Paul Harvey

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people named Paul Harvey, see Paul Harvey (disambiguation).

Paul Harvey
Harvey receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005
Born
Paul Harvey Aurandt

(1918-09-04)September 4, 1918[1][2]
Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedFebruary 28, 2009(2009-02-28) (aged 90)[3]
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Resting placeForest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Tulsa
Years active1938-2008
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1940; died 2008)​
Children
ABC Radio Networks
Military career
Allegiance United States
Service/branch U.S. Army Air Forces
Years of service1943−1944
Battles/warsWorld War II

Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast News and Comment on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous The Rest of the Story segments. From 1951 to 2008, his programs reached as many as 24 million people per week. Paul Harvey News was carried on 1,200 radio stations, on 400 American Forces Network stations, and in 300 newspapers.

Early life

Harvey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[4] and was the son of a policeman who was killed by robbers in 1921.[5] He made radio receivers as a young boy, and attended Tulsa Central High School, where he was two years ahead of future actor Tony Randall. Teacher Isabelle Ronan was "impressed by his voice." On her recommendation, he started working at KVOO in Tulsa in 1933 helping to clean up when he was 14. He eventually was allowed to fill in on the air by reading commercials and the news.[6][7][8]

He continued working at KVOO while he attended the

KXOK in St. Louis in 1938[10]
where he was Director of Special Events and a roving reporter.

Career

World War II

Harvey then moved to Hawaii to cover the

US Army Air Forces, but served only from December 1943 to March 1944 resulting from a medical discharge. He then moved to Chicago, where in June 1944, he began broadcasting from the ABC affiliate WENR.[11]

Career 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. One of Harvey's regular topics was lax security, particularly at

US attorney for Illinois to empanel a grand jury to consider an espionage indictment. Harvey "went on the air to suggest he was being set up," and the grand jury subsequently declined to indict Harvey.[4]

Going national

Harvey had done sporadic work from Chicago for ABC Radio in the late '40s and early '50s and had just completed two weeks as the guest host for veteran commentator H. R. Baukhage on his daily 11 AM news round-up. When Baukhage returned from his early spring vacation, ABC dismissed him, and put Harvey on in his place. On April 1, 1951, the ABC Radio Network debuted Paul Harvey News and Comment, with a noon time slot on weekdays.[13][14] His network television debut came on November 16, 1952, when he began a 15-minute newscast on ABC. The program originated at WENR-TV in Chicago.[15]

Later Harvey began to host a separate program, The Rest of the Story, in which he provided backstories behind famous people and events. The Rest of the Story premiered on May 10, 1976, on ABC Radio.[14] The series quickly grew to six broadcasts a week and continued until his death in 2009. It was written and produced by his son, Paul Harvey, Jr., from its outset and for its 33-year duration. Harvey and his radio network stated that the stories in that series, although entertaining, were completely true.[16] That was contested by some critics, including urban legend expert Jan Harold Brunvand.[17]

In November 2000, Harvey signed a 10-year $100 million contract with ABC Radio Networks.[18] A few months later, after damaging his vocal cords, he went off the air, but returned in August 2001.

His success with sponsors stemmed from the seamlessness with which he segued from his monologue into reading commercial messages. He explained his relationship with them: "I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is."[19]

Fill-in hosts

Former US Senator

Ron Chapman,[23] Mitt Romney,[24] Mike Huckabee,[25] Mort Crim, Scott Shannon, Joe Holstead, and Tony Snow
. Three weeks after Harvey's death, the News and Comment franchise was canceled.

Harvey did not host the show full-time after April 2008, when he came down with pneumonia. Shortly after his recovery, his wife died on May 3, which caused him to prolong his time away from broadcasting. He voiced commercials and new episodes of The Rest of the Story and News & Comment during middays a few times a week, with his son handling mornings.

Aviation

Harvey was an avid pilot who served in the US Army Air Corps from December 1943 to March 1944.

EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was responsible for funding the Paul Harvey Audio-Video Center at EAA's headquarters in Oshkosh. Harvey was also an early investor in aircraft manufacturing company Cirrus Aircraft, based in Duluth, Minnesota.[27] According to the AOPA Pilot contributing editor Barry Schiff, Harvey coined the term skyjack.[28]

On-air persona

Harvey's on-air persona was influenced by sportscaster Bill Stern and columnist Walter Winchell. In the 1940s, Stern's The Colgate Sports Reel and newsreel programs used many of the techniques later used by Harvey, including his emphatic 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.[29][30]

Harvey was also known for the catchphrases that he used at the beginning of his programs, such as "Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey. Stand by for NEWS!" He always ended, "Paul Harvey... Good day." or "Paul Harvey... Good night."[31] A story might be "This day's news of most lasting significance." At the end of a report about someone who had done something ridiculous or offensive, Harvey would say, "He would want us to mention his name," followed by silence, and he would then start the next item. The last item of a broadcast, which was often a funny story, would usually be preceded by "And now from the 'For-what-it's-worth' department...."

Other phrases made famous by Harvey included "Here's a strange..." (a story with an unusual twist) and "Self-government won't work without self-discipline."[32] He also is credited with popularizing the terms Reaganomics and guesstimate.[28]

In addition to the inquiry into whether Harvey's Rest of the Story tales are true, Harvey's trademark ability of seamlessly migrating from content to commercial brought scrutiny. In that context,

Select Comfort mattresses, and Hi-Health dietary supplements, including a supplement that was claimed to improve vision but was later the subject of a Federal Trade Commission enforcement action against the manufacturer (but not Harvey himself) for misleading claims made on his show.[34]
In one of the tribute broadcasts, Gil Gross said that Harvey considered advertising just another type of news and that he endorsed only products that he believed in, often by interviewing someone from the company.

Harvey is caricatured in multiple episodes of Freakazoid!, voiced by Paul Rugg. He is used as a deus ex machina to wrap the plot up by describing its ending, or to give backstories for villains. He also occasionally references his catchphrases of "Good day!" and "Now you know the rest of the story".

Personal views

Beginning in 1952, Harvey was a friend of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Harvey would often submit "advance copies of his radio script for comment and approval."[4] Harvey's friendship with Hoover may have helped him escape criminal charges relating to his trespassing at Argonne National Laboratory. Harvey was happy to defend Hoover and spoke of him on his show of April 25, 1963: "God help the United States without John Edgar Hoover.... (FBI) Director Hoover is not retiring. If you have heard otherwise, somebody's sinister wish was the father of that thought. It is not so."[35]

Harvey was also a close friend of US Senator Joseph McCarthy and supported his campaign to expose and expel communists from American society and government.[36]

Harvey was also a close friend of George Vandeman and the Reverend Billy Graham.[11] From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Harvey attended Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park.[citation needed] When the church moved from its original location on Madison Street to the former Presbyterian Church on Lake Street, Harvey asked Graham to preach at the dedication service.[citation needed] Harvey associated with various congregations of different denominations.[37] He and his wife regularly attended the Camelback Adventist Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, during his winters there.[38] He often quoted the Adventist pioneer Ellen G. White in his broadcasts and received the "Golden Microphone" Award for his professionalism and graciousness in dealing with the church.[39][40] He was also active with a small Plymouth Brethren meeting in Maywood, Illinois, called Woodside Bible Chapel.

Rhetorical style

Robert D. McFadden, writing Harvey's obituary for The New York Times, examined his unique radio style and how it interacted with his political views:

[He] personalized the radio news with his right wing opinions, but laced them with his own trademarks: a hypnotic timbre, extended pauses for effect, heart-warming tales of average Americans and folksy observations that evoked the heartland, family values and the old-fashioned plain talk one heard around the dinner table on Sunday.

"Hello, Americans," he barked. "This is Paul Harvey! Stand byyy for newwws!"

