AL JOLSON - 1886 TO 1950 - WAS AMONG THE MANY STARS WHO LEFT US.
MEMORIAL DAYS
Who cares about Network Radio’s Golden Age? That’s been the challenge since GOld Time Radio first began this long venture into broadcasting history.
Who really cares about the AM radio industry or its programs that captivated America nearly a century ago or the people involved, now all long dead?
Well, they did.
They weren’t just the easily recognized stars of local and national radio - they were also the seldom mentioned or anonymous others who built the industry and supported each of its thousands of programs every day with their creative and technical talents, and whose families’ livelihoods were dependent on the popularity of their combined efforts.
They were also many of the young who gave their lives in the service of America during World War II just as their broadcasting careers were gaining momentum.
It’s in their collective memory that GOld Time Radio notes the passing of these individuals who died during the peak years of Network Radio - 1932 to 1953.
1932
May 3 Careton Coon, 39, co-founder of the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, the first dance band made famous by radio in 1922 with its late night broadcasts on WDAF/Kansas City, dies from blood poisoning.
Jul 31 Thomas (Tommie) Malie, armless radio singer and songwriter, (Looking At The World Through Rose Colored Glasses and Tie Me To Your Apron Strings), dies in Chicago at 35.
Jul 22 Pioneer radio inventor Dr. Reginald Fessenden, 65, dies at his Burmuda home.
Nov 1 Talent agent William Morris dies of a heart attack at 59.
1933
Jan 2 George Kemp, who in 1901 received Marconi’s transatlantic wireless “S” signal in Newfoundland with P.W. Paget, dies in England, still a Marconi employee at age 75.
Jan 17 McClatchy Newspapers Vice President Carlos McClatchy, 41, responsible for the company’s five radio properties, dies in California of pneumonia.
Sep 22 Sime Silverman, founder of trade paper Variety in 1905, dies in Los Angeles at age 60.
1934
Aug 30 West Coast radio and television station pioneer Don Lee, 53, dies in Los Angeles from acute indigestion.
Sep 2 Early network singing star Russ Columbo dies in a freak shooting accident at age 26.
Oct 12 Former NBC Vice President George McClelland, 39, commits suicide with a pistol in his New York City office.
1935
Aug 15 Humorist Will Rogers, 55, star of the CBS Top Ten show Gulf Headliners, is killed in a plane crash off Point Barrow, Alaska, with aviator Wiley Post.
Sep 22 Veteran monologist DeWolf Hopper, 70, collapses and dies after a radio broadcast in Kansas City.
Oct 3 Harry Engman Charlot, creator of The Shadow radio series in 1930, is found dead in a New York hotel room at age 31.
Nov 18 Joseph Bulova, founder of the Bulova Watch Company and one of radio’s heaviest advertisers, dies at 84 after a two month illness.
1936
Jan 13 Pioneer showman and radio show host Samuel (Roxy) Rothafel dies in his sleep at age 52.
Jan 23 John Mills, 25, senior member and bass of the popular Mills Brothers Quartet on CBS, dies at his mother’s Ohio home of pneumonia caught in the group’s European tour.
Feb 22 Veteran Chicago radio actor Jack Daly of the Myrt & Marge and Jack Armstrong casts, dies after a sudden pleurisy attack.
Apr 8 NBC engineer Harry Lawrence is electrocuted when touching a charged condenser in the company’s W2XBS experimental television transmitter in the Empire State Building.
Apr 27 Charles McClatchy, publisher of the McClatchy Newspapers and owner of five radio stations, dies in California at 77 after a long illness.
Jun 6 Nathan Burkan, 56, co-founder of ASCAP in 1914 who remained the group's General Counsel, dies at his Long Island summer home.
Jul 16 Popular radio bandleader Orville Knapp, 28, dies when the plane he was piloting crashes in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Sep 28 Westinghouse Vice President and radio pioneer Dr. Samuel Kintner, 64, dies in his Pittsburgh home.
Nov 2 Alfred Erickson, Board Chairman of McCann-Erickson Advertising and an ad industry figure since 1902, dies in California at 60.
Nov 19 WJR/Detroit chief announcer John Eccles goes home between air shifts and commits suicide.
Dec 8 Comedy writer Dave Freedman, 39, dies in his sleep one day after testifying in his $250,000 breach of contract lawsuit against Eddie Cantor.
1937
Jan 8 Isobel Carothers Berlozheimer, Lu of the early serial Clara, Lu & Em, dies of pneumonia at age 31.
Jan 14 Popular Country Church of Hollywood minister William B. Hogg, 56, known to CBS audiences as Josiah Hopkins, The Goose Creek Parson, dies in Los Angeles following an operation.
Jun 18 Comedy writer Al Boasberg, 45, dies of a heart attack one day after signing a contract renewal with Jack Benny.
Jul 20 Pioneering wireless developer Guglielmo Marconi, 63, dies of a heart attack in Rome.
Jul 23 FCC Chairman Anning Prall, 67, dies of heart failure at his Maine summer home.
Sep 21 KYW/Philadelphia announcer Lynn Willis, 30, dies after falling from his second floor hospital room.
Nov 24 Foreign language broadcasting pioneer, John Iraci, General Manager of WOV and WBIL/New York City and owner of WPEN/Philadelphia, dies of a heart attack at 52.
1938
Feb 7 NBC’s Voice of Firestone proceeds without commercials or announcements when Firestone Tire & Rubber founder, Harvey Firestone, 69, dies suddenly earlier in the day.
Mar 3 Robert Scripps, major stockholder of Scripps-Howard newspapers, radio stations and United Press wire service, dies at 42 while aboard his yacht off lower California.
Jul 25 Senior FCC lawyer, Major Alfred Dalrymple, 61, dies when struck by an automobile on a Washington street.
Oct 16 Former NAB President Harry Shaw, 52, is found dead in his Sarasota, Florida, home of a gunshot wound.
1939
Feb 3 Flamboyant sports promoter and founder of The Radio Transcription Company of America, Charles (Cash & Carry) Pyle, dies in Los Angeles of a heart attack at age 56.
Mar 9 Ernie Hare of the popular radio singing duo Jones & Hare - The Happiness Boys - dies at 55.
Mar 27 West Coast radio comedian and network gag writer George (Red) Corcoran, 38, dies of complications following an appendix operation.
Apr 19 Gordon Thompson, pioneer J. Walter Thompson radio producer, dies of a sudden heart attack at his desk at age 35 while reviewing the script of the next night’s Rudy Vallee show.
Jun 16 Popular radio bandleader William (Chick) Webb, 30, dies from complications following kidney surgery.
Sep 24 Pioneer radio newsman Floyd Gibbons, 52, dies of a heart attack.
Oct 15 Frank Oliver, 64, a member of the first acting group on WGY/Schenectady in 1922 dies after a short illness.
Oct 16 NBC orchestra conductor Joseph Green, coinventor of the vibraphone, dies in New York City of pneumonia at age 43.
Dec 18 Noted columnist and commentator Heywood Broun, 51, dies in New York City of pneumonia.
Dec 29 Former CBS Vice President and Federal Radio Commissioner Henry A. Bellows dies in Minneapolis at 54.
1940
Jan 5 Veteran film and radio actor, (Pepper Young’s Family, Your Family & Mine, etc.), Jack Roseleigh, 58, dies of a heart condition.
Feb 7 Popular juvenile radio actor Ernest Carlson, 13, who began his career at age six, dies in Los Angeles of pneumonia.
Apr 29 Carnation Contented Hour musical conductor Josef Pasternack, 59, dies during the program’s rehearsal.
May 25 John Lynn McManus, 36, script writer for NBC’s Rudy Vallee Sealtest Show dies in Hollywood after a ten week illness.
Aug 4 Talbot Mundy, 61, author of Jack Armstrong - The All Aemerican Boy, dies in Bradenton, Florida.
Aug 7 C.C. Bradner, the first regular newscaster on WWJ/Detroit in 1925, dies after a short illness at 61.
Aug 24 Television pioneer Dr. Paul Nipkow, who first spoke of picture transmission in the 1890’s and invented some of its earliest components, dies at 80 in Berlin.
Sep 8 Leon F. Douglass, inventor and co-founder of the Victor Talking Machine Company, dies at 71 in San Francisco. Douglass also coined Victor’s famous slogan, “His Master’s Voice.”
Oct 12 Cowboy star Tom Mix, 60, dies in a car wreck - but the Blue Network announces that its weekday kids’ serial, The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters, will continue, “…as a tribute to his memory.”
Nov 23 Billy Jones, 53, surviving member of the Happiness Boys duo with Ernie Hare, dies of a heart attack.
Nov 27 Author and syndicated radio personality Coleman Cox, (aka The Philosopher), dies in San Francisco of a heart attack at age 67.
Dec 21 Popular bandleader Hal Kemp, 36, dies in Madera, California, from pneumonia suffered after an auto accident.
1941
Jan 10 Popular radio and movie comedian Joe Penner dies in his sleep of heart disease at age 36.
Feb 15 Donna Damerel, (aka Marge), of the long-running CBS serial Myrt & Marge, dies giving birth to her third child at age 28. She was the daughter-partner of Myrtle Vail, (aka Myrt), with whom she created the serial in 1931.
