Broadcast Pioneers

Frank McGee (1921-1974) was an American television journalist, best known for his work with NBC News beginning in the late 1950s. McGee had a great talent for descriptive language, often giving viewers a vivid word picture of the day's events. 

McGee began his broadcast career with Shawnee radio station KGFF, working as an advertising salesman, commercial copywriter, music librarian, disc jockey, and news editor. He joined WKY-TV in Oklahoma City in 1950 and is remembered by a generation of Oklahomans as Mack Rogers, the name he used as the local newsman. McGee moved to Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 to head the WSFA-TV news operations. This led to a post on NBC’s Washington, D.C. news staff in 1957. NBC transferred McGee to New York where he was an anchor on major assignments and such NBC programs as World Wide 60, Today, and the Nightly News show. In 1960, he moderated the second debate between presidential candidates John Kennedy and Richard Nixon in Washington, D.C. 

During the middle to late 1960s, The Frank McGee Report was a well-known program broadcast early Saturday and Sunday evenings. It was set up to be a traditional newscast and it would include topics and McGee's commentary. After Chet Huntley's retirement in 1970 ended the Huntley-Brinkley Report, McGee became one of three anchors on the newly renamed NBC Nightly News, along with John Chancellor and David Brinkley. McGee moved to The Today Show in 1971, replacing Hugh Downs. He attempted to transition Today into a more serious news presentation, not an entertainment show. McGee was once acclaimed for his "exemplary leadership in his profession in dealing candidly and constructively with the cutting edge of change and controversy."

Condensing a 15-year Career Down to 5

 

Edward Platt (1916-1974) was an American actor of stage, film and television. Born in Staten Island, New York, he spent a part of his childhood in Kentucky and upstate New York, where he attended a private school in Lake Placid, and was a member of the ski jump team. He also studied at the Juilliard School and Princeton University but left after his first year. Platt served in the United States Army during World War II.

The operatically trained bass-baritone made his Broadway debut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Allegro. While working together in the Broadway play The Shrike, José Ferrer, helped Platt land his first film role in the 1955 film version. Platt was usually uncredited during that year but soon moved into more notable roles by the 1960s. Platt was probably most well-known for his appearances on many popular shows of the 1960s. Indeed, his frequent film roles have all been forgotten after his five-year stint as The Chief in the television comedy, Get Smart. 

Enlarge the image above for insight into Platt and as head of CONTROL. Some interesting quotes from a guy suffering from depression and his subsequent suicide.

Note: Platt had an interesting role in an unusual and low-budget film, The Rebel Set. Check out my comments.

Resurrected Radio of The Macabre

On this day in 1974, The "CBS Mystery Theater" premiered on radio. It was meant for an audience who remembered when old-time radio drama was a popular form of family entertainment. Riding on the era's wave of nostalgia fever, the radio show actually attracted many younger listeners. The series garnered a wide array of talent, many of whom were popular during the Golden Age of Radio. Having a window cracked open during a summer night's rain added the perfect atmosphere. The series was rebroadcast on NPR at the beginning of the twenty-first century but by then had lost any relevance beyond nostalgia's sake.

Each episode started promising with the ominous sound of a creaking door while a spooky, descending music theme introduced the host, "Come in! Welcome. I'm E. G. Marshall." Like many old macabre classic radio programs, the endings could be unbelievable and disappointing. Especially sitting still for about forty-five minutes. Marshall would provide concise commentary before or after a commercial break and at the conclusion, the door would swing shut, with his sign-off, "Until next time, pleasant…dreams?" 

Episode archives and details at:

Archive

CBS Radio

A Noted Television Theme

 

Police Woman was an NBC police procedural television series created by Robert L. Collins and starred Angie Dickinson and Earl Holliman from 1974 to 1978. It was the first hour-long television drama starring a woman, although Beverly Garland's one-season 1957 syndicated series, Decoy, was the first American television show to focus on a female police officer.

Though not ground-breaking or unique, the theme by Mort Stevens was not entirely original, either. After writing the theme, he called his good friend and fellow composer, Jerry Goldsmith, and told him he copied his main theme from the Derek Flint secret agent spoofs starring James Coburn. The melody for the two themes is exact but Morton's orchestration turned it "inside out." Goldsmith gave his blessing and both had a good laugh. Morton's signature theme for "Hawaii Five-O" became a huge chart hit, unlike Police Woman.