John Daly (American Media Personality, Born 1914)

John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly (February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991) was an American journalist, host, radio and television personality, ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show host, best known for his work on the CBS panel game show ''What's My Line?''

Daly was the first national correspondent to report the attack on Pearl Harbor and the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. During World War II, Daly covered front-line news from Europe and North Africa.

Early life

The younger of two brothers, Daly was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his American father worked as a geologist. While in Johannesburg, Daly attended Marist Brothers College. After his father died of a tropical fever, Daly's mother moved the family to Boston, Massachusetts. At that time, John was 11 years old, and attended the Tilton School where he later served on its board of directors for many years, contributing to the construction or restoration of many buildings on campus. He did his post-secondary education at a junior college and graduated from Boston College. Daly worked for a time in a wool factory and a transit company in Washington, D.C. before becoming a reporter for NBC Radio and, later, CBS.

Career

Radio

Daly began his broadcasting career as a reporter for NBC Radio and then WJSV (now WTOP), the local CBS Radio Network affiliate in Washington, D.C., as CBS' White House correspondent. He appears on the famous " One Day in Radio" tapes of September 21, 1939, in which WJSV preserved its entire broadcast day for posterity.

While covering the Roosevelt White House, Daly became known to the national CBS audience as the network announcer for many of the President's speeches. In late 1941, Daly transferred to New York City, where he became anchor of ''The World Today''. During World War II, he covered the news from London as well as the North African and Italian fronts. Daly was a war correspondent in 1943 in Italy during Gen. George S. Patton's infamous " slapping incidents." After the war, he was a lead reporter on CBS Radio's news/entertainment program ''CBS Is There'' (later revived for television as the Walter Cronkite-hosted series '' You Are There''), which recreated the great events of history as if CBS correspondents were on the scene.

Famous broadcasts

As a reporter for the CBS radio network, Daly was the voice of two historic announcements. He was the first national correspondent to deliver the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941, and he was also the first to relay the wire service report of the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, interrupting the program ''Wilderness Road'' to deliver the news. Those bulletins have been preserved on historical record album retrospectives and radio and television documentaries.

In July, 1959, along with the Associated Press writer John Scali, Daly reported from Moscow on the infamous ''Kitchen Debate'' between First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

Television

Daly's first foray into television was as a panelist