George Francis Hicks (August 26, 1905 – March 17, 1965)AP report, ''Kansas City Star'', March 17, 1965, pg. 6 was an American announcer and broadcast journalist. He was a noted war correspondent, first with

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 ...

and then with the Blue Network.

Early years

Hicks was born in Tacoma, Washington, the son of Iowa-born dentist Dr. Archie Greenwood Hicks and Grace Mildred (Mackay) Hicks. He graduated from Stadium High School''Tacoma News Tribune'', March 18, 1965, pg. 44 and George Washington University after attending several other colleges.DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 129. While at Stadium, Hicks took a news writing course.

Career

Hicks applied at Tacoma radio station KMO after graduation but was turned down. In fall 1928, he went to Washington, D.C. to enter the Foreign Service School at Georgetown University, but was hired by radio station WRC several weeks later on October 15 that year. He was the announcer on a programme called "Half Hours With the Senate," which was broadcast on the NBC network. He was transferred to NBC in New York on November 25, 1929. By 1931, he had broadcast such celebrities as Calvin Coolidge,

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

and Maurice Chevalier, and covered such events as the arrival of Admiral Byrd from the South Pole, the Poughkeepsie Regatta, World Series baseball games with

Graham McNamee Thomas Graham McNamee (July 10, 1888 – May 9, 1942) was an American radio broadcaster, the medium's most recognized national personality in its first international decade. He originated play-by-play sports broadcasting for which he was awa ...

, the Lipton yacht races and the arrival of the Graf Zeppelin at Lakehurst, New Jersey on its around-the-world trip. On December 27, 1934, NBC's Hicks interviewed Charles E. Apgar, a New Jersey radio amateur who made some of the first recordings of radio broadcasts during 1913–1915, including recordings of German spy messages during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

."DOCUMENTING EARLY RADIO"
, A Review of Existing Pre-1932 Radio Recordings, by Elizabeth McLeod While based in London during World War II in 1942, he conducted a series of interviews aired on the Blue Network of servicemen from different countries telling of the horrors of war. Hicks recorded an on-the-scene report of the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

from the USS ''Ancon''. It was broadcast on the night of June 6, 1944 over the American networks via a pool feed."George Hicks and the network coverage of the Pool Broadcast of D-Day"
Radio Days During the broadcast there were sounds of heavy bombardment. His voice was described as "modest" and "incapable of false drama" and was considered particularly well suited for covering the landings. The ''

New York World-Telegram The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966. History Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...

'' called his broadcast "The greatest recording yet to come out of the war." On Christmas Day that year, Hicks was one of a number of newsmen injured when a Nazi bomb wrecked a small hotel in Belgium where they were staying. Hicks was also an announcer on

Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century wit ...

's radio programme for Canada Dry Ginger Ale, his final broadcast being on October 26, 1932 as the show changed networks from NBC to CBS. He appeared on the "Shower of Stars" TV show of February 13, 1958 celebrating Benny's "40th" birthday. Another programme on which he announced was

Death Valley Days ''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...

. On a 1939 broadcast, he relived the days of his grandfather Frank Hicks, who journeyed from New York to California in 1879 in a search for gold.''Tacoma News Tribune, Sept. 2, 1939, pg 23 After the war he was associated with the "United States Steel Hour" television program for 10 years. He toured steel mills to do commercials for the program.

Personal life

Hicks died of cancer at his home in Queens, New York and is buried in Flushing Cemetery, New York. He was survived by his wife, Anne, and his only child, Robert Ivan Hicks, born in 1933, who still lives in New York.

Legacy

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6314

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywoo ...

References

External links

D-Day recording
1905 births 1965 deaths American radio reporters and correspondents American male journalists American war correspondents of World War II NBC News people {{US-radio-bio-stub