"Vance Graham", was a radio announcer, on-the-scene news reporter and later disc-jockey. He was born in Denver, Colorado. In 1927 he received a scholarship from the United Daughters of the Confederacy to attend the University of Virginia where he studied journalism. After graduation he traveled to Los Angeles. Soon after his arrival, he worked as a cook in a downtown hotel.
Blessed with a deep, clear and resonant voice, he soon found work at radio station KMPC in Hollywood as an announcer, newscaster, interviewer and disc jockey.
During World War II, he worked as "Assistant News Editor" for KMPC and because he was bi-lingual, speaking both English and Spanish, he recorded Latin American music shows for the Armed Forces Radio Network. He did live reports for the station in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In the 1950s and 60s, there was a huge surge in the popularity of Latin music with the "cha cha cha" and "bolero", so he had a radio show called "Bolero Time" heard every Sunday on KMPC. A recorded version of Bolero Time was also heard on AFRTS. He was married from 1954 to 1958 to Estrellita Santos who acted as co-host for his radio program during that time.
In the 70s he had 2 more Latin American shows on KMPC, KFI and KTYM. Graham hosted the shows called "Latino" and "Viva" as a character he named "Victor".
We lost Vance Graham in 1984, his ashes were spread over the Pacific.
(a more complete version of the above is at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49068615 )
But now, from 1973, here's Victor and Latino!
No comments:
Post a Comment