Feb 26 Colonel Thad Brown, an FRC and FCC commissioner since 1932, dies in Cleveland at age 54.
Mar 14 WBBM/Chicago transmitter engineer DeMotte (Dud) Little, 35, is electrocuted after coming in contact with a 4,000 volt circuit.
Apr 7 Frederic William Wile, regarded as America‘s first Transatlantic radio reporter, covering the London Naval Conference for CBS in 1930, dies after a short illness at 68.,
Apr 8 Radio’s Lone Ranger for eight years, Earle Graser, 32, Is killed in an automobile accident.
Jun 7 Stage and radio comedienne Mary (Bubbles) Kelly, 46, dies in her sleep.
Jun 8 NBC and Mutual news commentator Captain E.D.C. Hearne, dies at 51 in Chicago after a heart attack.
Jun 16 Emma Van Alstyne Lanning, known to WLS/Chicago listeners as Aunt Em and believed to be America's oldest regular radio performer at 85, dies of complications after a fall in her home.
Aug 11 Edwin Kiest, owner of The Dallas Times-Herald and KRLD/Dallas, dies after a long illness at 79 and wills both the newspaper and radio station to his employees.
Aug 23 Veteran radio actor Wilmer Walter, star of NBC’s David Harum, dies at 57 after a short illness.
Aug 24 Mutual music critic Floyd Neale, 54, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Dec 7 U.S. Navy Ensign Thomas McClelland, 37, former KLZ/Denver Chief Engineer is killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Dec 11 Legendary radio pioneer Dr. Frank Conrad who put 8XK/Pittsburgh on the air in 1919 - which became KDKA in 1920 - dies of a heart ailment at 67.
Dec 22 Scott Howe Bowen, who created the first national station sales representation firm and established 15% as the sales commission norm, dies of a heart attack at 53.
Dec 24 Radio character actor Lee Millar, a regular on Lux Radio Theater and Dr. Christian and the voice of Walt Disney’s Pluto, dies of a heart attack at 53.
1942
Jan 9 Joseph Franklin Rutherford, 72, founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1919 and heard on scores of stations in his weekly Watch Tower sermons, dies at home in San Diego.
Feb 1 Marion Sayles Taylor, known to multi-network and movie audiences since 1932 as The Voice of Experience dispensing advice, much of it sexually oriented, dies in Los Angeles of a heart attack at age 53.
Feb 26 Lieutenant Donald Chase, formerly of WTMJ/Milwaukee’s engineering staff, is killed in a plane crash at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Feb 27 Young CBS actress Dorothy Gregory, 18, dies of leukemia in Chicago.
Mar 17 Charles O’Connor, once the youngest announcer employed by NBC at 20 and later the commercial voice of Philip Morris, dies at his Long Island home at age 30.
Apr 19 Dr. Shirley Wynne, 59, conductor of the weekday Food Forum on WHN/New York City dies following an operation.
Apr 24 Newspaper correspondent Lea Burdette, wife of CBS correspondent Winston Burdette, is shot and killed by a band of Kurds while touring a remote area of northern Iran.
May 9 Pioneer network announcer Graham McNamee, 53, dies of a streptococcal infection.
May 26 Radio’s notorious “Goat Gland Doctor” John R. Brinkley, 56, dies in his sleep at home in Del Rio, Texas, bankrupt and owing $155,000 in back taxes.
May 29 Legendary actor and frequent radio performer John Barrymore dies at 60.
Jun 2 Trumpeter and singing bandleader Benard (Bunny) Berigan, featured on many Network Radio shows, dies at 35 of an intestinal disorder.
Jul 17 Rita Murray, 42, known to CBS West Coast listeners as The Voice of Friendship, dies after surgery in Los Angeles.
Aug 17 U.S. Army Air Force Captain Derby Sproul, former Production Manager at KLZ/Denver, is reported killed in action, “…somewhere in Africa.”
Aug 19 Effie Palmer, a veteran radio actress since 1922, dies in her New Jersey home at age 52.
Sep 2 One Man’s Family and I Love A Mystery actor Walter Patterson, 31, is found dead in his car, an apparent suicide.
Sep 20 NBC reporter Talbot (Jimmy) Bone, who scooped the world in reporting the 1939 sinking of the Graf Spee off South America, dies of cancer in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Sep 21 U.S. Navy Radioman Sam Miller, formerly a KLRA/Little Rock engineer is reported killed in a plane crash, “…somewhere in Africa.”
Oct 5 U.S. Coast Guard Captain Samuel Fuld, 35, former CBS Station Relations executive, is reported missing in action in the Atlantic.
Oct 20 Dr. Frederick Stock, 66, called The Dean of American Conductors, dies of a heart attack in his 38th year of leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra heard often in local and network broadcasts.
Nov 2 Marine PFC Stanley Kops, formerly a continuity writer at KFWB/Los Angeles, is reported killed in action in the Solomon Islands.
Nov 5 Show business great and early radio performer George M. Cohan dies of cancer in New York City at age 64.
Nov 23 Air Force Lieutenant Robert Frear, 26, former Chief Announcer at WIBX/Utica, New York, is killed in the crash of his plane in Florida.
Nov 25 Major General Charles Saltzman, FRC Chairman from 1930 to 1932, dies in Washington at age 72.
Dec 14 Detroit radio executive and personality Cornelius Tomy, 64, known to listeners for over 20 years as Uncle Neal, dies at after a paralytic stroke.
Dec 15 Air Force Sergeant Alma (Buddy) Mills, former engineer at KVRS/Rock Springs, Wyoming, s reported missing in Pacific action.
Dec 20 Indianapolis-based radio evangelist E. Howard Cadle, 58, dies after a two month illness.
1943
Jan 5 Longtime host of Chicago children’s shows, Harry Hosford, (aka Uncle Harry), 53, dies of a heart attack.
Jan 7 Electrical genius Nikola Tesla, 85, discoverer of many principles associated with broadcasting, dies after a long illness in his New Yorker Hotel apartment.
Jan 7 James Tierney, Radio Director of Texaco during its early sponsorship of Ed Wynn, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, Fred Allen and the Metropolitan Opera, dies of a heart attack at 43 in New York City.
Jan 23 Veteran commentator Alexander Woollcott, 56, collapses during a CBS broadcast of The People’s Platform and dies of a heart attack four hours later.
Feb 3 Frederick (Bud) Vandover, 35, soloist with Mutual’s Tom, Dick & Harry vocal group dies of a heart attack 15 minutes before a broadcast in a WGN/Chicago studio.
Feb 22 Mutual correspondent Frank Cubel is among 25 killed in the crash of a Pan American Clipper off Lisbon.
Feb 24 Popular WGN/Chicago personality Wallace Rogerson, whose Fit To Music exercise program was a station fixture for 20 years, dies at 62 after a long illness.
Mar 10 Fred Fleming, 47, News Director of KLZ/Denver, recognized as one of radio’s best local news organizations, dies of a heart attack at the home of friends.
Mar 12 Army Air Force Lieutenant James Carroll, 24, formerly sports announcer with WCSC/Charleston, South Carolina, dies in the crash of his plane in Orlando, Florida.
Mar 13 Noted American author and poet Stephen Vincent Benet, 44, dies of a heart attack after first being stricken a week earlier at NBC while working on its Lands of The Free series.
Mar 29 Volney James, 53, veteran West Coast radio personality known as The Old Colonel, dies of a heart attack after his program on KTMR/Los Angeles.
Apr 8 Freelance announcer Art Millet, heard regularly on CBS, NBC and Mutual programs, dies after a long illness in New York City at 34.
May 1 Former WHBQ/Memphis announcer Army Private John Elgen Poor, dies at 24 when his Jeep overturns.
May 12 Marie Nelson, veteran radio and stage actress, dies at age 60 in Chicago.
May 15 Marine bomber tail gunner, Bus Barton, formerly a performer on WLW/Cincinnati, is reported killed in the battle of Guadalcanal.
May 28 Vaughn DeLeath, 42, dies after a long illness. Billed as “The First Lady of Radio,” the singer made her first broadcast in January, 1920.
Jul 29 Floyd George, 14 year old cast member of NBC’s Hawthorne House, dies when a cave in his backyard collapses burying him beneath four feet of soil.
Sep 4 Philco Corporation Vice President David Grimes, 47, is killed in a Northern Ireland plane crash while on a “special mission” for the military.
Sep 7 Veteran songwriter and performer Frank Crumit dies of a heart attack at 54. At the time, he and his wife Julia Sanderson were hosts of Saturday night’s Crumit & Sanderson Quiz on CBS.
Sep 7 Army Air Force Lieutenant Kenneth Carter, formerly an announcer at WNAC/Boston, was killed when his P-38 crashed in California.
Sep 9 Former NBC Page, Navy Ensign Robert Green, is killed in the crash of his torpedo plane in North Africa.
Sep 30 James Radcliffe, 60, known to listeners of WCCO/Minneapolis-St Paul as Uncle Mac, dies of a heart attack after appearing at a bond rally.
Oct 5 Sergeant George McDonald, formerly of the engineering staff of WCOP/Boston, is reported killed in the crash of a test plane at Pensacola, Florida.
