Don Wilson

[Yhtapmys]

On our chat this month, Laura mentioned the dearth of information about Don Wilson. I found this squib in a couple of radio columns from mid-January, early February, 1930:

Life in the wholesale drug, coal and oil business was a hum drum affair to Don Wilson. That is until he left it and entered radio. He had such a good tenor voice and sense of humor that he was drafted for the realm of entertainment and entered radio on the Pacific coast. He appeared at stations in Denver, Salt Lake and San Francisco. He's now one of the "Five Talkies of KHJ," Los Angeles.

The Fresno Bee of Feb. 2, 1930 even had a head shot of Don with this item.

I've found a number of other stories in the late 20s about a Don Wilson and a radio orchestra in the Bay Area. Is that our Don Wilson?

Yhytapmys[/code]

[Yhtapmys]

On our chat this month, Laura mentioned the dearth of information about Don Wilson. I found this squib in a couple of radio columns from mid-January, early February, 1930:

Life in the wholesale drug, coal and oil business was a hum drum affair to Don Wilson. That is until he left it and entered radio. He had such a good tenor voice and sense of humor that he was drafted for the realm of entertainment and entered radio on the Pacific coast. He appeared at stations in Denver, Salt Lake and San Francisco. He’s now one of the “Five Talkies of KHJ,” Los Angeles.

The Fresno Bee of Feb. 2, 1930 even had a head shot of Don with this item.

Here's another one, dated April 27, 1929:

Variety Program To Be Featured By KFRC To-night
Folks if it's variety entertainment that you crave, tune in to-night and every night on KFRC Don Lee station in San Francisco.
Mac and His Gang and Amos n Andy from all reports are continuing to hold their popularity and are always endeavoring to put over something new.
Don Wilson’s varieties is one of the outstanding numbers on the program tonight. They’ll entertain from 9 until 10 P.M.
An organ recital from KHJ Don Lee station in Los Angeles will be on the air fiom 6 to 6:30.
To-night’s music will be furnished by Anson Weeks and Earl Burnett’s orchestras.
The Fresno Bee station broadcasts these programs daily as well as featuring the best of the Fresno talent.

I've found a number of other stories in the late 20s about a Don Wilson and a radio orchestra in the Bay Area.

Here's an Oakland Tribune story from Feb. 9, 1928:

Piggly Wiggly Trio to Make KLX Debut
SINGERS TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY ORCHESTRA
Variety Program of Comedy, Semi-Classical Numbers Promised.
The Piggly Wiggly Trio will make its debut on KLX, the broadcasting station of The Oakland TRIBUNE at 8 o’clock this evening under the sponsorship of the Piggly Wiggly stores in an hour’s variety content during which comedy, light opera, semi-classical and classical numbers will be sung by the organization comprising of [Harry Morton, Martin Dougherty] and Donald Wilson.
The trip comes to KLX with a reputation earned on the air and stage in the east. The three young men have appeared in some of the leading vaudeville theaters of the country and have been very popular radio stars on important stations both east and west. Their appearance this evening will be the first on KLX and is awaited with interest by listeners.
For the opening program, the singers have arranged a special opening number to be followed by “All Alone Monday,” one of the song hits of “The Ramblers.” Harry Morton will then sing “The Barefoot Trail” and will join with Martin Dougherty in a duet, “My Old Irish Mother.” The trio will sing a medley from the musical show, “Oh Kay”; Don Wilson will offer a classical number, “I Passed By Your Window,” and the trio will sing “Sleep.”
[no further mention of any Wilsons in the story]

Is that our Don Wilson? I know Don used to sing.

Yhtapmys

P.S.: Forgive the first posting in this thread. There is no way to edit or delete posts in this forum; apparently that can only be done in the top forum on the board.

[JohnM]

P.S.: Forgive the first posting in this thread. There is no way to edit or delete posts in this forum; apparently that can only be done in the top forum on the board.

