind the Story out of KHJ in LA as noted in TV-Radio Life issue of July 17, 1953.

** Crisco and Dreft Star Playhouses were unique shows. It started as Hollywood Theater of the Air in 1943. It was a daily, 15-minute program that would do a different movie each week at 9:45-10:00 every weekday morning (Eastern Time). Proctor & Gamble owned it and thought there were too many shows with Hollywood in the title – so they renamed it first to Crisco Star Playhouse in the summer of 1944 and changed it again that fall to its final name, Dreft Star Playhouse. Crisco was P&G’s shortening (I’ll bet you have some in your kitchen!), while Dreft was its laundry detergent (still around, too). In the end, names didn’t matter – housewives were not ready to listen to a movie serialized over 5 days and the show went off the air in March of 1945.

 

As a final note, Marvin was not JUST a radio actor, writer, announcer, narrator – he also acted in over 60 movies ‘live’ and ‘voice’ (remember the voice of Robby the Robot in “Forbidden Planet?”), countless TV shows, various animated characters, recorded Dr. Seuss story albums for which he received two Grammys, and recorded the entire King James’ version of the Bible – a set of recording sessions that lasted some 6 months and the recordings would take a person over 100 hours to listen to! Oh, and on Moon Dreams, he didn’t just read poetry – he wrote it too – enough to get listed in the Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Poets! You’ve probably heard him many times – but didn’t know who it was.

Your typical radio actor? Not by a longshot!

One of the most famous ‘Irishmen’ on Radio (who you may not know by name) – Walter Aloysius Kinsella – was born Aug. 16, 1900, in Manhattan, New York City to Irish immigrants Simon and Margaret Kinsella.

While in high school in the Bronx, he had a unique after-school job from 1915 - 1917 at a place called Edison Studios just a few blocks from his home. Yes, THAT Edison. He was working both behind and in front of the camera in some of the earliest movies made! With WWI raging, he dropped out of school and enlisted in the US Marine Corps in early 1918 and was discharged in the fall of 1919. No, Walter was never sent to France. He must have liked certain aspects of the military, as he then enlisted in the NY National Guard and remained into the early 1930s!

He also enjoyed (and was good at) sports. His big thing in high school was running – middle distance running – which he also stayed with into the 1930s. But missed by many biographers was that he took a liking to squash – or in the 19-teens, ‘Squash Tennis.’ He excelled at that also – becoming World Champion by 1920 and continued playing for the next 10 years as an amateur.

A handsome man, Walter also got into fashion modeling in the 1920s and was one of the models for Arrow Menswear – he had the look coupled with his film industry experience. With this, he decided to give the stage a try.

Most bios will say he got his start on Broadway with “What Price Glory?” in 1924. Not quite right. He WAS in “What Price Glory?” – but in the touring road show that lasted nearly a year from the fall of 1924 to the fall of 1925 playing two speaking roles throughout the eastern half of the country.

If you look at his Broadway career – and it’s a good one – hist first Broadway play is “The Road to Rome” (1927 – running for 1 year!; he was ‘the third guard’ but he’s on Broadway!). He will do 5 more Broadway plays – all with substantial acting parts – over the next 30 years! He will remain in the Big Apple for most of his radio career.

If you study his radio – he’s more often in a comedy role, but was not tied to that. Drama was also in his vocabulary – especially if they needed a brogue, and a few soaps – of course!

In 1930 we hear him on the radio as the co-star of Peewee and Windy (Windy) and three years later on Circus Days (General Manager) – a 26-week program. They leave the air but he’s being recognized and in the 30s is active on: Arch Oboler Plays, Dick Tracy (original Pat Patton through the ‘40s), Great Plays, Myrt and Marge (Joe Gulick), Mr. District Attorney (the first Harrington and a regular in many roles), Radio Newsreel and Radio Guild. Starting to see ‘Irish’ roles?

The ‘40s were even better. Abie’s Irish Rose (Pat Murphy, Rosemary’s father – entire run), Baby Snooks, Bishop and the Gargoyle, Cavalcade of America, Columbia Workshop, Crime Club, Crisis in War Town, Electric Theater with Helen Hayes, Ford Theatre, The Fresh Up Show (Doc Fickett and an Irish policeman), Joe and Mabel (Mike), Johnny Morgan Show (Regular), Leave it to Mike (aka Paging Mike McNally; star), Martin Kane, Private Eye (Happy McCann – radio and TV), Mighty Casey (Ambrose Cooney), Mr. and Mrs. North (Sgt. Mullins – into the 50s), Secret Missions, Sportsmen’s Club, Stella Dallas (Gus Grady – 5 years), That’s My Pop (Regular), Theatre Guild On The Air, Treasury Salute and Words at War. Some pretty big series.

By the early ‘50s he was already migrating into TV – but still had time for radio and more plays on Broadway. On the radio: CBS Radio Workshop, Phil Harris/Alice Faye (when they did the show on the road in New York in 1950) and X-Minus one.

