I’ve heard about Paul Harvey recently thanks to someone posting his “If I were the Devil” piece and some references to him in a book. Did anyone here ever listen to him and if so what was he like? While he seems to have been a conservative radio host, he doesn’t strike as of the same partisan, combatitive bent that say Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin are.
Snopes has an entry related to this:
So, if you’re looking for a Paul Harvey essay, make sure you’re getting the real one from your friend Harvey, not a fake one from your Faux Harvey.
Paul Harvey wasn’t really a host. His “Paul Harvey News and Comment” was on the radio for about 5 minutes every weekday morning, an expanded 15-minute version at noon, and “The Rest of the Story” (a short bio with a twist ending) in the afternoon—at least, that was the way it worked on the radio station I used to listen to him on, back in the day. His “newscasts” consisted of terse reportings of news items that he found interesting or important, and occasionally longer commentary.
People have posted examples of his work on YouTube, if you want to hear what he was like.
Good day.
He had a good voice and an easygoing delivery that was pleasant to listen to, but he was not what you might call overly concerned with the factual accuracy of his stories, occasionally repeating urban legends and general glurge. Nice, unchallenging, fluffy radio, sponsored by Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder.
You could think of him as the Lawrence Welk of the right-wing AM radio crowd.
He was an excellent storyteller, folksy with just the right dose of curmudgeonly. I enjoyed listening to him, even while taking the content with a grain of salt.
His conservatism didn’t really define his on-air persona, IMO. I don’t recall him ever getting overtly political. He wasn’t that kind of commentator. It’s hard to imagine anybody being offended by his broadcasts, while Limbaugh and his ilk are deliberately provocative.
He was a fun departure from “regular news” and I made it a point to listen to his shows. I wouldn’t piss on Limbaugh or Beck if they were on fire.
He had a really smooth voice and comforting style. His news was interestingly written stuff that interested him and a little folksy commentary. He was the opposite of most of current talk radio in that while he had a definite point of view, he was pleasant and comforting to listen to instead of provocative and controversial. It would probably have put people to sleep if he tried to do it for hours instead of minutes but it was great in small doses. His conservatism was mostly expressed in patriotism and anticommunism.
Also by Bon Ami cleansing powder: “Bon Ami, good friend”.
I used to enjoy listening to him on the ride to school when I was a kid, especially his “Rest of the Story”. He became more right wing/fundy over the years but never reached obnoxious levels. However, his “Rest of the Story” (which was a series of books in the '80s as well) and many of his on air comments should be taken with a grain of salt as many had major omissions or downright errors, and I don’t just mean politically.
Example that I actually remember: he told, and included in one of his books, a “Rest of the Story” about a lifelong failure trying to kidnap his own daughter who fails at that and then at everything else until finally he starts a business with his first social security check and it makes him a multimillionaire- his name was “Colonel” Harlan Sanders and the business was KFC, “and now you know the rest of the story”.
While inspiring, there’s a LOT that is left out of this, among other things being that Sanders was actually a successful businessman a couple of times before old age, that he in fact earned a lot of money from selling fried chicken long before he was old (his restaurant tanked because of a road change that decimated its traffic) and that in fact he made some of the worst business decisions ever when he formed KFC (he earned a lot of money from it but mainly as logo and spokesperson; his secretary famously earned far more than he did).
I also remember one about gays and nature v. nurture. There’s also one about Louis XIV’s brother Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who was effeminate and whose mother dressed him in girl’s clothes and who continued to dress as a woman for much of his adult life but, if you think he was gay then think again because he was a successful soldier who married twice and had many children and now you know the rest of the story. Well, point of fact ANY reputable biography will tell you that whether it had anything to do with his mother dressing him in girl’s clothes or not and in spite of his marriages and children Philippe was notorious in his own lifetime for his toyboys and homosexual orgies, he just also fulfilled his duty to procreate.
Harvey was a timepiece, the kindly uncle whose cranky conservatism bubbles to the surface from time to time but who you smile and nod rather than take on because ultimately they don’t mean any harm by it.
Gooooood… day.
I first heard him when I was about 12 years old (I’m 49 now). I had a job working outside and we’d listen to the radio to help pass the time. He was the first announcer that ever got me interested in listening to the news. It was as if your Grandpa was telling about current events. It wasn’t all factual and it definitely had a conservative vibe to it but so do most Grandpas. I went out and bought his “Rest of the Story” books and read them with delight. Looking back, sure they were glurgy. But they also got a 12 year old interested in reading and “history” so overall I’d say they were a net positive.