Oct 20 Longtime Network Radio bandleader and comedian Ben Bernie, 52, dies after a long illness.
Nov 1 Army Lieutenant Harry Morris, formerly on the staff of KMBC/Kansas City, is killed in the crash of his plane in Dayton, Ohio.
Nov 24 Army Signal Corps Major Isaac Brimberg, 40, formerly Chief Engineer at WNYC/New York City, dies suddenly at Brookley Field, Alabama.
Dec 15 Popular singer-songwriter Thomas (Fats) Waller, 39, dies of pneumonia on aboard a train in Kansas City while traveling from New York to Los Angeles.
Dec 22 Veteran radio actor and former concert baritone Percy Hemus, 65, collapses and dies in the RCA Building shortly after appearing on NBC’s Road of Life serial.
Dec 23 Radio actor Carleton Brickert, 52, the first President of AFRA’s Chicago local, dies shortly after collapsing at a rehearsal of Abie’s Irish Rose at NBC in New York City.
1944
Jan 4 Walter (Bide) Dudley, 66, longtime New York City radio personality, dies after a long illness.
Jan 15 Veteran West Coast music figure Jack Joy, credited with discovering many talents for radio and music director of The Army Hour, dies in Los Angeles after surgery at age 48.
Feb 3 Mutual announces the death of commentator Raymond Clapper, 51, killed in a mid-air plane collision and crash in the Marshall Islands.
Feb 6 Donald Dixon, KDKA/Pittsburgh Production Manager, dies in a taxicab accident after working at a bond rally.
Feb 12 Army Air Force Corporal Joseph McMichael, 28, former member of the Merry Macs radio vocal group, dies in Santa Ana, California from a kidney ailment.
Feb 15 Chicago radio personality Bernice Bost, also known to listeners as Priscilla Pride, dies at 42.
Feb 20 Hugh Dobbs, (aka Captain Dobbsie), longtime radio personality and former host of the Top 50 show, Ship of Joy, dies in Seattle at age 59.
Mar 15 Army Air Force Lieutenant Jerome Bowers, formerly a staff announcer at WMSL/Decatur, Alabama, is killed in action in Europe.
Apr 10 George Furness, developer of The Eveready Hour in 1926, the first sponsored program on a network, dies in New York City at 60.
Apr 22 Disc jockey Howard Saunders of WFMR/High Point, North Carolina, is killed in the crash of his private plane. His funeral is held two days later at the same afternoon hour as his daily hillbilly record show.
May 9 New York City actor and AFRA co-founder Mark Smith dies at age 57.
Jul 1 Actress Dorothy Lowell, 28, who held the title role of Our Gal Sunday since 1937, dies after giving birth to a daughter.
Jul 5 Danny Danker, J. Walter Thompson ad executive credited for the successes of Lux Radio Theater, Kraft Music Hall and Chase & Sanborn Hour, dies of heart attack at age 41.
Jul 30 Marine Sergeant Lee Powell, 35, the original Lone Ranger in films, is reported killed in action in the South Pacific.
Aug 19 NBC war correspondent Tom Treanor, 35, is killed when his Jeep overturns in France.
Sep 11 Eric Sagerquist, musical conductor for First Nighter since 1930, dies in Chicago at age 45.
Nov 16 Mutual commentator Boake Carter, 46, suffers a stroke and dies shortly after his broadcast.
Oct 9 W.E. Macfarlane, Mutual Board Chairman and the network’s first President, (duties he performed as Business Manager of The Chicago Tribune), dies of a heart attack at 60.
Dec 15 The plane taking bandleader Major Glenn Miller from London to France is lost over the English Channel.
Dec 18 Army Sergeant Jay Baumann, former announcer at WJAG/Norfolk, Nebraska, is reported dead of wounds suffered in Holland.
1945
Jan 5 Army Air Corps Lieutenant Frank McGlogan, 26, former WJR/Detroit announcer and newscaster is reported killed in action over Germany.
Jan 5 Army Sergeant Don Chapman, former staff member of KHJ/Los Angeles, is reported killed in Germany.
Jan 14 Army Air Force Sergeant Gene W. Haulotte, a B-17 tail gunner and former head of the CBS Los Angeles transcription department, is killed over Germany.
Jan 19 Harold Sanford, 65, an NBC musical conductor for 15 years, dies of a heart attack in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Jan 25 Army Sergeant William Parmalee, 26, formerly in the transcription department of KHJ/Los Angeles, Is killed in action in Germany.
Jan 29 Longtime West Coast radio personality William (Bill) Sharples, 58, dies after a long illness in Los Angeles.
Mar 3 George Henry Payne, a nine year member of the original FCC, dies in New York of a heart ailment at 68.
Apr 4 Jerome Louchheim, 71, part owner of the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System who sold his interest to William S, Paley in 1927 but remained a CBS Director, dies in Philadelphia.
Apr 12 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 63, hailed by Broadcasting magazine as, “The greatest voice in the 25 year history of American broadcasting,” dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia.
Apr 18 Sir Ambrose Fleming, inventor of many key elements in the early development of wireless transmission and reception, dies in Devon, England at age 95.
Apr 18 Blue dedicates a 30-minute tribute to war correspondent Ernie Pyle who was killed in the battle of Okinawa at age 55.
Apr 27 Optometrist Dr. George W. Young, who obtained the nation’s first independent station license in 1923 for his KFTM/Minneapolis, (renamed WDGY in 1925), dies at 58 after a long illness.
Jun 2 Former CBS singer, Marine Lieutenant Robert Pace, dies in an explosion on Okinawa.
Jun 8 Navy Lieutenant John Frazer, formerly an NBC announcer, is reported killed in action in the Pacific.
Jun 21 Eugene Sykes, a member of the original Federal Radio Commission in 1927 and later a chairman of the FCC, dies at 69.
Jun 24 Veteran West Coast network announcer Gary Breckner, 53, dies in a Redlands, California auto accident.
Jun 26 Former NBC Music Director and early radio bandleader, Erno Rapee dies of heart attack at 55.
Jul 2 Popular soap opera actor John Walsh, 36, dies suddenly in Chicago.
Aug 30 Army Sergeant Charles Ross, 31, former announcer at KMPC/Los Angeles, dies from infantile paralysis at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Sep 16 Famed Irish tenor and radio star John McCormack dies at home in Ireland at 61.
Nov 11 Popular composer Jerome Kern dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 60.
Nov 15 Gunther Hollander, 15, a member of the Quiz Kids cast, is killed when struck by a bus in Chicago.
Nov 20 Actor James Waters, who had played Papa on The Goldbergs for 15 years, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 72.
Nov 21 Humorist Robert Benchley, 56, featured on NBC’s Texaco Star Theater, dies in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage.
1946
Mar 21 Marlin Hurt, 40, creator and star of the CBS sitcom Beulah, dies of a heart attack.
Apr 1 Veteran actor Noah Beery, Sr., 62, dies of a heart attack while rehearsing for his role on that night’s broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with his brother, Wallace Beery.
Apr 5 Vincent Youmans, composer of many hit songs that became standards, (Tea For Two, It’s A Great Day, Hallelujah, More Than You Know, etc.) dies in Denver at 47 after a long battle with tuberculosis.
Jun 11 Acclaimed NBC programming executive Bertha (Betty) Brainard dies of a heart attack at age 55.
Jun 13 Edward J. Bowes, impresario of Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour, dies at 71.
Jun 14 John Baird, known in Europe as The Father of Television, from his first demonstration of video in London in 1926, dies at 58 in Great Britain.
Aug 13 Author H.G. Wells, who denounced his War of The Worlds after the reported chaos caused by Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of the story in 1938, dies in London at 79
Sep 13 George Washington Hill, President of American Tobacco and one of radio’s foremost advertisers, dies of a heart attack while vacationing in Canada at age 61.
Sep 25 Mutual correspondent Royal Arch Gunnison, 37, is killed in the crash of a Royal Air Force plane in Hong Kong.
Nov 18 James J. (Jimmy) Walker, 65, former Mayor of New York City and later a popular radio host, dies in New York of a brain hemorrhage.
Dec 4 Reverend Henry Rubel, known in Network Radio as comedy writer Hal Raynor credited with Joe Penner’s famous catch phrase, “Wanna buy a duck?” dies at 44.
Dec 16 Former New York City Police Commissioner and Gangbusters narrator Lewis J. Valentine, 64, dies in New York City.
Dec 25 Comic legend and Charlie McCarthy’s favorite foil, W.C. Fields, dies at 66.
1947
Jan 26 Network singing star Grace Moore, 45, is killed with 21 others in a plane crash at the Copenhagen, Denmark airport.
Apr 23 Lewis Lawes, former prison warden, author and creator of the pioneering crime program, 20,000 Years At Sing Sing, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 63.
Jun 29 Charles Medbury, script writer of Amos & Andy, dies of a heart attack at 54.
Aug 20 James G. Harbord, RCA Board Chairman from 1930 to 1947 dies after a brief illness at 81.
Sep 20 Fiorello LaGuardia, New York City Mayor from 1934 to 1945 and known for his use of radio, dies at 64.
Oct 12 Captain Tom Healy, conductor of early radio’s Stamp Club programs which claimed as many as 3.0 Million members, dies in a Fort Worth hospital at 56.
