Norman Scarth Macdonnell (November 8, 1916 – November 28, 1979) was an American producer for radio, television, and feature films. He is best known for co-creating with writer
John Meston
John Lyman Meston (July 30, 1914March 24, 1979) was an American scriptwriter best known for co-creating with producer Norman Macdonnell the long-running Western series ''Gunsmoke''. He developed storylines and wrote radio scripts and teleplays f ...
the
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
series ''
Gunsmoke
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character ...
'', which was broadcast on
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
from 1952 to 1961, and on television from 1955 to 1975.
Other radio series that Macdonnell either produced, directed, or at various times wrote scripts for include ''
Suspense'', ''
Escape
Escape or Escaping may refer to:
Computing
* Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation
** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...
'', ''
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe
''The Adventures of Philip Marlowe'' was a radio series featuring Raymond Chandler's private eye, Philip Marlowe. Robert C. Reinehr and Jon D. Swartz, in their book, ''The A to Z of Old Time Radio'', noted that the program differed from most other ...
'', ''
Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...
'', ''Rogers of the Gazette'', and ''
Have Gun—Will Travel''.
[Dunning, John. (1976). ''Tune in Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925-1976''. Prentice-Hall, Inc. , pp. 12, 185, 215, 259-60, 268, 518, 584.] He was also a long-time executive producer for the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
television series ''
The Virginian''.
Early life
Norman Scarth Macdonnell was born in California in 1916. Named in honor of his
paternal
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
grandfather, he was the youngest of four children of Alice L. (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Talcott) and James S. Macdonnell.
["Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920"](_blank)
original enumeration page, Macdonnell family, "Pasadena township", Los Angeles County, California, January 2, 1920. FamilySearch
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and is closely connected with the church's Family Histo ...
, federal census, archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved November 19, 2018. James had immigrated to the United States from Canada in 1902 and by 1920 was a bank president in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
.
With regard to Norman's education, after high school he completed three years of college before joining the military just prior to the United States' formal involvement in World War II.
["United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946"](_blank)
Norman S. Macdonnell, enlistment "02 Dec 1941", Los Angeles, CA. The National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. FamilySearch. Retrieved November 21, 2018. On December 2, 1941—only five days before Japan's
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
—he enlisted in the United States Army.
Later in the war, in 1944, he was among the first divisions of American soldiers that invaded
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
-occupied France on
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
.
[Barabas, SuzAnne and Barabas, Gabor (1990). ''Gunsmoke: A Complete History and Analysis of the Legendary Broadcast Series''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 1990, p. 58.]
Radio career
Three years before his enlistment in the army, Macdonnell's radio career had begun 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' ...
at station KNX, which served as the center for West Coast or "Hollywood" programming for the
Columbia Broadcasting System
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
's nationwide network.
He initially worked as a studio tour guide at KNX and as a low-level assistant or "
page
Page most commonly refers to:
* Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book
Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to:
Roles
* Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation
* Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...
" for staff affiliated with CBS. He then began working as a general technician on radio productions, and he founded the "Columbia Radio Players", a career-training workshop for CBS employees.
[Barabas, p. 59.] It was there where Macdonnell gained instruction in voice acting and his early knowledge about organizing and directing radio broadcasts. In 1946, after returning to California from his service in World War II, he resumed his employment in Los Angeles with CBS Radio and was soon involved with directing several of the network's most popular dramatic programs,
anthology series, instructional shows, and comedies. Some of those were ''
Suspense'', ''Doorway to Life'', ''
Escape
Escape or Escaping may refer to:
Computing
* Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation
** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...
'', ''
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe
''The Adventures of Philip Marlowe'' was a radio series featuring Raymond Chandler's private eye, Philip Marlowe. Robert C. Reinehr and Jon D. Swartz, in their book, ''The A to Z of Old Time Radio'', noted that the program differed from most other ...
'', ''Romance'', and ''
The Harold Peary Show
''The Harold Peary Show'' is a radio situation comedy broadcast in the United States September 17, 1950-June 13, 1951 on CBS. Some sources refer to the program as ''Honest Harold''Dunning, John. (1998). ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time R ...
''.
While working on ''Escape'', which premiered in July 1947, Macdonnell started working with writer John Meston with whom he would collaborate on future projects, including the radio and television versions of ''Gunsmoke'' and the 1956 radio series ''
Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...
''.
''Gunsmoke'' on radio
In 1949 executives and programmers at CBS Radio began planning a new weekly Western for the network, one inspired by ''
Straight Arrow
The ''Straight Arrow'' radio program was a western adventure series for juveniles which was broadcast, mostly twice weekly in the United States from 1948 or 1949 through 1951.Anderson, Roland. A total of 292 episodes were aired.