He capped his radio career in the early 60s with appearances on Suspense, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar when those programs moved to New York and Theater Five while being heavily involved in TV as an actor and announcer.

To top it off, he is one of a minority of radio actors to be a member of New York’s premier actor’s society, The Lambs’ Club – where he actually lived for many years.

In an article in a Pensacola, FL newspaper while appearing as the Irish father of Rosemary Murphy on “Abie’s Irish Rose,” he said that it was his own fault that he’s a victim of type-casting (MANY times showing up as an Irishman). When Walter started in radio, he accepted parts not quite to his liking because he needed the jobs. What he wanted to play was an Irish character, but nobody would listen. Finally, a producer friend gave him the chance. Result - Walter plays most of the Irish characters on the radio today (1943)!

In Mary Jane Higby’s book, “Tune In Tomorrow,” she notes about Kinsella. (It dealt with running in downtown New York City to get from one network to another for scheduled shows.)

Track records between stations and how to beat them was a favorite topic at Colbee's, the restaurant by CBS. I once eavesdropped on a conversation between Santos Ortega (Inspector Queen and Nero Wolfe) and Walter Kinsella, one of the busiest of the free-lance actors.

"You can trim one minute forty-five seconds off your time from here to NBC," Ortega maintained, "if you cut diagonally through St. Patrick's Cathedral."

"One minute thirty," corrected Kinsella.

"One thirty," agreed Ortega, "if you stop to genuflect."

To a man of silent movies, the Marine Corps, a world-class athlete, a fashion model, Broadway actor and a great radio actor (Irish or otherwise) – thank you for some wonderful performances!

That after-school job paid big dividends in his career. He died in 1975 in New Jersey – but what a life.

Before I did this research, I knew the name but little else. Now I consider him my friend.

Many of the series he appeared on are still there for the listening – check him out.

Some actors have the look and voice to be leading men or women; others are invariably cast as ‘background’ or character actors – the truck driver, the store clerk, the mechanic – someone who is needed in the scene, but who will probably not get the lead in any production.

Then there is Wally Maher who labored for years as a background actor but who broke the glass ceiling and made it to the leads in several radio shows.

I’ll admit that when I first heard him as Mike Shayne, I pictured a guy in his mid-50s (he was actually in his 30s) with that no-nonsense approach and raspy Midwestern voice. But I kept listening and started softening – he still hit me as an experienced detective with lots of tricks-of-the-trade to share with the young ones coming up but he also had a heart.

As usual, I’m ahead of myself.

Walter Anthony Maher, Wally, was born on Aug. 4, 1908, in Cincinnati, OH to Daniel and Mary Maher. He didn’t quite make it through high school – he wanted a life in the entertainment world. His father was an old-time song and dance man for many years and he tried to discourage Wally on an entertainer’s life – to no avail. Wally got a job with the Southern Pacific railroad where he heard people coming through the station with many different dialects. More importantly, he LISTENED to them and practiced mimicking them. That would prove a big boost down the entertainment road he still had his eyes fixed on. He also got into a Cincinnati theater stock company and started getting experience.

WLW (and its newspaper owner) decided to get into drama. In 1929 the newspaper had a daily serialized version of the big hit “All Quiet on the Western Front.” They decided to couple that to a 15-minute acted version every afternoon on WLW radio. From his local acting experience they brought Wally in for an audition. Looking back on it, Wally said the audition was a disaster, but WLW liked him as an actor and cast him as the lead, Paul Baumer. The serial started in November, 1929, as indicated in the local newspaper.

Perhaps it was the stock market crash – but whatever it was, his lead in “All Quiet” didn’t get him much of anything.

While still doing local stock work he was hired by WLW as an actor, director and producer – in those days, stations got their money’s worth out of everyone. One show he was associated with was Tangee Musical Dreams as its star! He also met someone at the station who would be a future partner in radio – Tommy Riggs. They developed a fast and long-lasting friendship. Tommy was half of the Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou – or I should say the half and half – as Tommy had a medical condition where he could speak as himself, a baritone, AND as a 7-year-old girl. It was dubbed ‘bi-vocalism.’

In no time, Tommy invited Wally to be Betty Lou’s boyfriend, “Wilbur” on his WLW show.

We’ll, Wally wanted to get into the bigtime and while Cincinnati was home of ‘The Nation’s Station,’ he had his radio eyes set on New York.

When he arrived in New York, it was summer and the summer shows had all their personnel lined up. Wally took the time for him and Molly to get married. That’s when it dawned on him that he really needed a job NOW as the show he contracted with before leaving Cincinnati wouldn’t start until the fall and his bank account was being depleted fast.

That’s when he prayed like never before. He went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and prayed hard for a job – any job.

Later, walking past NBC, he saw 50 men lined up, and inquiring as to the excitement, heard that an audition was being held for the part of a baby ape, whose noises were required for a children's series. "Let me get a chance at it," Maher asked the audition director. Wally won the audition and made baby ape noises and $75 a week for the next three weeks. He was working!

