Paul Vincent Shannon (November 11, 1909 – July 25, 1990) was a

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

radio and television announcer best known for hosting the local children's television show, ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

'', and for his part in bringing about the early sixties resurgence of

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

Career

Shannon worked for years at KDKA radio in Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and hosted his own show as the ''Dream Weaver'', reading romantic poetry to electric organ accompaniment in the style of Peter Grant on the famous

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

radio program ''

Moon River "Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (film), Breakfast at Tiffany's'', winning an Academy Award for Best Original ...

'' over

WLW WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One. WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...

. He also hosted the syndicated science-focused program ''Adventures in Research'' with Thomas Phillips.Fritz, Jos
"Adventures in Research"
''Arcane Radio Trivia'', November 30, 2007. Accessed December 1, 2007. "Host Paul Shannon was a Pennsylvania native, born near Washington, PA in 1909. He worked at KDKA (AM) for years eventually leaving for a gig at

WTAE-TV WTAE-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by Hearst Television since the station's inception, making this one of two stations that have been built and signed on ...

doing children's programming including the locally popular ''Adventure Time''". After moving to WTAE-TV, Shannon became a Pittsburgh legend, particularly to the

baby boom generation Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. The ...

, as host of the popular children's television block ''

''. The show aired on WTAE channel 4 in the afternoons. The show showed

Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

shorts, the vast library of Warner Bros. Cartoons,

Rocky and Bullwinkle ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC tele ...

cartoons, Little Rascals shorts, and the first color

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

, ''

Kimba the White Lion ''Kimba the White Lion'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese '' shōnen'' manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka which was serialized in the ''Manga Shōnen'' magazine from November 1950 to April 1954. An anime based on ...

'', in serialised form along with skits and songs. Shannon played to a studio audience that attended each broadcast, usually scout troops, and amused his audiences with his alter ego, "Nosmo King", a play on "No Smoking" signs (but not to be confused with H. Vernon Watson (1886–1949), the British music hall artist who also performed as Nosmo King). He used a prop he dubbed "The Magic Sword". A high point of the show came each Christmas season, when Shannon read children's letters to

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

, placed them into a rocket, and launched it to the North Pole. Shannon was one of several 1950s–1960s children's TV hosts to begin presenting reruns of the Three Stooges on Adventure Time, bringing the trio's 1930s and 1940s comedy shorts to an entirely new audience. It helped revive the Stooges as a viable act at a time when they were considered ancient history, leading to an entirely new career of stage and film appearances. In gratitude to Shannon and several other hosts, the Stooges featured them in cameo roles in their feature films. Shannon played

Wild Bill Hickok James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement ...

in the Three Stooges film ''

The Outlaws Is Coming ''The Outlaws Is Coming'' (stylized as ''The Outlaws IS Coming!'') is the sixth and final theatrical comedy starring The Three Stooges after their 1959 resurgence in popularity. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Jo ...

''. He retired and moved to Lantana, Florida, in 1975, and died there of

brain cancer A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

at age 80 in 1990.

References

External links

*"Paul Shannon" (obituary),

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

, July 27, 1990 *"Marjorie Thoma McCormick Michaux" (obituary),

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...

, August 26, 1999
Arcane Radio Trivia article
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shannon, Paul 1909 births 1990 deaths People from Crafton, Pennsylvania Journalists from Pennsylvania American male television actors Radio personalities from Pittsburgh 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American non-fiction writers People from Lantana, Florida 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 20th-century American male writers

Career

References

Further reading

External links