Earl Nightingale V (March 12, 1921 – March 25, 1989) was an American radio speaker and author, dealing mostly with the subjects of human character development, motivation, and meaningful existence. He was the voice during the early 1950s of ''
Sky King
''Sky King'' was an American radio and television series. Its lead character was Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King.
The series had strong Western elements. King usually captured criminals and spies and found lost hikers, ...
'', the hero of a radio adventure series, and was a
WGN radio program host from 1950 to 1956. Nightingale was the author of ''
The Strangest Secret
''The Strangest Secret'' was a 1956 spoken word record by Earl Nightingale, which sold over one million copies and received the first Gold Record for the spoken word, which helped launch the fields of business motivation and audio publishing. It ...
'', which economist Terry Savage has termed "…one of the great motivational books of all time."
Biography
Nightingale was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in March 1921. His father, Earl Nightingale IV, abandoned his mother in 1933. After his father left, his mother relocated the family to a tent in nearby
Tent City
A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures.
State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable ten ...
in
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
on the waterfront behind the Mariner Apartments.
Diana Nightingale is the widow of Earl Nightingale. She has continued working with Earl's commercial themes.
Military career
When Nightingale was seventeen years old he joined the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
. He was an instructor at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune () is a United States military training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Its of beaches make the base a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports ( Wilming ...
, and was on the
USS ''Arizona'' during the attack on
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
and was one of fifteen surviving Marines aboard that day. Other than Pearl Harbor, it is unknown if Nightingale experienced combat.
Career
After the war, Nightingale began work in the radio industry, which eventually resulted in work as a motivational speaker. During the autumn of 1949, Nightingale was inspired while reading ''
Think and Grow Rich
''Think and Grow Rich'' is a book written by Napoleon Hill in 1937 and promoted as a personal development and self-improvement book. He claimed to be inspired by a suggestion from business magnate and later-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
First ...
'' by
Napoleon Hill
Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book ''Think and Grow Rich'' (1937), which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time. Hill's works insisted th ...
. Quoting from the Earl Nightingale official website: "When he was 29, Earl's enlightenment had come to him as a bolt out of the blue while reading, ''Think and Grow Rich''. It came when he realized that the six words he read were the answer to the question he had been looking for! That, 'we become what we think about'. He realized that he had been reading the same truth over and over again, from the New Testament...to the works of Emerson. 'We become what we think about.' 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap
)..'"
During 1956, he produced a
spoken word record, ''
The Strangest Secret
''The Strangest Secret'' was a 1956 spoken word record by Earl Nightingale, which sold over one million copies and received the first Gold Record for the spoken word, which helped launch the fields of business motivation and audio publishing. It ...
'', which sold more than a million copies, making it the first spoken-word recording to achieve
Gold Record
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...
status. During 1960, a condensed audio version of ''Think and Grow Rich'' was narrated by Nightingale. It was titled, ''Think and Grow Rich: The Essence Of The Immortal Book By Napoleon Hill, Narrated by Earl Nightingale'', and produced by Success Motivation Institute. Also in 1960, he co-founded the
Nightingale-Conant corporation with
Lloyd Conant. In 1987, Nightingale-Conant published another very successful audio book: ''Lead The Field''. During 1987, Nightingale published his first book, ''Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery''.
Nightingale's radio program, ''Our Changing World'', became the most
syndicated radio program ever, and was broadcast across the US,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
,
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
, and 23 additional overseas countries, as well as the
Armed Forces Network
The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which in ...
.
After his retirement, Nightingale and his wife, Diana, formed the company Keys Publishing.
Just prior to his death during 1989, Nightingale created a new format for a book named ''The Winner’s Notebook''. It included his text, his illustrations, and incorporated space for a private journal.
Nightingale died on March 25, 1989, in Scottsdale, Arizona, of complications after heart surgery.
Recognition
Nightingale won a gold record for the
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 ...
album ''The Strangest Secret''.
In 1976, he won the Golden Gavel Award from
Toastmasters International
Toastmasters International (TI) is a US-headquartered nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of promoting communication, public speaking, and leadership.
History
The organization grew out of a single c ...
. He was inducted into the
National Speakers Association
The National Speakers Association (NSA) is a US based association that supports motivational and other public speakers. It is the oldest and largest of 13 international associations comprising the Global Speakers Federation.
History
NSA was f ...
Speaker Hall of Fame.
In 1985, Nightingale was inducted into The
National Association of Broadcasters National Radio Hall of Fame
The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988.
Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicatio ...
.
During the mid-1980s, Nightingale received the
Napoleon Hill
Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book ''Think and Grow Rich'' (1937), which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time. Hill's works insisted th ...
Gold Medal for Literary Excellency for his first book, ''Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery''.
Legacy
During his lifetime, Nightingale wrote and recorded more than 7,000 radio programs, 250 audio programs as well as television programs and videos. His speaking also inspired many future motivational speakers like
Alex Dey.
The Belgian popular music band
Felix Pallas used some quotations of The Strangest Secret in their song "Song for Melody", which was part of their first EP
2S4T.
Song For Melody - 2S4T by Felix Pallas
/ref>
See also
*New Thought
The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nightingale, Eyarl
American motivational speakers
American motivational writers
American male radio actors
American radio personalities
1921 births
1969 deaths
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American non-fiction writers