Hired and fired by Victor Lundberg. That is my claim to radio fame. Who was Victor Lundberg, you ask? And what does this have to do with the Lux Radio Theater? Be patient. I am inclined to wander but I'll get there.
Lundberg hired me at WMAX in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1963 and canned me three months later. I was the news director, a position for which I was singularly unqualifed, unfit and incompetent. Oh well, it got me back to Michigan, where I would rack up a history of many moves, most of them not voluntary.
Anyway, Victor Lundberg had a big hit spoken word recording, "An Open Letter to my Son." in 1967. It was a tear-jerking, flag-waving oration about hippies, long hair, Vietnam War Protesters, draft card burners and everything that the turbulent '60s stood for. Spoken over The Battle Hymn of the Republic, it ends with "if you burn your draft card you should burn your birth certificate, too. From that moment on, I have no son." The recording, which you can listen to from several links, hit number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and he performed it on the Ed Sullivan Show. Just google "Victor Lundberg." for some sites that have the audio.
Lundberg, originally from Grand Rapids, said that he had been a network announcer, one of the golden voices that proclaimed "Lux Presents Hollywood" to introduce The Lux Radio Theater. Whenever he did a microphone check at WMAX, he got as golden as he could get and spoke those words as if he were introducing that great theater of the mind.
There is much about Victor Lundberg and an Lp he also produced, which didn't go anywhere. And there are comments from his family that are best not quoted here.
Maybe I will start yet another blog, number 4. "Colorful characters I have known." Vic Lundberg will be in that one.
I trust he didn’t let on that he had actually been an announcer for Lux. What had he been announcing?
ReplyDeleteThere’s room for those recollections right here on Canary Feathers, don’t you think? Have you read Joseph Julian’s This Was Radio: A Personal Memoir (1975)? It is one of my favorite books on the subject, and one that I can see you writing. Julian talks about being hired and fired (and rehired), as well, which brought him to mind when I read this post.
All he said was that he introduced the radio theater with that famous phrase. I don't find that in his bio or his daughter's comments, so who knows.
ReplyDeleteI will look for Julian's book.