"I had no idea how a baby ape should sound," Wally recalls. "I guess the crazy noises I made were okay. because I got the job – and money to keep Molly and me until fall came around!"

What were some of his shows in New York? Circus Days (regular), Eno Crime Clues, Camel Caravan, Gangbusters, Just Plain Bill and Sherlock Holmes.

He left for Los Angeles about 1935. Found some film work as a ‘everyman’ and ‘background character’ (over 60 movies to his credit over his lifetime – drama and comedy, editors, reporters, tough guys, etc.) and found a few acting jobs in radio. His dialect work from his days with the railroad really started opening doors as he was on the first Lux Radio Theatre produced in Hollywood (and would be a regular on the program for years to come).

In the late ‘30s he was heard on Lux and a few other Hollywood shows like Brent House (Lance Dudley) and Carleton E. Morse’s I Love A Mystery (he’ll be with them as a supporting actor through ’44).

Then he gets that Broadway itch and is hired for a Broadway play – “Every Man For Himself” – and goes to New York for rehearsals. While there he picked up a few radio jobs – Mr. District Attorney, Famous Jury Trials and probably a few more.

Then it’s ‘Curtain Time’ on Broadway! Alas, the play gets poor reviews and closes after only 3 performances! Wally gets a pretty good review himself, “…who plays the gangster as naturally as though he had had a long Broadway experience which he hasn’t had.”

But when he returns to the career he now realizes is radio and in Los Angeles – things start looking up rather quickly!

Wally, the ‘40s and Radio in LA

World War II breaks out for the U.S. Is Wally to be drafted? No, due to a chronic respiratory problem, he is 4-F – barred from military service. It’s actually a boost for him as MANY radio people are called into military service – and radio ‘must go on.’

In a word, he’s BUSY in the ‘40s.

1941-42 – A regular on Cavalcade of America (and will continue through 1944), Blondie, It Happened in the Service, Horace Heidt, Junior Miss, Latitude Zero, Lights Out (Regular), Maxwell House Coffee Time, One Man’s Family (Dan Murray - he’ll be in the ‘family’ off and on until at least 1949), Point Sublime, Red Ryder, Creighton Leighton on This Is Judy Jones and Arch Oboler’s To The President. Also, in ’41, Norman Corwin came out to Hollywood and did a few of his Columbia Presents Corwin there – 3 of which were with Wally. He has been NOTICED! Lastly, for 42 – he’s reteamed with Tommy Riggs as Wilbur and will continue the partnership through ’46.

1943-44 – Adv. of Ozzie and Harriet, Ceiling Unlimited, G.I. Journal, Hollywood Mystery Time, Hollywood Theater of the Air, The Jack Benny Program, The Mainline (about the workings of a railroad – which he did for a while in Cincinnati – as the Narrator – the ONLY ‘regular’ character heard each week), NBC’s Mystery of the Month, Screen Guild Theater, Silver Theatre and This Is My Best.

Additionally, the two biggest things in his career will happen in ’44. First, he’s named a regular on Suspense (continuing through ’49) and he’s named the star of Michael Shayne (continues through ’47). He’s no longer a ‘character’ actor – he’s hit the bigtime – gruff voice and all – with a touch of sarcasm. He’s part of LA’s “Radio Row.”

Said Radio Life in 1947: ‘Back-mike on Shayne stand Mr. and Mrs. Personification of Radio in stars Wally Maher and Cathy Lewis. Established as two of the finest dramatic voices in the business, Wally and Cathy make a wonderful team for the show. Wally, who has a capacity for rough characters, and who calculates he's been knocked off more than any actor in radio, especially likes his Shayne role because he's at last on the right end of the gun. And they're both all for the Shayne script, written to give outlet for comedy combined with drama. Like the show's following, Cathy and Wally are enthusiastic when they say that the quick quips twixt Mike and Phyl, even on the brink of tension, are what make the program.’

He also found time in ’43 to get elected to the local LA Chapter of AFRA as VP and was a board member in ’45! He also made a few cartoons for Tex Avery and MGM during this time.

Of his time on Suspense, he told a radio fanzine in 1946 that he’s killed 31 persons and embezzled five million dollars, been killed 18 times himself and served just about 1000 years in prison.

One of my favorite stories about Wally was told in a 1943 radio fanzine. It has to do with warming up the studio audience before the broadcast begins on the Tommy Riggs show…

Wally Maher comes in, reading from a script that reeks of the familiar "horse opera" style, startles the audience with a series of revolver shots. Accosted by Riggs, he looks up from the script and out over the footlights, amazed, then exclaims, "Oh, wrong audience! I thought this was the Red Ryder show." (Yes, he was adept at comedy!)

