Radio personality obituary

Shades of Zooey Glass ... this obit somehow suggests to me how Zooey may
have ended up in his radio career.

It's from the NY Times, at (all one line):

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/24/arts/television/24TREM.html?pagewanted=print&position=

--tim

Les Tremayne, a Leading Man on Radio Shows, Dies at 90
By BEN SISARIO

Les Tremayne, a honey-voiced leading man of radio's golden age, died on
Friday at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 90 and lived in Los
Angeles.

The cause was heart failure, said his wife, Joan.

Among his radio credits were "The Thin Man," "The Falcon," "Betty and
Bob" and "The Romance of Helen Trent."

Perhaps his most well-known role was as the debonair leading man of "The
First Nighter" from 1936 to 1943. In that weekly show he and his leading
lady, Barbara Luddy, performed short dramas amid the meticulously
recreated mise-en-scene of a Broadway theater on opening night.

Before the drama began each week, the character of Mr. First Nighter
walked out of the din of street traffic and into the busy lobby of the
Little Theater Off Times Square. He briefly commented on the show he was
about to see and then took his seat, always third row center.

"The house lights have dimmed and the curtain is about to go up on
tonight's production," Mr. First Nighter whispered to the radio
listeners as the show was about to begin.

The program specialized in romantic comedies, whose principal roles were
invariably played by Mr. Tremayne (a predecessor was Don Ameche) and Ms.
Luddy. Because the show was performed before a studio audience, the
actors wore formal attire, with Mr. Tremayne in evening clothes and top
hat and Ms. Luddy in a gown.

Born Lester Tremayne in London to an American father and a British
mother, he came to the United States as a child and began work in radio
as a teenager.

Besides his wife, he is survived by a brother, Charles Henning, of
Vermont.

After "The First Nighter," Mr. Tremayne acted in television and film,
including a leading role as the general in the 1953 movie version of
"The War of the Worlds," but he never reached the level of success he
found in radio.

Of his more than 40 film credits, most were for minor roles, like the
auctioneer in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest." One of his last
roles was on "General Hospital" on television in the late 1980's.
Received on Mon Dec 29 11:13:56 2003