Clem McCarthy (September 9, 1882 – June 4, 1962)
[DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 173.] was an American
sportscaster and
public address
A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...
announcer. He also lent his voice to
Pathe News
Pathe or Pathé may refer to:
* Pathé, a French company established in 1896
* Pathé Exchange, U.S. division of the French film company that was spun off into an independent entity
* Pathé News, a French and British distributor of cinema newsr ...
's
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
newsreels
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...
. He was known for his gravelly voice and dramatic style, a "whiskey tenor" as sports announcer and executive
David J. Halberstam
David J. Halberstam (born October 7, 1951) was the EVP/General Manager of Westwood One Sports. Previously, he was the play-by-play announcer for the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The H ...
has called it.
Early years
McCarthy was born Charles Louis McCarthy in
East Bloomfield, New York
East Bloomfield is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ontario County, New York, Ontario County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 3,661 at the 2020 census.
The Town of East Bloomfield is in the western ...
. His father's work as a dealer and auctioneer of horses gave the young McCarthy frequent access to horse fairs and race tracks across the United States. Although he wanted to be a jockey, he grew too big and instead began reporting on horse writing in Southern California in the 1920s.
Career
As Halberstam's book ''Sports on New York Radio'' notes, McCarthy is considered one of
horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
's great
callers
Callers is an American indie rock band composed of Sara Lucas and Ryan Seaton, later joined by Don Goodwin, Keith Souza, and Seth Manchester. The band crosses the genres of folk, blues, jazz, and experimental alt-rock.
History
In 2004, Sara Luca ...
, setting the stage for well-known voices from
Cawood Ledford to
Dave Johnson. He was the first public-address announcer at a major American racetrack,
Arlington Park
Arlington International Racecourse (formerly Arlington Park, the name was Arlington Park Jockey Club from as soon as 1948 up to 1955) was a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Horse racing in the Chicago regi ...
in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Installation of a public address system there in 1927 provided that opportunity.
[
In addition to being a race caller for racetracks and ]NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
Radio, he was a top boxing announcer, too. His most often replayed boxing sportscast is probably his NBC radio call of the 1938 Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He rei ...
-Max Schmeling
Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling (, ; 28 September 1905 – 2 February 2005) was a German boxing, boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cul ...
rematch at Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...
:[
:''Louis, right and left to the head, a left to the jaw, a right to the head, and eferee ArtDonovan is watching carefully. Louis measures him. Right to the body, a left up to the jaw, and Schmeling is down! The count is five! Five, six, seven, eight -- the men are in the ring! The fight is over, on a technical knock out. Max Schmeling is beaten in one round!
Later that same year he called the famous ]Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, by four lengths in a two-horse ...
/ War Admiral
War Admiral (May 2, 1934 – October 30, 1959) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the fourth winner of the American Triple Crown. He was also the 1937 Horse of the Year and well known as the rival of Seabiscuit in the 'Match ...
match race, including this phrase in the final stretch run, as Seabiscuit shocked the horse racing world by outrunning the heavily favored War Admiral:
McCarthy is also known for having mis-called the 1947 Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...
when a crowd standing on a platform blocked his view of the far turn, just as two horses with similar silks switched places. ( Chic Anderson, one of McCarthy's most famous descendants as a track announcer, made a similar mistake in the 1975 Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...
.) As with Anderson later, McCarthy's quick and humble admission of the mistake helped the criticism eventually blow over. Years after McCarthy's death, sports film maker Bud Greenspan compared the audio of the race call with newsreel film of the race, and discovered that McCarthy had stated, "...and the crowd blocks me for a moment..." at the exact point where the two horses had switched places.
McCarthy's career also included work at local radio stations, beginning at KYW in Chicago in 1928. From there, he went to WMCA WMCA may refer to:
*WMCA (AM), a radio station operating in New York City
* West Midlands Combined Authority, the combined authority of the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom
*Wikimedia Canada
The Wikimedia Foundation, ...
in New York City.[
]
Personal life
In 1929, McCarthy married vaudeville actress Vina Smith. They had no children, and they remained married until her death in 1954. He suffered serious injury in an automobile accident in 1957, and in his final years he had Parkinson's disease.[
]
Death
McCarthy died on June 4, 1962.
Recognition
The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association
The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Pr ...
inducted McCarthy into its Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1987, McCarthy was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association
The American Sportscasters Association (ASA) was founded in 1979 by broadcaster Dick London (Hanna) and associate attorney Harold Foner as a non-profit association to represent sportscasters by promoting and supporting the needs and interests of ...
Hall of Fame along with veteran ABC Sports announcer Jim McKay
James Kenneth McManus (September 24, 1921 – June 7, 2008), better known professionally as Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist.
McKay was best known for hosting ABC's '' Wide World of Sports'' (1961–1998). His introdu ...
.
In popular culture
Comedian Doodles Weaver
Winstead Sheffield Glenndenning Dixon "Doodles" Weaver (May 11, 1911 – January 17, 1983) was an American character actor, comedian, and musician.
Born into a wealthy West Coast family, Weaver began his career in radio. In the late 1930s, he p ...
mimicked McCarthy in his 1948 novelty recording (with Spike Jones
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gun ...
) of the "William Tell Overture
The ''William Tell'' Overture is the overture to the opera ''William Tell'' (original French title ''Guillaume Tell''), whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. ''William Tell'' premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, af ...
".
Recording
''Clem McCarthy, the Voice of American Sports'', an LP record
The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...
, was produced in 1962.[
]
References
External links
Sportscasters Hall of Fame
* ttp://colinsghost.org/2016/05/the-incredible-story-behind-clem-mccarthys-first-kentucky-derby-broadcast.html The incredible story behind Clem McCarthy's first Kentucky Derby broadcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Clem
1882 births
1962 deaths
American horse racing announcers
American sports announcers
Boxing commentators
Sportspeople from Rochester, New York