1945-49 – The war’s over; radio actors are coming home from the military and he may be a lead and a regular on a hit series, but that only increases the calls for his use on other programs. Abbott and Costello, Adv. of Maisie (Maisie’s boyfriend), Adv. of Philip Marlowe, Adv. of Sam Spade (semi-regular), Arch Oboler’s Plays, Burns and Allen (continuing until ’50), Crime Club, The Eddie Bracken Show (regular), Family Theatre, Gene Autry, Hallmark Playhouse, Hopalong Cassidy, Jeff Regan, Let George Do It (the sardonic Lt. Riley), more Lux Radio Theatres but not as a regular, Meet Me At Parky’s (Regular), Merry Life of Mary Christmas (Regular), My Favorite Husband, NBC University Theater, Out of the Deep (Capt. Gunnar Carlisle – star), Phil Harris/Alice Faye, Richard Davis, Private Investigator (star), Richard Diamond, Screen Directors’ Playhouse (semi-regular), Sealtest Variety Show, This Is Your FBI and The Whistler (Regular). The producer of The Whistler, George Allen, had this to say about Wally – “Wally has the quick touch. He can be emotional in a flash. He makes a perfect blowtop. He can make his character sound very natural, with an undercurrent of emotion.”

How busy was he? Wally estimated that he works and average of about 36 hours per day!

Sad note – Wally’s Burbank home burned to the ground in the spring of ’47. Took a while to rebuild.

1950-51. In 1950, Wally had a cancerous lung removed but still had time for a few more shows for us all to enjoy. Amos ‘n’ Andy (YES, really!), Bob Hope, Cisco Kid (recorded in ’51, broadcast in ’53), Dangerous Assignment, Escape, Harold Peary Show, NBC Presents Short Story, The New Adv. of Nero Wolfe (Sidney Greenstreet’s first Archie Goodwin), Night Beat, The Penny Singleton Show, The Story of Dr. Kildare, more Suspense, Tales of the Texas Rangers, T-Man, Wild Bill Hickok and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar!

And finally, his last co-starring role, as working-class Sgt. Matt Grebb in the police procedural The Line Up. (Although I like Dragnet, I like The Line up even better. They seem more like real cops with real lives.)

He worked right up to almost the day he died of lung cancer in December 1951.

He was only 43. He only had 20 years in radio. He left a widow and three kids.

Comedy, Variety, Drama, Soaps, Narration – he had the versatility and comic timing to do it all (including many ‘doubles’ and ‘triples’ in broadcasts) and starred or co-starred in four network series. The quintessential ‘everyman.’ That’s a pretty good accomplishment for any radio actor. Try listening to a Lux, Cavalcade, Suspense, Mike Shayne or Line Up episode with Wally in it. His ‘regular guy’ shines in every role. You’ll be glad you listened. I liked how Elizabeth McLeod summed him up concerning the light humor he brought to drama and procedural shows - He was the rare actor with the gift of being amusing without being funny. She ended her article on Maher - an actor whose roles seem, even now, to be so full of vibrant, everyday life.

For this past 4^(th) of July, I listened to Corwin’s “Home for the 4^(th).” Well done by Wally and the rest of the cast. Take a listen.

Hello everybody. Normally you see in my (and others’) short bios of OTR personalities, those who were giants in their profession. Today we’ll focus on a strictly character actor – one who never got a lead part in a series. Our focus is a New York character actor – William (or more often) Bill Griffis.

He had an interesting career – from Hollywood to New York and back again.

Charles William Griffis was born July 12, 1917, in Hollywood to Charles and Olive Griffis. Dad was in the sporting goods business. Sporting goods were not in the cards for Bill.

The stage and acting intrigued young Bill. While his early life is obscured, he did land an acting role on Hollywood Theater Group broadcast in 1943 – in fact, several. Then it looks like he wanted to go into radio big time and moved to New York, the center of radio in the 40s. He became a regular cast member on The Cavalcade of America. That may have led to him becoming a regular on several ‘40s New York shows including: Archie Andrews (Mr. Lodge, Veronica’s dad), Adv. of Father Brown (Flambeau), Believe It or Not (announcer, 47-48), Chick Carter, Boy Detective (Rufus Lash), Lights Out and Roger Kilgore.

He also ‘guested’ on shows in the ‘40s: Adv. of Frank Merriwell, Author Meets Critics, Murder at Midnight, The Sportsmen’s Club and others.

The ‘50s were also good to Bill with regular cast spots on: 2000 Plus, Best Plays, Crime and Peter Chambers, Dimension X, Dr. Sixgun (Pablo – the sidekick – the closest he got to a starring role in a series), The Marriage, Road of Life, Search That Never Ends, and X-Minus One.

Occasional roles on: Author Meets the Critics, The Chase, Eternal Light (he will continue into the late ‘60s), Inheritance, Medicine USA, NBC Star Playhouse, New World A’ Coming, Right to Happiness, Stroke of Fate and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (NY run).

But the ‘50s are the time he really stretched out – not only on radio but on Broadway. He will be in MANY Broadway and stage plays between 1952 and the ‘70s. He also started working in TV, which lasted into the ‘80s.

