Ray Forrest
Encyclopedia
Raymond Forrest was a radio staff announcer for NBC
, pioneering TV announcer, host and news broadcaster from the very earliest TV era (pre-WW II
) through the 1960s.
, was not present at the opening of the New York World's Fair
on April 30, 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt
and David Sarnoff
, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, NBC
's parent, inaugurated regular television programming with a broadcast over NBC
's experimental station, W2XBS
.
Indeed, for months the station employed no announcers, recruiting them as the occasional need arose from NBC
's radio staff, a process that so irritated the radio network's crusty chief of announcers that by the fall he had persuaded the station to stop pestering him and take on one of his six junior announcers full time.
Forrest won the job, and for the next two and a half years almost every time he opened his mouth he made television history.
He was the on-board announcer for the first airborne telecast, from a U.S. plane flying low over New York City
on March 6, 1940, and later that year he was the NBC
announcer at the first televised political convention, in Philadelphia, where the Republicans
nominated Wendell Willkie
. (CBS
, which was racking up some firsts of its own, broadcast the convention in color.)
The next year it was Forrest who read the formal announcement on camera when W2XBS
, newly licensed by the Federal Communications Commission and renamed WNBT
(it later became WNBC
), ushered in the era of commercial television on July 1, 1941.
The first commercial, a film showing a ticking Bulova
watch, used no announcer, but three days later, on July 4, Forrest did the first live television commercial, for Adam hats, a chore that earned him no sponsor's fee unless you count the hat. Forrest got to keep it.
Later that year Forrest apparently became the first television announcer to break into a program with a news bulletin, interrupting a Sunday afternoon movie, The Playboy with Harry Richman
, to announce that the Japan
ese had bombed Pearl Harbor
.
For Forrest, a native of Germany
who came to the United States
with his family in 1923 and got his broadcasting start at 20 with a job in the NBC
mail room in 1936, those were heady days.
But World War II
interrupted both the development of television and his own career, and by the time he returned from service in 1946, television was in the midst of its postwar boom and he was no longer the only kid on the block.
Then he was asked to produce and be the host of Children's Theater, and Forrest made what he regarded as his most important contribution to television.
's earliest and one of the most distinctive kids TV variety series called Children's Theater, which was seen Saturday mornings on New York
's WNBT/WRCA
TV Ch. 4 (even before it became WNBC
) from 1949 to June 1961. Children's Theater first went on the air in 1949. Ray Forrest, a veteran radio broadcaster, created a TV series that encouraged the kids to explore many places of interest, read books, how to care for animals and become involved in local activities.
"Children's Theater"would share the 1957 NYC Emmy award for "Best Children's And Teenage Program"with WCBS TV's
"On The Carousel!".(Info about "Children's Theater"sharing The 1957 NYC Emmy With"On The Carousel"can be found in
"The NYC Kids Shows Round Up"Section of"The TV Party"website at www.tvparty.com).
During its long run, Children's Theater also screened the 1958 color versions of Crusader Rabbit
TV cartoons. Children's Theater remained on WNBC
-TV Ch. 4 Saturday morning lineup until Saturday, June 17, 1961.
If Forrest is better remembered among older New York television viewers for the acclaimed educational program Children's Theater, which he produced and hosted for WNBC
-TV from 1949 to 1960, there is a reason his earlier work has been virtually forgotten.
went on the air each evening, Forrest announced every station break and every program. There he was, covering wrestling
, boxing
, hockey
, horse racing
and movie premieres; interviewing men and women on the street; introducing dramatic productions; serving as quiz show announcer and variety show host and even becoming the network's first full-time news anchor (after Lowell Thomas
, whose radio news had been simulcast on television, decided to do his broadcasts from his upstate home).
At the time he became the most visible presence on television, there were fewer than 1,000 television sets in existence.
Often he would shoot his shows on location (using primitive videotape technology), as early as September 24, 1960.
Other notable location broadcasts, with Ray Forrest, included a series of pre-taped shows from the since defunct, "Freedomland Amusement Park"
in the Bronx
. It gave his young viewers a chance to not only see the park but to experience vividly, events that were a part of America's history.
Ray Forrest died on March 11, 1999.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, pioneering TV announcer, host and news broadcaster from the very earliest TV era (pre-WW II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
) through the 1960s.
Early life and career
Forrest, then a 23-year-old junior radio announcer at NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, was not present at the opening of the New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
on April 30, 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...
, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's parent, inaugurated regular television programming with a broadcast over NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's experimental station, W2XBS
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
.
Indeed, for months the station employed no announcers, recruiting them as the occasional need arose from NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's radio staff, a process that so irritated the radio network's crusty chief of announcers that by the fall he had persuaded the station to stop pestering him and take on one of his six junior announcers full time.
