Mosquito Network - Hy Averback 1944

 

Hy Averback was born in 1920 in Minneapolis.  During WWII Hy was one of the first AFRS talents, training at Fox Studios and going to the Mosquito Network.  After the war, he became a very successful director and producer, known for The Real McCoys, MASH and I Love You Alice B Toklas.  He died on October 14, 1997 in Los Angeles, California.

Martin Harlow did a dissertation about the Mosquito Network.

"The year is 1944 and the world is at war. In the South-West Pacific, US soldier and radio broadcaster, T/5 1 Hy Averback, presents the /4teib/7ne Cocktail Hour program on the airwaves of the American Expeditionary Station (AES) on Guadalcanal in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. To keep his audience of Gl's and other service personnel amused and interested, Averback invents make-believe locations and situations for his show. "From the fungus-festooned Fern Room, high atop the elegant Hotel DeGink 2 in downtown Guadalcanal, we bring you the dance music of the Quinine Quartet'. 3 With Harry James' version of The Flight of the Bumble Bee 4 as its musical theme and accompanied by background sound effects of a murmuring crowd, women's laughter and ice tumbling into cocktail glasses, Averback's program is a daily reminder to troops to take their anti-malarial Atabrine tablets"

Read the full story

Mosquito Network - 1944 -Claude Thornhill All Navy Show

Hy Averback remembered his troop time:

"When Bob Hope brought his USO entourage to Seoul in 1951, Hy Averback was with them.  I did not meet him but one of our Seoul AFRS guys was able to do some interviews.  Averback told him it brought back memories of his AFRS assignment during WWII." - Palmer Payne