Although firs ...
'', which was then being broadcast nationally by another company,
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 ...
. That series had proven to be very popular among juvenile listeners; however, due to contractual complications the proposed CBS series was shelved. Two years later Macdonnell and Meston discovered the proposal while developing their own concept for a Western, although one they envisioned—unlike ''Straight Arrow''—to be targeted at a much more mature audience, a series that Macdonnell referred to as an "'adult Western'". Adapting elements from the 1949 proposal, the two men expanded on the background narratives relating to their series' general chronology and specific location. Set in the 1870s, stories were situated in southwestern Kansas, centered principally in the rowdy, "hard-drinking" cattle town of
Dodge City
Dodge City is the county seat of Ford County, Kansas, United States, named after nearby Fort Dodge. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 27,788. The city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town ...
. Originally, Macdonnell and Meston planned to name their new Western ''Jeff Spain'', after a character they created and used earlier in several episodes of an anthology series they had done.
[Budge]
"Gunsmoke!"
''TV Radio Mirror'', May 1958, p. 86. Their boss at CBS,
Harry Ackerman
Harry Stephen Ackerman (November 17, 1912 – February 3, 1991) was an American television producer, credited with creating or co-creating twenty-one series, seven of which were at one time being broadcast simultaneously. Some of the sitcoms in ...
, and other network executives dismissed that title, preferring ''Gunsmoke'', a program heading that Ackerman himself was credited with conceiving.
Once given permission to proceed with ''Gunsmoke'', Macdonnell began developing a detailed production schedule for the new series' 30-minute episodes and arranging auditions to cast its recurring characters. His and Meston's "Jeff Spain" soon became United States
Marshal Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon is a fictional character featured on both the radio and television versions of '' Gunsmoke''. He is the U.S. Marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, who works to preserve law and order in the western frontier of the 1870s. The character w ...
, and veteran voice actor
William Conrad was chosen by Macdonnell, Meston, and two other CBS screeners to portray that lead character. Other seasoned actors soon filled the needed regular supporting roles, including
Parley Baer
Parley Edward Baer (August 5, 1914 – November 22, 2002) was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Cheste ...
as Marshal Dillon's trusty assistant Chester Proudfoot,
Howard McNear
Howard Terbell McNear (January 27, 1905 – January 3, 1969) was an American stage, screen, and radio character actor. McNear is best remembered as the original voice of Doc Adams in the radio version of ''Gunsmoke'' and as Floyd Lawson, the ...
as Dr. Charles "Doc" Adams, and
Georgia Ellis
Georgia Ellis (March 12, 1917 – March 30, 1988) was an American actress who is best known for her recurring role of Kitty in the Western radio drama '' Gunsmoke''. She was the daughter of John R. Hawkins and Blanche E. Sparling. She married ...
, whose initial role in the series would quickly evolve into the
saloon "hostess" Kitty Russell. ''Gunsmoke'' was broadcast for the first time from radio station KNX in Hollywood on Saturday, April 26, 1952. The premiere episode, "Billy the Kid", was well received by both critics and the general public; and in the weeks that followed the ratings for ''Gunsmoke'' steadily grew. The critic for the influential
trade paper
A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for this ...
''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' praised the first episode's story and acting, and he commended Macdonnell's direction in particular, describing the new series as "a blazing
radioater...with top
thesping and scripting values that pull it way ahead of the pack of AM westerns." The growing number of fan letters received by CBS appeared to confirm ''Varietys assessment and to reflect the type of audience that Macdonnell and Meston intended to attract, for much of the complimentary mail arriving at the network "came from a highly educated section of the population".
[Budge, Gordon (1958)]
"Gunsmoke!"
''TV Radio Mirror'', May 1958, p. 51. Lantern Media History Digital Library in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Communication Arts. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
Following the successful premiere of ''Gunsmoke'', Macdonnell's work as producer and director and Meston's scripts would dominate for years the radio series' weekly episodes, which were often complimented in reviews in trade publications for their voice acting, dialogue, pacing, music, and sound effects. Macdonnell's contributions to the now-classic Western were numerous and profound. He not only produced and directed many radio episodes of ''Gunsmoke'', he also wrote and co-wrote some broadcasts during the series' nine-year run on radio. Yet, in interviews he was quick to express his admiration for the stories produced on "Meston's 'grubby little typewriter'" and to credit Meston for establishing very high, consistent standards for the content of ''Gunsmoke's'' episodes throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.
