Radio announcers (1933)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

PAUL DOUGLAS — CBS Announcer A T the age of four Paul Douglas disappeared from home and when he was discovered four back-yards from the family residence with a football clutched in both hands, his parents predicted nothing less than an All-American quarterback career for their son. But such was not the case. He became a radio announcer and is an increasing favorite with Columbia audiences. Paul attended local schools and from West Philadelphia High School entered Yale where, although he did take part in athletics, he remained but six months. His college education was brought to a sudden conclusion by the death of his father. The prospect of working through three and a half years at the university did not particularly appeal to him so he returned to the Quaker City. Through a friend of the family young Douglas secured a letter of introduction to Owen Davis, Jr., who was at that time rehearsing “Babes in the Woods.” Davis invited him to attend a rehearsal of his play and when Paul was about to leave, Davis asked if he would be interested in acting as stage manager of his show. Although the production never reached Broadway Paul gained enough experience to enable him to act efficiently as a manager. At the opening of Columbia’s station WCAU, in Philadelphia, Paul wandered into the studios. Many notables had been invited to say a few words and Douglas suddenly found himself before the microphone. The announcer, all too late, realized he had mistaken him for someone else. But Paul covered the time with a few pleasantries and left as unceremoniously as he had entered. But Paul’s microphone debut made quite an impression on him and it must not have passed unnoticed by the officials of that station, for a few months later when he returned to ask for an audition he was granted one and immediately assigned to the announcers’ staff. Paul Douglas is tall — six feet to be exact — weighs 195 pounds and has a broad smile. He was born on April 11, 1907. 12