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Paul Harvey

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For other uses, see Paul Harvey (disambiguation).
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005
Born
Paul Harvey Aurandt
SpouseLynne "Angel" Cooper Harvey (1940 - 2008)
ChildrenPaul Harvey, Jr.
Career
ShowThe Rest of the Story,
and Paul Harvey News and Comment
NetworkABC Radio Networks
CountryUSA
Websitehttp://www.paulharvey.com

Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 - February 28, 2009[1]), better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated at 22 million people a week. Harvey liked to say he was raised in radio newsrooms.[2]

The most noticeable features of Harvey's idiosyncratic delivery was his dramatic pauses, quirky intonations and his folksiness. A large part of his success stemmed from the seamlessness with which he segued from his monologue into reading commercial messages. He explained his enthusiastic support of his sponsors as such: "I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is."

Career

Paul Harvey, born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, made radio receivers as a boy. In 1933, at a high school teacher’s suggestion, he started working at KVOO in Tulsa, where he helped clean up and eventually was allowed to fill in on the air, reading commercials and news.

Later, while attending the University of Tulsa, he continued working at KVOO as an announcer, and later as a program director. Harvey spent three years as a station manager for a local station in Salina, Kansas. From there, he moved to a newscasting job at KOMA in Oklahoma City, then moved on to KXOK, in St. Louis, where he was Director of Special Events and also worked as a roving reporter.

In 1940, Harvey moved to Hawaii to cover the United States Navy as it concentrated its fleet in the Pacific. He was returning to the mainland from assignment in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Harvey served briefly as an enlisted man in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II from December 1943 until March 1944.

After leaving military service, Harvey moved to Chicago, where in June 1944, he began broadcasting from the ABC affiliate WENR. He quickly became the most popular newscaster in Chicago. In 1945, he began hosting the postwar employment program Jobs for G.I. Joe on WENR. Harvey added The Rest of the Story as a tagline to in-depth feature stories in 1946. The spots became their own series in 1976. On April 1, 1951 the ABC Radio Network debuted Paul Harvey News and Comment "Commentary and analysis of Paul Harvey each weekday at 12 Noon". Paul Harvey was also heard originally on Sundays; the first Sunday program was Mr. Harvey's introduction on April 1st. Later, the Sunday program would move to Saturdays. The program has continued ever since.

From the late 1960s through the early 1980s, there was a televised, five-minute editorial by Paul Harvey that local stations could insert into their local news programs, or show separately. On May 10, 1976, ABC Radio Networks premiered The Rest of the Story as a separate series which provided endless surprises as Harvey dug into stories behind the stories of famous events and people. Harvey's son, a concert pianist, created and produced the series. He remains the show's only writer.

In late 2000, Harvey signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with ABC Radio Networks. A few months later, he was off the air after damaging his vocal cords. He returned in late August 2001.

Harvey's News and Comment is streamed on the World Wide Web twice a day. Paul Harvey News has been called the "largest one-man network in the world," as it is carried on 1,200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations around the world and 300 newspapers. His broadcasts and newspaper columns have been reprinted in the Congressional Record more than those of any other commentator.

Former Senator Fred Thompson, known for his work on NBC's Law and Order, substituted for Harvey regularly from 2006 to 2007, prior to his unsuccessful run for President. Thompson left the network to run and did not return, instead joining Westwood One in January 2009. Other substitutes for Harvey have included his son Paul Harvey Jr.,[3] Doug Limerick,[4] Paul W. Smith,[5] Gil Gross,[6] Ron Chapman,[7] Mitt Romney,[8] Mike Huckabee[9] Scott Shannon, and Tony Snow. After Huckabee's sub-hosting, ABC offered him a spin-off program, The Huckabee Report, which launched in early 2009.

Harvey did not host the show full-time after April 2008; at the time, he came down with pneumonia, and shortly after his recovery his wife died, causing him to prolong his vacation. Prior to his death, he voiced commercials, new episodes of The Rest of the Story and "News & Comments" during middays a few times a week, with his son Paul Jr. handling mornings.