Forrest won the job, and for the next two and a half years almost every time he opened his mouth he made television history.
He was the on-board announcer for the first airborne telecast, from a U.S. plane flying low over New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on March 6, 1940, and later that year he was the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
announcer at the first televised political convention, in Philadelphia, where the Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
nominated Wendell Willkie
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for the president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and...
. (CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, which was racking up some firsts of its own, broadcast the convention in color.)
The next year it was Forrest who read the formal announcement on camera when W2XBS
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
, newly licensed by the Federal Communications Commission and renamed WNBT
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
(it later became WNBC
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
), ushered in the era of commercial television on July 1, 1941.
The first commercial, a film showing a ticking Bulova
Bulova
Bulova is a corporation making luxury watches and clocks. It has its headquarters in Woodside, Queens, New York City.Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Joseph Bulova , an immigrant from Bohemia...
watch, used no announcer, but three days later, on July 4, Forrest did the first live television commercial, for Adam hats, a chore that earned him no sponsor's fee unless you count the hat. Forrest got to keep it.
Later that year Forrest apparently became the first television announcer to break into a program with a news bulletin, interrupting a Sunday afternoon movie, The Playboy with Harry Richman
Harry Richman
Harry Richman was an American entertainer. He was a singer, actor, dancer, comedian, pianist, songwriter, bandleader, and night club performer, at his most popular in the 1920s and 1930s....
, to announce that the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese had bombed Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
.
For Forrest, a native of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
who came to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with his family in 1923 and got his broadcasting start at 20 with a job in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
mail room in 1936, those were heady days.
But World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
interrupted both the development of television and his own career, and by the time he returned from service in 1946, television was in the midst of its postwar boom and he was no longer the only kid on the block.
1947-1949
Still, he was almost as busy as ever, among other things serving as the announcer for In the Kelvinator Kitchen, an early cooking show, in 1947, and as the announcer and eventually the host of TV Screen Magazine, one of the first television magazine shows, in 1948 and 1949.Then he was asked to produce and be the host of Children's Theater, and Forrest made what he regarded as his most important contribution to television.
Children's Theater
Ray Forrest hosted NYCNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's earliest and one of the most distinctive kids TV variety series called Children's Theater, which was seen Saturday mornings on New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's WNBT/WRCA
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
TV Ch. 4 (even before it became WNBC
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
) from 1949 to June 1961. Children's Theater first went on the air in 1949. Ray Forrest, a veteran radio broadcaster, created a TV series that encouraged the kids to explore many places of interest, read books, how to care for animals and become involved in local activities.
"Children's Theater"would share the 1957 NYC Emmy award for "Best Children's And Teenage Program"with WCBS TV's
"On The Carousel!".(Info about "Children's Theater"sharing The 1957 NYC Emmy With"On The Carousel"can be found in
"The NYC Kids Shows Round Up"Section of"The TV Party"website at www.tvparty.com).
During its long run, Children's Theater also screened the 1958 color versions of Crusader Rabbit
Crusader Rabbit
Crusader Rabbit is the first animated series produced specifically for television. The concept was test marketed in 1948, while the initial episode - Crusader vs. the State of Texas - aired on KNBH in Los Angeles, California on August 1, 1950....
TV cartoons. Children's Theater remained on WNBC
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
-TV Ch. 4 Saturday morning lineup until Saturday, June 17, 1961.
If Forrest is better remembered among older New York television viewers for the acclaimed educational program Children's Theater, which he produced and hosted for WNBC
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
-TV from 1949 to 1960, there is a reason his earlier work has been virtually forgotten.
Style
Wearing a tuxedo to intone the formal sign-on when NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
went on the air each evening, Forrest announced every station break and every program. There he was, covering wrestling
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...
, boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
, horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
and movie premieres; interviewing men and women on the street; introducing dramatic productions; serving as quiz show announcer and variety show host and even becoming the network's first full-time news anchor (after Lowell Thomas
Lowell Thomas
Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...
, whose radio news had been simulcast on television, decided to do his broadcasts from his upstate home).
At the time he became the most visible presence on television, there were fewer than 1,000 television sets in existence.
Nature films
Forrest would write, produce and narrate his own nature films as well.Often he would shoot his shows on location (using primitive videotape technology), as early as September 24, 1960.
Other notable location broadcasts, with Ray Forrest, included a series of pre-taped shows from the since defunct, "Freedomland Amusement Park"
Freedomland U.S.A.
Freedomland U.S.A. was a short-lived, U.S. history-themed amusement park in the Baychester area in the northeastern part of the Borough of The Bronx, New York City. Its slogan was "The World's Largest Entertainment Center" .Freedomland opened on June 19, 1960...
in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
. It gave his young viewers a chance to not only see the park but to experience vividly, events that were a part of America's history.
Ray Forrest died on March 11, 1999.