Subject: [removed] Digest V2009 #122
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 6/28/2009 1:09 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

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                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2009 : Issue 122
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Ken Roberts, RIP                      [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]

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    Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:41:49 -0400
    From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
    To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Ken Roberts, RIP

    One of OTR's most popular announcers, Ken Roberts, died June 19th at
    the age of 99, in New York Presbyterian Hospital, of complications
    from pneumonia. In his career of eight decades he moved seamlessly
    from Broadway to radio to television and one of his last acting
    credits was an off-screen role as a radio  announcer in Woody Allen's
    "Radio Days" (1987) a movie that included his son, Tony Roberts.

    In 1931 Roberts beat out forty other applicants for a job as full-
    time staff announcer for WABC, the CBS affiliate in Manhattan. He was
    born Saul Trochman in New York City on February 22, 1910, and like
    many Jewish entertainers of that era (Benjamin Kubelsky, Nathan
    Birnbaum, etc.) he created a neutral professional name that concealed
    his family origins. A tall actor over 6 feet, he was once cast as a
    football player in the 1937 Broadway comedy, "Hitch Your Wagon."

    One of his most remembered roles was the announcer on the quiz "Quick
    as a Flash" but he was also on the parody, "It Pays to be Ignorant."
    He was a highly regarded announcer on television from its infancy; he
    announced "Love of Life" from 1951 to 1971 and "The Secret Storm"
    from 1954 to 1974. Roberts even announced on the PBS kids' series,
    "The Electric Company" where with good nature, he parodied himself
    and "Love of Life" with a segment called "Love of Chair" which he
    narrated over dramatic organ music while a young boy interacted with
    a lone chair.

    Roberts was a popular and congenial guest at several OTR conventions
    in his later years. He is survived by his second wife, Sydell
    Salzburg, and two children from his first marriage, Tony and Nancy
    Roberts. His first wife, Norma Finklestein, died in 1984.

    Jack French
    Editor: RADIO RECALL
    <[removed]>

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    End of [removed] Digest V2009 Issue #122
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