Good day?
He had a number of books published. Basically they were reprints of his “And Now the Rest of the Story” radio column.
He was always conservative, but in a nice way. His view of America was very 1950s and it was very real for him. He never understood the voices of anger of the '60s and '70s. He was a good friend of Conservative Presidential Candidate Barry Goldwater, who was one of the big reasons Harvey moved to Arizona. Harvey forever after was a one-man chamber of commerce for Arizona.
There was not much artifice about Harvey. That was one of the most effective things about his radio broadcasts. He gave the impression of a guy sharing the news (or comments) with you over the kitchen table.
Since those who didn’t listen to him won’t realize why some of us are doing various ‘good day’ endings, Harvey’s famous sign off was to say “good day” with a long drawn out ‘good’ and a ‘day’ that ended on an upbeat like he was asking a question.
I think that’s a good way to describe it. Another is to imagine Paul Harvey as a radio version of a Norman Rockwell painting.Of course, someone who cranks out content three times a day, six days a week is going to have problems maintaining a level of consistency. Harvey could be thoughtful and sincere, he could be shrill and silly, and there were a lot of times he just phoned it in.Among radio folk, he was widely admired for his craft. He (and his writers) had a highly idiosyncratic way with words and there was no one better at delivering a commerical.
I hate to speak ill of the dead, but Harvey was a racist. He worried about “the browning of America” and the yellow peril of China. Not racist in the “keep them out of our schools” school of thought, but racist in the “holy shit they’re going to outbreed us into oblivion” school of thought.
Sampiro has made me recall a story on his “regular news” 5-minute show back in the 90’s (all this could be wrong for details) that broke my heart and left me in tears until he came back later to clarify it.
The first version was that NASA (or whoever) had picked up signs that an asteroid or comet was on a collision path to Earth and that it would obliterate the planet in some number of days or weeks. What made me cry was that I was more concerned about the loss of our species and its glorious history and all its relics. It was a dismal thought.
When he came back with his “just kidding” comments to point out that there was something at least as momentous (that I have totally forgotten) he wanted his audience to focus on, it made me distrust his style from then on. But I would still listen just like I did (until a year ago) to A Prairie Home Companion for the humor and folksiness.
Like everyone else said. I’ll only add - seek out a recording of him, because his voice and delivery is a self-parody of a serious hard-crackin’ real by-gum journalist. It’s instantly recognizable - there’s no mistaking Paul Harvey.
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[QUOTE=Zeldar]
The first version was that NASA (or whoever) had picked up signs that an asteroid or comet was on a collision path to Earth and that it would obliterate the planet in some number of days or weeks. What made me cry was that I was more concerned about the loss of our species and its glorious history and all its relics. It was a dismal thought.
[/QUOTE]
"The only good news of an asteroid destroying our planet and all of its living beings and significances and records is that it would be the only way to get rid of the roaches in your house.
Page two…
Until now. Roach Proof. The name is simple, but what it does to roaches is what my generation would have done to long haired pot smoking weirdos if they’d been around when we were young… kill them dead where they bother you and make sure none ever come to take their place."
I think it was Rich Hall who used to do an imitation of him on SNL. He’d appear on Weekend Update and deliver a commentary on the week’s news story that became faux-folksy ad.
I’d often hear his commentary and agree that he had a distinctive, pleasing delivery and while definitely conservative was never strident or provoking, just folksy.
Never a fan, though. I used to listen to a lot of commercial talk radio when he came on. I’d usually tune him out because his subject matter was often glurgy pablum.
When I lived in Berlin ages ago, I would listen to AFN at night before sleeping.
Paul Harvey would give his “rest of the story” and I would listen to it most nights.
What others have said is true - he certainly had a great voice and good cadence and if I were grading him from purely giving a “speech”, he was an A+.
The content, however…well, I was never aware it was possible, but did you know that even with your eyes closed you can still roll your eyes until it hurts?
There were many times I considered him to be that old fart at the end of the Thanksgiving table who might have been well meaning, but believed every bit of crap he found on the Internet. Let’s just say he didn’t exactly spend a whole bunch of money having his facts researched.