He railed against welfare cheats and defended the death penalty. He worried about the national debt, big government, bureaucrats who lacked common sense, permissive parents, leftist radicals and America succumbing to moral decay. He championed rugged individualism, love of God and country, and the fundamental decency of ordinary people.[41][42]

Awards

Harvey was elected to the National Association of Broadcasters

Horatio Alger Award.[citation needed] Harvey was named to the DeMolay Hall of Fame, a Masonic youth organization, on June 25, 1993.[citation needed
]

In 2005, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' most prestigious civilian award, by President George W. Bush.[43] Bush's remarks summarized Harvey's career: "He first went on the air in 1933, and he's been heard nationwide for 54 years. Americans like the sound of his voice...over the decades we have come to recognize in that voice some of the finest qualities of our country: patriotism, the good humor, the kindness, and common sense of Americans."[37]: 201 

On May 18, 2007, he received an honorary degree from Washington University in St. Louis.[44]

In 1992 he received the Paul White Award of the Radio Television Digital News Association[45]

Paul Harvey was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1987 in the area of Communication.[46]

Family

Harvey was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Harry Harrison Aurandt (1873–1921) and Anna Dagmar (née Christensen) Aurandt (1883–1960). His father was born in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania; his mother was Danish. He had one sibling, an older sister Frances Harrietta (née Aurandt) Price (1908–1988).

In December 1921, when Harvey was three years old, his father was murdered. The elder Aurandt was a Tulsa policeman who served as secretary to Commissioner J.H. Adkinson. On the night of December 18, Officer Aurandt and a friend, Tulsa police detective Ike Wilkerson, were off-duty and rabbit hunting when they were approached by four masked and armed men who attempted to rob them. Mr. Aurandt was shot and died two days later of his wounds. A large-scale manhunt resulted in the arrest of four suspects the day after Aurandt died. A lynch mob of 1,000 people formed at the jail, but the suspects were smuggled out. Two of them would be convicted of murder and sentenced to life terms following identification by Detective Wilkerson, who said that he knew the men and was able to recognize them despite their masks. At Aurandt's funeral, twelve robed members of the Ku Klux Klan arrived late in the service and dropped roses on his casket, though there is no other indication that Aurandt was himself a Klansman.[47][48][49]

In 1940, Harvey married Lynne Cooper of St. Louis. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at Washington University in St. Louis[50] and a former schoolteacher.[51] 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 1944.[50]

On May 17, 2007, Harvey told his radio audience that Angel had developed

Colonel Parker was to Elvis Presley. She really put him on track to have the phenomenal career that his career has been."[53]

Lynne Harvey was the first producer inducted into the

American Women in Radio and Television.[52] 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. In later years, she was best known as a philanthropist.[54]

They had one son, Paul Aurandt Jr., who goes by the name

bumpers
between episodes, filled in for his father during broadcasts and broadcast the morning editions after the passing of his mother.

Death and tributes

Harvey died on February 28, 2009, at age 90 at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, surrounded by family and friends.[55] No cause of death was announced. In response to his father's death, his son, Paul Harvey Jr., said, "Millions have lost a friend".[56] At the time of his death, he had less than two years left on his ten-year contract. Former President George W. Bush issued a statement on Harvey's death, calling him "a friendly and familiar voice in the lives of millions of Americans."[57]

On March 4, Gil Gross was chosen to become the next host of News & Comment.[58] Gross lasted only one week before being taken off the air; Gross, who was based in San Francisco, would have had to record the show around 1:00 a.m. Pacific Time to finish in time for the East Coast broadcasts, in addition to his local show on KGO.[59] News & Comment was replaced the next week by Mike Huckabee's existing commentary, The Huckabee Report. The Huckabee Report ceased radio distribution in 2015.[60]

Harvey's full-length biography, Good Day! The Paul Harvey Story, was published in May 2009 by Regnery Publishing.[37]

On February 3, 2013, a recording of Harvey's "

Ram Trucks in a commercial titled "Farmer," which aired during Super Bowl XLVII
.

