I was talking to my SF friend ‘Spooky Noodles’ about the death of the White Man and His History. Young folks are devoid of History. They are creatures of the Social Network that demands they be in the here an now. But, without understanding how history works, our youth may be losing the human sense of TIME. The Age of The Forgettable Man, has arrived. It occurred to me this age needed a mascot. Harry Von Zell, the man who did not take any steps to be somebody.
“After friends tricked him into singing on a radio program, he received offers from radio stations, and his radio career began.”
Facebook has been posting Memory Lane Blocks for me. It chooses my fond memories randomly. Most of the time I am looking at the faces of folks I talked to once or twice. We had very brief conversation. Nothing to write home about.
Harry is the most innocuous man who ever walked the earth. He invented the Straight Man. Many folks want to play it straight. They want to remain Empty Slates. They don’t want to be challenged by anyone. They want to give brief messages that claim they are normal and sane. They want to tell the world
“I got the Von Zell.”
Von Zell instigated “Here’s Johnny!”
“When he entered a room, Felton would often shout excitedly, “Why, Mr. von Zellllllllllll!”
Many folks are dropping out of Facebook. They too are doing a Von Zell. They have forgotten what Obscurity feels like – and they hardly share anything, but a cute cat or two.
To be in a state of Von Zell is to be seen as a nice guy, a dude who never bothers anyone, or competes for attention. You are lost in empty space. No one remembers your name, and can’t quite place your face. Your History is on empty. You will be forgotten. Time marches on – without you! You are in………The Von Zell Zone.
Heeeere’s Harry!
Jon Presco
Harry von Zell (July 11, 1906 – November 21, 1981) was an announcer of radio programs and an actor in films and television shows. He is best remembered for his work onThe George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, and for once mispronouncing President Herbert Hoover‘s name on the air, a slip that was exaggerated on a later comedy record album.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_von_Zell
After friends tricked him into singing on a radio program, he received offers from radio stations, and his radio career began.
The March of Time is an American radio news documentary and dramatization series sponsored by Time Inc. and broadcast from 1931 to 1945. Created by broadcasting pioneer Fred Smith and Time magazine executive Roy E. Larsen, the program combined actual news events with reenactments. The “voice” of The March of Time was Westbrook Van Voorhis. The radio series was the basis of the famed March of Time newsreel series shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951.
Von Zell broke into show business as a singer and announcer at radio station KMIC in Inglewood, California in the mid-1920s. Later, auditioning for Paul Whiteman‘s radio show in 1929, he was chosen from a field of 250 announcers.[1] When that series came to an end in 1930, he headed for New York and became a CBS staff announcer, working with Fred Allen, Phil Baker, Eddy Duchin and Ed Wynn. He also announced for The Aldrich Family, The Amazing Mr. Smith,[2] and The March of Time. During the 1920s and 1930s von Zell served as announcer on some 20 shows a week.[1]
His longest-running radio partnership was his nine seasons with veteran comedian Eddie Cantor. From October 1940 to June 1949 von Zell served as Cantor’s commercial spokesperson and straight man. As Cantor cast member Dinah Shore‘s solo career began to blossom, she brought von Zell in as announcer on her Birds Eye Open House program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_Time_(radio_program)
Radio comedy[edit]
As an actor, von Zell appeared on the Joan Davis radio series as the love interest of the character played by Verna Felton. When he entered a room, Felton would often shout excitedly, “Why, Mr. von Zellllllllllll!” After this von Zell headlined his own short-lived radio program, The Smiths of Hollywood, which featured Arthur Treacher and Jan Ford (who would later become Howard Hughes‘ paramour under the name of Terry Moore).
Film[edit]
As a film actor, von Zell appeared in at least 28 features and in his own series of slapstick comedy shorts for Columbia Pictures (1946–50). His film debut came in 1943, when he provided the offscreen narration for four entries in the Flicker Flashbacks series of silent-film satires. His face was first seen on screen in feature films of 1945.[3] His movies included Saxon Charm, Dear Wife, Son of Paleface, Two Flags West,USS Teakettle, and For Heaven’s Sake.[1]
Television[edit]
Von Zell worked in the early days of television, in 1931 describing boxing matches on experimental television boxing broadcasts.[4] Nearly 20 years later, the exposure von Zell received from the Columbia comedies led to his being hired for television shows as the medium began to reach a mass audience. In early 1950, he had his first major television exposure as announcer and spokesman for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer on Jackie Gleason‘s The Life of Riley. In September 1951, when The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show moved from radio to television he replaced the radio show’s announcer, Bill Goodwin. Appearing under his own name (as Goodwin had), Harry von Zell continued to play the befuddled friend of the Burns family and the show-within-a-show’s announcer until 1958, the year of Gracie Allen‘s retirement and the series conclusion. Von Zell also appeared in an episode of McHale’s Navy, as Admiral Parker the uncle of Tim Conway’s character Ensign Parker.
During the 1958-59 television season, von Zell continued working with George Burns on his short-lived 25 week NBC sitcom, The George Burns Show. That same year he wrote the teleplays for four episodes of NBC’s Wagon Train and acted in one of them. In 1959 he joined comedian George Gobel, announcing for his single-season half-hour program on CBS.
He appeared in the Perry Mason episodes, “The Case of the Ancient Romeo” (1962) and “The Case of the Libelous Locket” (1963). He was also cast in an episode of NBC’s western series, The Tall Man. Between 1960 and 1961 von Zell appeared in five episodes of the television series Bachelor Father, as Bentley Gregg’s (John Forsythe) good friend Frank Curtis.
Von Zell delivered the commentary on Celebrity Golf, a series of half-hour, nine-hole golf matches made in 1960 with Sam Snead taking on Hollywood celebrities at Los Angeles golf courses such as Woodland Hills and Lakeside Country Club. Those matches can now be viewed late nights on the Golf Channel. In his later years Zell was a commercial spokesman for Los Angeles-based savings and loan associationHome Savings of America. In 1976 he was one of the many leading radio announcers who participated in a television special, The Good Old Days of Radio.[citation needed] He also appeared on one of the Ellery Queen shows in 1975.
Death[edit]
Harry von Zell died of cancer November 21, 1981, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.[1]
Rosamond Press 
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