Dick Lane (TV announcer)
Encyclopedia
Richard Lane more commonly known as Dick Lane, was an American television announcer and actor who made his mark broadcasting wrestling
and roller derby
shows on KTLA-TV
, mainly from the Grand Olympic Auditorium
in Los Angeles
, California.
to a farm family. Early in life he developed talents for reciting poetry and doing various song-and-dance acts.
By his teenage years, he was doing an "iron jaw" routine in circuses around Europe and worked as a drummer touring with a band in Australia. After the decline of vaudeville
, Lane obtained extensive work in motion pictures and was best known at the time for playing Inspector Faraday or Farraday (depending on the film) in some Boston Blackie
features, starting with Meet Boston Blackie
in 1941. During World War II, he appeared as emcee with USO troops entertaining G.I.s. His unit appeared at Fort MacArthur
in September 1944. Lane also announced for the Jalopy Derby and Destruction Derby at Ascot Park, Gardena California.
, Lane was able to obtain work at KTLA, which was owned by the studio at the time. When the station went commercial for the first time in 1947, Lane started work as a news presenter. One of the early highlights of his career was reporting on the first atomic explosion covered by a television newscast.
When KTLA agreed to broadcast wrestling matches from the Olympic Auditorium in 1946, Lane was hired to comment on the action. He started announcing for Roller Derby in 1951, and for Roller Games
in the 1960s. His broadcasts featured such personalities as Gorgeous George
, Mr. Moto
and Doc Grable. Contrary to popular opinion, it was Lane and not former ABC sports announcer Keith Jackson
who coined the exclamatory expression "Whoa, Nellie!" when something "bad" happened in the ring or on the track. Lane was also the character "Leather Britches" on the Spade Cooley
show on KTLA.
's film Kansas City Bomber
. Lane died in Newport Beach, California
on September 5, 1982. In 1996, he was posthumously inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
.
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
and roller derby
Roller derby
Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction around a track. Game play consists of a series of short matchups in which both teams designate a scoring player who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team...
shows on KTLA-TV
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
, mainly from the Grand Olympic Auditorium
Grand Olympic Auditorium
The Grand Olympic Auditorium is the former name of a sports venue in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located at 1801 S. Grand Avenue, the venue was built in 1924 specifically for the 1932 Summer Olympics, which saw the boxing, weightlifting, and wrestling events held there. At the time it...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California.
Early years
Lane was born in 1899 in Rice Lake, WisconsinRice Lake, Wisconsin
Rice Lake is a city in Barron County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 8,320. The city is located mostly within the Town of Rice Lake.-Geography:Rice Lake is located at ....
to a farm family. Early in life he developed talents for reciting poetry and doing various song-and-dance acts.
By his teenage years, he was doing an "iron jaw" routine in circuses around Europe and worked as a drummer touring with a band in Australia. After the decline of vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, Lane obtained extensive work in motion pictures and was best known at the time for playing Inspector Faraday or Farraday (depending on the film) in some Boston Blackie
Boston Blackie
Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle . Originally a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's novels, he became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."-Literature:Jack...
features, starting with Meet Boston Blackie
Meet Boston Blackie
Meet Boston Blackie is a 1941 crime film starring Chester Morris as Boston Blackie, a notorious, but honorable jewel thief. Although the character had been the hero of a number of silent films, this was the first talking picture...
in 1941. During World War II, he appeared as emcee with USO troops entertaining G.I.s. His unit appeared at Fort MacArthur
Fort MacArthur
Fort MacArthur is a former United States Army installation in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California . The fort is named in honor of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur...
in September 1944. Lane also announced for the Jalopy Derby and Destruction Derby at Ascot Park, Gardena California.
Work with KTLA
Due to his work at Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, Lane was able to obtain work at KTLA, which was owned by the studio at the time. When the station went commercial for the first time in 1947, Lane started work as a news presenter. One of the early highlights of his career was reporting on the first atomic explosion covered by a television newscast.
When KTLA agreed to broadcast wrestling matches from the Olympic Auditorium in 1946, Lane was hired to comment on the action. He started announcing for Roller Derby in 1951, and for Roller Games
Roller Games
Roller Games was the name of a sports entertainment spectacle created in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California as a rival to the Jerry Seltzer-owned Roller Derby league, which had enjoyed a monopoly on the sport of roller derby — and its name — since its inception in 1935. Roller Games...
in the 1960s. His broadcasts featured such personalities as Gorgeous George
Gorgeous George
Gorgeous George, the stage name of George Wagner , American professional wrestler*Robert Kellum, a professional wrestler who wrestled as Gorgeous George III, after his great uncle, George Wagner...
