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Himan Brown (July 21, 1910 – June 4, 2010Himan Brown obituary.
''The New York Times'', June 6, 2010.
), also known as Hi Brown, was an American producer of radio and television programs. Over seven decades, Brown produced and directed more than 30,000 radio shows, for all of the major radio networks and syndication. He worked with such actors as
Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...
,
Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...
,
Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
,
Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...
,
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...
and
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
. A recipient of the American Broadcast Pioneer and
Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
s, Brown was inducted in 1990s into the
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 Communicati ...
.


Early life

The son of a tailor from a
shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
near the Ukrainian seaport of Odessa, Brown first learned about radio from a shop teacher at Brooklyn's Boys High School. At the age of 18, he began broadcasting on New York's WEAF, reading newspapers with a Yiddish dialect. One of his listeners was Gertrude Berg who wanted him to play Jake, her husband on '' The Goldbergs'', which he did for six months. He continued as a radio actor but soon began to pitch shows directly to advertising agencies. While at
Brooklyn College , mottoeng = Nothing without great effort , established = , parent = CUNY , type = Public university , endowment = $98.0 million (2019) , budget = $123.96 m ...
, he recruited fellow student
Irwin Shaw Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: '' The Young Lions'' ...
to write scripts, giving the author his first paid writing job. Shaw later based a character on Brown in his 1951 novel about the radio industry, '' The Troubled Air''. In 1931, he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Brooklyn College and a law degree from
Brooklyn Law School Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty. Brooklyn ...
, where he was valedictorian.


On the air

Over 65 years, Brown produced more than 30,000 radio programs, including '' The Adventures of the Thin Man'', ''The Affairs of Peter Salem'', ''
Bulldog Drummond Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is a fictional character, created by H. C. McNeile and published under his pen name "Sapper". Following McNeile's death in 1937, the novels were continued by Gerard Fairlie. Drummond is a First World War veteran who, ...
'', ''
CBS Radio Mystery Theater ''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (a.k.a. ''Radio Mystery Theater'' and ''Mystery Theater'', sometimes abbreviated as ''CBSRMT'') is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, a ...
'', ''City Desk'', ''
Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (character), Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''De ...
'', ''
Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established '' Buck Rogers'' adv ...
'', ''
The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater ''The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater'' was an anthology radio drama series with Tom Bosley as host, which aired on the CBS Radio Network in 1977. Himan Brown, already producing the ''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' for the network, added this ...
'', ''
Grand Central Station Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
'', ''Green Valley, USA'', '' The Gumps'', '' Inner Sanctum Mysteries'', ''Joyce Jordan, M.D.'', ''Marie, the Little French Princess'', ''The NBC Radio Theater'', ''The Private Files of Rex Saunders'', ''
Terry and the Pirates ''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, ...
'' and numerous daytime soap operas. During World War II, he worked with the
Writers' War Board The Writers' War Board was the main domestic propaganda organization in the United States during World War II. Privately organized and run, it coordinated American writers with government and quasi-government agencies that needed written work to ...
, producing patriotic serials to aid the war effort."Himan Brown; Produced 'Dick Tracy', other radio hits". ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'', June 8, 2010.
Brown directed many episodes of shows he produced. In 1951–55, he directed the NBC detective drama, '' Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator''. In the 1950s, he bought Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Studios at 221 West 26th Street (now
Chelsea Studios Chelsea Studios, also known as Chelsea Television Studios, is an American television studio and sound stage located at 221 West 26th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Hist ...
) to produce his shows. When television arrived, Brown produced 26 episodes of the syndicated ''Inner Sanctum'' TV series, plus a daytime show, ''Morning Matinee''. Realizing that "all these guys making TV, they have to have a set," he profited by acquiring the studios in Chelsea; they were used for 35 years by New York TV production firms. Through his non-profit educational foundation, Brown produced ''They Were Giants'', radio programs dramatizing the lives of such literary figures as
Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
and H. G. Wells, and ''We, The Living'', fact-based dramas about the lives of senior citizens. Brown also taught audio drama at
Brooklyn College , mottoeng = Nothing without great effort , established = , parent = CUNY , type = Public university , endowment = $98.0 million (2019) , budget = $123.96 m ...
and the
School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...
.


Personal life

In 1938, Brown moved to a ten-room apartment at 285 Central Park West, where he would live the rest of his life. Brown had two children, Barry Kenneth Brown and Hilda Joan Brown, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Hi Brown’s second marriage was with Shirley Goodman who was the President of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Brown died on June 4, 2010.


References


External links

*
''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (complete collection)
Internet Archive, Retrieved September 15, 2011
''Inner Sanctum Mysteries'' (166 episodes)
Internet Archive
Himan Brown official site
*

* ttps://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1692116/m1/ Pop Chronicles Interviews #136 – Himan Brown, Part 1
Part 2
April 18, 1977. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Himan 1910 births American radio directors American radio producers Radio personalities from New York City 2010 deaths Peabody Award winners Brooklyn College alumni Brooklyn Law School alumni Boys High School (Brooklyn) alumni