I haven’t thought about him in years. I totally agree with most of what was said here. He was like Morgan freeman, his voice was so comforting and distinct. Sure it got worse over the years.
Does his son still carry the torch?
I used to like his radio show as a kid, but I also believed them to be true at the time. I think a lot of them are hugely false.
Did James Earl Jones really stutter super badly…and have to run to get medication for his sick sister(or brother), but stuttered so much he couldn’t order it properly?
I think he may have stuttered, but was the, well “rest of the story” true?
Yeah, Paul Harvey was a staple on AFRTS. At least up until 96 when I got out. I used to air his show two or three times a day. It was a bit of a pain in the butt as well, because he was a pioneer of the “slip the Ad into the news” and I would have to edit those out. Most of them came right after the “Page Two”, or “Page Three” exclamations he liked to use.
Next up: Who remembers Garner Ted Armstrong?
Or Chicken man?
TheWorld Tomorrow?
He used to do a thing called “Paul Harvey Comments” on TV. I always thought he was a conservative crank. Remember, the bar for conservative crankhood was a lot lower back then. I remember one episode where he said that we should nuke Iran. His reasoning was that it’s wasteful to have a weapon and not use it.
Paul Harvey was always a highlight of my day. He told stories, as so well recalled above, that were warm, heartwarning, and had a very good twist at the end. They always played at 12:15 and 6:15, and I would arrange my schedule to hear them at lunch or when work got off.
I loved to hear him, and was sad when he passed. His son did an OK job, but didn’t have the same personable voice.
Haven’t heard of that since I was kid. It was on the radio in DC for a little while in the 60s, then disappeared under some mysterious circumstances.
One Paul Harvey moment that always stuck in my mind was when he was telling the story of a crook (PH was big on stupid criminal stories) who had broken into a car and stolen a sleeping bag. But the spread out sleeping bag was covering a Two Thousand Dollar set of golf clubs that the crook was too stupid to steal! Ha!
It apparently didn’t occur to PH that maybe the person that broke into the car didn’t need or want a set of golf clubs, just a sleeping bag to try and keep warm that night.
He knew his audience and always came across (to me) as “America needs more common sense, hard working, just plain folks like us and less pointy headed, elitist, academic, expert, scientist, know it alls wasting our tax money on crazy studies and experiments and stuff.” Same old conservative mantra IOW.
That’s the guy!
This. Lack of fact-checking on his/his staff’s part made my job difficult to hellish for months due to us being swamped with calls from people looking for a miracle, and we still have people calling all these years later because they’re searching the Internet or hear some re-run clip or whatever and Mr. Harvey made a long-shot research study sound like a sure thing. So my opinion went from “folksy guy that makes me think of days at Grandpa’s house” to “fuck that.”
I used to listen to him from time to time in the 60s. He had a daily five-minute broadcast plus a weekly half-hour show. He was conservative, but not like today’s hosts; he would make his point without resorting to insults, sneering, or putdowns, and often had shows/commentaries with not political content at all. The politics was more indirect, talking about general principles instead of specific events. Usually, he’d just tell stories.
“The rest of the story” was his gimimck, where he’d tell some story and then reveal something surprising in the end, finishing with the line, “And now you know . . . the rest of the story.”
I don’t remember who the two DJ’s were, but they played a trick on Paul Harvey’s radio audience once.
Their live program came on after Paul Harvey and it was their job to end his show by turning off the tape when his show was over.
Paul Harvey always ended his show by saying, “Paul Harvey…Good Day”. He would make sure there was always a long pause between his name and his saying, “Good Day”.
Well this day the two DJ’s paused the tape after “Paul Harvey” and made the audience wait a full minute to hear, “Good Day”. I could just imagine thousands of people staring at their radios waiting and waiting and waiting for his familiar ending.
Yep, Paul Harvey was evocative of another time. As has been mentioned, his hardline [per late 20th century standards] conservatism was obvious and unapologetic, but genteel. He was the cranky mildly-embarassing uncle who’s always good for a just-so story that you’d roll your eyes at, and one key thing about how he’s perceived is that he lived and stayed on-air long enough that he began to come across better because of the contrast with the crass and vile ways of the Limbaughs and Hannitys.
I remember the old fellow was ecstatic to a near mystical state at Ponds and Fleischman’s “Cold Fusion”. “Today, it is a new age. Science HAS discovered… an eternal flame…” one segment began IIRC. Apparently he stayed a supporter in the face of all the failures to replicate.
Evidence please
I agree with these. His content was the kind that was most likely harmless, unless you took it too seriously and in too large helpings, and then it would slowly make you a little bit more stupid than you were before.
His personal behavior & weird doctrine aside, one of the finest communicators & speaking voices imaginable. Worlds superior to his father, which I’m sure was also a source of tension between them!
Armstrongism is an odd nostalgia item from my childhood, probably because my only encounters with them were The Plain Truth magazine & The World Tomorrow broadcasts with HWA & GTA both. If I’d actually been raised in HWA’s WWCOG, I doubt I’d be so affectionate.
Google can get you answers way faster than waiting on the poster will.
he was influenced by, to the point of imitation, of the sportscaster Bill Stern.
Stern had Reel 2, Reel 3; Harvey had Page 2, Page 3. Harvey imitated the delivery and style that Stern used. Stern told odd and extreme stories and so did Harvey.
both had long careers, Stern in the 30s and 40s and forgotten by many people by the time Harvey started (if you imitate something decades old then it seems new to a new audience). you have to find material from the right time periods and compare them side by side.