Video: Willis Conover
All credits go to the Voice of America. You can find high-resolution photos here. The Willis Conover page can be found here.
Video: Willis Conover
All credits go to the Voice of America. You can find high-resolution photos here. The Willis Conover page can be found here.
Comments
But alas...
Thirty years later, I was at my friend Ted's house in a suburb of DC. I knew little about the reach of the Internet and Ted was tutoring me. "Give me a name and I'll find the person for you", said Ted. After fooling around with this a bit, I had an inspiration and challenged him to find Willis Conover for me. Sure enough, there was a W.Conover in MD. Before I could think any further Ted was busy dialing his number. A man answered; he sounded about the right age. He was very gracious. No, he wasn't Willis - he often got calls from strangers for Willis - he knew of him -- Willis had recently passed away.
What an ungrateful fool I had been all those years for not trying to get in touch and thank him for all the music he brought to my life. Short-wave crackling and all, it was my America two continents away. From time to time I seek him out on the Internet. I am gratified to find more about him now than in earlier attempts. Still, he is a forgotten icon of American culture. There ought to be a monument to this giant.
A.G. Gonzalez, Quito, Ecuador
We started listening in the late Fifties and I was still listening, though not every night, probably into the early Seventies.
I always loved to here the theme music to the two hour nightly show. The first hour was introduced by Neal Hefti's 'Coral Reef' recorded in 1951 and the first session that the newly formed Coral records did in New York. It's available on the Spanish Ocium label (OCM 0027): 'Neal Hefti Sure Thing'. The jazz hour theme was Duke Ellington's 'Take the A Train' from 'Ellington Uptown' on a Columbia CD (CK 40836)but for those listeners who remember it Take the A Train started with a thud from a bass drum, this was taken from a Dave Brubecck version and you can here it on Dave Brubeck: 'Jazz Goes to College', Columbia CD 4656822. Why Willis took this drum beat and addded it to the start of the Ellington version I'll never know.
Robin Benson, Southampton, UK.