John Charles Daly
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John Charles Daly (full given name John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly,[1] generally known as John Daly, February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991), a native of Johannesburg, South Africa, was a journalist, game show host, radio personality, actor, and author. He was a vice president of ABC during the 1950s. On December 22, 1960, he became the son-in-law of Chief Justice Earl Warren through Virginia Warren, his second wife.
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[edit] Background
Daly was a proud alumnus of Tilton School in Tilton, New Hampshire. He later served on its board of directors for many years and contributed to the construction or restoration of many buildings on campus.
Daly began his broadcasting career as an announcer/reporter for WJSV (now WTOP), the local CBS Radio Network affiliate in Washington, D.C..
Through covering the Roosevelt White House, Daly became known to the national CBS audience as the network announcer for many of the President's speeches. In late 1941, Daly transferred to New York City where he became anchor of The World Today. During World War II, he covered the news from London as well as the North African and Italian fronts. Daly was a war correspondent in 1943 in Italy during Gen. George Patton's infamous "slapping incident."
After the war, he was a lead reporter on CBS Radio's news/entertainment program CBS Is There (later known on TV as You Are There), which recreated the great events of history as if CBS correspondents were on the scene. Walter Cronkite would later host the television version of that program.
[edit] A voice of history
As a reporter for CBS, Daly was the voice of two historic announcements. He was the first national radio correspondent to deliver the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. And he was the first to relay the wire-service report of the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, interrupting "Wilderness Road" to deliver the news. Both narrations have been used on historical record albums, and radio and TV retrospectives.
Contrary to popular belief, Daly did not break into the New York Philharmonic concert broadcast to deliver the news of the Pearl Harbor attack. The "we interrupt this program" phrase often heard on that announcement was actually lifted from his FDR bulletin and then simply tacked onto the legitimate recording of the Pearl Harbor item for a post-war record album from Columbia Records, "I Can Hear It Now," in an attempt to make it more dramatic. Some recordings have spliced the Daly report into a recording of the Philharmonic's live broadcast as if it were an interruption.
The Pearl Harbor news actually came into CBS's newsroom just before Daly's regularly scheduled show The World Today, which aired at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time (the Philharmonic broadcast was later in the afternoon). Fellow CBS News Correspondent Bob Trout, who appeared on Daly's World Today show from London as the Pearl Harbor news started coming in, later revealed the real story during one of his National Public Radio commentaries. Trout recalled having dialed into New York just before the show, then hearing the clamor in the background through his earpiece about the bulletin and how it likely meant war for the U.S.
Recordings of the announcement reveal a minor error, either a mistyping of the copy in haste, or a misreading by Daly, as he pronounced Oahu as if it were spelled "O-ha-u".
[edit] TV personality
Daly became a pioneer in television panel shows, most notably with 17-plus years as the host on What's My Line?, also with hosting duties on Who Said That?, It's News to Me, We Take Your Word and Open Hearing, as a narrator on The Voice of Firestone and a panelist on Celebrity Time.
He also had several television and movie guest appearances through the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, including an uncredited role on Bye Bye Birdie (as the reporter announcing the title character's induction into the Army), and narrating the premiere episode of Green Acres in a mock documentary style.
During the 1950s, Daly became the vice president in charge of News, Special Events and Public Affairs for ABC, and won three Peabody Awards. From 1953 to 1960 he anchored ABC news broadcasts, and was the face of the network's news division, even though What's My Line? was on CBS at the time. At the time, this was a very rare instance of a television personality working for two different networks simultaneously. His closing line on the ABC newscast was "Good night, and a good tomorrow" — which may have been an impetus for the "Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow" catch phrase which was first used in the 1974 movie The Groove Tube, and then, more famously, on the Weekend Update sketches of Saturday Night Live, as used by Chevy Chase from 1975 to 1976, Jane Curtin from 1976 to 1980, and Tina Fey from 2000 to 2006. Daly resigned from ABC after the network preempted the first hour of 1960 election night coverage to show Bugs Bunny and Flintstones cartoons from 7:30 to 8:30, as the other networks covered returns from the Kennedy-Nixon presidential election and other major races.
But for all that, Daly was best known for the hosting of What's My Line?. In the gently formal style of the show, the staff announcer (usually Johnny Olson) would introduce the first panelist, and each panelist would introduce the next. The last panelist was nearly always Random House cofounder and humorist Bennett Cerf, who introduced the host as "John Charles Daly," or on some occasions, as Daly's entire lengthy name.
As the show continued in popularity, according to executive producer Gil Fates, Daly was resistant to changes that would have appealed to a younger audience but might have diminished the show's dignity. For example, Daly always referred to the panelists as "Mr." or "Mrs." or "Miss." The producers, Fates said, were unable to challenge Daly for fear of losing him as the show's moderator. The show ended its CBS run in 1967, with Daly as its final celebrity Mystery Guest, using a high-pitched voice to conceal his identity. (Daly had been the ultimate backup all along if a scheduled celebrity had not appeared, but with the show ending, the producers figured it was safe to pull the stunt.)
After the cancellation of What's My Line?, and following a short stint with the Voice of America (September 1967 to June 1968), Daly retreated from the public eye. He did not host the syndicated version of What's My Line?, although he did co-host a 25th anniversary program about the show for ABC in 1975. He was a frequent forum moderator for conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute throughout the 1980s. He died in Chevy Chase, Maryland of cardiac arrest.
[edit] Daly's legacy at Tilton School
Daly's legacy lives on at Tilton School, his alma mater. There is an award named for him given to "persons whose pursuit of excellence and deep commitment as a member of the school family resembles that of John Daly's involvement with Tilton: continuous and widely known expressions of support in word and deed, inspiring others to reach goals that common experience dictates are impossible."
[edit] References
- ^ Episode 859 of What's My Line?,. Originally aired November 13, 1966 on CBS. Rebroadcast on the Game Show Network on January 20, 2008. After Bennett Cerf announces Daly's full name, Daly corrects his pronunciation: "...for nearly eighteen years I've been trying to teach you it's John Charles Patrick 'Crow-ann'—the "g" is silent..."
[edit] External links
- Biography on TV.com
- 1991 N.Y. Times Obituary
- 1960 N.Y. Times Wedding Announcement
- Robert Trout discusses the CBS newscast of Dec. 07 1941
| Preceded by First Host |
Host of What's My Line? 1950–1967 |
Succeeded by Wally Bruner (1968) |
| Preceded by First Anchor Don Goddard |
ABC Evening News News anchor 1953 – 1958 1959 – 1960 |
Succeeded by Don Goddard John Cameron Swayze, Al Mann, Bill Lawrence |
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