, Mr. Moto
Tor Kamata
McRonald Kamaka was an American/Canadian professional wrestler known by the ring name Tor Kamata. He won several Heavyweight and Tag Team championships, including one World Tag Team title. He was a classic "bad guy" wrestler...
and Doc Grable. Contrary to popular opinion, it was Lane and not former ABC sports announcer Keith Jackson
Keith Jackson
Keith Jackson is an American sportscaster, known for his long career with ABC Sports , his coverage of college football , his style of folksy, down-to-earth commentary, and his distinctive voice, with its deep cadence, and operatic tone considered "like Edward R...
who coined the exclamatory expression "Whoa, Nellie!" when something "bad" happened in the ring or on the track. Lane was also the character "Leather Britches" on the Spade Cooley
Spade Cooley
Donnell Clyde Cooley , better known as Spade Cooley, was an American Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality...
show on KTLA.
Later years
After Lane retired from television full time in 1972, he accepted few offers for work, but did make a notable cameo appearance in Raquel WelchRaquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
's film Kansas City Bomber
Kansas City Bomber
Kansas City Bomber is a 1972 American drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Jerrold Freedman and starring Raquel Welch.- Plot summary :The film is an inside look at the world of co-ed Roller Derby, then a popular league sport....
. Lane died in Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...
on September 5, 1982. In 1996, he was posthumously inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is a professional wrestling hall of fame that recognizes people who make significant contributions to the sport. It was founded in 1996 by Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is not...
.
Partial filmography
- Flight From GloryFlight From GloryFlight From Glory is a 1937 B movie about a run-down air cargo company in South America in the early days of aviation.-Plot:Ellis runs an air service transporting supplies from a tiny, remote outpost over the Andes Mountains to some mines, using worn-out planes and pilots no one else will employ...
(19371937 in filmThe year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....
) Mr. Hanson - Should Wives Work?Should Wives Work?Should Wives Work? is a 1937 short comedy film directed by Leslie Goodwins. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1937 for Best Short Subject .-Cast:* Leon Errol - Leon Errol* Vivien Oakland - Mrs. Errol* Richard Lane* William Brisbane...
(1937) - Radio City Revels (19381938 in filmThe year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
) Crane - I'm from the City (1938) Captain Oliver 'Ollie' Fitch
- Mr. Doodle Kicks Off (1938) Assistant Coach 'Offsides' Jones
- Charlie Chan in HonoluluCharlie Chan in HonoluluCharlie Chan in Honolulu is a 1938 American film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, starring Sidney Toler as the fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan...
(1938) Mike Hannigan, alias Det. Arnold - Union PacificUnion Pacific (film)Union Pacific is a 1939 American dramatic western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. Based on the novel Trouble Shooter by Western fiction author Ernest Haycox, the film is about the building of the railroad across the American West.-Plot:The 1862...
(19391939 in filmThe year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
) Sam Reed - Drunk DrivingDrunk Driving (film)Drunk Driving is a 1939 short drama film directed by David Miller. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940 for Best Live Action Short Film, Two-Reel.-Cast:* Dick Purcell as John Jones* Jo Ann Sayers as Mrs. Jones...
(1939) - Brother OrchidBrother OrchidBrother Orchid is a 1940 crime/comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Donald Crisp, Ralph Bellamy and Allen Jenkins...
(19401940 in filmThe year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
) Mugsy O'Day - Boom TownBoom Town (film)Boom Town is a 1940 adventure drama Hollywood film starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, and Frank Morgan. A story written by James Edward Grant in Cosmopolitan magazine titled "A Lady Comes to Burkburnett" provided the inspiration for the film.-Plot:"Big John"...
(1940) Assistant District Attorney - Meet Boston BlackieMeet Boston BlackieMeet Boston Blackie is a 1941 crime film starring Chester Morris as Boston Blackie, a notorious, but honorable jewel thief. Although the character had been the hero of a number of silent films, this was the first talking picture...
(19411941 in filmThe year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...
) Inspector Faraday - SunnySunny (1941 film)Sunny is a 1941 film American film directed by Herbert Wilcox. It was adapted by Sig Herzig from the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical play Sunny...
(1941) Reporter - Time Out for RhythmTime Out for RhythmTime Out for Rhythm is a 1941 musical comedy film starring Rudy Vallée, Ann Miller and The Three Stooges. Alan Hale, Jr., best known for his role as Skipper Jonas Grumby on Gilligan's Island, also makes a brief appearance early on, marking one of his first film appearances.To date, there has been...
(1941) Mike Armstrong - Hellzapoppin'Hellzapoppin' (film)Hellzapoppin' is a 1941 Universal Pictures adaptation of the musical of the same name directed by H.C. Potter. The cast includes Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson , Martha Raye, Mischa Auer, Shemp Howard, and The Six Hits.The credits for the movie assert that "any resemblance between Hellzapoppin and a...
(1941) Director - Confessions of Boston BlackieConfessions of Boston BlackieConfessions of Boston Blackie is a 1941 American crime film directed by Edward Dmytryk.-Cast:* Chester Morris as Boston Blackie* Harriet Hilliard as Diane Parrish* Richard Lane as Inspector Farraday* George E...
(1941) - Ride 'Em CowboyRide 'Em CowboyRide 'Em Cowboy is a 1942 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.-Plot:The author of best-selling western novels, Bronco Bob Mitchell , has never set foot in the west. A newspaper article has exposed this fact to his fans, and his image is suffering because of it. He decides to make...
(19421942 in filmThe year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...
) Pete Conway - To the Shores of TripoliTo the Shores of TripoliTo the Shores of Tripoli is a Technicolor 1942 film starring John Payne, Maureen O'Hara, Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly and Minor Watson. The film was directed by H...
(1942) Lieutenant on Minesweeper - A-Haunting We Will Go (1942) Parker
- Arabian NightsArabian Nights (1942 film)Arabian Nights is a 1942 adventure film starring Sabu, Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Leif Erickson and directed by John Rawlins. The film is derived from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights but owes more to the imagination of Universal Pictures than the original Arabian stories...
(1942) Corporal - Air Force 19431943 in filmThe year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....
) Major W.G. Roberts - It Ain't HayIt Ain't Hay-Plot:Wilbur Hoolihan accidentally kills a hack horse owned by King O'Hara and his daughter, Princess by feeding it candy. In the hopes of raising enough money to replace it, he and his friend Grover Mockridge visit a gambling establishment...
(1943) Slicker - Corvette K-225Corvette K-225Corvette K -225 is a 1943 film starring Randolph Scott and Ella Raines. It was released in the UK as The Nelson Touch. Tony Gaudio was nominated for the 1943 Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on the film....
(1943) Vice Admiral - Crazy House (1943) Hanley
- The Chance of a LifetimeThe Chance of a LifetimeThe Chance of a Lifetime is a 1943 crime drama starring Chester Morris, Erik Rolf and Jeanne Bates. It is one of 14 films made by Columbia Pictures involving detective Boston Blackie, a criminal-turned-detective. The film is also William Castle's directorial debut.-Plot:Boston Blackie helps the...
(1943) Insp. John Farraday - Gung Ho!Gung Ho! (1943 film)Gung Ho! is a 1943 war film starring Randolph Scott. The story is based on the real-life World War II Makin Island raid led by Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson's 2nd Marine Raider Battalion.-Plot:The film begins with a tough Greek Lieutenant Gung Ho! (full title: Gung Ho!: The Story of Carlson's...
(1943) Captain Dunphy - Mr. Winkle Goes to WarMr. Winkle Goes to WarMr. Winkle Goes to War is a 1944 war comedy film starring Edward G. Robinson and Ruth Warrick, based on a novel by Theodore Pratt.-Plot:On June 1, 1942, after fourteen years, mild-mannered 44-year-old Wilbert G. Winkle quits his boring bank job to follow his dream, to open a repair shop...
(19441944 in filmThe year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....
) Sgt. 'Alphabet' Czeidrowski - Here Come the Co-EdsHere Come the Co-EdsHere Come The Co-Eds is a 1945 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.-Plot:Three friends, Oliver Quackenbush , Molly McCarthy , and her brother Slats work for the Miramar Ballroom as taxi dancers. Slats plants a phony article in the local newspaper that declares Molly's ambition to...
(19451945 in filmThe year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
) Nearsighted man at Miramar Ballroom - The BullfightersThe BullfightersThe Bullfighters is a late Laurel and Hardy feature film. The plot involves the team working as private detectives who've come to Mexico City hot on the trail of Hattie Blake, a.k.a. Larceny Nell. Meanwhile, Stan Laurel is found to resemble a famous matador, Don Sebastian...
(1945) Hotshot Coleman - Pardon My TerrorPardon My TerrorPardon My Terror is the short subject starring Richard Lane and Gus Schilling. The supporting cast also includes Christine McIntyre, Lynne Lyons, Philip Van Zandt, Kenneth McDonald, Dick Wessel, Vernon Dent, Emil Sitka and Dudley Dickerson.-Plot:...