It is possible to edit your own posts, but I don't think you can delete them entirely. Well, you can delete all the text, but it will still appear there with your name, an empty text area, and a note saying "edited by Yhtampmys" or something.

If you are logged in, look in the upper right hand corner of the post you want to edit, and you will see a button that says "Edit" next to the "Quote" button.

[JohnM]

Ooh. My bad. How strange is that. I see what you mean now.

[Roman]

It's apparent from listening to the early shows that Don was already an old pro when he started working with Jack. And it certainly shows in how well he fit in with the program. There may have been funnier or more comedic announcers (Bill Goodwin comes to mind) but of all the ones I've heard, I think Don was the best. He had such a friendly easy joyful way that meshed perfectly with Jack's style. And I did notice that he had a great baritone singing voice (particularly when they would do those musical commercials where each castmember would take a turn).

[Yhtapmys]

It's apparent from listening to the early shows that Don was already an old pro when he started working with Jack. And it certainly shows in how well he fit in with the program. There may have been funnier or more comedic announcers (Bill Goodwin comes to mind) but of all the ones I've heard, I think Don was the best. He had such a friendly easy joyful way that meshed perfectly with Jack's style. And I did notice that he had a great baritone singing voice (particularly when they would do those musical commercials where each castmember would take a turn).

And there was one spot that was not quite in his key, but he managed to get through it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Don the first announcer to really be obsessed with his product (Jell-O)? OK, Howard Claney was to some extent, but it seems a lot of the big names else did the same thing later--Harry Von Zell, Goodwin, Harlow Wilcox.

I haven't posted snippets here, but I forgot Don was a sports announcer. I saw a newspaper piece where he was hired to do the 1937 Rose Bowl and another one from the pre-Benny days where he was calling some college football game

Yhtapmys

[williambyron]

Here is an excerpt of an interview done with Don in Jine 1980, if it helps to shed any light on his earlier history. Don't say I never did anything for you!

You were part of a trio back in the Denver Area?

DW: Yes. If I might brag a little, it was a very successful operation that we had. We were all in business in Denver, and I'd been studying with a very well-known coach in Denver. I didn't know it at the time, but the two other boys in the trio were doing the same thing. It was the vocal coach in Denver who suggested, because they had lost their lead voice, that they might like to talk to me. She thought perhaps I was a likely prospect. So I joined them and we were busier than bird dogs. We made a lot more money in radio, even in those days, with the extracurricular things that we did, appearances of all kinds, including fill-ins at the Orpheum Theatre. Whenever an act couldn't appear, the trio would be engaged to play a week here and a week there.

[b]Did you have a name?

DW: Originally, it was the Columbian Trio. Then that was changed to the Civitan Trio when we all became members of the Civitan Club, a service club like Rotary and Kiwanis and the rest of them. Then one of the commercial accounts that we had about 1925 in Denver was for the Piggly Wiggly Stores, and we became the Piggly Wiggly Trio.

Were you doing radio at the time?

DW: Yes. We were appearing on radio as the Piggly Wiggly Trio. It didn't cost the station- KFRC, the Don Lee outlet in San Francisco at that time- it didn't cost them anything for the talent because Piggly Wiggly was underwriting it. But Piggly Wiggly always got credit when we were on as a trio, a duo, or a single. That was an exchange-of-services basis, you see.

What was your very first job in radio after the Trio ended? I know you were a sportscaster.

DW: Yes, I wound up on the Rose Bowl for several years. I don't know whether you're familiar with that or not. I did the Rose Bowl for about five years.

Was that the beginning of your radio work as an announcer or a sportscaster?

DW: Yes, virtually, it really was. I'd done a little bit prior to that, but not anything of any great importance at that time. But it was a lucky niche that I fell into. Then, as a result of the exposure on the Rose Bowl Game for several years, NBC, New York, hired me as a sports announcer in the New York division. I went east in 1933 to fulfill that commitment. Benny picked me up in the spring of '34.