Dec 8 Radio actress Delores Gillen, popular for her impersonations of young children and infants, dies of post-surgery complications. At the time of her death she was featured on three network soap operas.
1948
Feb 23 Bessie Mack, talent coordinator for Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and formerly auditions supervisor for The Original Amateur Hour, dies of a heart ailment at 56.
Mar 30 Burridge Butler, 80, owner of WLS/Chicago, KOY/Phoenix, KTUC/Tucson and The Prairie Farmer magazine, dies in Phoenix following a fall in his orange grove.
Apr 28 Tom Breneman, 48, host of ABC’s popular weekday Breakfast In Hollywood dies of a heart attack.
May 2 Dud Williamson, host of Mutual’s What’s The Name of That Song?, dies of a heart attack at age 45.
May 16 CBS news correspondent George Polk, 35, is murdered in Athens, Greece.
Jun 12 Harry Frankel, radio’s Singin’ Sam, dies of a heart attack at 60.
Aug 16 Baseball legend and occasional radio performer George Herman (Babe) Ruth dies of cancer at 53.
Oct 4 Popular radio bandleader Jan Savitt, 35, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
1949
Jan 14 Veteran stage and radio comedian Willie Howard dies after a short illness in New York City at age 62.
Jan 19 Popular KOA/Denver singing personality John (Happy Jack) Turner, 50, with NBC since 1931 and KOA since 1944, collapses and dies two hours before his daily show.
Feb 15 Radip actress Patricia Ryan, 25, dies in New York City of a stroke, after appearing on NBC’s Cavalcade of America, portraying a woman with stroke symptoms.
Mar 4 Manufacturer A. Atwater Kent, whose name became synonymous with early model radios, dies at his Los Angeles estate at age 75.
Mar 25 Decca Records founder and former owner of the World Broadcasting System transcription service Jack Kapp, 47, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Apr 18 Joan Blaine, original star of the daytime serials The Story of Mary Marlin iand Valiant Lady, dies in New York City two days short of her 49th birthday.
May 27 Believe It Or Not creator Robert L Ripley, a star of Network Radio since 1930 and host of a weekly show NBC-TV, dies at 55 of a heart attack.
May 29 Basil Loughrane, a Network Radio producer/director since 1929 associated with 31 different program series, dies of a heart attack in New York at age 48.
Jul 12 Three radio correspondents, Elsie Dick of Mutual, H.R. Knickerbocker of WOR/New York City and George Moorad of KGW/Portland, Oregon, are among 13 news people killed in the crash of their plane in Bombay when returning from Indonesia.
Jul 29 W.H. Mason, 51 year old program director of KBKI/Alice, Texas, dies of gunshot wounds fired by a deputy sheriff he had accused on the air of being a brothel owner.
Sep 18 MGM film star and Network Radio comedian Frank Morgan, 58, dies of natural causes in his Beverly Hills home.
Oct 1 Carnation Contented Hour star Buddy Clark, 37, is killed in Los Angeles private plane crash.
Oct 17 Your Hit Parade orchestra conductor Mark Warnow dies of a heart attack at age 47.
Oct 29 Billy Artzt, veteran composer and music conductor of the Blondie sitcom series for nine years, dies at 53.
1950
Mar 10 Sid Silverman, President of trade papers Variety and Daily Variety, dies at 51 after a long illness.
Mar 19 Edgar Rice Burroughs, 74, the creator of Tarzan, dies of heart disease. Tarzan, in various radio productions, was in continual syndication since 1932.
May 13 Early Network Radio star, “Whispering” Jack Smith, 51, dies ten days after his last television appearance.
May 22 Pianist/comedian Don (Creesh) Hornsby, 26, scheduled to host NBC-TV’s new 11:00 p.m. weeknight variety show, Broadway Open House, dies in White Plains, New York, of a polio attack.
May 29 Frederick Chase Taylor, known to Network Radio listeners as Colonel Lemuel Stoopnagle, dies at 52.
Jun 11 John Shephard III, founder of WNAC/Boston, WEAN/Providence and the Yankee Network dies of a cardiac arrest at 64.
Sep 2 Frank Graham, 35 year old lead of Jeff Regan, Investigator and producer-star of Satan’s Waitin’ - both CBS shows - is found dead in his car, from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Sep 12 Ex-vaudevillian Lou Clayton, dies at 63 after a long bout with cancer. His longtime partners, Jimmy Durante and Eddie Jackson, were at his bedside at his passing.
Oct 23 Legendary singer-showman Al Jolson dies of a heart attack at 64.
Dec 12 Joseph Weber, 86, President of the American Federation of Musicians union from 1900 to 1940, dies in Los Angeles.
1951
Jan 2 Richard Hart, who held the title role in television’s Adventures of Ellery Queen, dies of a heart attack at 35.
Feb 9 Popular bandleader/pianist Eddy Duchin, billed as “The Ten Magic Fingers of Radio,” dies of leukemia at age 41.
May 2 Veteran comedy writer Dick Knight, formerly with Bob Hope and Burns & Allen, dies of a heart attack after rehearsing the Ed Wynn television show at CBS in Hollywood.
May 28 G.A. (Dick) Richards, 62, owner of embattled WJR/Detroit, WGAR/Cleveland and KMPC/Los Angeles, dies of a heart attack in Detroit.
May 29 Fanny Brice, 59, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage one week after her final Baby Snooks broadcast.
Jun 4 Serge Koussevitzky, former conductor of the Boston Symphony and Detroit Symphony - both often heard on radio - dies at 79 after a long period of failing health.
Jul 9 Harry Heilmann, former major league baseball star and Detroit Tigers’ announcer for 16 years, dies in Detroit at age 56.
Aug 14 Newspaper and broadcasting mogul William Randolph Hearst dies of natural causes at 88 in Los Angeles.
Aug 21 NBC organist Lou Webb, 51, whose playing was heard on network programs for 18 years, collapses at the keyboard and dies of a heart attack.
Sep 29 Brad Barker, Network Radio’s foremost impersonator of animal sounds - sometimes appearing on 20 shows per week - dies in New York at 68.
Nov 9 Operetta composer and longtime radio conductor Sigmund Romberg, 64, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Dec 19 Veteran One Man’s Family, I Love A Mystery and Dragnet actor Barton Yarborough, 50, dies of a blood clot on the brain three days after his debut as co-star in the television version of Dragnet.
1952
Jan 18 Popular radio and stage personality Ed East, 56, collapses at New York’s Lambs Club while playing pool with friends and dies of a heart attack.
Mar 22 Longtime Grand Ole Opry star “Uncle Dave” Macon, 81, dies eleven days after his final appearance on the NBC program from WSM/Nashville.
May 24 Author Fulton Oursler, creator of the award winning ABC Biblical series, The Greatest Story Ever Told, dies of a heart attack in New York City at age 59.
May 28 Walter Evans, President of Westinghouse Radio Stations,who first joined the company as an engineer at KYW/Chicago in 1921, dies of cancer at age 53 in Baltimore.
May 30 Albert Lasker, founder of the pioneering ad agency Lord & Thomas, dies of cancer at 72.
Aug 18 Ralph Byrd who played Dick Tracy in 48 episodes of the television series, (plus four movie serials and two feature films), dies of a heart attack at age 43.
Sep 30 Merlin “Deac” Aylsworth, first President of NBC, dies after a long illness at 66.
Oct 26 Academy Award winning actress Hattie McDaniel, former star of Beulah on CBS Radio and ABC-TV, dies at age 57.
Nov 1 Actress Dixie Lee Crosby, 40, wife of Bing Crosby, dies of cancer.
Dec 7 New York City announcer and newsreel narrator Alois Havrilla, whose career began in 1928, dies at 61.
Dec 29 Veteran bandleader and arranger Fletcher Henderson dies of a stroke in his New York City home at 54.
1953
Jan 1 Grand Ole Opry star Hank Williams, 29, dies of a heart attack in his car near Oak Hill, West Virginia.
Jan 20 Nila Mack, producer of the CBS Saturday morning program Let’s Pretend for 23 years, dies of a heart attack at age 61.
Feb 12 Pioneer radio personality and writer, Ray Knight, creator and host of the early Cuckoo Hour among many shows, dies at 54.
May 28 World famous violinist and early Network Radio star Albert Spalding, dies in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage at 64.
Jun 5 Veteran stage, screen and radio actor Roland Young, best known as the title character in the Topper film comedies, dies in New York City at age 65.
Aug 4 Haven MacQuarrie, former host of The Marriage Club and Noah Webster Says on CBS and Do You Want To Be An Actor? on NBC, dies of a heart attack at age 59.
Sep 12 Veteran character actor Lewis Stone, known as patriarch Judge Hardy of The Hardy Family films and radio, dies of a heart attack at his Hollywood home at the age of 73.
Oct 1 Singer Frank Munn, 58, known for years as The Golden Voice of Radio, dies of a heart attack.
Oct 8 Nigel Bruce, famous as Dr. John Watson in Sherlock Holmes movies and radio mysteries, dies at 58.
Dec 16 KDKA/Pittsburgh radio pioneer Jackson McQuiston, often called “The Father of Radio Advertising,” dies of a heart attack in St. Petersburg, Florida at 78.
