1. Benjamin Franklin Grauer was an American radio and television personality, following a career during the 1920s as a child actor in films and on Broadway.
24 Facts About Ben Grauer
1. 2.
Ben Grauer began his career as a child in David Warfield's production of The Return of Peter Grimm.
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Ben Grauer was one of the four narrators, along with Burgess Meredith, of NBC's public affairs series The Big Story, which focused on courageous journalists.
4.
Ben Grauer's name is sometimes seen as Bennett F Grauer because he gave that name when he was hired by NBC.
5.
Broadway productions in which Ben Grauer appeared included Penrod, Betty at Bay, The Blue Bird, Processional, and Carnival.
6.
In 1930, the 22-year-old Benjamin Franklin Grauer joined the staff at NBC.
7.
Ben Grauer quickly rose through the ranks to become a senior commentator and reporter.
8.
Ben Grauer was the designated announcer for the popular 1940s Walter Winchell's Jergens Journal.
9.
Ben Grauer took over as announcer in late 1942, and remained until the orchestra was disbanded in June 1954.
10.
Ben Grauer continued covering New Year's Eve for Guy Lombardo's New Year's Eve specials on CBS in the mid-1970s, with his last appearance on December 31,1976, the year before both he and Lombardo died.
11.
Ben Grauer was one of NBC Radio's Monitor "Communicators" from 1955 to 1960.
12.
Ben Grauer narrated the first installment, which covered the network's first decade on the air, 1926 through 1936.
13.
Ben Grauer provided the commentary for NBC's first television special, the opening in 1939 of the New York World's Fair.
14.
In 1948, Ben Grauer, working with anchor John Cameron Swayze, provided the first extensive live network TV coverage of the national political conventions.
15.
For five months in 1950, Grauer was host of The Ben Grauer Show, an NBC talk show that focused on books and their authors.
16.
However, on the videocassettes and DVD's of Toscanini's television concerts, Ben Grauer's voice has been replaced by that of Martin Bookspan.
17.
An archival recording of Ben Grauer's voice calling, "Here it is," begins Harry Shearer's Le Show.
18.
Ben Grauer was active in several professional journalistic organizations as well as the Grolier Club.
19.
Ben Grauer had a strong interest in the graphic arts; he even printed his own Christmas cards.
20.
On September 25,1954, Ben Grauer married interior designer Melanie Kahane.
21.
Ben Grauer died of a heart attack at New York University Medical Center in New York City on May 31,1977, two days before his 69th birthday.
22.
Ben Grauer is interred in Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
23.
In 1956 Ben Grauer was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour in recognition of his reporting about France and French people.
24.
Ben Grauer narrated Two Hundred Years Ago Tonight: The Battle of Lexington, a Voice of America series that won a Peabody Award in 1975.