(19461946 in filmThe year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...
) Dick - Sioux City SueSioux City Sue"Sioux City Sue" is a 1945 song by Dick Thomas. The song was Thomas' first chart entry on the Juke Box Folk Records chart and was also his most successful release: "Sioux City Sue" spent four weeks at number one and a total of twenty-three weeks on the charts....
(1946) Jefferson Lang - Devil Ship (19471947 in filmThe year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...
) Captain 'Biff' Brown - The Babe Ruth StoryThe Babe Ruth StoryThe Babe Ruth Story is a 1948 baseball film biography of Babe Ruth, the famed New York Yankees slugger. It stars William Bendix as the ballplayer and Claire Trevor as his wife. It was rush released while Ruth himself was still alive. It makes no mention whatsoever of Ruth's first wife,...
(19481948 in filmThe year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...
) Boston Braves' coach - He's in AgainHe's in AgainHe's in Again is a 1918 silent comedy film featuring Oliver Hardy.-Cast:* Billy West - A Customer* Oliver Hardy - Head Waiter * Leo White - The Prize Fighter* Ethelyn Gibson* Charley Chase - Piano Player...
(19491949 in filmThe year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
) Dick - Mighty Joe Young (1949) Attorney
- That Midnight KissThat Midnight KissThat Midnight Kiss was the screen debut of tenor Mario Lanza, also starring Kathryn Grayson, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Among the supporting cast were Ethel Barrymore, conductor/pianist Jose Iturbi , Keenan Wynn, J. Carroll Naish, and Jules Munshin...
(1949) Radio D.J. interviewing Ethel Barrymore - The Big WheelThe Big Wheel (film)The Big Wheel is a 1949 film starring Mickey Rooney and Thomas Mitchell.-Plot:Rooney plays Billy Coy, a young man determined to follow in his father's footsteps as a race car driver. Despite the fact that his father, "Cannonball" Coy, was killed in a fiery crash during the Indianapolis 500, Billy...
(1949) Reno Riley - The Jackie Robinson StoryThe Jackie Robinson StoryThe Jackie Robinson Story is a 1950 biographical film starring baseball legend Jackie Robinson as himself. The film focuses on Robinson's struggle with the abuse of racist bigots as he becomes the first African American Major League Baseball player of the modern era...
(19501950 in filmThe year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...
) Clay Hopper, Montreal Manager - I Can Get It for You WholesaleI Can Get It for You Wholesale (film)I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a 1951 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Gordon. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky is based on Vera Caspary's loose adaptation of the 1937 novel of the same title by Jerome Weidman.-Plot:...
(19511951 in filmThe year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
) Kelley - Visit to a Small PlanetVisit to a Small PlanetVisit to a Small Planet is a 1960 Paramount Pictures film starring Jerry Lewis, based on a play by Gore Vidal. It was released on February 4, 1960.-Plot:...
(19601960 in filmThe year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
) Superbo Television Spokesman - The KillersThe Killers (1964 film)The Killers, sometimes marketed as Ernest Hemingway's The Killers, is a 1964 crime film released by Universal Studios. It is the second Hollywood adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story of the same name, following a version made in 1946 starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. It was directed...
(19641964 in filmThe year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....
) Demolition Derby Announcer - Dear BrigitteDear BrigitteDear Brigitte is a 1965 American family-comedy starring James Stewart and directed by Henry Koster.-Plot:Stewart stars as an American college professor with a genius son, the precocious Erasmus . After using his skills for gambling at the horse track, Erasmus becomes infatuated with model and...
19651965 in filmThe year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
) Track Announcer - The Shaggy D.A.The Shaggy D.A.The Shaggy D.A. is a 1976 film sequel to 1959's The Shaggy Dog by Walt Disney Productions. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Don Tait, based on the original film and inspired by the long out-of-print Felix Salten novel, The Hound of Florence.It starred Dean Jones as the adult...
19761976 in filmThe year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
) Roller Rink Announcer - The One and OnlyThe One and Only (1978 film)The One and Only is a 1978 film comedy starring Henry Winkler, directed by Carl Reiner and written by Steve Gordon.Gordon went on to write and direct the movie Arthur.-Plot:...
(19781978 in filmThe year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....
) (uncredited)
External links
- http://www.tvparty.com/nitro.html Rare online clips of Dick Lane calling wrestling matches.
- “Whoah, Nellie!” Happy Birthday, Richard “Dick” Lane