Works

Notes

  1. ^ Harvey guided his black Cadillac Fleetwood toward Argonne, arriving sometime past midnight. He parked in a secluded spot, tossed his overcoat onto the barbed wire topping a fence, then scampered over.... Harvey['s plan was] to scratch his signature on 'objects that could not possibly have been brought to the site by someone else,' according to a statement later given by an off-duty guard who accompanied him.... But seconds after Harvey hit the ground, security officers spotted him.... Harvey ran until, caught in a Jeep's headlights, he tripped and fell. As guards approached, Harvey sprang to his feet and waved. Guards asked whether Harvey realized he was in a restricted area. Harvey replied no, that he thought he might be at the airport because of the red lights.... Harvey told the authorities he had been headed to a neighboring town to give a speech when his car died.... Under questioning, Harvey eventually dropped his cover story but refused to elaborate, saying he wanted to tell his tale before a congressional committee. Guards searched his Cadillac and found... a four-page, typewritten script for an upcoming broadcast. Harvey, it turned out, had planned from the outset to feed the nation a bogus account of his escapade: "I hereby affirm the following is a true and accurate account," the script began. "My friend and I were driving a once-familiar road, when the car stalled.... We started to walk.... We made no effort to conceal our presence.... Suddenly I realized where I was. That I had entered, unchallenged, one of the United States' vital atomic research installations.... Quite by accident, understand, I had found myself inside the 'hot' area.... We could have carried a bomb in, or classified documents out.[4]

