'Man Who Owned Midnight'

They called him "the man who owned midnight" and he was a familiar voice to millions of people in the Philadelphia region through more than five decades.

His name was Eddie Felbin but we knew him as Frank Ford.

The midnight tagline came mid-century when Ford hosted a live, late night radio show from what was then the headquarters of WPEN radio. On the ground floor of the building Ford operated out of a small cafe with a live studio audience of diners. In that cozy environment he interviewed some of the most famous and accomplished people imaginable.

Frank Ford was also one of the first radio hosts to use updated technology which allowed listeners to hear callers' voices when they called in to chat with the host over the telephone. Prior to that the host would have to repeat what the callers were saying and listeners would simply have to trust the host to repeat accurately.

Of course we knew Frank Ford as the husband of the great Lynne Abraham, Philadelphia District Attorney. And as DA Abraham has said many times: "No wife could have asked for a better cheerleader and supporter."

Frank Ford was a Renaissance man who remained curious and active all through his life. He didn't seem to know the meaning of the word "retirement." At various times he owned the Valley Forge Music Fair, a radio station and his own consulting business.

More from Sally A Downey at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Although Mr. Ford was also a musical-theater impresario, he was best known as one of Philadelphia's first talk-radio celebrities. His last gig was hosting a daily show with WWDB-FM before it switched to an all-music format in 2000. . . .

After graduating from Penn in 1939, Mr. Ford ran a modeling agency called "Eddie First." Later, when he had a radio gossip show called "Hollywood According to Hoyle," he took the moniker "Eddie Hoyle."
How he got the name Frank Ford is another story. In 1946, he had a job selling radio time for a radio station, and one of his clients was Frankford Unity Grocery Store. The store wanted a music program, and Mr. Ford figured that he could pick up extra cash by hosting the show.
To sweeten the deal, he took the moniker "Frank Ford." The program lasted 10 years, and the name stuck.
"I wonder what my name would be if the sponsor was the Piggly Wiggly stores," told the Daily News in 1995.
In the 1950s Mr. Ford was an announcer on WPEN-AM when the station asked him to take over for a late-night talk-show host who had moved to New York.
Known for his liberal views, in 1959 Mr. Ford won an award from the Philadelphia Fellowship Commission for informing the public "on many issues of inter-group relations."
Over the years his guests included Abbie Hoffman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sugar Ray Robinson and controversial comedian Lenny Bruce - who became a friend. . . .

Mr. Ford and Abraham traveled all over the world, she said, including to China, Japan, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. He was a foodie and enjoyed art, architecture, dance and opera, she said.
"Frank did everything with such zeal," his wife said, His accomplishments, she said, included producing concerts for entertainers as varied as Benny Goodman and Renata Tebaldi; making a TV pilot with Dr. C. Everett Koop called Seniority; and manufacturing cars. Mr. Ford briefly owned a business reproducing classic Jaguars. "He was remarkable," Abraham said.

Kutcher: Harvey Taught Me

Actor Ashton Kutcher has posted a tribute to Paul Harvey on his My Space blog:

Today I celebrate the life and mourn the lost of one of our greatest story tellers. Paul Harvey enriched my life through his gifted voice and ability to deliver a tale with the most unsuspecting ending I'd ever heard.

He made me want to buy a Bose wave radio a trempropedic mattress and anything else he was asked to move to support his story telling platform. He made the countless hours of driving back and forth the my grandparents house on sunday morning bearable.

I would sit in the back seat of the car choking on my parents cigarette smoke hanging on to his every last word. He had an personal interest to every story but there was always a wink as if he himself didn't know the ending. Occasionally he would hint a little smile. It was like he was watching your reaction and knew that he had you hooked. I always felt like he was the smartest wittiest person in the car.

He would take you on a roller coaster of peaks and valleys as we drove it felt like he had choreographed it to the road we traveled. And in the end we were allowed to find out "the rest of the story" which we never saw coming.

Thank you Paul for teaching me how to tell a story.

And thank you, Ashton for sharing. It's nice to know that someone in Hollywood has common sense enough to recognize a great American.

