Graham McNamee | |
|---|---|
 McNameec. 1932 | |
| Born | Thomas Graham McNamee (1888-07-10)July 10, 1888 |
| Died | May 9, 1942(1942-05-09) (aged 53) |
| Occupation | Radio broadcaster |
Thomas Graham McNamee (July 10, 1888 – May 9, 1942) was an Americanradiobroadcaster, the medium's most recognized national personality in its first international decade.[1] He originatedplay-by-play sports broadcasting[2] for which he was awarded theFord C. Frick Award by theBaseball Hall of Fame in 2016.[3]
Graham McNamee's father, John B. McNamee, was an attorney and legal advisor to PresidentGrover Cleveland's cabinet, and his mother, Anne, was a homemaker, who also sang in a church choir. Born inWashington, D.C., and raised inSt. Paul, Minnesota, McNamee had early aspirations of being anopera singer. He studied voice as a youth and sang in churches, and in 1922 gave a concert in Aeolian Hall, New York.
In 1922, while serving jury duty inNew York City, he visited the studios of radio stationWEAF en route to the courthouse and, on a whim, went to audition as a singer.[4] Someone noticed his voice and asked him to speak through a microphone. He was given an audition after which he was hired on the spot as a staff announcer.
Along with fellow WEAF announcerPhillips Carlin, whose voice was so similar very few listeners could tell them apart, McNamee quickly became famous. Over the course of the next decade McNamee worked for WEAF, and for the nationalNBC network, when WEAF became its flagship station.
McNamee became well known for his broadcasts of numerous majorsports events, including severalWorld Series,Rose Bowl games, championshipboxing matches, andIndianapolis 500 races.
Radio broadcasting of sporting events was an entirely new thing in the 1920s. The announcers were a rotating group of newspaper writers. At the time baseball was America's most popular sport, and the reporters were at the games to write stories about them for print newspapers. Their descriptions were matter-of-fact, boring at best, had a lot ofdead air, mostly given in the past tense after a play was completed.[Example 1] In 1923, announcer McNamee was assigned to help thesportswriters with their broadcasts.
One day,Grantland Rice, told McNamee to finish the game on his own, and left. McNamee was not a trained sports writer, so he immediately began to describe exactly what he was seeing as it happened, thus originatingplay-by-play[Example 2] sports broadcasting. He wasn't a baseball expert, but had a knack for conveying what he saw in great detail, and with great enthusiasm, bringing the sights and sounds of the game into the homes of listeners.[1][2]
In 1927 he broadcastthe Long Count Fight betweenGene Tunney andJack Dempsey withPhillips Carlin to more than 60 NBC radio stations.[5] When a colleague asked him, shortly before his passing, what his favorite piece of commentary was, McNamee mentionedBabe Ruth's called shot in the1932 World Series.[6]
McNamee also broadcast the nationalpolitical conventions, the presidential inaugurations, and the arrival of aviatorCharles Lindbergh inNew York City following his transatlantic flight toParis, France, in 1927. He opened each broadcast by saying, "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience. This is Graham McNamee speaking."[1]
He was featured on the cover of the October 3, 1927, issue ofTime magazine.[7]
McNamee continued to broadcast into the 1930s, as an announcer on such weekly programs asRudy Vallee's, andEd Wynn's. He playedstraight man on the latter, reacting to Wynn's gags.
He worked in motion pictures, narratingKrakatoa (1933),Universal Pictures' weeklyUniversal Newsreels, andCamera Thrills (1935), anAcademy Award-nominated short subject produced and directed byCharles E. Ford. He also appeared as the announcer at the beginning ofThe Phantom of Crestwood (1932).
On April 20, 1936, he also worked inCircus stars bring joy to hospital's little shut-ins (clowns and performers of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus performed at Bellevue Hospital in New York to amuse children), by Universal Newsreel. In the same year, on July 7, he was briefly reunited with Ed Wynn for an ad-libbed spot on an experimental, NBC television broadcast.
In the early 1940s his principal activity was as a newsreel commentator, but he maintained much of his radio work as well, hostingBehind the Mike for NBC.
He was married twice: the first time, in 1921, to concert and church soprano Josephine Garrett. They were divorced in 1932, and he married Anne Lee Sims in 1934.
McNamee died on May 9, 1942, atSt. Lukes Hospital at the age of 53. The cause of death was a brainembolism after he had been hospitalized with astreptococcus infection.[8][9] He was buried inMount Calvary Cemetery inColumbus, Ohio.[10]
In his foreword to McNamee's 1926 memoirYou're on the Air, journalistHeywood Broun paid tribute to McNamee's role as a pioneer in the then-nascent field of commercial broadcasting:
McNamee justified the whole activity of radio broadcasting. A thing may be a marvelous invention and still dull as ditch water. It will be that unless it allows the play of personality. A machine amounts to nothing much unless a man can ride. Graham McNamee has been able to take a new medium of expression and through it transmit himself—to give out vividly a sense of movement and of feeling. Of such is the kingdom of art.[11]
In 1925, at the Radio World Fair, McNamee won a solid gold cup (designed like a microphone) as America's most popular announcer, receiving 189,470 votes out of 1,161,659 votes cast.[1]
In February 1960, McNamee was posthumously recognized with astar on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[12]
In 1964, McNamee was inducted into theNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
In 1984, he was part of theAmerican Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame's inaugural class, which included sportscasting legendsRed Barber,Don Dunphy,Ted Husing andBill Stern.
TheNational Radio Hall of Fame inducted McNamee in 2011.
On December 9, 2015, McNamee was named the 2016 recipient of theFord C. Frick Award by theNational Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, presented during the Hall's induction weekend in July.[3]
McNamee is portrayed by actorDayton Lummis inThe Winning Team, the 1952 film biography ofGrover Cleveland Alexander.
Radio Announcer, Pioneer in Field, Stricken in Hospital. Victim of an Embolism. Led in Sports Coverage for Many Years. Had Toured Country as a Baritone.
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