Copyright © 2020, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
Who cares about Network Radio’s Golden Age? That’s been the challenge since GOld Time Radio first began this long venture into broadcasting history.
Who really cares about the AM radio industry or its programs that captivated America nearly a century ago or the people involved, now all long dead?
Well, they did.
They weren’t just the easily recognized stars of local and national radio - they were also the seldom mentioned or anonymous others who built the industry and supported each of its thousands of programs every day with their creative and technical talents, and whose families’ livelihoods were dependent on the popularity of their combined efforts.
They were also many of the young who gave their lives in the service of America during World War II just as their broadcasting careers were gaining momentum.
It’s in their collective memory that GOld Time Radio notes the passing of these individuals who died during the peak years of Network Radio - 1932 to 1953.
1932
May 3 Careton Coon, 39, co-founder of the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, the first dance band made famous by radio in 1922 with its late night broadcasts on WDAF/Kansas City, dies from blood poisoning.
Jul 31 Thomas (Tommie) Malie, armless radio singer and songwriter, (Looking At The World Through Rose Colored Glasses and Tie Me To Your Apron Strings), dies in Chicago at 35.
Jul 22 Pioneer radio inventor Dr. Reginald Fessenden, 65, dies at his Burmuda home.
Nov 1 Talent agent William Morris dies of a heart attack at 59.
1933
Jan 2 George Kemp, who in 1901 received Marconi’s transatlantic wireless “S” signal in Newfoundland with P.W. Paget, dies in England, still a Marconi employee at age 75.
Jan 17 McClatchy Newspapers Vice President Carlos McClatchy, 41, responsible for the company’s five radio properties, dies in California of pneumonia.
Sep 22 Sime Silverman, founder of trade paper Variety in 1905, dies in Los Angeles at age 60.
1934
Aug 30 West Coast radio and television station pioneer Don Lee, 53, dies in Los Angeles from acute indigestion.
Sep 2 Early network singing star Russ Columbo dies in a freak shooting accident at age 26.
Oct 12 Former NBC Vice President George McClelland, 39, commits suicide with a pistol in his New York City office.
1935
Aug 15 Humorist Will Rogers, 55, star of the CBS Top Ten show Gulf Headliners, is killed in a plane crash off Point Barrow, Alaska, with aviator Wiley Post.
Sep 22 Veteran monologist DeWolf Hopper, 70, collapses and dies after a radio broadcast in Kansas City.
Oct 3 Harry Engman Charlot, creator of The Shadow radio series in 1930, is found dead in a New York hotel room at age 31.
Nov 18 Joseph Bulova, founder of the Bulova Watch Company and one of radio’s heaviest advertisers, dies at 84 after a two month illness.
1936
Jan 13 Pioneer showman and radio show host Samuel (Roxy) Rothafel dies in his sleep at age 52.
Jan 23 John Mills, 25, senior member and bass of the popular Mills Brothers Quartet on CBS, dies at his mother’s Ohio home of pneumonia caught in the group’s European tour.
Feb 22 Veteran Chicago radio actor Jack Daly of the Myrt & Marge and Jack Armstrong casts, dies after a sudden pleurisy attack.
Apr 8 NBC engineer Harry Lawrence is electrocuted when touching a charged condenser in the company’s W2XBS experimental television transmitter in the Empire State Building.
Apr 27 Charles McClatchy, publisher of the McClatchy Newspapers and owner of five radio stations, dies in California at 77 after a long illness.
Jun 6 Nathan Burkan, 56, co-founder of ASCAP in 1914 who remained the group's General Counsel, dies at his Long Island summer home.
Jul 16 Popular radio bandleader Orville Knapp, 28, dies when the plane he was piloting crashes in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Sep 28 Westinghouse Vice President and radio pioneer Dr. Samuel Kintner, 64, dies in his Pittsburgh home.
Nov 2 Alfred Erickson, Board Chairman of McCann-Erickson Advertising and an ad industry figure since 1902, dies in California at 60.
Nov 19 WJR/Detroit chief announcer John Eccles goes home between air shifts and commits suicide.
Dec 8 Comedy writer Dave Freedman, 39, dies in his sleep one day after testifying in his $250,000 breach of contract lawsuit against Eddie Cantor.
1937
Jan 8 Isobel Carothers Berlozheimer, Lu of the early serial Clara, Lu & Em, dies of pneumonia at age 31.
Jan 14 Popular Country Church of Hollywood minister William B. Hogg, 56, known to CBS audiences as Josiah Hopkins, The Goose Creek Parson, dies in Los Angeles following an operation.
Jun 18 Comedy writer Al Boasberg, 45, dies of a heart attack one day after signing a contract renewal with Jack Benny.
Jul 20 Pioneering wireless developer Guglielmo Marconi, 63, dies of a heart attack in Rome.
Jul 23 FCC Chairman Anning Prall, 67, dies of heart failure at his Maine summer home.
Sep 21 KYW/Philadelphia announcer Lynn Willis, 30, dies after falling from his second floor hospital room.
Nov 24 Foreign language broadcasting pioneer, John Iraci, General Manager of WOV and WBIL/New York City and owner of WPEN/Philadelphia, dies of a heart attack at 52.
1938
Feb 7 NBC’s Voice of Firestone proceeds without commercials or announcements when Firestone Tire & Rubber founder, Harvey Firestone, 69, dies suddenly earlier in the day.
Mar 3 Robert Scripps, major stockholder of Scripps-Howard newspapers, radio stations and United Press wire service, dies at 42 while aboard his yacht off lower California.
Jul 25 Senior FCC lawyer, Major Alfred Dalrymple, 61, dies when struck by an automobile on a Washington street.
Oct 16 Former NAB President Harry Shaw, 52, is found dead in his Sarasota, Florida, home of a gunshot wound.
1939
Feb 3 Flamboyant sports promoter and founder of The Radio Transcription Company of America, Charles (Cash & Carry) Pyle, dies in Los Angeles of a heart attack at age 56.
Mar 9 Ernie Hare of the popular radio singing duo Jones & Hare - The Happiness Boys - dies at 55.
Mar 27 West Coast radio comedian and network gag writer George (Red) Corcoran, 38, dies of complications following an appendix operation.
Apr 19 Gordon Thompson, pioneer J. Walter Thompson radio producer, dies of a sudden heart attack at his desk at age 35 while reviewing the script of the next night’s Rudy Vallee show.
Jun 16 Popular radio bandleader William (Chick) Webb, 30, dies from complications following kidney surgery.
Sep 24 Pioneer radio newsman Floyd Gibbons, 52, dies of a heart attack.
Oct 15 Frank Oliver, 64, a member of the first acting group on WGY/Schenectady in 1922 dies after a short illness.
Oct 16 NBC orchestra conductor Joseph Green, coinventor of the vibraphone, dies in New York City of pneumonia at age 43.
Dec 18 Noted columnist and commentator Heywood Broun, 51, dies in New York City of pneumonia.
Dec 29 Former CBS Vice President and Federal Radio Commissioner Henry A. Bellows dies in Minneapolis at 54.
1940
Jan 5 Veteran film and radio actor, (Pepper Young’s Family, Your Family & Mine, etc.), Jack Roseleigh, 58, dies of a heart condition.
Feb 7 Popular juvenile radio actor Ernest Carlson, 13, who began his career at age six, dies in Los Angeles of pneumonia.
Apr 29 Carnation Contented Hour musical conductor Josef Pasternack, 59, dies during the program’s rehearsal.
May 25 John Lynn McManus, 36, script writer for NBC’s Rudy Vallee Sealtest Show dies in Hollywood after a ten week illness.
Aug 4 Talbot Mundy, 61, author of Jack Armstrong - The All Aemerican Boy, dies in Bradenton, Florida.
Aug 7 C.C. Bradner, the first regular newscaster on WWJ/Detroit in 1925, dies after a short illness at 61.
Aug 24 Television pioneer Dr. Paul Nipkow, who first spoke of picture transmission in the 1890’s and invented some of its earliest components, dies at 80 in Berlin.
Sep 8 Leon F. Douglass, inventor and co-founder of the Victor Talking Machine Company, dies at 71 in San Francisco. Douglass also coined Victor’s famous slogan, “His Master’s Voice.”
Oct 12 Cowboy star Tom Mix, 60, dies in a car wreck - but the Blue Network announces that its weekday kids’ serial, The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters, will continue, “…as a tribute to his memory.”
Nov 23 Billy Jones, 53, surviving member of the Happiness Boys duo with Ernie Hare, dies of a heart attack.
Nov 27 Author and syndicated radio personality Coleman Cox, (aka The Philosopher), dies in San Francisco of a heart attack at age 67.
Dec 21 Popular bandleader Hal Kemp, 36, dies in Madera, California, from pneumonia suffered after an auto accident.
1941
Jan 10 Popular radio and movie comedian Joe Penner dies in his sleep of heart disease at age 36.
Feb 15 Donna Damerel, (aka Marge), of the long-running CBS serial Myrt & Marge, dies giving birth to her third child at age 28. She was the daughter-partner of Myrtle Vail, (aka Myrt), with whom she created the serial in 1931.