[Barabas, p. 34.]
Other radio series, 1950s
Along with his ongoing responsibilities with the radio broadcasts of ''Gunsmoke'' from 1952 through the rest of that decade, Macdonnell managed to direct for CBS several other well-established and new series during the 1950s. He continued to direct episodes of ''Suspense'' and ''Escape''; and prior to the premiere of ''Gunsmoke'' he directed the short-lived comedy series ''
The Harold Peary Show
''The Harold Peary Show'' is a radio situation comedy broadcast in the United States September 17, 1950-June 13, 1951 on CBS. Some sources refer to the program as ''Honest Harold''Dunning, John. (1998). ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time R ...
'', which aired between 1950 and 1951 and was presented in an unusual format, as "a radio show within a radio show".
[Dunning, John. (1998). ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio'' (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 296, 327. .] Then, in 1956, Macdonnell produced and directed another 30-minute radio "
Old West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
" drama, ''
Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...
'' That series' lead character is a cavalry officer, Captain Lee Quince, performed by
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
, who a year later would move to television and star on ''
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
''. Collaborating with Macdonnell on ''Fort Laramie'' was his ''Gunsmoke'' colleague John Meston, who wrote many episodes for the new series, including the one for its initial broadcast from Hollywood on Sunday afternoon, January 22, 1956.
[Dunning, pp. 258-259.] In its review of that premiere episode for ''Fort Laramie'', ''Variety'' once again focused special attention on Macdonnell's directorial "touches":
Despite receiving additional positive reviews from media critics, CBS cancelled ''Fort Laramie'' by October 28, 1956, after broadcasting only 41 episodes.
Macdonnell, though, remained busy working on ''Gunsmokes weekly radio installments, as well as on the series' recent adaptation to television. Since the late 1940s, the adaptation of a series popular radio show to the rapidly expanding medium of television was fairly common occurrence in the broadcast industry. However, such adaptations in reverse—the creation a radio version of an already successful television series—was rarely done. Macdonnell was presented with that challenge in 1958.
["Have Gun, Will Travel"](_blank)
profile of the radio series' development and content. Radio Archives. Retrieved November 26, 2018. On television, the weekly series ''
Have Gun—Will Travel'' had premiered in September 1957 and quickly established itself as a critical and financial hit for CBS. The star of that television Western was
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''.
Early lif ...
in the role of "Paladin", a well-educated, cultured resident of 1870s San Francisco who advertised his services as a gunfighter or well-armed "negotiator" for hire.
Wanting to capitalize further on the popularity of ''
Have Gun—Will Travel'', CBS decided to duplicate the series on radio with veteran
character actor John Dehner
John Dehner (DAY-ner) (born John Dehner Forkum, also credited Dehner Forkum; November 23, 1915February 4, 1992) was an American stage, radio, film, and television actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performan ...
performing in the same role as Boone. Macdonnell, who reportedly had promoted the radio-adaptation idea inside the network, was assigned to organize and direct the episodes. The first episode, "Strange
Vendetta
Vendetta may refer to:
* Feud or vendetta, a long-running argument or fight
Film
* ''Vendetta'' (1919 film), a film featuring Harry Liedtke
* ''Vendetta'' (1950 film), an American drama produced by Howard Hughes
* ''Vendetta'' (1986 film), a ...
", aired on November 23, 1958, a year and a half after its televised counterpart. At a time when radio dramas, adventure series, and comedies were increasingly being abandoned by sponsors and audiences in favor of televised programming, the "duplicate" of ''Have Gun—Will Travel'' proved successful, continuing for over two years with 106 episodes being broadcast.
Television
''Gunsmoke'' on the "small screen"
In 1955, Macdonnell and John Meston's radio version of ''Gunsmoke'' was adapted to television; and that year, on September 10, it was broadcast on the "
small screen
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
" for the first time. The series would remain a staple in CBS Television's weekly lineup of programming for 20 years, becoming over that time "the longest-running prime-time drama series in TV history". Yet, unlike the radio series, Macdonnell and John Meston would not be the chief developers of ''Gunsmokes adaptation to television. Macdonnell was widely respected in the radio industry and within CBS itself, but he was not assigned by the network to serve as the initial producer and director for the series' early televised presentations. CBS chose others with more experience in films and television for those responsibilities, including, most notably, someone with far more "impressive credentials in directing films, especially Westerns":
Charles Marquis Warren.