After the ‘fall’ of radio drama in 1962, and although he was active on the stage, in TV and films – he seemed to be pulled back to the medium of his start – RADIO. In the ‘60s and ‘70s he would make many appearances on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater [61 shows], General Mills Adventure Theater (a regular), NBC Experiment in Drama, Theater Five (regular) and the short-run daily NBC soap of 1975 – Faces of Love as a regular cast member.

He may have not been a star, but he was ACTIVE and sought after by directors/producers in our medium throughout his life with probably over 2,000 radio shows to his credit.

Here’s to the journeymen of radio – the unsung heroes who really MADE radio what it was.

If I say Archie Goodwin, Jerry Reilly, Sleepy, Arthur Britton, Paul Vandenbusch, Jim Matthews, Doc the cabbie, Tippy, Mr. Martin, Willoughby Shelly Van Totten or Sgt. Cornelius Trumball – who am I?

Ok, rather obscure characters, so I’ll make it a bit more obvious – Connie the coolie, Mr. Zinzer, Red Pennington, Barney Dunlap and Ethelbert. Yes, the light went on for many – John Gibson created all those and many more in his career encompassing over 10,000 radio appearances (by his own count).

But it all began with the birth in Oakland, CA of John Winslow Gibson on 29 June 1905 and raised by his adoptive lawyer father and his wife.

His first steps in the entertainment field are recorded in silent movies. From there it was as an Oakland stock company performer in 1925 and in an interview he said that he also got a start in radio the same year in the Bay Area.

His radio career really got going in the early 1930s. A big break was being cast in a syndicated series, Gleason and Armstrong, a sort of ‘Thelma and Louise’ road trip of the day (with a happier ending). It was a 5-a-week series that lasted 103 episodes – all of which are in circulation. (While some sites say that he might be in the series, in a 1970s interview, John said he was in it with James Gleason and Robert Armstrong.)

That led to casting calls including a 1935 spot on Calling All Cars which led him EVERYWHERE.

His primary base in the ‘30s was Los Angeles. In ‘37 it was with a syndicated program where he played Barney Dunlap to Howard McNear’s Clint Barlow on Speed Gibson of the International Secret Police (was that Elliott Lewis as Speed as some say?). Like Gleason and Armstrong, it was a 26-week production, that was rebroadcast in different areas of the country and lasted for 3 years.

The floodgates were open and he was part of the radio community.

While he was a dialectician, his ‘nasal’ voice is normally easy to spot by me in most appearances – but not all.

His regular ‘30s/LA appearances were on: Charlie Chan, Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen, Ann of the Airlanes, Bits of Life, Globe Headlines (Sleepy – a newspaper photographer!) and The Tottering Van Teeters (Willoughby Shelly Van Totten). Other appearances in LA – Captains of Industry, Don Hancock, The Family Doctor, The Jack Benny Show, Lux Radio Theatre, Moving Stories of Life, Police Headquarters and Silver Theater.

In 1939, he decided to leave ‘Hollywood’ for the radio Mecca – New York City. As he said in an interview, many actors believed that if you could make it in New York you could make it anywhere. (Sounds like a line from a Frank Sinatra song.) So, the bachelor packed up and headed cross-country to the Big Apple.

Was he ostracized for being from LA like some actors were? A quick look at his New York resume says NO!

As a Regular cast member – Adventures of Nero Wolfe (Archie), Adv. of Dick Cole, Adv. of Red Feather, Bright Horizon (Jerry Reilly), The Couple Next Door, Dick Tracy, Don Winslow of the Navy (Red Pennington), Guess What? (panelist), Just Plain Bill (Arthur Britton), Life Can Be Beautiful (Paul Vandenbusch), The Man I Married (Tippy), Michael and Kitty (Doc, the cabbie), Milton Berle Show (’48 season regular), Portia Faces Life (Mr. Coffee Nerves), Right to Happiness, Rosemary (Mr. Martin), Saturday Showdown (host), So, This Is Radio (Yes, Norman Corwin spotted him), Suspense (New York run), Theater Five (semi-regular), This Is Our Enemy, Two On A Clue (Sgt. Cornelius Trumbull – with there were more extant episodes!), Willie Piper and X-Minus One. Pretty busy daily schedule.

He was able to cram in a few appearances on other New York programs – 26 By Corwin, American School of the Air, Barrie Craig, Best Plays, The Big Story, The Bishop and the Gargoyle, Boston Blackie, A Brighter Tomorrow (a special), Cavalcade of America, CBS Radio Workshop, The Chase, The Cisco Kid, Columbia Presents Corwin, Columbia Workshop, Crime Does Not Pay, Dimension X, Dr. Six-Gun, The Easy Aces, The Eternal Light, The Falcon, Ford Theater, Front Page Drama, The Henry Morgan Show, The Inheritance, Lest we Forget, Manhattan at Midnight, The Marriage, Matinee Theater, MGM Theater of the Air, Miss Hattie, Mollé Mystery Theater, Morey Amsterdam Show, Mr. District Attorney, Murder at Midnight, Murder By Experts, The Mysterious Traveler, My True Story, Nick Carter, Now Hear This, Phil Harris/Alice Faye (when the show was traveling to New York), Philo Vance, Radio Reader’s Digest, Robert Q. Lewis Show, Romance, Rose of My Dreams, The Silent Men, The Sportsmen’s Club, A Story for VJ Day (special), Theatre Guild of the Air, Theater of Romance, This Is Your FBI, Treasury Salute, Treasury Star Parade, You Are There, Young Widder Brown and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar (New York run). Let me catch my breath!

