Galen Drake (born Foster Purcell Rucker; - June 30, 1989) was an American broadcaster whose programs provided "homespun philosophy and observations, aimed mainly at housewives" for more than 20 years.

Early years

Drake was born Foster Purcell Rucker in

Kokomo, Indiana Kokomo ( ) is a city in Indiana and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard County, the Kokomo-Peru CSA, which includ ...

, the son of Theodore and Flora Rucker. In addition to an older sibling, he had three half-siblings who were adults when he was born. He moved to

Long Beach, California 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 ...

, when he was young. He began taking vocal lessons at age 10, eventually becoming a concert singer. He also was a symphony conductor. He graduated from

Long Beach Polytechnic High School Long Beach Polytechnic High School, founded in 1895 as Long Beach High School, is a four-year public high school located at 1600 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach, California, United States. The school serves portions of Long Beach, including Bixby ...

, and he pursued medical studies at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

but left that program because he had to go to work.

Career

Drake began working in radio at KFOX in Long Beach while he was a high school student. He continued working there after he finished high school, and he directed plays at Long Beach Community Playhouse. In 1939 Drake became host on programming of

The Housewives' Protective League ''The Housewives' Protective League'', or HPL, was a daily CBS radio program created by Fletcher Wiley that aired from 1948 through 1962 and was hosted by Galen Drake over CBS-affiliated KSFO in San Francisco, and CBS-owned KNX in Los Angeles. ...

(HPL) on radio station KNX in Los Angeles. He replaced Fletcher Wiley, the founder of HPL, who had recruited him for that role. Drake went on to have an HPL program in San Francisco, and in 1944 he moved to New York. Also in 1944, ''Radio Life'' magazine's editorial board selected Drake as the person having the "most convincing microphone voice" when the magazine presented its first distinguished achievement awards. By November 1949 he had a Monday-Friday program on ABC Radio and two Monday-Friday programs on radio station WCBS. He also had two Saturday programs on WCBS. His handling of commercials was similar to that of

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...

. He used a "conversational, spontaneous manner" when he promoted products, working from notes rather than reading from a script. Although HPL headquarters provided scripts for commentators, Drake said that he ad-libbed content from his own notes, using material from his 10,000-book personal library. He sought to make his commentaries sound conversational. Toward that end, he entered the studio fewer than five minutes before each episode was to begin, "clutching only the sparsest of notes." Drake's programs touched on a variety of topics. ''The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio'' commented, "For example, on one broadcast in 1947 he dealt with night vision, the effect of emotions on driving, mountain climbing, inventors, and juvenile delinquency." On January 12, 1957, Drake began a television program, ''This Is Galen Drake'', on ABC. It ended on May 11, 1957. Also known as ''The Galen Drake Show'', the series was broadcast at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturdays. Episodes featured Drake's biography of a featured guest, songs by Stuart Foster and Rita Ellis, and a debate on a current topic.

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was the sponsor. In 1959 Drake moved to WOR radio in New York City, from which his program was carried on the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

Name

Newspaper columnist Ben Gross publicized Drake's real name for the first time in October 1947. The name "Galen Drake" came with the job at HPL and "was for years under complete control of The Housewives Protective League" and later CBS after it bought that entity and made HPL a CBS subsidiary. Rucker eventually had his name changed legally to Galen Drake. A problem arose in 1959 when Drake decided to leave CBS to work for radio station WOR. He had agreed in 1953 that if he used his name professionally other than for CBS, he would pay a percentage of his gross income to CBS. With the move to WOR looming, he negotiated with CBS to pay a flat fee for use of the name in lieu of the specified percentage. The network initially wanted $25,000, but Drake refused to pay that amount. The two parties finally agreed on $7,500.

Later years, personal life and death

Drake had a daughter and a son. He went back to Long Beach in the mid-1960s. While there he made some commercials and acted in the syndicated radio drama ''Heartbeat Theater'' for

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. He died of lung cancer on June 30, 1989, in Long Beach, California, aged 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, Galen 1900s births 1989 deaths Radio personalities from Indiana Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumni