DON BLANDING
On the Radio

Due to the simple, homey appeal of Blanding's poetry, they were the perfect staple for radio broadcasters nationwide in the thirties and forties. Many airwave personalities included readings of Don's poems as part of their regular broadcasts...and some even devoted whole segments to his work.

Among the more famous ones from this time period were 'Voices of the Air' announcers Eddie Albright, Don Fitzgerald, Lewis TeeGarden, Ted Malone, Henry Philip Shuler, and Ed Smith.

Ted Malone (1908-1989)

Ted Malone in particular was very good friends with Don and would feature his poetry on CBS Radio's Between the Bookends, with the beautifully interpretative music of Howard Ely and Rosa Rio in the background. Malone would also include Blanding in several poetry anthologies that he edited, Yankee Doodles (1943), and Adventures in Poetry (1946). The name Ted Malone was a pseudonym for Frank Alden Russell, the son of a grocer from Colorado Springs, who graduated from William Jewell College in 1928, and worked for all the major networks in his lifetime. Malone published about a dozen anthologies of poetry, and was at one time the poetry editor for Good Housekeeping magazine.

Franklyn MacCormack (1906-1971)

Another famous radio star to introduce Blanding to millions of listeners was the "dulcet voiced" Franklyn MacCormack. His program All Night Showcase, which ran on Chicago's WGN from 1959 until his death (on the air) in 1971, combined dreamy music with sentimental poetry. Many of us first heard "Vagabond's House" at four in the morning on this late night show, which was also known as the Meisterbrau Showcase and the Torch Hour.

Other radio personalities to feature Blanding in later years were Paul Page of NBC Radio; Dave Ballard, on his show "Reflections," on KIXI, in Seattle; Paul Reid on CJAD and CFQR, in Montreal, Quebec; and there are reports of a Radio Vagabond at AFKN, in Seoul Korea, which read his poetry.

Paul Harvey...still going strong

In modern times, the tradition of reading Blanding over the air is being carried on by Paul Harvey, who has read such classics as "The Spun-Glass Ship" on his nationally syndicated radio segment The Rest of the Story. He has even told the story of how teenaged Don Blanding saved the life of Billie Cassin in Lawton, Oklahoma...thereby allowing Billie to grow up into filmdom's Joan Crawford.

Blanding himself often appeared on radio stations, either being interviewed, reading his poetry, or chatting about his latest book. In 1946 he had a regular radio show called Vagabond's Castle, which was sponsored by The Castle Company of Los Angeles, to promote his line of greeting cards and "The Talisman" booklet & charm, both produced by Castle.

Copyright ©2007 by Keith Emmons Design.  All rights reserved.