Feb 26 Colonel Thad Brown, an FRC and FCC commissioner since 1932, dies in Cleveland at age 54.
Mar 14 WBBM/Chicago transmitter engineer DeMotte (Dud) Little, 35, is electrocuted after coming in contact with a 4,000 volt circuit.
Apr 7 Frederic William Wile, regarded as America‘s first Transatlantic radio reporter, covering the London Naval Conference for CBS in 1930, dies after a short illness at 68.,
Apr 8 Radio’s Lone Ranger for eight years, Earle Graser, 32, Is killed in an automobile accident.
Jun 7 Stage and radio comedienne Mary (Bubbles) Kelly, 46, dies in her sleep.
Jun 8 NBC and Mutual news commentator Captain E.D.C. Hearne, dies at 51 in Chicago after a heart attack.
Jun 16 Emma Van Alstyne Lanning, known to WLS/Chicago listeners as Aunt Em and believed to be America's oldest regular radio performer at 85, dies of complications after a fall in her home.
Aug 11 Edwin Kiest, owner of The Dallas Times-Herald and KRLD/Dallas, dies after a long illness at 79 and wills both the newspaper and radio station to his employees.
Aug 23 Veteran radio actor Wilmer Walter, star of NBC’s David Harum, dies at 57 after a short illness.
Aug 24 Mutual music critic Floyd Neale, 54, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Dec 7 U.S. Navy Ensign Thomas McClelland, 37, former KLZ/Denver Chief Engineer is killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Dec 11 Legendary radio pioneer Dr. Frank Conrad who put 8XK/Pittsburgh on the air in 1919 - which became KDKA in 1920 - dies of a heart ailment at 67.
Dec 22 Scott Howe Bowen, who created the first national station sales representation firm and established 15% as the sales commission norm, dies of a heart attack at 53.
Dec 24 Radio character actor Lee Millar, a regular on Lux Radio Theater and Dr. Christian and the voice of Walt Disney’s Pluto, dies of a heart attack at 53.
1942
Jan 9 Joseph Franklin Rutherford, 72, founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1919 and heard on scores of stations in his weekly Watch Tower sermons, dies at home in San Diego.
Feb 1 Marion Sayles Taylor, known to multi-network and movie audiences since 1932 as The Voice of Experience dispensing advice, much of it sexually oriented, dies in Los Angeles of a heart attack at age 53.
Feb 26 Lieutenant Donald Chase, formerly of WTMJ/Milwaukee’s engineering staff, is killed in a plane crash at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Feb 27 Young CBS actress Dorothy Gregory, 18, dies of leukemia in Chicago.
Mar 17 Charles O’Connor, once the youngest announcer employed by NBC at 20 and later the commercial voice of Philip Morris, dies at his Long Island home at age 30.
Apr 19 Dr. Shirley Wynne, 59, conductor of the weekday Food Forum on WHN/New York City dies following an operation.
Apr 24 Newspaper correspondent Lea Burdette, wife of CBS correspondent Winston Burdette, is shot and killed by a band of Kurds while touring a remote area of northern Iran.
May 9 Pioneer network announcer Graham McNamee, 53, dies of a streptococcal infection.
May 26 Radio’s notorious “Goat Gland Doctor” John R. Brinkley, 56, dies in his sleep at home in Del Rio, Texas, bankrupt and owing $155,000 in back taxes.
May 29 Legendary actor and frequent radio performer John Barrymore dies at 60.
Jun 2 Trumpeter and singing bandleader Benard (Bunny) Berigan, featured on many Network Radio shows, dies at 35 of an intestinal disorder.
Jul 17 Rita Murray, 42, known to CBS West Coast listeners as The Voice of Friendship, dies after surgery in Los Angeles.
Aug 17 U.S. Army Air Force Captain Derby Sproul, former Production Manager at KLZ/Denver, is reported killed in action, “…somewhere in Africa.”
Aug 19 Effie Palmer, a veteran radio actress since 1922, dies in her New Jersey home at age 52.
Sep 2 One Man’s Family and I Love A Mystery actor Walter Patterson, 31, is found dead in his car, an apparent suicide.
Sep 20 NBC reporter Talbot (Jimmy) Bone, who scooped the world in reporting the 1939 sinking of the Graf Spee off South America, dies of cancer in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Sep 21 U.S. Navy Radioman Sam Miller, formerly a KLRA/Little Rock engineer is reported killed in a plane crash, “…somewhere in Africa.”
Oct 5 U.S. Coast Guard Captain Samuel Fuld, 35, former CBS Station Relations executive, is reported missing in action in the Atlantic.
Oct 20 Dr. Frederick Stock, 66, called The Dean of American Conductors, dies of a heart attack in his 38th year of leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra heard often in local and network broadcasts.
Nov 2 Marine PFC Stanley Kops, formerly a continuity writer at KFWB/Los Angeles, is reported killed in action in the Solomon Islands.
Nov 5 Show business great and early radio performer George M. Cohan dies of cancer in New York City at age 64.
Nov 23 Air Force Lieutenant Robert Frear, 26, former Chief Announcer at WIBX/Utica, New York, is killed in the crash of his plane in Florida.
Nov 25 Major General Charles Saltzman, FRC Chairman from 1930 to 1932, dies in Washington at age 72.
Dec 14 Detroit radio executive and personality Cornelius Tomy, 64, known to listeners for over 20 years as Uncle Neal, dies at after a paralytic stroke.
Dec 15 Air Force Sergeant Alma (Buddy) Mills, former engineer at KVRS/Rock Springs, Wyoming, s reported missing in Pacific action.
Dec 20 Indianapolis-based radio evangelist E. Howard Cadle, 58, dies after a two month illness.
1943
Jan 5 Longtime host of Chicago children’s shows, Harry Hosford, (aka Uncle Harry), 53, dies of a heart attack.
Jan 7 Electrical genius Nikola Tesla, 85, discoverer of many principles associated with broadcasting, dies after a long illness in his New Yorker Hotel apartment.
Jan 7 James Tierney, Radio Director of Texaco during its early sponsorship of Ed Wynn, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, Fred Allen and the Metropolitan Opera, dies of a heart attack at 43 in New York City.
Jan 23 Veteran commentator Alexander Woollcott, 56, collapses during a CBS broadcast of The People’s Platform and dies of a heart attack four hours later.
Feb 3 Frederick (Bud) Vandover, 35, soloist with Mutual’s Tom, Dick & Harry vocal group dies of a heart attack 15 minutes before a broadcast in a WGN/Chicago studio.
Feb 22 Mutual correspondent Frank Cubel is among 25 killed in the crash of a Pan American Clipper off Lisbon.
Feb 24 Popular WGN/Chicago personality Wallace Rogerson, whose Fit To Music exercise program was a station fixture for 20 years, dies at 62 after a long illness.
Mar 10 Fred Fleming, 47, News Director of KLZ/Denver, recognized as one of radio’s best local news organizations, dies of a heart attack at the home of friends.
Mar 12 Army Air Force Lieutenant James Carroll, 24, formerly sports announcer with WCSC/Charleston, South Carolina, dies in the crash of his plane in Orlando, Florida.
Mar 13 Noted American author and poet Stephen Vincent Benet, 44, dies of a heart attack after first being stricken a week earlier at NBC while working on its Lands of The Free series.
Mar 29 Volney James, 53, veteran West Coast radio personality known as The Old Colonel, dies of a heart attack after his program on KTMR/Los Angeles.
Apr 8 Freelance announcer Art Millet, heard regularly on CBS, NBC and Mutual programs, dies after a long illness in New York City at 34.
May 1 Former WHBQ/Memphis announcer Army Private John Elgen Poor, dies at 24 when his Jeep overturns.
May 12 Marie Nelson, veteran radio and stage actress, dies at age 60 in Chicago.
May 15 Marine bomber tail gunner, Bus Barton, formerly a performer on WLW/Cincinnati, is reported killed in the battle of Guadalcanal.
May 28 Vaughn DeLeath, 42, dies after a long illness. Billed as “The First Lady of Radio,” the singer made her first broadcast in January, 1920.
Jul 29 Floyd George, 14 year old cast member of NBC’s Hawthorne House, dies when a cave in his backyard collapses burying him beneath four feet of soil.
Sep 4 Philco Corporation Vice President David Grimes, 47, is killed in a Northern Ireland plane crash while on a “special mission” for the military.
Sep 7 Veteran songwriter and performer Frank Crumit dies of a heart attack at 54. At the time, he and his wife Julia Sanderson were hosts of Saturday night’s Crumit & Sanderson Quiz on CBS.
Sep 7 Army Air Force Lieutenant Kenneth Carter, formerly an announcer at WNAC/Boston, was killed when his P-38 crashed in California.
Sep 9 Former NBC Page, Navy Ensign Robert Green, is killed in the crash of his torpedo plane in North Africa.
Sep 30 James Radcliffe, 60, known to listeners of WCCO/Minneapolis-St Paul as Uncle Mac, dies of a heart attack after appearing at a bond rally.
Oct 5 Sergeant George McDonald, formerly of the engineering staff of WCOP/Boston, is reported killed in the crash of a test plane at Pensacola, Florida.
Oct 20 Longtime Network Radio bandleader and comedian Ben Bernie, 52, dies after a long illness.
