Ralph Livingstone Edwards (June 13, 1913 â€" November 16, 2005) was an
American radio and television host, radio producer, and television
producer, best known for his radio-TV game shows Truth or Consequences
and This Is Your Life.Born in Merino, Colorado, Edwards worked for
KROW Radio in Oakland, California while he was still in high school.
After graduating from high school in 1931, he worked his way through
college at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a B.A. in
English in 1935. While there, he worked at every job from janitor to
producer at Oakland's KTAB, now KSFO. Failing to get a job as a high
school teacher, he worked at KFRC and then hitchhiked across the
country to New York City, where, he said, "I ate ten-cent (equivalent
to $2 in 2019), meals and slept on park benches".After some part-time
announcing jobs, he got his big break in 1938 with a full-time job for
the Columbia Broadcasting System on the original WABC (now WCBS),
where he worked with two other young announcers who would become
broadcasting fixtures - Mel Allen and Andre Baruch.The young director
had an assured, professional manner, and in a few years he was well
established as a nationally famous announcer. It was Edwards who
introduced Major Bowes every week on the Original Amateur Hour and
Fred Allen on Town Hall Tonight. Edwards perfected a chuckling
delivery, sounding as though he was in the midst of telling a very
funny story. This "laugh in the voice" technique served him well when
20th Century Fox hired him to narrate the coming-attractions trailers
for Laurel and Hardy movies.
American radio and television host, radio producer, and television
producer, best known for his radio-TV game shows Truth or Consequences
and This Is Your Life.Born in Merino, Colorado, Edwards worked for
KROW Radio in Oakland, California while he was still in high school.
After graduating from high school in 1931, he worked his way through
college at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a B.A. in
English in 1935. While there, he worked at every job from janitor to
producer at Oakland's KTAB, now KSFO. Failing to get a job as a high
school teacher, he worked at KFRC and then hitchhiked across the
country to New York City, where, he said, "I ate ten-cent (equivalent
to $2 in 2019), meals and slept on park benches".After some part-time
announcing jobs, he got his big break in 1938 with a full-time job for
the Columbia Broadcasting System on the original WABC (now WCBS),
where he worked with two other young announcers who would become
broadcasting fixtures - Mel Allen and Andre Baruch.The young director
had an assured, professional manner, and in a few years he was well
established as a nationally famous announcer. It was Edwards who
introduced Major Bowes every week on the Original Amateur Hour and
Fred Allen on Town Hall Tonight. Edwards perfected a chuckling
delivery, sounding as though he was in the midst of telling a very
funny story. This "laugh in the voice" technique served him well when
20th Century Fox hired him to narrate the coming-attractions trailers
for Laurel and Hardy movies.
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