Background
Bill was born on July 1, 1907 in Rochester, New York, United States, to Isaac Stern, a clothing manufacturer, and Lena Reis.
(AT BAT—WITH BILL STERN Baseball is a game rooted deep in...)
AT BAT—WITH BILL STERN Baseball is a game rooted deep in the heart of America. I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid old enough to yell: “Take Me Out to the Ball Game!” As long as I can remember, I’ve been hearing stories of baseball...fascinating tales of fabulous heroes from a land where the sun always shines and men never grow old...curious legends that grew stranger with age...yarns that have been handed down with the years as treasured lore. As I grew older, and fate cast me in the rôle of a radio sports reporter and storyteller, I’ve been fortunate to meet many of the heroes, old and new—Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Connie Mack, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tris Speaker, Leo Durocher, Ted Williams, Bobby Feller and Joe DiMaggio, to name but a handful who have paraded before my microphone. And each in his way has enriched my collection of diamond stories. Of the countless stories I’ve heard from baseball men, I’ve treasured a number to hold, keep and remember. However, a storyteller who has been sharing his most interesting stories with millions of people finds it difficult to be miserly. Hence, I’ve chosen my favorites and offer them in print to all my fans for a generous dose of the romance, the glamour, the color, the thrills, the drama, the comedy, and the nostalgia that are all part of this game called baseball. Maybe I’ll score with some and get shut out on others but here they are just as I treasure them in my sports memory book—my favorite baseball stories.
https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Sterns-Favorite-Baseball-Stories-ebook/dp/B073FQ9H66?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B073FQ9H66
(No. 416. Illustrations by Louis Glanzman. First Printing.)
No. 416. Illustrations by Louis Glanzman. First Printing.
https://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Boxing-Stories-Bill-Stern/dp/B001TXSN42?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B001TXSN42
(Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating bac...)
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Sterns-Favorite-Boxing-Stories/dp/1447434447?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1447434447
( The Colgate Sports Newsreel was a radio program focusin...)
The Colgate Sports Newsreel was a radio program focusing on sports. It has been called "one of the most successful and most listened-to shows in radio history" and "one of radio broadcasting's most entertaining and engaging programs." However, much of the information reported as fact was actually fiction. The program was first broadcast in October 1939, on NBC Blue. Although Colgate dropped its sponsorship in June 1951, the show continued on NBC as Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel through September 1953. It then switched to ABC, where it ran until June 1956. During World War II, the Newsreel was among the programs that NBC rebroadcast by transcription to members of the United States armed forces stationed abroad. Bill Stern, the star, made the program memorable with his enthusiastic, dramatized delivery. He was already both the narrator of MGM's News of the Day newsreels and a sports announcer. Thus the format of this program came naturally. For most of its run, the show was sponsored by Colgate brushless shave cream. The opening theme "was sung in barbershop quartet style to the tune of 'Mademoiselle from Armentieres'" and mentioned the sponsoring product prominently. Although the singing group was not named in the program, a news brief announcing the show's launch in 1939 identified it as the Armchair Quartette. The theme's lyrics varied a bit over the years, but the basic form was as follows: Bill Stern the Colgate shave-cream man is on the air. Bill Stern the Colgate shave-cream man with stories rare. Take his advice, and you'll look keen. You'll get a shave that's smooth and clean. You'll be a Colgate brushless fan. Celebrity guests include Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Doris Day, Babe Ruth, Joe Lewis, Roddy McDowell, Casey Stengel, Ted Williams, and more.
https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Sterns-Sports-Newsreel-Commercial-Free/dp/B016YYCKYO?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B016YYCKYO
Bill was born on July 1, 1907 in Rochester, New York, United States, to Isaac Stern, a clothing manufacturer, and Lena Reis.
After attending the Hackley Preparatory School in Tarrytown, New York, and the Cascadilla School in Ithaca, New York, Stern went on to the Pennsylvania Military College in Chester, Pennsylvania. Before graduating with a B. S. in 1930, he participated in football, tennis, basketball, boxing, and crew, earning three letters in varsity athletics.
