Norman Ernest Brokenshire was an American radio announcer. He was called "the pioneer radio announcer, " he was a dean of American announcers whose highly successful style set standards for those who followed him.
Background
Norman Ernest Brokenshire was born on June 10, 1898 in Murcheson, Ontario, Canada, the son of William Henry Brokenshire, an itinerant minister, and Georgina Jones, a daughter of a missionary.
His father served Presbyterian, Congregational, and Methodist churches in remote areas of Canada and in the eastern United States. The family moved from town to town, never spending more than a few years in one place. Later his family established a semipermanent residence in Cambridge, Massachussets.
Education
Brokenshire graduated from a Boston high school in 1915. After he held various odd jobs until 1918, and served in the United States Army, he attended Syracuse University on a scholarship, receiving an A. B. in 1924 and an A. M. in 1925.
Career
Brokenshire's parents had hoped that he would become a minister. For a short time after the war he worked for the Near East Relief campaign and then became a secretary for the Young Men's Christian Association in Fort Totten, Queens, New York.
He visited New York City in 1924 and worked as an announcer for radio station WJZ, inaugurating a career that lasted for about forty years.
Brokenshire was one of the first announcers to use his full name instead of initials on the air, and he fashioned a verbal trademark ("How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, how do you do!") that set him apart in the highly competitive field of radio announcing.
Brokenshire left radio briefly in 1926 and invested his savings in an amusement park. When that failed, he was hired by Atlantic City to promote its attractions. Time called him "the highest paid press agent in America. " In 1928 he joined the staff of WCAU in Philadelphia.
In the 1930's Brokenshire's career turned from news to entertainment, and he became the announcer for several highly popular radio programs, including "The Chesterfield Hour, " "Eddie Cantor's Radio Follies, " "Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour, " "The Good Gulf Show, " and "The Children's Hour. "
He did commentaries for films and narrations for documentaries, and his return to prominence was cheered by colleagues in the industry, critics, and loyal fans.
In 1945 he was the announcer for "Theatre Guild on the Air, " also known as the "United States Steel Hour, " and in 1947 he hosted WNBC's popular "Take It Easy Time. " During his comeback he also was the announcer for the CBS program "Hollywood Star Playhouse, " and reportedly his salary was in the five- to six-figure range.
In the 1950's Brokenshire left big-time radio but continued to host programs on stations on Long Island, including "The Brokenshire Show" on WKIT in Garden City after 1957. From 1958 to 1961 Brokenshire was the editor of the Port Jefferson Record, a Long Island weekly newspaper, and in his last years he worked part-time announcing for several stations near Hauppauge, New York, where he lived.
He died in Smithtown, New York. Brokenshire's career was a Horatio Alger story several times over.
(Hardcover.....SIGNED BY AUTHOR......No DJ, spine is stain...)
Personality
Brokenshire became one of radio's first personalities because of his keen ad-lib skills and his rolling, resonant, and deliberate voice, a voice that fitted well with his appearance; he was stocky and about six feet tall.
Within a few years drinking became a problem, and his career plummeted. He lost his job and then applied for a job as a day laborer with the Works Progress Administration. Brokenshire maintained, in later years, that his departure from radio was the result of a nervous breakdown.
By the 1940's he had joined Alcoholics Anonymous and his career took an upward turn.
Connections
On December 12, 1928, Norman Ernest Brokenshire married Eunice S. Schmidt. They had no children.