NBC Transmitter (Jan 1943-Sept 1944)

May 1944 15 COVERING THE INVASION ( Continued from page 3) W. W. Chaplin, another member of NBC’s invasion team, was one of the first American newsmen to interview Gandhi. A veteran of 'World War I, his first newspaper job was on The Syracuse Journal, followed by 11 years with the Associated Press. In 1932 he joined the International News StalT and was assigned to Washington. His first foreign assignment was in Rome and later Paris, from where he left to cover the Ethiopian War. He returned to France to cover the Western Front until Dunkirk, escaping just before the German army marched in. He covered the Gandhi uprisings in 1942 and the Nationalist Congress in Bombay. After covering the Russian war for several months, he returned to New Y ork. David Anderson, another member of the London staff, has been doing most of his broadcasting from Sweden. A graduate of the University of California, he went to Sweden in 1939 during the Finnish and Norwegian wars and translated the articles of Sweden’s foremost war correspondents for an American news agency. After joining NBC, he was sent to Rome, later returning to Stockholm. He was recently sent to London. Bjorn Bjornson. who replaced Anderson in Stockholm, was born in Minnesota. A graduate of the University of Minnesota. he served for four years as editor of a weekly and two years as head of the department of journalism at Grand Forks University. After several years on The Minneapolis Tribune he joined NBC and was sent to Iceland and remained there until his recent transfer. Edwdn Haaker, one of the youngest members of the invasion team, was once a guide at Radio City. A magna cum laude graduate of Franklin and Marshall Academy, he first came to NBC in 1933 but left to enter business in New England. After a stint with the Associated Press he returned to NBC as a junior writer in the news and special events department and worked his way to a senior rating. John MacVane is one of the veteran radio correspondents of World War II. Born in Portland. Maine, he attended Phillips Exeter Academy and received his A. B. Degree at William College and a B. Litt. from Oxford University. MacVane’s first newspaper job was on The Brooklyn Eagle and a year later he joined BOSTONIANS VIEW NBC SYMPHONY WINDOW DISPLAY THE NBC SYMPHONY I „ ■ '/TM9’ 1 ' 1 RAD10£xH!Cyr 1 ruiutiHw **A*D OKI TOUI Ml MOimi ■ ■ yMtai -Jvii z I 1 1 j -**r'V i—A 1 I Out L 1 a a iLm mm m ' Boston music lovers were treated to a special display of the “NBC Symphony and the War ” during the WBA-Westinghouse historical radio exhibit at Filene's Boston department store. The display included reproductions of many of the most famed scores featured by the NBC Symphony under the batons of its noted conductors. the staff of The New York Sun. MacVane went to London in 1938 as sub-editor of The London Daily Express and then spent two years in the Paris office of The Express and the International News Service. Shortly after he joined NBC. he was assigned to cover the Dieppe raid and was the only radio reporter taken on the mission. He covered the African invasion, and was also at the front in Italy. Merrill Mueller is one of the few' reporters of World War II to receive the Order of the Purple Heart. Though only 27 he is already a veteran of the London blitz, the South Pacific war, the North African and Italian campaigns, and is now back in London awaiting the word to move to the front with General Eisenhower, to whose command he has been assigned by Brooks. Mueller was a member of Newsweek’s London Bureau when he joined NBC. He went through 700 raids in London. 72 in Malta and countless others in North Africa and Italy. When the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor. Mueller was aboard a British destroyer bound for Gibraltar. He went to Malta and the Middle East and joined the British in their sweep across Libya. He got to Singapore shortly before the Japs and just managed to get out ahead of them. He roamed the South Pacific for a time, interviewing General MacArthur. and then set out for Africa after a stopover in Lon don. Mueller covered the American and British sweep into Tunisia and was with the first wave of American troops to set foot on Sicilian soil. John W. Vandercook, another invasion team member, will carry with him an intimate knowledge of 73 foreign countries he has toured in his capacity as a reporter and traveler. He was born in London, son of John F. Vandercook. first president of the United Press. He was graduated from St. Paul s School. Garden City. Long Island, and attended Yale for a year. He left to try his luck at acting and after a year in stock and with several minor roles in Broadway productions, he turned to newspaper work. His first job was on The Columbus Citizen in Columbus, Ohio. He later worked for The Washington News and The Baltimore Post and in 1923 became assistant editor of MacFadden Publications. The latest addition to the invasion staff is George Y. Wheeler. Wheeler was born in Washington and was graduated from Princeton with an A.B. Degree in 1937. After a trip to Honolulu he joined NBC as a page in Washington and then, in rapid succession, became announcer, script writer, producer, production manager, and finally assistant manager. His war correspondent duties will see him assigned to the Navy and he expects to do much of his work w ith the recorder.