Tommy Hanlon, Jr.

Tommy Hanlon Jr (14 August 1923 – 9 October 2003) was an American-born Australian Gold Logie-award winning media personality, notable for his early television appearances as host of It Could Be You (Australian game show)

Professional career

Born Tommy Gene Thomason in Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1923 to vaudeville performers Homer Emmons Thomason (Tommy Hanlon) and Ruth Dorothy Manning. He appeared in his mother and father's act at age 4. He later took the stage name Tommy Hanlon Jr since his father's stage name was Tommy Hanlon. He first appeared on his own as a magician as a teenager and was an entertainer in show business for the rest of his life. After two years with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in Los Angeles in the 1940s, and appearing on stage alongside W.C. Fields, he came to Australia in 1959, first as a club act, then appearing on television.^[1]

Hanlon became a major TV celebrity in Australia in the early 1960s, especially as host of the popular daytime program It Could Be You on the Nine Network, operarating out of the GTV-9 studios in Melbourne. The program was a mixture of game show, human interest and humour. It featured tearful reunions of long separated families or friends. He typically closed each program sitting on a stool with a social commentary presented as a Letter from Mom.

After GTV-9 purchased radio station 3AK in April 1961, all GTV-9 personalities were expected to present programs on 3AK. Hanlon hosted a Saturday morning show with Jack Little as his sidekick.

He won two Logie awards, including the Gold Logie in 1962, opposite Australian entertainer (Lorrae Desmond) and becoming one of the highest paid entertainers in Australia.^[2][3]

Circus career

In 1967 he bought into Ashton's Circus.^[4] In the 1970s he hosted talent show Pot of Gold, with resident judge Bernard King who mocked most entrants mercilessly, to the consternation of the more kind-hearted Hanlon.

Hanlon quit television in 1978 and toured Australia as ringmaster of Silvers Circus until 2001. He was honoured in an episode of This is Your Life filmed in August 2003.

Personal life

Hanlon died from a stroke in Melbourne on 9 October 2003. He was predeceased by his wife, Muriel (whom he always called Murphy), and survived by his daughter April Bell from that marriage and her son Jeff Almond. He was also survived by his first wife, Jean Gregory; his son by that marriage, Tommy Hanlon Thomason; three grandchildren by and two great-grand children.

Citizenship

Despite his love for Australia, he never relinquished his United States citizenship.

References

• TV legend found his calling under the big top, "The Age", 11 October 2003.

External links

• Tommy Hanlon Jr at the Internet Movie Database