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Himan Brown Honored for 50-Year Contribution to Radio Drama (Nov 3, 1980)



November 3, 1980

HI BROWN, PRODUCER OF ‘CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER’,

HONORED FOR ‘50-YEAR CONTRIBUTION TO RADIO DRAMA’

The New School, a major New York City institutions that offers instruction in all facets of the arts, will make a special award this week to Himan Brown, creator and producer of the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER on the CBS Radio Network, honoring his “half-century as the moving force behind radio drama in the United States.”

The honor was announced be Prof. Richard Brown, who conducts the school’s Electric Mind Series and will present the award to Mr.Brown before some 600 students in the course this Wednesday evening, Nov. 5.

Hi Brown also will serve as a guest lecturer that night, discussing the history of American radio, and will demonstrate for the students how a MYSTERY THEATER script is recorded.

As an example, he will provide a script of the 1940 radio broadcast “Frankenstein”,  based on the original Mary Shelly book, and direct Prof. Brown and several students in performing the drama.

The award to Hi Brown consists of a specially designed plaque featuring a replica of a miniature cathedral radio and a bronze plate that reads: “For Hi Brown. For a half-century his talent and energy have fused the art of the drama and the magic of radio to captivate a nation.

(More)

CBS Radio (HI) . . . 2



With love and appreciation from the Electric Mind Series at the New School.”


Hi Brown began his broadcasting career as a teenage actor, but quickly moved into production when he sold “The Rise of the Goldbergs”.

He subsequently produced and directed a long list a dramatic serials, including “Dick Tracy”, “Joyce Jordan, M.D.”, “Terry and the Pirates” and “John’s Other Wife”.

In 1937 he turned to once-a-week dramas and created, produced and directed such popular programs as “Grand Central Station”, “The Thin Man”, “Bulldog Drummond”, “Inner Sanctum Mysteries” and many others.

In January 1974, the CBS Radio Network brought him back to America’s airwaves as creator, producer and director of the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, which will go into its eighth years the beginning of 1981. The series provides five dramas each week on affiliate stations of the CBS Radio Drama Network, and has won many accolades and honors since its inception.

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Contact:  Bill Falk
                                                                   

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