Ted Malone
Ted Malone (1908–1989) (born Frank Alden Russell in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the son of a grocer), was an American radio broadcaster.[1]
Childhood
Ted Malone became interested in oral performance when he attended high school in Missouri. He was also a debater in college, and graduated from William Jewell College in 1928.[2]
Career
Malone had a career in radio as a storyteller and reader of poetry.
He was one of the few broadcast interpretationists recorded in the history of radio.
Malone began work as an announcer & ukulele soloist at KMBC, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1929. He acquired his pseudonym, Ted Malone, when asked to fill in for a program by reading poetry.[1] The positive audience response to his reading led to his radio program "Between the Bookends".[1] His organist in the early days of that program was Hugh Studebaker.[3] An associate of Ernie Kovacs later revealed that this program was the inspiration for his character Percy Dovetonsils. As his popularity increased, Malone began writing for other programs, and soon became production manager, production director, and program director at his radio station.
During World War II, Malone began to do other types of broadcasts, such as variety shows and quiz shows, and went overseas to broadcast as a war correspondent, providing human interest soldier stories for his listeners.[2] By 1957, Malone had established "Ted Malone Productions" as an independent operation to consult, write, record, and produce audio-visual presentations and educational material for radio, television, and films.
Ted Malone partially retired in the 1970s, and died in 1989 spending more than 60 years in broadcasting and its development.
Works
His works include:
- The American album of poetry, (January 1, 1938)
- A Listener's Aid to Pilgrimage of Poetry: Ted Malone's Album of Poetic Shrines (NBC) by Ted Malone (January 1, 1939)
- Ted Malone's Mansions of imagination album: A listener's aid to "American pilgrimage" (1940)
- Ted Malone's Scrapbook: Favorite Selections From Between the Bookends (1941)
- American pilgrimage, (January 1, 1942)
- Between the Bookends with Ted Malone Volume Five (Hardcover - 1942)
- Pack up your troubles: A collection of verse (January 1, 1942)
- Yankee doodles: A book of American verse, (January 1, 1943)
- The Pocket Book of Popular Verse (1945)
- Ted Malone's Adventures in Poetry (1946)
- The All-American book of verse;: Yankee doodles (January 1, 1948)
- Ted Malone's Favorite Stories (1950)
Notes
- 1 2 3 Sies, Luther F. Encyclopedia of American Rad+ io, 1920-1960. McFarland & Co., 2000. p. 351
- 1 2 New York Times October 27, 1989. "Ted Malone, 81; Was Radio Pioneer With Talk Programs", Obituaries.
- ↑ "View from a Bird Oasis". The Coaticook Observer. September 19, 1947. p. 13. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
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