It’s true today and was true in 1946 when the subject came up in Radio Life magazine. The November 24th edition profiled three of the best-known announcers on West Coast comedy shows of the day—Don Wilson from the Jack Benny show; Harry Von Zell, who had his own 15-minute show in 1946 and appeared in two-reelers; and Ken Carpenter, who hung out at the Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby. All three had puttered around radio for a bit before winning auditions for big-name comedy/variety shows that shot them to fame. They all stayed on top for many, many years because they were very good. They also proved to be more than just an announcer; they interacted with the star and became a part of the cast, especially Wilson.
There were many others in that glorious era of network radio who found themselves doing more than announcing—Kenny Delmar (who was primarily an actor) is one—but these three come to mind as being at the top of their profession. And, as the story indicates, it wasn’t always easy street for them.
“Aw, ANYBODY Can Be An Announcer”
Everybody Wants to Get Into Their Act, So Let's Take Some Time to Re-examine The Careers of These Veteran Mike-men
By Betsy J. Hammer
ONE of the phenomena of this post-war world seems to be the desire of about one out of every ten of our male population to become a radio announcer. Somehow, sometime in the last five years it has occurred to an awful lot of people that the announcer's life is the life for them—glamorous, well-paid, easy . . . Urn-huh!
We came up against these hard facts when we called on Thomas Woods of AFRA, the radio actors' guild. According to Mr. Woods there are about 125 staff announcing jobs in this area and about 450 names of professional announcers on file in the AFRA office. This isn't even counting the great number of people who are studying or hoping to become announcers and who are not registered with the guild.
Is there no ray of hope in all this? Well, yes—Mr. Woods further informed us that many times an unknown out-of-towner will audition and win a staff job on the local stations where many experienced local people have failed to connect. “And a staff announcing job is not to be sneezed at,” says Woods. “It's still the best opportunity to get somewhere in radio.”
We've gotten many letters from frustrated people who have made tentative efforts to break into the announcing field. Here we print a hypothetical letter which includes most of the statements and queries that are usually contained, together with answers gleaned from the careers of three of our most successful mike-men, Ken Carpenter, Harry von Zell and Don Wilson.
“Sirs: I think it's time some of the big -name announcers moved over and gave someone else a break. While I was in the service (or working in a war plant, etc.) they got into radio and got all the soft jobs. You have to have friends and a pull to get anywhere. Why don't they give someone else a chance for the fame and easy money—they've had theirs.
I have a good voice and anybody could read from a script the way they do . . . etc. . . . etc. . . .”
Veterans All
Well, let's see now—“while I was in the service, etc. . . .” Harry von Zell went into radio twenty years ago, Don Wilson's voice was first heard on the air from KOA, Denver, about twenty-two years ago, and Ken Carpenter, the baby of the bunch, started his mike career locally over sixteen years ago. Hardly what you'd call getting into radio while anyone was in the service!
“You have to have friends and a pull to get anywhere . . .”
Yes, Ken Carpenter had a friend who got him his initial audition. The only thing wrong with this argument is that Ken didn't get the job. During a lean period, Don Wilson applied to a guy named Harry von Zell for a job at KMTR. Don was turned down cold. Many years later he asked friend von Zell why he hadn't gotten the job. "Your job ?" Harry exclaimed. "I was scared to death of my own job!"
“Fame and easy money, etc. . . .”
Harry von Zell handled announcing chores on twenty-one New York shows a week at one time—for less than $100 each week. He didn't become the full-fledged emcee comedian he's famous for being now until the summer of 1945 on the Eddie Cantor show, though he did perform similar duties for Fred Allen. That's only nineteen years after his initial start in radio! Ken Carpenter sat in the lobby of KFI for over two weeks until chief announcer Don Wilson hired him. This same Wilson got a job as staff singer locally in 1928 and became a member of an early bird program. He worked early and late at the station and then got fired because he bought a different make car than that which the owner of the station carried in his agency.
“Anybody could read from a script. . .”
When Don Wilson became a staff member of NBC in New York he did half-hour newscasts cold. That means he had no time to check pronunciations (and you know the pronunciations that show up in the news!) or read the copy through before he went on the air. Don had been a football star at the University of Colorado and when he decided to forsake his singing career for one of announcing, he was fitted for becoming one of the best-known sports announcers on the coast. Though Harry von Zell was one of the best announcers in the business, it was Harry's own natural flair for comedy and his great sense of humor that prompted Fred Allen to start writing Harry into his comedy scripts. Ken Carpenter has been pushed through a plate glass window while covering a parade, tackled and trampled by players during a Rose Bowl game, hit in the solar plexus with a bat while describing a baseball match, kicked by the race horse, Alcazar, at Santa Anita; went alone into a lion's cage to interview Leo, the lion; slipped off the top of a mountain in Elysian Park while telling the folks at home about the famous "moving mountain." "Believe me," says Carpenter, "it wasn't in the script!"
So there you have the fame and easy life that have marked the careers of these three announcers! It adds up to perseverance, hard work and a great natural ability. And it can still be done. If anything, Harry, Don and Ken will leave their field in radio a better one than they found it. Don, through his wonderfully natural reaction to Benny's comedy and his humorous handling of the commercials; Harry with his great flair for comedy, and Ken, who made ringing the NBC chimes for "Kraft Music Hall" a national institution not so long ago, have proven that a good announcer is a very important part of the whole show. If you become an announcer, you'll find that these three have already paved the way for you to become a real radio personality in your own right!
Allen's problems transitioning to TV, along with his health problems in general, kind of kept Delmar from making the transition in the 1950s, the way Wilson and Von Zell did on the west coast, though Kenny's voice was probably best-known to Baby Boomer kids due to his later Total TV cartoon work (while Harry added to the comedy mix on Burns & Allen more than Bill Goodwin could because he was able to play the sucker for helping Gracie with her schemes far better. He really became a major source of comedy on his own during the show's final two seasons).
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