Nov 1 Army Lieutenant Harry Morris, formerly on the staff of KMBC/Kansas City, is killed in the crash of his plane in Dayton, Ohio.
Nov 24 Army Signal Corps Major Isaac Brimberg, 40, formerly Chief Engineer at WNYC/New York City, dies suddenly at Brookley Field, Alabama.
Dec 15 Popular singer-songwriter Thomas (Fats) Waller, 39, dies of pneumonia on aboard a train in Kansas City while traveling from New York to Los Angeles.
Dec 22 Veteran radio actor and former concert baritone Percy Hemus, 65, collapses and dies in the RCA Building shortly after appearing on NBC’s Road of Life serial.
Dec 23 Radio actor Carleton Brickert, 52, the first President of AFRA’s Chicago local, dies shortly after collapsing at a rehearsal of Abie’s Irish Rose at NBC in New York City.
1944
Jan 4 Walter (Bide) Dudley, 66, longtime New York City radio personality, dies after a long illness.
Jan 15 Veteran West Coast music figure Jack Joy, credited with discovering many talents for radio and music director of The Army Hour, dies in Los Angeles after surgery at age 48.
Feb 3 Mutual announces the death of commentator Raymond Clapper, 51, killed in a mid-air plane collision and crash in the Marshall Islands.
Feb 6 Donald Dixon, KDKA/Pittsburgh Production Manager, dies in a taxicab accident after working at a bond rally.
Feb 12 Army Air Force Corporal Joseph McMichael, 28, former member of the Merry Macs radio vocal group, dies in Santa Ana, California from a kidney ailment.
Feb 15 Chicago radio personality Bernice Bost, also known to listeners as Priscilla Pride, dies at 42.
Feb 20 Hugh Dobbs, (aka Captain Dobbsie), longtime radio personality and former host of the Top 50 show, Ship of Joy, dies in Seattle at age 59.
Mar 15 Army Air Force Lieutenant Jerome Bowers, formerly a staff announcer at WMSL/Decatur, Alabama, is killed in action in Europe.
Apr 10 George Furness, developer of The Eveready Hour in 1926, the first sponsored program on a network, dies in New York City at 60.
Apr 22 Disc jockey Howard Saunders of WFMR/High Point, North Carolina, is killed in the crash of his private plane. His funeral is held two days later at the same afternoon hour as his daily hillbilly record show.
May 9 New York City actor and AFRA co-founder Mark Smith dies at age 57.
Jul 1 Actress Dorothy Lowell, 28, who held the title role of Our Gal Sunday since 1937, dies after giving birth to a daughter.
Jul 5 Danny Danker, J. Walter Thompson ad executive credited for the successes of Lux Radio Theater, Kraft Music Hall and Chase & Sanborn Hour, dies of heart attack at age 41.
Jul 30 Marine Sergeant Lee Powell, 35, the original Lone Ranger in films, is reported killed in action in the South Pacific.
Aug 19 NBC war correspondent Tom Treanor, 35, is killed when his Jeep overturns in France.
Sep 11 Eric Sagerquist, musical conductor for First Nighter since 1930, dies in Chicago at age 45.
Nov 16 Mutual commentator Boake Carter, 46, suffers a stroke and dies shortly after his broadcast.
Oct 9 W.E. Macfarlane, Mutual Board Chairman and the network’s first President, (duties he performed as Business Manager of The Chicago Tribune), dies of a heart attack at 60.
Dec 15 The plane taking bandleader Major Glenn Miller from London to France is lost over the English Channel.
Dec 18 Army Sergeant Jay Baumann, former announcer at WJAG/Norfolk, Nebraska, is reported dead of wounds suffered in Holland.
1945
Jan 5 Army Air Corps Lieutenant Frank McGlogan, 26, former WJR/Detroit announcer and newscaster is reported killed in action over Germany.
Jan 5 Army Sergeant Don Chapman, former staff member of KHJ/Los Angeles, is reported killed in Germany.
Jan 14 Army Air Force Sergeant Gene W. Haulotte, a B-17 tail gunner and former head of the CBS Los Angeles transcription department, is killed over Germany.
Jan 19 Harold Sanford, 65, an NBC musical conductor for 15 years, dies of a heart attack in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Jan 25 Army Sergeant William Parmalee, 26, formerly in the transcription department of KHJ/Los Angeles, Is killed in action in Germany.
Jan 29 Longtime West Coast radio personality William (Bill) Sharples, 58, dies after a long illness in Los Angeles.
Mar 3 George Henry Payne, a nine year member of the original FCC, dies in New York of a heart ailment at 68.
Apr 4 Jerome Louchheim, 71, part owner of the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System who sold his interest to William S, Paley in 1927 but remained a CBS Director, dies in Philadelphia.
Apr 12 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 63, hailed by Broadcasting magazine as, “The greatest voice in the 25 year history of American broadcasting,” dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia.
Apr 18 Sir Ambrose Fleming, inventor of many key elements in the early development of wireless transmission and reception, dies in Devon, England at age 95.
Apr 18 Blue dedicates a 30-minute tribute to war correspondent Ernie Pyle who was killed in the battle of Okinawa at age 55.
Apr 27 Optometrist Dr. George W. Young, who obtained the nation’s first independent station license in 1923 for his KFTM/Minneapolis, (renamed WDGY in 1925), dies at 58 after a long illness.
Jun 2 Former CBS singer, Marine Lieutenant Robert Pace, dies in an explosion on Okinawa.
Jun 8 Navy Lieutenant John Frazer, formerly an NBC announcer, is reported killed in action in the Pacific.
Jun 21 Eugene Sykes, a member of the original Federal Radio Commission in 1927 and later a chairman of the FCC, dies at 69.
Jun 24 Veteran West Coast network announcer Gary Breckner, 53, dies in a Redlands, California auto accident.
Jun 26 Former NBC Music Director and early radio bandleader, Erno Rapee dies of heart attack at 55.
Jul 2 Popular soap opera actor John Walsh, 36, dies suddenly in Chicago.
Aug 30 Army Sergeant Charles Ross, 31, former announcer at KMPC/Los Angeles, dies from infantile paralysis at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Sep 16 Famed Irish tenor and radio star John McCormack dies at home in Ireland at 61.
Nov 11 Popular composer Jerome Kern dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 60.
Nov 15 Gunther Hollander, 15, a member of the Quiz Kids cast, is killed when struck by a bus in Chicago.
Nov 20 Actor James Waters, who had played Papa on The Goldbergs for 15 years, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 72.
Nov 21 Humorist Robert Benchley, 56, featured on NBC’s Texaco Star Theater, dies in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage.
1946
Mar 21 Marlin Hurt, 40, creator and star of the CBS sitcom Beulah, dies of a heart attack.
Apr 1 Veteran actor Noah Beery, Sr., 62, dies of a heart attack while rehearsing for his role on that night’s broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with his brother, Wallace Beery.
Apr 5 Vincent Youmans, composer of many hit songs that became standards, (Tea For Two, It’s A Great Day, Hallelujah, More Than You Know, etc.) dies in Denver at 47 after a long battle with tuberculosis.
Jun 11 Acclaimed NBC programming executive Bertha (Betty) Brainard dies of a heart attack at age 55.
Jun 13 Edward J. Bowes, impresario of Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour, dies at 71.
Jun 14 John Baird, known in Europe as The Father of Television, from his first demonstration of video in London in 1926, dies at 58 in Great Britain.
Aug 13 Author H.G. Wells, who denounced his War of The Worlds after the reported chaos caused by Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of the story in 1938, dies in London at 79
Sep 13 George Washington Hill, President of American Tobacco and one of radio’s foremost advertisers, dies of a heart attack while vacationing in Canada at age 61.
Sep 25 Mutual correspondent Royal Arch Gunnison, 37, is killed in the crash of a Royal Air Force plane in Hong Kong.
Nov 18 James J. (Jimmy) Walker, 65, former Mayor of New York City and later a popular radio host, dies in New York of a brain hemorrhage.
Dec 4 Reverend Henry Rubel, known in Network Radio as comedy writer Hal Raynor credited with Joe Penner’s famous catch phrase, “Wanna buy a duck?” dies at 44.
Dec 16 Former New York City Police Commissioner and Gangbusters narrator Lewis J. Valentine, 64, dies in New York City.
Dec 25 Comic legend and Charlie McCarthy’s favorite foil, W.C. Fields, dies at 66.
1947
Jan 26 Network singing star Grace Moore, 45, is killed with 21 others in a plane crash at the Copenhagen, Denmark airport.
Apr 23 Lewis Lawes, former prison warden, author and creator of the pioneering crime program, 20,000 Years At Sing Sing, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 63.
Jun 29 Charles Medbury, script writer of Amos & Andy, dies of a heart attack at 54.
Aug 20 James G. Harbord, RCA Board Chairman from 1930 to 1947 dies after a brief illness at 81.
Sep 20 Fiorello LaGuardia, New York City Mayor from 1934 to 1945 and known for his use of radio, dies at 64.
Oct 12 Captain Tom Healy, conductor of early radio’s Stamp Club programs which claimed as many as 3.0 Million members, dies in a Fort Worth hospital at 56.
