Spoiler : Per, and thanks to radio historian and novelist Jim Cox, that, at age six, Alois Havrilla and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in a Slovakian commune at Bridgeport, Conn. Within a year the lad’s musical aptitude was beginning to be witnessed by others. His alto voice possessed a range of three octaves. John Baker, a vocal coach, tutored him in voice and English, the latter subject in the curriculum of the school in which he was enrolled. As a youth Havrilla took solo parts in church music productions and studied music at New York University. Becoming a professional vocalist, he appeared at many venues including Carnegie Hall with Percy Grainger in 1923. According to legend, NBC announcer Graham McNamee was once in the Carnegie Hall audience when Havrilla performed there. So impressed was he with Havrilla’s voice clarity that he urged him to audition for radio as an announcer. The rest is history. Others recognized similar qualities in Havrilla. In November of 1935 he won the prestigious diction medal given annually by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to “the best radio announcer from the standpoint of pronunciation, articulation, tonal quality, accent and general cultural effect.” This-to someone who couldn’t speak any English for several of his formative years!

Spoiler : Between 1924-1946 Havrilla was on the staffs of a quartet of New York radio stations-WEAF, WJZ, WABC, WOR-as announcer, narrator and commentator. He joined NBC in the year of its formation, 1926, as a baritone soloist and announcer. Between 1928-1946 he narrated Pathe newsreels and travelogues for Universal, Paramount Pictorial and RKO movie producers. Havrilla joined WPAT, Paterson, N. J., in 1946 and transferred to Newark’s WNJR in 1949, his employer at the time of his death.

Spoiler : On one of his early network features, Jack Frost Melody Moments, the ad agency decided that the sales pitches would be downplayed by referring the listeners elsewhere. Therefore, on a typical occasion, Havrilla observed: “Because we feel that we are your hosts, we are not going to talk shop. You will be more interested in the advertising story of Jack Frost packaged sugar as it appears regularly in the newspapers or as your grocer will gladly tell you than if we told it at length here.” It was a marketing strategy not readily embraced by other sponsors.

Spoiler : Havrilla’s eating and drinking habits were baffling to George Ansbro, his chum and colleague at NBC. Ansbro recalled an amusing anecdote in his memoir: “He [Havrilla] kept a bottle of Scotch in his locker at all times for that moment when he just plain felt like a nip, which I witnessed many times. He was not one who frequented bars or cocktail lounges. To my knowledge he was never seen in Hurley’s, the Down Under, or the English Grill, the busiest watering holes in the building, where the NBC crowd congregated. Where he ate lunch or dinner nobody ever knew, and no one ever caught him eating out of a paper bag in our lounge.”

Spoiler : Announcer for radio programs including The Palmolive Hour on NBC (1927-1931); The Campbell Soup Orchestra (1930-1932); Jack Frost Melody Moments (1931-ca. 1934); The Jack Benny Show on NBC (1933-1934); The Colgate House Party (1934-1935); Double Or Nothing on NBC (1948-?). Host of Strange As It Seems on CBS-Radio (1939-1940).

Spoiler : Born in Presov, Slovakia, Hungary 6/7/1891; died 12/7/1952 following a long illness in Englewood, New Jersey. Married to Mayflower decendant Marion Munson (1928).