Whistling J. Donald Wilson

Our story starts with two radio announcers born only a few years apart with similar names, both working as radio announcers on national networks. Donald Harlow "Don" Wilson and John Donald Wilson. With John and Don being relative homonyms, some confusion was inevitable. Multiple sources claims that in 1938, he had adopted the name "Norman Wilson, but later changed it back to J. Donald Wilson. This is correct and is  documented in the January 1, 1938 issue of Broadcasting Magazine [LINK] which states (on pg 50) in their Behind the Mike column the following:

"J. Donald Wilson, Hollywood announcer on the 'Charlie Chan' and 'Strange as It Seems' transcription serials produced by Raymond R. Morgan Co... has changed his name for professional purposes to Norman Wilson. To avoid confusion with Don Wilson, announcer of the NBC Jack Benny program, J. Donald Wilson, a year ago inverted his name, but it didn't sound right. He has now taken the new name."

The timing of this text is apropos, because on page 19 of the same issue it reports that the other Don Wilson repeated his 1936 victory and was chosen as the best announcer of 1937. (This happened almost annually thru about 1952) John clearly felt like his career was in the shadow of the other Don Wilson. But the newsy, present-tense delivery of the text makes a mess of the chronology. Is his real name Donald John Wilson or John Donald Wilson, which is the inverted form?  His headstone reads "John Donald Wilson" so I take that to be his real name. But that means that his resume may be divided over three pseudonyms.  

The choice of  the name "Norman Wilson" has no clear origin. It was the name of the short-lived bandleader of the Norman Wilson Orchestra on KRKD in Los Angeles. A decade later but there was also a Norman Wilson Co. record distribution company located at 2562 Holmes St. in Kansas City, MO. They operated from at least 1952 - 1960 moving London, Mercury and Hollywood records. They appear in both issues of Billboard and Cashbox in that era. Norman Wilson Distribution had moved to 1914 Washington Avenue in St. Louis. 

Our John Donald Wilson was born on June 5th, 1904 and was a radio and film writer, producer, and voice actor, born in Kansas City, MO. There lies the only connection to that record distribution company. But based on that I'm guessing there is at least a family connection there. It's too much of a coincidence.  But his fame centers mostly around his writing on The Whistler. The Whistler began as a radio mystery drama which debut on May 16th 1942 and ran until September 22nd 1955 on CBS. That's a 13-year run.  There were 692 episodes. This was followed by a series of 8 Columbia films, (below) and a short-lived syndicated TV version in 1954. That's a home run by any measure.

• The Whistler – 1944
• The Mark of the Whistler – 1944
• The Power of the Whistler – 1945
• Voice of the Whistler – 1945
• Mysterious Intruder – 1946
• The Secret of the Whistler – 1946
• The Thirteenth Hour – 1947
• The Return of the Whistler

As both a writer and producer on the radio series, you would hope J. Donald Wilson would have earned some decent royalties and licensing fees. Not that Wilson was the only writer on the series; George Allen was the main writer on most of the later episodes, taking over duties in 1944. Allen donated over 100 of those scripts to UC Santa Barbara [LINK] making for a nice research library. Allen actually made some pretty significant changes to the structure of the series, even changing The Whistler from a participant to an observer. Nonetheless, when the first film was in development, it's producer Rudolph Flothow hired J. Donald Wilson to draft that story. More here and here.

Despite writing and producing The Whistler, Wilson wasn't the announcer for The Whistler.  That duty went to Joe Kearns and Gale Gordon in the early episodes and later Bill Forman. Forman was an odd pick. His prior resume included no acting credits at all, and his big gigs were the Fitch Bandwagon and Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge. But Forman was a natural, and later even co-wrote scripts. More here.

But there was a fourth narrator, Everett Clarke. At the same time Signal Oil was sponsoring it's broadcasts on the West Coast (KNX, KQW etc.) from Feb. 1946 to Feb. 1947, a completely separate and local broadcast of The Whistler was airing Sunday nights at on WBBM in Chicago sponsored by Meisterbrau beer.  They used the same scripts and music as the Los Angeles-based production but broadcast it as a live performance, with an audience and of course, a completely different cast.  It even aired with the same opening narration:

"I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak. And so I tell you the amazing story of..."