Gibson noted that as most of the New York radio studios were all within a few blocks, he, at one time, did twelve shows in one day!

Finally, there are the shows he’s most identified with – The Magnificent Montague as Mr. Zinzer, the Uncle Goodheart show director – where he steals almost every scene from Monty Wooley, and the Casey, Crime Photographer entire ‘franchise’ beginning with Flashgun Casey. He created his character and was on it till the end of its 11-year run as Ethelbert, the slow-talking, sardonic philosopher and bartender of the Blue Note bar, where the show normally had its opening and closing scenes. There were several ‘Casey’s’ but only one Ethelbert.

Depending on what source you look at it, there are many more shows that have been applied to Gibson – but some were in LA while he was in New York, and vice versa. Not sure how he managed that or if the compiler had a few errors. Gibson did say in an interview that he would catch a train in New York and run out to Chicago for a show or two, and be back home the next day.

In this crazy schedule, he found time to get married (it lasted) and had a son! He died young in New York at age 66.

While comedy was his forte, he excelled in drama, soaps and even a western or two.

He also appeared or did voice work in several movies – notably “Snow White” as “Sleepy” and “Run Silent, Run Deep.”

After radio he jumped into TV with both feet where he acted and did commercials for some 22 years. As he and ‘Casey’ (Staats Cotsworth) said – several radio actors had ONLY done radio and they had a tough time making the TV transition. But those, like Gibson and Cotsworth, who had stage work before and/or after radio, had an easier transition to the ‘boob tube’ medium.

So, here’s to the guy with the funny nasal voice who made all our lives a little happier.

Oh, those interviews I listed to are on the Internet – just look for them and his hundreds of recorded shows!

In the OTR world there is one thespian who always gets confused with a younger actor with the same name. There is Charles Webster (from England who played Abraham Lincoln over 300 times on stage and over radio broadcasts and who had a baritone voice) and Charles ‘Chuck’ Webster (from Pittsburgh, more of a tenor voice). They both went by both Charles and Chuck! It can get confusing!! Even the likes of John Dunning in his massive tome “On The Air” has but one entry for ‘Charles Webster’ where he mixes both into one person! (Most of the OTR books do.) And up front, I’ve probably made a few mistakes myself as some of the shows “Charles” was listed in in RadioGOLDIN that I’ve listened to, I just couldn’t identify Charles/Chuck!

We’ll focus on Charles Webster from England who came to ‘the colonies’ and remained the rest of his life.

Charles was born on June 9, 1889, in Egremont, England, son of John Edwards and Julia Zimmerman Webster. He came to America in 1897 at the age of 8 and lived with his mother and sister in New York City following his father’s death in England. Coming here as a youngster probably is a reason that he has no thick English accent in any of his productions.

Little is known of his early years. There are references that say his mother moved the family to the residence of her eldest son, Edward, who was then living in Canada, and later in Buffalo, NY. That makes sense as they do not appear in the New York City census records in 1900 or 1905.

We do know that Charles got an acting job with James O’Neill’s traveling stage company around 1914. James was the father of Eugene O’Neill. Of the younger O’Neill, Mr. Webster had this to say… “We were in Memphis when the father got a telegram from Gene, in New Orleans, saying ‘to eat or not to eat, that is the question’,” recalled Webster. “The father sent money to his wandering son to join the company and from then on it was my job to keep him on the job and out of trouble.” They became good friends.

Years later, Webster said the younger O’Neill helped Webster have his play produced on Broadway – “The Man Who Never Died.”

Charles appeared in at least 18 Broadway plays between 1914 and 1926 and many more in road shows on the East Coast. Not bad credentials.

One of his stage roles was as Abraham Lincoln. He did well in it and loved the part – so much so that he became a Lincoln devotee and studied him. Through his stage work he was known as “Mr. Lincoln.” In a 1938 radio fanzine interview he noted that he had, by that time, portrayed Lincoln some 50 times on the radio and 300 on the stage.

So, how good was he in the role? After one of his 1938 radio performances, a man listened from the audience and wrote to NBC that he, “Col. Rizer,” 90-years-old, had heard Lincoln talk during his life and that Webster’s voice “was amazingly like Lincoln’s.”