After ''Gunsmokes premiere on television, both Macdonnell and Meston remained busy with the new episodes of the radio series and with adapting episodes already broadcast on CBS Radio for replay in a visual format. The radio version of the series continued to be popular for several years after the debut of its televised counterpart with
James Arness
James Arness (born James King Aurness; May 26, 1923 – June 3, 2011) was an American actor, best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon for 20 years in the CBS television series '' Gunsmoke''. Arness has the distinction of having played the ...
,
Dennis Weaver
William Dennis Weaver (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, best known for his work in television and films from the early 1950s until just before his death in 2006. Weave ...
,
Milburn Stone, and
Amanda Blake in their respective roles as Marshal Dillon, Chester (his surname changed from Proudfoot to Goode), Doc, and Kitty.
By 1958, in fact, the two formats of the series were together drawing a weekly audience of 55 million listeners and viewers.
Macdonnell by then was already serving too as producer of ''Gunsmoke'' on television, having been assigned to replace Warren, who left the series at the end of its second season due to "fatigue" and to pursue other projects. While Warren's guidance had firmly established ''Gunsmoke'' as a popular and critical success on television as well, the series "achieved its greatest popularity" under Macdonnell's control.
[Barabas, p. 111.] Between 1957 and 1961, the television series earned the ranking as America's top show in the
Nielsen ratings for four consecutive seasons.
Macdonnell would remain with the series until the fall of 1964, when he was "suddenly" dismissed due to creative differences with the head of CBS Television and due to continuing production problems the series' was having with its expansion to a one-hour format.
Other television series and movies
Macdonnell produced other television programs outside his work for ''Gunsmoke''. In 1958 he found time to produce "The Dungeon", an installment for the CBS anthology series ''
Playhouse 90
''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology dr ...
'', and "Mountain Man", an episode for yet another CBS series, the post-Civil War Western ''
The Texan'' with
Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown, August 8, 1922April 28, 1999) was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as '' How to Marry a Milli ...
. Then, after leaving ''Gunsmoke'', he began working for CBS competitor
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, serving as executive producer on over 110 episodes of another long-running Western series, ''
The Virginian'' (1962-1971), starring
James Drury
James Child Drury Jr. (April 18, 1934 – April 6, 2020) was an American actor. He is best known for having played the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series '' The Virginian'', which was broadcast on NBC from 1962 to ...
, starting with its fourth season.
In 1965, Macdonnell was also a producer of "The Easter Breach", an episode for NBC's series ''
Kraft Suspense Theatre
The ''Kraft Suspense Theatre'' is an American television anthology series that was produced and broadcast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's '' Kraft ...
''. He then produced an additional televised Western, ''
The Road West
The Road West is an American television Western series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1966, to May 1, 1967.
Overview
Ben Pride moves with his children Timothy, Midge, and Kip, his new wife Elizabeth, his father Tom, and his brother-in-law C ...
'', which aired briefly during the 1966-1967 broadcast season.
[Shreve, Jr., Ivan G. (2017)]
"Happy Birthday, Norman Macdonnell!"
''Radio Classics'', November 8, 2017, Sirius XM Radio, Inc. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
Not all of Macdonnell's production work was limited to radio and television series. For
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
in 1967 he produced the comedy feature film ''
The Ballad of Josie
''The Ballad of Josie'' is a 1967 Technicolor American comedy Western film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Doris Day, Peter Graves, and George Kennedy. It humorously tackles 1960s themes of feminism in a traditional Western setting ...
'' starring
Doris Day in the title role. Two years later he produced for Universal's television division the made-for-television movie ''This Savage Land''; and then in 1974, five years before his death, he completed production of another television Western movie, ''McMasters of Sweetwater.''
Personal life and death
On January 6, 1946, in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
, Macdonnell married Judith E. (née Bennett) Murray, a native of
Butte, Montana
Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...
.
["California, County Marriages, 1850-1952"](_blank)
digital copy of original marriage documents signed by Macdonnell and Judith E. Murray prior to wedding ceremony on January 6, 1946; California Department of Health Services, Sacramento. FamilySearch. Retrieved November 20, 2018. The couple subsequently had one child, a daughter; and they remained married until Norman's death in 1979.
[ On November 28 that year, less than three weeks after his 63rd birthday, he died of kidney failure at a hospital in ]Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...
. His gravesite is located in Altadena, California
Altadena () ("Alta", Spanish language, Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena, California, Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 ...
, at the Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum."Norman Scarth Macdonnell (1916-1979)"
Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum, Altadena, California. Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
, Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
References
Notes
Sources
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonnell, Norman
1916 births
1979 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
American radio producers
American radio writers
Television producers from California
Writers from Los Angeles
People from Greater Los Angeles
20th-century American male writers