Harvey's on-air persona mirrored that of sportscaster Bill Stern. During the 1940s, the famed Stern's The Colgate Sports Reel and newsreel programs used many of the techniques later used by Harvey, including the style of delivery and the use of phrases such as Reel Two and Reel Three to denote segments of the broadcast — much like Harvey's Page Two and Page Three. The discovery of many of Stern's old programs on transcription discs have led many to believe that much of Harvey's broadcasting style is based on Stern's work, including most notably the Rest of the Story feature, which is a direct parallel to a technique used weekly by Stern. Stern introduced his version of the feature with a caveat that the stories might not be true; Harvey, however, has asserted that his tales have been authenticated. However, a major urban legend debunking site blames Harvey for the creation of various rumors and urban legends.[10]

Harvey was also known for catch phrases that he uses at the beginning of his programs, like "Hello Americans, I'm Paul Harvey. You know what the news is, in a minute, you're going to hear...the rest of the story," and, "Paul Harvey News and Comment, and this is...(day of the week)," and at the end: "Paul Harvey... Good day." At the end of a report about someone has done something ridiculous or offensive, Harvey would say "He would want us to mention his name" (silence) then would start the next item.

Awards

He has been named Salesman of the Year, Commentator of the Year, Person of the Year, Father of the Year, and American of the Year. He has been elected to the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Hall of Fame and Oklahoma Hall of Fame and appeared on the Gallup poll list of America's most admired men. In addition he has received 11 Freedom Foundation Awards as well as the Horatio Alger Award. Paul Harvey was named to the DeMolay Hall of Fame, a Masonic institution, on June 25, 1993.

In 2005, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' most prestigious civilian award, by President George W. Bush.[11]

On May 18, 2007 he received an honorary degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Family

In 1921, when Harvey was three years old, his father, Harry Harrison Aurandt,[12] was murdered. Aurandt, born in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania in 1873,[13] was 47 years old at the time[14] and a civilian employee of the Tulsa Police Department. He and a friend – who was a Tulsa police detective – were rabbit hunting while off-duty when approached by four armed men who attempted to rob them. Aurandt was shot and died two days later of his wounds, leaving behind his wife, née Anna Dagmar Christensen,[12] a daughter aged 12, and his son.

The four robbers were identified by the surviving detective, and arrested the day after Aurandt died. A lynch mob of 1,500 people formed at the jail, but all four were smuggled out, tried, convicted, and received life terms.[13]

In 1940,[15] Harvey married Lynne Harvey (née Cooper) of St. Louis. Lynne Harvey was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Washington University in St. Louis[16] and was a former schoolteacher.[citation needed] Harvey himself was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha at Culver-Stockton College in Missouri. They met when Harvey was working at KXOK and Cooper came to the station for a school news program. Harvey invited her to dinner, proposed to her after a few minutes of conversation and from then on called her "Angel," even on his radio show. A year later she said yes. The couple moved to Chicago in 1945.[16]

On May 17, 2007, Harvey told his radio audience that Angel had contracted leukemia. Her death, at the age of 92, was announced by ABC radio on May 3, 2008.[17] When she died at their River Forest home, the Chicago Sun-Times described her as, "More than his astute business partner and producer, she also was a pioneer for women in radio and an influential figure in her own right for decades."[18] According to the founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Bruce DuMont, "She was to Paul Harvey what Colonel Parker was to Elvis Presley. She really put him on track to have the phenomenal career that his career has been."[16]

Lynne Harvey was the first producer ever inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and had developed some of her husband's best-known features, such as "The Rest of the Story."[15] While working on her husband's radio show, she established 10 p.m. as the hour in which news is broadcast. She was the first woman to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago chapter of American Women in Radio and Television.[16] She worked in television also, and created a television show called Dilemma which is acknowledged as the prototype of the modern talk show genre. While working at CBS, she was among the first women to produce an entire newscast.[16] In later years, she was best known as a philanthropist.

They had one son, Paul Aurandt, Jr., who goes by the name Paul Harvey, Jr. He assisted his father at News and Comment and The Rest of the Story. Paul, Jr., whose voice announces the bumpers into and out of each News and Comment episode, filled in for his father during broadcasts and duplicated his father's speaking style to some extent. Paul Jr. has ended his News and Comment broadcasts with the words, "Now THAT'S NEWS," and he has been broadcasting the morning editions ever since the passing of his mother. These broadcasts no longer include the day's headlines, but offer developments in different areas of science, a change of which listeners have approved.