From the New York Tribune, Feb 13, 1938… (writing about a Lincoln special on radio)

“But NBC, in its efforts to outdo others, slipped badly. An excellent sketch with Webster as Lincoln and Florence Malone as Mary Todd, suffered a severe letdown when the network switched to Hollywood for a reading of the Gettysburg Address by John Barrymore. It was worse than silly to do this. With Webster in the cast HE should have read it. On the air he IS Lincoln. Barrymore was merely Barrymore, and a not very convincing Barrymore either.”

Wrote fellow actor, Walt Kinsella in a scrapbook of Webster’s, a little ‘tongue in cheek,’ “Four Score and Seven Programs Ago Charley Webster Brought Upon This Network Abe Lincoln.”

I think I’ve said about enough on Webster and Lincoln, except…

On radio, Abe Lincoln came in handy, especially around Lincoln’s birthday to pay the rent, but he would go on to play many other roles.

By 1930 he was in the regular cast of radio’s Radio Guild on WJZ where he will remain for many years doing serious drama – his love.

In the early ‘30s he’s also heard on On Wings of Song and The Parade of Stars (narrator & actor).

He also had a regular part on the Civil War drama Roses and Drums until it left the air in 1936.

He was now an established radio actor and was soon in demand. In the ‘30s that meant Adventures in Reading (regular), American Portraits (often as Abe Lincoln), Believe It or Not, Cavalcade of America, Dr. Christian (in its NY run 39-40), Dr. Faustus (a special in ‘37 as Faustus), The Feast of Ortolans (another ’37 special), Ethel Merman Show (regular), Fortune Stories (regular), Gangbusters, Great Plays (regular), Heroes of the World (regular), Ideas that Came True (regular), Life of Mary Southern (Mr. Sanders), Myrt & Marge (Jack Arnold, start ‘37), NBC Presents Eugene O’Neill (regular – of course!), On Broadway, New York station WMAC’s annual Passion Play (“the Savior”/for at least 9 consecutive years), Pretty Kitty Kelly (ship captain), Show Boat (Lincoln and others), Soconyland Sketches (Lincoln and others), Special Delivery (regular), Vanished Voices (regular), Will of Stratford Hall (’37 Special on the life of William Shakespeare) and more.

The ‘40’s and ‘50s were just as busy: Behind the Mike, Big Sister, more Cavalcade of America, The Columbia Workshop, Highroads to Health, I Love Linda Dale, Life Can Be Beautiful (Dr. Bartram Markham 40-54), Light of the World (regular 42-43), Mr. Keen, Pepper Young’s Family (Horace Trent late ‘40s), The Right to Happiness (Fred Minter), Romance, Rosemary, Story of Mary Marlin (regular), Valiant Lady (Thomas R. Clark), A Woman of America (regular), We Love and Learn (Mr. Cahill), Young Doctor Malone (Dr. Markham) and others.

Charles apparently retired from radio and the stage in the late ‘50s. I have found NOTHING after that time except for a death record in 1966 in NYC – he was then living in Queens, New York City. There is NO obituary for Charles, a life-long bachelor.

Whether it was Abe Lincoln or an obscure minor character, Charles always gave it his all in his performances. Here’s to one of the many overlooked actors who helped make radio memorable for all of us!

Quick, how many OTR organists can you name? If you’re like me, I’d say pretty much ONE. The One, the Only – Rosa Rio – our guest of the week! (Yes, there were dozens – but today is Rosa’s day!)

Most of you probably know that Rosa Rio was not her name when she arrived in the world on June 2, 1902. Many sites list her birthplace as unknown or New Orleans. I have a copy of her 1926 marriage license where she lists her birth date, location, parents and her residence. She was actually born in Louisville, KY!, while her parents are listed as Thomas Raub and Etta Jaxon (Marietta Jackson). Still have found no record as to where she grew up but I doubt it was New Orleans. (More later.)

From an early age she knew she wanted to be in show business. When she was only 8, she informed the family that “When I grow up, I want to play a big piano, wear pretty clothes and lots of jewelry, and make people happy.”

When it was time for her to go off to college she went to Oberlin College in Northern Ohio. (She wanted to be a musician; her parents thought she should become a music teacher.) During her year at Oberlin, she went to the big city of Cleveland and visited a theater with an organ. As she later recalled, "I heard a sound I had never heard before. I saw the pinpoint of a light grow larger and a console came from out of the pit, on the right hand side of the theater. And I heard a theater organ for the first time in my life." That transformational moment changed the direction of Rosa Rio's life. She was going to be a theater organist! The big money in those days was as the organist in silent movie theatres – so she enrolled in the Eastman School of Music in a program designed for future movie organists. By 1925 she graduated and got something else in the bargain – a husband in the form of her instructor (John F. Hammond). [There was a bit of scandal reported in the papers of the time as Mr. and Mrs. John F. Hammond hadn’t quite got a divorce yet so he could marry his student!]