Paul Harvey Remembered

Gerry Smith and Phil Rosenthal have a beautiful story in the Chicago Tribune about Paul Harvey. Here's some of it:
Harvey had a litmus test for all his stories: Would Aunt Betty care about this? He thought about the interest level of his real Aunt Betty to get away from "highfalutin" foreign affairs discussions to discuss "meat and potato" issues like health care, DuMont said.A Harvey broadcast from the late 1980s included these items:
"Spec-tac-u-lar liftoff from Cape Canaveral this morning, into an azure sky," Harvey said, describing a rocket launch. Then it was on to "New York City. Last year. 8,064 people bitten by dogs. 1,587 people bitten [pause] by people."
Harvey said his trademark pauses were originally developed as a "a lazy broadcaster's way of waiting for the second hand to reach the top of the clock."
Steve Edwards, acting program director at Chicago Public Radio, called them "pauses you could drive a truck through.""One of the things that radio broadcasters are taught from Day 1 ... is that dead air is a big no-no and it's only after years and years in the field that you realize that silence is your most powerful tool, [and] he did it better than anyone," said Edwards, who remembers listening in the back seat of his parents' station wagon.
Chicago radio legend Steve Dahl remembers working in the same studios when he first came to town in 1978."One morning he walked past me and said, 'Good morning, American!' " Dahl recalled. "That made me feel like I'd finally hit the big time. Paul Harvey was the man. He sure made me feel like one."
Related Tribune links:
From the archives: Good days for Paul Harvey
From the archives: Paul Harvey remembered
Paul Harvey: 1918--2009 Photos
Paul Harvey: 1963 broadcast

Harvey: Beloved Broadcaster

Radio's most familiar voice is gone

Paul Harvey, America's most beloved broadcaster has died.

For millions of Americans Paul Harvey was a trusted, homespun voice - a treasured daily visitor, a midday friend. Paul Harvey understood the lives, the concerns, the dreams and the innate goodness of ordinary Americans.

Paul Harvey spoke for flyover country -- the middle of the country that too many pass by; the small towns and forgotten places on the map; the out-of-the-way hamlets; the social clubs and churches and fire halls and PTA's and Boy Scout troops and Sunday school picnics. This was Paul Harvey's America.

In writing of his passage, Rupa Shenoy of the Associated Press calls Paul Harvey "a heartland icon" and President George W. Bush says "his commentary entertained, enlightened, and informed. Laura and I are pleased to have known this fine man, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family."

Tens of millions of people share this sentiment today.

When Paul Harvey took to the airwaves from Chicago each day on ABC Radio and said "Stand by for news" in his distinctive staccato style people knew they were about to get the real deal -- the direct, straightforward story as only Paul Harvey could tell it.

For more than 50 years his news broadcasts and commentaries were like mini-symphonies; sort of a modern-day version of Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing." For it was the simple and unexpected stories of everyday America that Paul Harvey searched out and treasured. In 2005 President Bush presented Harvey with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Harvey composed his twice-daily news commentaries from a downtown Chicago office near Lake Michigan.
Rising at 3:30 each morning, he ate a bowl of oatmeal, then combed the news wires and spoke with editors across the country in search of succinct tales of American life for his program.
At the peak of his career, Harvey reached more than 24 million listeners on more than 1,200 radio stations and charged $30,000 to give a speech. His syndicated column was carried by 300 newspapers. And he continued to broadcast over the ABC radio networks almost until the time of his death.

His unique feature "The Rest of the Story" started chronologically, with the person's identity revealed at the end. The stories were an attempt to capture "the heartbeats behind the headlines." Much of the research and writing was done by his son, Paul Jr.

Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation's history," ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson said in a statement.

Harvey was born Paul Harvey Aurandt in Tulsa, Okla. His father, a police officer, was killed when he was a toddler. A high school teacher took note of his distinctive voice and launched him on a broadcast career.
While working at St. Louis radio station KXOK, he met Washington University graduate student Lynne Cooper. He proposed on their first date (she said "no") and always called her "Angel." They were married in 1940 and had a son, Paul Jr.
They worked closely together on his shows, and he often credited his success to her influence. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997, seven years after her husband was. She died in May 2008.

Fame neither changed nor tainted Paul Harvey. He remained just as he was: a plainspoken, sometimes folksy, always engaging and forever proud and loyal American.

In a world of cheap imitations Paul Harvey was an authentic American original.

We shall not see his likes again.

1210 Radio, 9 Tonight!

I will be on The Christine Flowers Program at 9 PM tonight (Saturday) on 1210 AM radio, The Big Talker in Philadelphia.

Christine and I will be discussing the power of words and how they are used and misused by politicians and others involved with the popular culture. We'll talk about how some people redefine words and even make up new words to advaace cause or sway public opinion.

Words are powerful.

And when we begin to play with words, change definitions and even make up new words, we're often playing with fire.

Don't miss this important program segment at 9 PM tonight.

Tune in and call-in if you'd like as Christine and I answer your questions.

Radio Alert!

Stay up late tonight and join me for lively discussion.
I will be on the Dom Giordano Show (1210 AM on the radio) tonight (Monday 3/10) during the 11:30 PM segment to talk about Charisma: what it is; what it isn't; who has it and who doesn't. I will follow my old friend Lynne Abraham on the program. Lynne will guest during the previous hour.
Please be sure to tune in! And thanks for your continued support and encouragement.