Does anybody recognize this narrator?

DaMont · Post by **DaMont** » September 20th, 2010, 1:39 pm

Does anybody recognize this narrator?

http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/xx/96253160.mp3

This is a passage from a story and was recorded during the mid-sixties for an English course.

Post by **chocoholic** » September 20th, 2010, 5:19 pm

The passage is from "The Leopard Man's Story" by Jack London: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1089 (amazing what one can find with an Internet search engine

) ... but if you are asking about the speaker, I have absolutely no idea. He sounds like a mid-20th century TV announcer, which I would have thought (from the accent) even if you hadn't said it was from the 1960's.

edited to add: Oh, I see from your other posts that what you really do need is the name of the speaker. I am no help, then, am I... I'll do a little digging. It isn't word-perfect with the Gutenberg text so he might have been reading from an abridged version; that might help the search.

DaMont · Post by **DaMont** » September 20th, 2010, 5:41 pm

I thought maybe a radio announcer or an actor; still an outstanding reader. I have no doubt that he made a living with his voice. That’s why I thought someone might recognize him, but it may take somebody from back then.

iremonger · Post by **iremonger** » September 24th, 2010, 12:07 pm

Is it Edward Hermann?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H-CUp9H_24?

DaMont · Post by **DaMont** » September 24th, 2010, 5:13 pm

I looked into it already and discounted that possibility. Herrmann was in his early twenties in the mid sixties, and this narrator sounds he was much older than that. Besides, the voice and style are different. Thanks for the input, though.

BellonaTimes · Post by **BellonaTimes** » September 24th, 2010, 9:32 pm

have you tried asking someone at The Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television & Radio) , in NYC? They have a website here:
http://www.paleycenter.org/
The clip is way too short to get a feel for the voice at any rate.

DaMont · Post by **DaMont** » September 27th, 2010, 12:29 am

That sounds like a good idea. I'll give it a shot and report back on how it goes.

Kim Stich · Post by **Kim Stich** » September 28th, 2010, 1:36 pm

Hi DaMont, No guarantees, but the voice sounds like Richard Denning's, a
wonderful character actor from radio, TV and films. He died in 1998 at the
age of 84. He's most noted for his TV role as Jerry North in"Mr. and Mrs.
North". Also starred in "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" and as Deborah
Kerr's fiance in "An Affair To Remember". For twelve years on the original
"Hawaii 5-O" Richard Denning played the Governor of Hawaii.

Here is a YouTube link for a clip of a TV series in which Denning starred in
the "60's" so you can get a feel for his voice during the period your sound clip
was recorded. Start your listen at about 3 mins 50 secs. Hope this helps. ~Kim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK2eBjhuGvI

DaMont · Post by **DaMont** » September 29th, 2010, 9:09 am

Boy, that is close—and the right age, too. Unfortunately, the audio on the video clip is not of the best quality. I’ll look further into it. Thank you for the tip.

Nevertheless, I’ve written to one the curators of the Paley Center, as suggested above. Let’s see what results of that. I provided him with some info about the companies that published the course, info I dare not provide here lest it might be considered spam, although I doubt many would be interested in an English course. Besides, the course was discontinued many decades ago. I do not think it was a good seller. Apparently, it was a joint venture by two companies that changed ownership several times after that and today are in a different line of products, anyway. I contacted them already with no luck. The main problem is that this was recorded over forty years ago and for a select audience.

DaMont · Post by **DaMont** » December 8th, 2011, 7:19 pm

It’s been well over a year now, and as hard as I’ve tried, I have gotten nowhere in my quest to find out who this narrator is/was. The only detail I came across by chance is that he narrated for Grolier during the 1970s, as well. To top it off, somebody identified him on Wikipedia as the wrong person, which I won’t be able to correct until I find out his true identity.

Since the above link does no longer work, here’s a new one, posted by somebody who was trying to help: http://soundcloud.com/dansco-1/sample-99/s-ZW8TI

I’m grateful for the suggestions I got here, though, the most serious I got anywhere. I think now that the only people who might know his identity are people who had a connection with Grolier at the time.

Thank you, anyway.