Dec 8 Radio actress Delores Gillen, popular for her impersonations of young children and infants, dies of post-surgery complications. At the time of her death she was featured on three network soap operas.
1948
Feb 23 Bessie Mack, talent coordinator for Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and formerly auditions supervisor for The Original Amateur Hour, dies of a heart ailment at 56.
Mar 30 Burridge Butler, 80, owner of WLS/Chicago, KOY/Phoenix, KTUC/Tucson and The Prairie Farmer magazine, dies in Phoenix following a fall in his orange grove.
Apr 28 Tom Breneman, 48, host of ABC’s popular weekday Breakfast In Hollywood dies of a heart attack.
May 2 Dud Williamson, host of Mutual’s What’s The Name of That Song?, dies of a heart attack at age 45.
May 16 CBS news correspondent George Polk, 35, is murdered in Athens, Greece.
Jun 12 Harry Frankel, radio’s Singin’ Sam, dies of a heart attack at 60.
Aug 16 Baseball legend and occasional radio performer George Herman (Babe) Ruth dies of cancer at 53.
Oct 4 Popular radio bandleader Jan Savitt, 35, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
1949
Jan 14 Veteran stage and radio comedian Willie Howard dies after a short illness in New York City at age 62.
Jan 19 Popular KOA/Denver singing personality John (Happy Jack) Turner, 50, with NBC since 1931 and KOA since 1944, collapses and dies two hours before his daily show.
Feb 15 Radip actress Patricia Ryan, 25, dies in New York City of a stroke, after appearing on NBC’s Cavalcade of America, portraying a woman with stroke symptoms.
Mar 4 Manufacturer A. Atwater Kent, whose name became synonymous with early model radios, dies at his Los Angeles estate at age 75.
Mar 25 Decca Records founder and former owner of the World Broadcasting System transcription service Jack Kapp, 47, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Apr 18 Joan Blaine, original star of the daytime serials The Story of Mary Marlin iand Valiant Lady, dies in New York City two days short of her 49th birthday.
May 27 Believe It Or Not creator Robert L Ripley, a star of Network Radio since 1930 and host of a weekly show NBC-TV, dies at 55 of a heart attack.
May 29 Basil Loughrane, a Network Radio producer/director since 1929 associated with 31 different program series, dies of a heart attack in New York at age 48.
Jul 12 Three radio correspondents, Elsie Dick of Mutual, H.R. Knickerbocker of WOR/New York City and George Moorad of KGW/Portland, Oregon, are among 13 news people killed in the crash of their plane in Bombay when returning from Indonesia.
Jul 29 W.H. Mason, 51 year old program director of KBKI/Alice, Texas, dies of gunshot wounds fired by a deputy sheriff he had accused on the air of being a brothel owner.
Sep 18 MGM film star and Network Radio comedian Frank Morgan, 58, dies of natural causes in his Beverly Hills home.
Oct 1 Carnation Contented Hour star Buddy Clark, 37, is killed in Los Angeles private plane crash.
Oct 17 Your Hit Parade orchestra conductor Mark Warnow dies of a heart attack at age 47.
Oct 29 Billy Artzt, veteran composer and music conductor of the Blondie sitcom series for nine years, dies at 53.
1950
Mar 10 Sid Silverman, President of trade papers Variety and Daily Variety, dies at 51 after a long illness.
Mar 19 Edgar Rice Burroughs, 74, the creator of Tarzan, dies of heart disease. Tarzan, in various radio productions, was in continual syndication since 1932.
May 13 Early Network Radio star, “Whispering” Jack Smith, 51, dies ten days after his last television appearance.
May 22 Pianist/comedian Don (Creesh) Hornsby, 26, scheduled to host NBC-TV’s new 11:00 p.m. weeknight variety show, Broadway Open House, dies in White Plains, New York, of a polio attack.
May 29 Frederick Chase Taylor, known to Network Radio listeners as Colonel Lemuel Stoopnagle, dies at 52.
Jun 11 John Shephard III, founder of WNAC/Boston, WEAN/Providence and the Yankee Network dies of a cardiac arrest at 64.
Sep 2 Frank Graham, 35 year old lead of Jeff Regan, Investigator and producer-star of Satan’s Waitin’ - both CBS shows - is found dead in his car, from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Sep 12 Ex-vaudevillian Lou Clayton, dies at 63 after a long bout with cancer. His longtime partners, Jimmy Durante and Eddie Jackson, were at his bedside at his passing.
Oct 23 Legendary singer-showman Al Jolson dies of a heart attack at 64.
Dec 12 Joseph Weber, 86, President of the American Federation of Musicians union from 1900 to 1940, dies in Los Angeles.
1951
Jan 2 Richard Hart, who held the title role in television’s Adventures of Ellery Queen, dies of a heart attack at 35.
Feb 9 Popular bandleader/pianist Eddy Duchin, billed as “The Ten Magic Fingers of Radio,” dies of leukemia at age 41.
May 2 Veteran comedy writer Dick Knight, formerly with Bob Hope and Burns & Allen, dies of a heart attack after rehearsing the Ed Wynn television show at CBS in Hollywood.
May 28 G.A. (Dick) Richards, 62, owner of embattled WJR/Detroit, WGAR/Cleveland and KMPC/Los Angeles, dies of a heart attack in Detroit.
May 29 Fanny Brice, 59, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage one week after her final Baby Snooks broadcast.
Jun 4 Serge Koussevitzky, former conductor of the Boston Symphony and Detroit Symphony - both often heard on radio - dies at 79 after a long period of failing health.
Jul 9 Harry Heilmann, former major league baseball star and Detroit Tigers’ announcer for 16 years, dies in Detroit at age 56.
Aug 14 Newspaper and broadcasting mogul William Randolph Hearst dies of natural causes at 88 in Los Angeles.
Aug 21 NBC organist Lou Webb, 51, whose playing was heard on network programs for 18 years, collapses at the keyboard and dies of a heart attack.
Sep 29 Brad Barker, Network Radio’s foremost impersonator of animal sounds - sometimes appearing on 20 shows per week - dies in New York at 68.
Nov 9 Operetta composer and longtime radio conductor Sigmund Romberg, 64, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Dec 19 Veteran One Man’s Family, I Love A Mystery and Dragnet actor Barton Yarborough, 50, dies of a blood clot on the brain three days after his debut as co-star in the television version of Dragnet.
1952
Jan 18 Popular radio and stage personality Ed East, 56, collapses at New York’s Lambs Club while playing pool with friends and dies of a heart attack.
Mar 22 Longtime Grand Ole Opry star “Uncle Dave” Macon, 81, dies eleven days after his final appearance on the NBC program from WSM/Nashville.
May 24 Author Fulton Oursler, creator of the award winning ABC Biblical series, The Greatest Story Ever Told, dies of a heart attack in New York City at age 59.
May 28 Walter Evans, President of Westinghouse Radio Stations,who first joined the company as an engineer at KYW/Chicago in 1921, dies of cancer at age 53 in Baltimore.
May 30 Albert Lasker, founder of the pioneering ad agency Lord & Thomas, dies of cancer at 72.
Aug 18 Ralph Byrd who played Dick Tracy in 48 episodes of the television series, (plus four movie serials and two feature films), dies of a heart attack at age 43.
Sep 30 Merlin “Deac” Aylsworth, first President of NBC, dies after a long illness at 66.
Oct 26 Academy Award winning actress Hattie McDaniel, former star of Beulah on CBS Radio and ABC-TV, dies at age 57.
Nov 1 Actress Dixie Lee Crosby, 40, wife of Bing Crosby, dies of cancer.
Dec 7 New York City announcer and newsreel narrator Alois Havrilla, whose career began in 1928, dies at 61.
Dec 29 Veteran bandleader and arranger Fletcher Henderson dies of a stroke in his New York City home at 54.
1953
Jan 1 Grand Ole Opry star Hank Williams, 29, dies of a heart attack in his car near Oak Hill, West Virginia.
Jan 20 Nila Mack, producer of the CBS Saturday morning program Let’s Pretend for 23 years, dies of a heart attack at age 61.
Feb 12 Pioneer radio personality and writer, Ray Knight, creator and host of the early Cuckoo Hour among many shows, dies at 54.
May 28 World famous violinist and early Network Radio star Albert Spalding, dies in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage at 64.
Jun 5 Veteran stage, screen and radio actor Roland Young, best known as the title character in the Topper film comedies, dies in New York City at age 65.
Aug 4 Haven MacQuarrie, former host of The Marriage Club and Noah Webster Says on CBS and Do You Want To Be An Actor? on NBC, dies of a heart attack at age 59.
Sep 12 Veteran character actor Lewis Stone, known as patriarch Judge Hardy of The Hardy Family films and radio, dies of a heart attack at his Hollywood home at the age of 73.
Oct 1 Singer Frank Munn, 58, known for years as The Golden Voice of Radio, dies of a heart attack.
Oct 8 Nigel Bruce, famous as Dr. John Watson in Sherlock Holmes movies and radio mysteries, dies at 58.
Dec 16 KDKA/Pittsburgh radio pioneer Jackson McQuiston, often called “The Father of Radio Advertising,” dies of a heart attack in St. Petersburg, Florida at 78.
Copyright © 2020, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com