Radio Personalities c1940 Vandercook & Niles Trammell D

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

View by private photographer No 34 is titled (handwritten on verso) Jno. Vandercook & Niles Trammell Pres. of NBC. Lowell Thomas is in the center, Vandercook at left and Trammell at right. John W. Vandercook (1902–1963). Son of John Vandercook and Margaret W. Vandercook. Author of 14 books in a wide range of genres (mystery, biography, travel and science fiction). An expert on the South Pacific and the West Indies, his bestselling biography Black Majesty, The Life of Christophe King of Haiti (1928) was illustrated by Mahlon Blaine (as were several other titles). John Vandercook's novel Murder in Trinidad (1933) was made into a film the following year and starred Nigel Bruce (best known for playing Dr. Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles). In 1940 he became a correspondent and commentator for NBC radio.The following information on Niles Trammel was from an article in 1940: When Lenox Riley Lohr took over the presidency of NBC four years ago, he abolished the job of executive vice president, gathered the management reins tightly in his fists. Not until January 1939 did he relax his grip. Then into the recreated executive vice-presidency went shrewd, softspoken, Georgia-born Niles Trammell, longtime head of NBC's Central Division (headquarters: Chicago). Last week Trammell stepped into the shoes vacated by Lohr when he resigned last month to become president of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. More convivial than his predecessor, enormously popular with his staff, new President Trammell is no front-office window dressing. Rated a supersalesman in Chicago, he distinguished himself there by boosting NBC billings to over a million a month, just twelve times as much as the New York headmen expected him to get when they sent him west in 1928. Big feather in Trammell's Chicago cap was a "million-dollar" contract he wangled with Pepsodent, which transformed Amos 'n' Andy from a sustaining show into a national institution in 1929. A great one for soap operas, he can still point with pride to such Trammell-promoted shows as Clara, Lu 'n' Em, Fibber McGee and Molly, Betty and Bob, Ma Perkins. When Trammell was a boy down in Marietta, Georgia, he was known formally as Leander Niles, informally as Pud. A member of a Mark Twainish clan of moppets called the "Dirty Dozen," Pud was a bit on the model side until the boys persuaded him to smoke a few cigarets, toss off a couple of noggins of beer. At 18, he was sent to Sewanee Military Academy, finished his schooling at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. From college he went into the regular Army, was presently attached to the San Francisco staff of wealthy General Charles G. Morton, whose stepdaughter he married in 1923. Same year he met David Sarnoff who raved so much about radio's possibilities that Trammell asked him for a job. Now forty-six, Trammell is pernickety about his clothes, neat as a pin around his office. Now he makes over $50,000 a year, lives on Park Avenue, likes to play golf, shoot crap, go fishing. Easily accessible in his NBC office, Trammell has a reputation for softheartedness, rarely fires a man until he has tried him on all kinds of assignments. As a new broom, he expects to do no drastic sweeping. When asked about his politics, he becomes a bit Socratic. "When you are born in Georgia," he inquires, "what are you usually?" These views were taken at Lowell Thomas’ Party. Background information about Lowell Thomas follows. During the 1920s, Thomas was a magazine editor. In 1930, he became a broadcaster with the CBS radio network. After two years, he switched to the NBC radio network but returned to CBS in 1947. In contrast to today's practices, Thomas was not an employee of either NBC News or CBS News. Prior to 1947 he was employed by the broadcast's sponsor, Sunoco. When he returned to CBS to take advantage of lower capital-gains tax rates, he established an independent company to produce the broadcast which he sold to CBS. He hosted the first-ever television-news broadcast in 1930 and the firs... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.