References

  1. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (March 2, 2009). "Paul Harvey, Homespun Radio Voice of Middle America, Is Dead at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  2. Encyclopaedia Britannica
    . Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  3. Washington Post
    . Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Joe Stephens (January 23, 2010). "New documents show longtime friendship between J. Edgar Hoover and Paul Harvey". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  5. ^ "Officer Harry H. Aurandt".
  6. ^ Rick Kogan (August 4, 2002). "Good days for Paul Harvey". Chicago Tribune.
  7. ^ Joe Howard (November 2, 2006). "Paul Harvey: A Legend Looks Back". Radio Ink. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011.
  8. ^ Marc Fisher (October 1998). "A Lifetime on the Radio". American Journalism Review. Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
  9. ^ Pittenger, Todd. "Paul Harvey's employment at 19/KFBI". Metro Source News. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  10. ^ "KXOK in St. Louis to Debut September 19," Broadcasting, September 15, 1938, p. 26.
  11. ^ a b Linda Witt (January 22, 1979). "Forget Cronkite: Paul Harvey Is the Biggest Newscaster in America, and Getting Bigger". Vol. 11 No. 3. People.
  12. ^ Argonne passes a reporter's security test Harvey's 1951 attempt to test security at Argonne National Laboratory
  13. ^ "Paul Harvey Dies". All Access. February 28, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  14. ^ a b "Hometown Legends: Paul Harvey". Oak Park River Forest Museum. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  15. ^ "This Week -- Network Debuts, Highlights, Changes". Ross Reports on Television including The Television Index. November 16, 1952. p. 1. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  16. ^ "Transcript: Interview With Paul Harvey". Larry King Live. CNN. January 30, 2003. Archived from the original on December 24, 2004. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  17. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Archived
    from the original on December 1, 1998. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  18. ^ Bernstein, Paula (November 1, 2000). "Harvey's good day: 10 more years at ABC". Variety. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  19. ^ Carlson, Michael (March 3, 2009). "Obituary: Paul Harvey". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 6, 2013. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  20. ^ Paul Harvey Jr. Fills In For Harvey In Mornings Archived January 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, April 30, 2008, at Radio Ink. Accessed May 4, 2008
  21. ^ WJR.net, Retrieved on 2008/04/09.
  22. ^ Kgoam810.com Archived November 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on 2008/04/09.
  23. ^ Businessweek.com, Retrieved on 2008/04/02.
  24. ^ Romney To Fill In For Paul Harvey Archived January 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Radio Ink. April 9, 2008.
  25. ^ Vogel, Kenneth. Huckabee in talks for own Fox show. The Politico. July 14, 2008.
  26. ^ "NNDB Paul Harvey". Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  27. ^ The Editors of AVweb (August 2, 1999). "Oshkosh 1999 Newswire: Day Six - Cirrus Gets Stockholders To Show Them The Money". Oshkosh, Wisconsin: AVweb.
  28. ^ a b Rupert Cornwell (March 5, 2009). "Paul Harvey: Radio Broadcaster Who Became the Voice of America (obituary)". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022.
  29. ^ Michael Carlson, "Paul Harvey: Influential right-wing American radio host", The Guardian, March 3, 2009.
  30. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3, p. 163. Excerpt available at Google Books
    .
  31. ^ Houston Radio REWIND (December 16, 2013). "KODA 99 FM Radio Houston (1964)". Archived from the original on December 12, 2021 – via YouTube.
  32. ^ "Paul Harvey Landon Lecture". www.k-state.edu.
  33. ^ Salon.com Archived December 1, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  34. Arizona Republic
    , August 24, 2005.
  35. ^ III, Ira David Wood. Wilds, Bernard (ed.). JFK Assassination Chronology – via Amazon.
  36. ^ Corliss, Richard (March 5, 2009). "Paul Harvey". Time. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  37. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59698-101-0
    .
  38. ^ Oliver, Ansel (March 5, 2009). "American radio legend Harvey's death ends unique era of radio news". Adventist News Network-Seventh-day Adventist Church. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  39. ^ The Religious Affiliation of Radio Broadcaster Paul Harvey at Adherents.com.
  40. ^ SDALink Paul Harvey Tribute Archived July 21, 2012, at archive.today.
  41. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (March 2, 2009). "Paul Harvey, Homespun Radio Voice of Middle America, Is Dead at 90". The New York Times.
  42. ^ Also cited in Garance Franke-Ruta, "Paul Harvey's 1978 'So God Made a Farmer' Speech", The Atlantic, February 3, 2013.
  43. ^ "Citations for Recipients of the 2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
  44. ^ "Commencement Archive 2014-2019". Washington University in St. Louis. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  45. ^ "Paul White Award". Radio Television Digital News Association. Archived from the original on February 25, 2013. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
  46. ^ "Laureate Convocations by Year - The Lincoln Academy of Illinois".
  47. ISBN 1-56311-571-9
    . Retrieved May 6, 2008.
  48. ^ Curtis, Gene (September 25, 2007). "Only in Oklahoma: Paul Harvey's father shot by bandits". Tulsa World. World Publishing Co. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
  49. ^ "Officer Harry H. Aurandt". Officer Down Memorial Page. The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  50. ^ a b c "Paul Harvey's Wife Dies at Age 92". ABC News. May 3, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  51. ^ Wendy, Katie (June 14, 2009). "Good Day! The Paul Harvey Story". Washington Times. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  52. ^ a b "Lynne 'Angel' Harvey Dies At 92". Radio Ink. May 5, 2008. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  53. ^ "Wife of broadcaster Paul Harvey dies". Daily Herald. May 4, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  54. ^ "Death Notice: Lynne Harvey". Chicago Tribune. May 4, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  55. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (March 6, 2009). "Paul Harvey, Homespun Radio Voice of Middle America, Is Dead at 90". The New York Times.
  56. ^ "Statement from ABC Radio Networks on the passing of Paul Harvey". February 28, 2009. Archived from the original on March 4, 2009. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  57. ^ "Statement by Former President George W. Bush on the Death of Paul Harvey". February 28, 2009. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  58. ^ "Gross, Limerick to Replace Paul Harvey on ABC Radio". News Radio Online. March 4, 2009. Archived from the original on May 12, 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  59. ^ Hinckley, David (March 22, 2009). "On the radio: How ABC will replace 'Rest' of Paul Harvey spots". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  60. ^ Wire, Sarah D. (April 16, 2015). "Huckabee giving up his radio broadcast". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved April 16, 2015.

External links

Media offices
Preceded by
Show Established
 Host of News and Comment (mornings)
1944–2008 		Succeeded by
Paul Harvey, Jr.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Harvey&oldid=1209577708"