They were married in 1926 as John left the school faculty and found work in a New York theatre – as did his new wife. Rosa got on at Lowe’s – but it wasn’t easy. As she remembered, “The reason I got the job was that nobody else wanted it… It made me angry that the only reason he was interviewing me was because other organists had already turned him down. That was my turning point. I realized that it was a man’s world and I’d have to fight all the way.” And was she a fighter! She was now going as Betty Hammond. By 1927 the couple relocated to New Orleans with both getting good paying organ jobs in local theatres. Many of the web sites about Rosa note her as a native of New Orleans, but when in New Orleans you would expect some sort of “come and see Betty Hammond, a New Orleans NATIVE” – but there were NONE of those advertisements. Maybe she WAS from Louisville, or, as her sister’s obit said, San Francisco! (More research is needed.)

 

Anyway, back in New Orleans, it’s September 1927, and Al Jolson’s new picture was out – the “Jazz Singer.” It was a TALKIE! Poor Elizabeth/Betty/Rosa thought her career was through just as it was getting started – but she was wrong.

In fact, she still played the big theatres in New Orleans until 1931 – not for the movies but during intermissions and occasional concerts (organ and piano). She was doing well. Following her 1931 divorce from Hammond she first went to Scranton, PA to play a few theaters then to the Big Apple where she was playing the BIG Wurlitzer at the Fox Theater in Brooklyn. The experiences she was gaining were priceless to her future career.

In 1937 she bought herself a new Hammond organ and tried out for the NBC Orchestra – 130 MEN. She explained, “I auditioned for Leopold Spitalny [then head of NBC music]. I finished and he said, ‘That was excellent. You played that beautifully.’ So I asked, ‘Did I get the job?’ He sort of hemmed and hesitated and finally said, ‘Well, stay a week and we’ll see.’ That made me mad. I said, ‘Wait a minute, did your ad say you were looking for a male or female organist? It shouldn’t make a difference. Now, if I come in on Monday, I’m staying more than a week.’ He smiled at me and said, ‘Okay.’ And I was there for the next seven years…You see, he judged me by my work and not my sex.” She became the first woman member of the NBC orchestra.

One of her first radio program assignments was in 1938 on The Shadow with Orson Welles. She stayed there until 1943 – playing Camile Saint-Saen’s Omphale’s Spinning Wheel along with all the music to accompany the action – something built-in to her brain to react to voice changes and just add the right piece of music – whether 3 seconds or 30 seconds – she could do it all. Movies gave her that ‘think on your feet’ ability.

Suddenly she was in demand. At her height, she was on 6 to 8 shows daily plus normally hosting her own 15-minute organ music program several days a week and doing a bit of singing.

Then there were the soaps. EVERY soap had an organ player. In her career, many Internet sites claim she was on 24 soaps – but checking, I can only find the following: Front Page Farrell (entire run of 13 years), The Goldbergs (in the ‘40s), Lorenzo Jones (50-55), Marriage for Two (entire run), Myrt and Marge (39-42), My True Story (entire run of 13 years), Ethel and Albert (48-50), Second Husband (entire run) and When a Girl Marries (41-57). [That’s only 9 – if any of you out in OTR land can give me sources for others, I’d appreciate it as she was known as “The Queen of Soaps!”]

As for other programs – there were PLENTY: Allen Westcott’s Wife Saver (46-47), America’s Town Meeting (nearly entire run – 37-56), Between the Bookends (41-56), Bill Stern’s Sports Reel, Bob and Ray (early 50s), Cavalcade of America (Maybe – an Internet search engine says, yes, 12 years; Martin Grams book on the program doesn’t list her – so MAYBE as part of the NBC orchestra), Chaplain Jim (entire run), Counterspy (most of run), Court of Missing Heirs (39-42), Deadline Drama (and wrote theme song!), Dunninger the Magician, The Empty Chair, Family Circle, Five Minute Mysteries (47-48), The Good Gulf Show (37), Gospel Singer with Ed McHugh (37-40), Hannibal Cobb (entire run), The Haunting Hour (entire run), Horror, Inc. (entire run), Land of the Lost (entire run), Letters from Abroad (40), Magic Key (39), Mystery Chef (43-44), Inspirational Hymns by Robert Mills (entire run), These Are My People (Red Cross, 46) and Town Hall Tonight (but no dates listed).

She has been credited with work on Inner Sanctum – but I have found no proof (but her organ work would fit right in).

Her second marriage was to NBC Announcer Carl Watson – but like her first it didn’t last long. Her last marriage was in 1947 to yet another NBC employee, Bill Yeomans – her soulmate. That one stuck for the rest of her life.

Following a radio career, she dabbled in TV for a couple of years but then went back to teaching organ, piano and voice – yes, she sang in theatres and on her own radio show.

In the 1980s she composed music for nearly 400 silent films and played them often at silent film showings. She remained a fixture in organ concerts until age 106! She died the following year, just shy of her 108^(th) birthday in her home of Sun City Center, FL.

What a Life!

Addendum – I’m also the president of our local genealogy society. I plan on doing a program on Social Security Applications – what they can provide to the family historian and how to get them. One of my case studies will be Rosa – as I want to really find out WHERE she was born. I’m fairly confident it wasn’t in New Orleans. More to come!