With his theatrical aspirations nurtured by his involvement in college vaudeville shows, Stern took a job as an usher upon graduation, then joined a Rochester stock company, and, finally, made his way to Hollywood. Difficulties in making any headway in his career led him to return east, where he landed a position announcing sports in 1925 for WHAM, a Rochester radio station.
Although his announcing work took him to Austin, Birmingham, Cincinnati, New Orleans and other parts of the country, Stern quit to return to New York City, where, in 1931, he became assistant stage manager of the Roxy Theatre.
The following year, he was promoted to stage manager and given additional responsibility for the newly opened Radio City Music Hall. After a short time, Stern was eager for a new challenge, and after an appeal to an NBC executive, found himself covering the 1934 football season with pioneer sports announcer Graham McNamee. While still managing Radio City, Stern continued covering football parttime and won such wide popularity among fans that, by 1937, he became a regular member of the NBC special events staff.
Stern gained his first national exposure in a sports-talk format known as "The Bill Stern Sports Review" that premiered December 5, 1937, on the Blue Network, one of the two broadcast networks established by NBC in 1927. For four years he broadcast the Friday night fights on "NBC Blue, " sponsored by Adam Hats. His long association with MGM's News of the Day newsreel began in 1938.
On May 17, 1939, Stern was the announcer for the first baseball game ever televised, with Ivy League rivals Princeton and Columbia playing at Baker Field in New York City. It was with his famous "Colgate Sports Newsreel, " first heard October 8, 1939, that Stern really hit stride.
His emotionally charged, piercing delivery, coupled with his willingness, even eagerness, to mix fact with fantasy, made for an exciting and entertaining fifteen minutes of airtime--replete with tales of horse races won by dead jockeys, limbless baseball players, and the most tenuous influences that sports had on the lives of the great.
While some radio and television critics criticized Stern for providing more fiction than fact in his commentaries, millions of listeners looked forward to his stories and anecdotes. Among his most notorious tales was his explanation of the origin of Thomas Alva Edison's deafness.
As Stern told it, the great inventor's hearing troubles stemmed from being hit in the head while batting during a baseball game as a youth. The pitcher who beaned him, according to Stern, was none other than Jesse James. (A more factual account suggests that young Edison had been soundly boxed on the ears by an irate railroad conductor who was convinced he was the cause of a train mishap. )
Another classic Stern story - accompanied by dramatic organ chords - involved the early days of baseball: Abraham Lincoln himself, after having been shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, regained consciousness just long enough to say to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, "Tell General Abner Doubleday not to let baseball die. "
Although that particular tale led NBC to order him to label his dramatizations sports "legends, " Stern's popularity among sports fans nevertheless continued unabated.
As a sportscaster doing play-by-play radio coverage of major football games, Stern was as quick on his feet as some of the athletes he covered. In one broadcast of a Notre Dame game, he discovered that he had misidentified a player who was well on his way toward the goal line for a touchdown. Without missing a beat, Stern embellished the drama in midaction by describing the player to whom he had wrongly attributed the run as throwing a lateral pass to the player who really was speeding toward the goal line.
Stern's shows were among the most entertaining fifteen-minute spots ever done on the air. His theme ("Bill Stern the Colgate shave cream man is on the air/Bill Stern the Colgate shave cream man with stories rare") was sung barbershop quartet-style to the tune of "Mademoiselle from Armentieres. "
He ended each show with "That's the three-o mark for tonight, " a reference to the traditional newsman's "30" code for ending a story. The Colgate show ran nightly until June 29, 1951.
Stern continued to do nightly shows until 1956, including an ABC program called "Sports Today. " Toward the end of his career, he worked for the Mutual Broadcasting System, continuing to do his beloved sports-talk shows. Perennially selected by the nation's radio editors as the most popular sports announcer in the country, Bill Stern never shied from his role as entertainer as well as sports commentator.
Stern died of a heart attack at the age of sixty-four in his home in suburban Rye, New York.
(Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating bac...)
(AT BAT—WITH BILL STERN Baseball is a game rooted deep in...)
( The Colgate Sports Newsreel was a radio program focusin...)
(8"x5.5"x.75" hardcover edition)
(No. 416. Illustrations by Louis Glanzman. First Printing.)
In 1937 Stern married Harriet May. They had one son and two daughters.