Sonny Eliot

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Marvin "Sonny" Eliot (born 1926)[1] is a weatherman on WWJ AM 950 in Detroit, Michigan. Eliot has been doing weather reports on both TV and/or radio since just after returning home from World War II. Eliot was the pilot of a B-24 that was shot down during a bombing mission over Germany during the war and he was captured. He spent 18 months in the Stalagluft I prison camp.[2] After return home from the war Eliot earned a B.A. in English and an M.A. in mass communications at Wayne State University.[3] Eliot was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, Michigan Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame.[3]

Eliot has worked in Detroit at the television stations WJBK, WDIV, and WKBD. He is currently on the radio at WWJ AM 950.[2]

Eliot's weather reports are always more than just the weather itself. The forecasts are filled with colorful analogizes, such as: "that's colder than an eviction notice to a naked Eskimo in an unheated igloo and that is cold". Eliot has a truly unique way of weaving in off beat stories into his broadcasts. For example, telling the of the travels of the corpse of Evita:

"Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" is a very popular song from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita," which is about the beautiful wife of Juan Peron. Evita died in 1952 at the early age of 33 and her politically powerful husband ordered her to be embalmed immediately and to lie in state. Now the story becomes bizarre. President Peron was ousted before Evita could be buried, so she was placed in a warehouse, where she promptly got lost in the packing-case shuffle. What makes the story unique is that the doctor who embalmed Eva took a full year to do the job - a special preservation that seemingly would last forever. A couple of years later, a soldier found Eva's coffin and shipped it to the Argentinean embassy in West Germany, where it was stored in a basement. Someone then sent it to Rome. But Rome didn't want it, so they sent it to Milan, and there she stayed until Juan Peron - in exile in Spain - found out where she was and had the casket sent to Madrid. There, he pried it open - and, wonder of wonders, in 19 years, Evita looked just as beautiful in death as she did in life. Peron and his third wife, Isabel, were known to dine nightly in the company of Evita's casket. Now, those were strange dinner companions.[4]

Eliot also has a way of trying to bring different cultures to his audience by giving the temperates of foreign locations in the native tongue of that location. 'Today it is quatre-vingt-dix in Paris; that's right, it's ninety degrees in the French capital', is something that Eliot may drop into his Detroit forecast.

Eliot has also been known to combine two or more weather words to form a single, often hilarious word to describe his forecast. For example, if a rainy, foggy day was expected - his forecast would call for a "Froggy" day.

For 18 years, Eliot educated generations of children on the wildlife of the Detroit Zoo on his television program, At the Zoo (with Sonny Eliot).[3]

Sonny Eliot, along with his wife, Annette has hosted the television coverage of the Detroit Thanksgiving day Parade.


Sonny Eliot has also author several books including Sonny Sez!: Legends, Yarns, and Downright Truths and Eliot's Ark.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Contemporary Authors: Biography - Eliot, Sonny (1926-) [HTML (Digital)]. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  2. ^ a b Our Staff > Sonny Eliot. WWJ. Retrieved on 2008-03-02.
  3. ^ a b c Marvin "Sonny" Eliot (2005). Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame (2005). Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  4. ^ TRACY ESTES (February 6, 2005). Sonny today, an author tomorrow. The Oakland Press. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
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