In addition to the radio series "The Whistler", J. Donald Wilson also wrote, produced, and/or directed The Adventures of Bill Lance, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, and Dark Venture. Wilson also did his own voice work in radio in the 1930s.  He voiced Mickey Mouse in select 1938 broadcasts of The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air as well as other characters in Disney productions such as The Reluctant Dragon. He was the announcer on Strange As It Seems and Charlie Chan. After more than a decade of acting on radio, in march of 1945, he became production head of NBC Blue (aka ABC) and later was promoted to vice president. More here.

The Adventures of Bill Lance, private eye, aired in two non-consecutive runs. This detective series first aired on CBS was from April 1944 into September 1945. Wilson rebooted the series at ABC and it ran from June 1947 into January 1948, sponsored by planters peanuts. John McIntire portrayed Bill Lance in the first run, and Gerald Mohr took on the role in the second run.  Mohr  had been in the Mercury Theatre and was quite good. Wilson didn't write the scripts in that second run. A short news piece in The Winona Republican-Herald claimed that ABC hired writers specializing in criminology for the series.  Dick Joy announced both runs, with some fill in by Owen James. Adam Graham will tell you anything you want to know about it More here.

Nero Wolfe was different. That detective already existed, and Wilson just re-worked it for radio. By the time the Nero Wolfe series aired in 1950, author Rex Stout had already published 17 detective novels in the series. The radio series only ran into 1951 but the books kept coming for another 25 years.

The more famous, Donald "Don" Wilson was born on September 1st, 1900, was an American announcer and actor in radio and television. He was sometimes described as having a "Falstaffian" voice. This term is usually used to describe a fat jolly fellow who's a bit mad kind of like John Belushi. The reference is very old, it alludes to Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff in the play Henry IV from 1597. You can't be too debauched on the radio, so Wilson was just a bit cheeky. The reputation comes from his time as the rotund announcer and comic foil to the star of The Jack Benny Program. That reputation came from Jack Benny himself, who made Wilson the butt of numerous fat jokes. When they made the jump to television, Jack toned down the fat jokes a little.

His career has been written about much more extensively so I'll just hit the pre-Jack Benny highlights.Wilson began his radio career as a singer over Denver radio station KFEL-AM in 1923. By 1929, he was working at KFI-AM, and shortly afterwards for Don Lee at KHJ-AM, in Los Angeles. Though best known for his comedy work with Jack Benny, Wilson had a background as a sportscaster,  right before working with Benny he was actually the announcer on the George Gershwin series. Wilson first worked with Benny on his April 6, 1934 broadcast. The program ran for 30 years.

Don Wilson died April 25th, 1982 and J. Donald Wilson outlived him by 1 year and 9 months, dying on January 26th, 1984. 

Dolphins of Hollywood

In 1948, John Dolphin, a former car salesman, opened the Dolphins of Hollywood record store. In that era of segregation, when dark skin was so rare in media, here was a man who was a business owner, music producer and the owner of an independent record label. It was located at 1065 E. Vernon Avenue in Los Angeles, CA. His store was open 24 hours a day. Now that's a record shop.

Dolphin didn't build this empire, he bought it. The store and pressing plant had existed under different owners since at least 1919.  In 1950 he started his record label RIH, for Recorded in Hollywood.he released sides by Errol Garner, Scat Man Crothers, the Roberta Martin Singers, Joe Houston and Illinois Jacquet. More here.  Many of these were only sold at his record stores. (most of the label's catalog ultimately ended up in the hands of Decca.)

What Dolphin did that made him unique to the era was to hire white DJs to play black music on the radio. He hired Hunter Hancock and Dick Hugg to play his records and those of other black artists. In so doing he gets credit for popularizing R&B on the west coast and start the careers of numerous, jazz, rock and R&B artists. The store and by connection John Dolphin, were made famous by those broadcasts. Dick "Huggy Boy" Hugg is probably best remembered. He was a DJ on KRKD-AM. He was a white DJ and he broadcast a live rhythm and blues radio show from the front window of Dolphins of Hollywood. The program ran from Midnight to 4:00 AM. Huggy was on air at KRKD in that window from 1951–1955.