Death

Harvey died on February 28, 2009, at the age of 90 after being taken to a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. He died while surrounded by family and friends. His son, Paul Harvey Jr., said "millions have lost a friend" in response to his father's passing. [19] The cause was not immediately known.

Criticisms and parody

In addition to the aforementioned inquiry into whether Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story" tales are true, Paul Harvey's trademark ability to seamlessly migrate from content to commercial has brought scrutiny. In that context, Salon magazine called him the "finest huckster ever to roam the airwaves."[20] In the 1984-1985 season of Saturday Night Live, Rich Hall impersonated Harvey and could not restrain himself from inserting references to commercial products or companies (in a discussion of three "great Americans," Harvey digressed and mused about three other great Americans that came to his mind: Manny, Moe, and Jack, the Pep Boys who sell auto parts). Some have argued that Harvey's fawning and lavish product endorsements may be misleading or confusing to his primary audience, senior citizens. Harvey's endorsed products include EdenPure heaters, Bose radios, and Select Comfort mattresses.

Books

  • Autumn of Liberty. Garden City, New York: Hanover House, 1954.
  • The Rest of the Story. Garden City, New York: Hanover House, 1956.
  • Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor. Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1975.
  • Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977. ISBN 0-385-12768-5
  • More of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. New York: William Morrow, 1980, ISBN 0-688-03669-4
  • Destiny: From Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. New York: William Morrow, 1983, ISBN 0-688-02205-7
  • Paul Harvey's For What It's Worth. New York: Bantam Books, 1991, ISBN 0-553-07720-1.

References

  1. ^ a b "Report: Radio Legend Paul Harvey Dies". CBS-13 TV website. 2009-02-28. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
  2. ^ http://www.paulharvey.com/index.aspx?id=3193
  3. ^ Paul Harvey Jr. Fills In For Harvey In Mornings, April 30, 2008, at Radio Ink. Accessed May 4, 2008
  4. ^ http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200312\NAT20031230b.html, Retrieved on 2008/04/09.
  5. ^ http://www.wjr.net/article.asp?id=145738, Retrieved on 2008/04/09.
  6. ^ http://www.kgoam810.com/showdj.asp?DJID=17177, Retrieved on 2008/04/09.
  7. ^ http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/news.asp?symbol=CDL, Retrieved on 2008/04/02.
  8. ^ Romney To Fill In For Paul Harvey. Radio Ink. 9 April 2008.
  9. ^ Vogel, Kenneth. Huckabee in talks for own Fox show. The Politico. 14 July 2008.
  10. ^ Urban Legend: Flight 261 at About.Com.
  11. ^ 2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.
  12. ^ a b Paul Harvey at NNDB (National Names Database). Accessed May 6, 2008.
  13. ^ a b Oklahoma Heroes: The Oklahoma Peace Officers Memorial, by Ron Owens, at pp. 41-42. Turner Publishing Company (2000). ISBN 1563115719 Accessed via Google Books May 6, 2008.
  14. ^ Oklahoma Memorial: Office Harry H. Aurandt, accessed May 6, 2008.
  15. ^ a b Lynne Harvey, wife of broadcaster Paul Harvey, dies Associated Press obituary appearing in the Chicago Sun-Times May 3, 2008.
  16. ^ a b c d e Producer for radio legend husband dies, May 4, 2008, Chicago Sun-Times.
  17. ^ Radio commentator Paul Harvey's wife Lynne Cooper Harvey dies at age 92. Associated Press. 4 May 2008.
  18. ^ Dilaing: Passing of Radio's 'Angel', May 6, 2008 by Robert Feder, Chicago Sun-Times. Accessed May 6, 2008.
  19. ^ "Statement from ABC Radio Networks on the passing of Paul Harvey". 2009-2-28. Retrieved 2009-3-1. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  20. ^ http://dir.salon.com/story/people/bc/2001/09/25/harvey/print.html
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