Hancock was on KFVD in 1943 playing race records even without Dolphin paying him. He'd previously been on KMAC in San Antonio. In most of his biographies it mentions KGFJ but not KRKD. This is because the station changed calls after 1955. Hancock had an afternoon program broadcast form the same window as Huggy. He started in 1952 and kept it up until he left for a gig at KCLA.  He retired from radio in 1966 after outliving a payola scandal in the late 1950s. (The show gets name-checked in the book Listen to the Lambs by Johnny Otis.)

Huggy later was on KALI, KRLA, KGFJ, KBLA, XPRS and was still broadcasting in his 70s in 2002 on KRTH. Dick Hugg died of cardiac arrest on August 30, 2006 at age of 78. In true rock n' roll fashion Dolphin was stabbed to death in 1958. by a song-writer Percey Ivy, whom he had cheated out of royalties. His widow continued to operate the record label into the 1960s.

DJ Foreman Phillips

Nobody knows the name Bert "Foreman" Phillips anymore, but he was one of the most important figures in the development of Western Swing. A 1979 article in JEMF Quarterly [LINK] remembered him as "Western Swings King Maker." Like many other figures in Country and Western Music, he came from radio. He was born in 1897. As was common in that era, he served in the U. S. Navy during World War I. And after being discharged he got a job selling spots on KFWN. At least that's what all the written accounts say. But nobody seems to have recorded when that was.

In 1935 we know that he became the a sales manager for the Don Lee Network. But that's a substantial gap.  Foreman was 38 years old in 1935. If he served through all of WWI he would have been discharged on or around 1918. The First Whites radio log I have access to is 1925. In that year there is no KFWM, nor is there one all the way through 1935.  A 1921 list made by the Department of Commerce also does not include the list. These are the early days of radio. Another 1922 list included only 67 stations. There was however a 500 KFWM-AM in Oakland, CA owned by the Oakland Educational Society. It is possible, that this was recorded incorrectly in one history and repeated elsewhere. Even if it was KFWM, that station ceased to exist in 1929, leaving a mysterious 6 year gap.

Anyway... fast forward to 1935. Phillips is a sales manager for Don Lee and hosting the Western Hit Parade Show on the Don Lee Network.  This does make sense because the Don Lee Network was affiliated with Columbia before 1935.  In 1936 Don switched to the Mutual Network. I do not know what station Phillips was doing his program from but as Elizabeth McLeod wrote: "only 16 to 20 per cent of commercial programs heard over the Don Lee Network originated with Mutual. The majority were still produced by Don Lee itself, at KHJ or KFRC." (In 1951, the Don Lee sold his Network General Teleradio.)

Foreman Phillips began hosting country barn dances and other western themed events. One early venue for these was the Venice Pier in California. This was in on or about 1941. In 1938 he crossed the street to do his show on KRKD.  In a 1943 Billboard publication it was noted that he was opening other venues around LA.  and that he now had a 30 minute program on KRKD and KPAS. The latter was purported to be a country music news. He was talking primarily about the shows he booked, and the artists that played his shows.  More on KRKD here.

Foreman was cited in one 1944 article in Billboard for the success he had seen. At the time he was said to have several popular programs airing over KRKD. One of which was still titled the "Western Hit Parade." Phillips was booking move venues and with even bigger artists: Bob Wills, Al Dexter, Patsy Montana, Spade Cookley, the Sons of the Pioneers and hundreds of others.

By 1947, Phillips was said to have 20 hours of air time for his radio programs which were now carried on  KRKD, KXLA and KFOX.  He quit KRKD in 1947. Cliffie Stone took over as host of his long-running radio program "Cowboy Hit Parade." In 1951 be began a three-hour show over KECA-TV in Los Angeles. But it wasn't enough to keep him in the biz. He retired in 1952 and died in 1968. The KRKD tower still stands over Los Angeles but hasn't been used in decades.