Frank Bresee 1929-2018

Franklin (Frank) Bresee, long-time entertainment industry figure, died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Hollywood on June 5, according to his wife of 40 years and best friend, Bobbie Bresee. Bresee began his career in 1939 when radio was the biggest, often the only, medium of entertainment for American families. In 1942, early in radio’s golden age, he landed his first regular acting job as the co-star character Little Beaver in a popular children’s western, “Red Ryder.” The show ran live, twice a day, three days a week, and Bresee captivated young listeners with Little Beaver’s staple lines, “Get ‘em up, Papoose!” and, “You betchum, Red Rider!” In August of 1949, Bresee launched “The Golden Days of Radio,” a radio program broadcast for the first two years from his private Catalina Island studio on KSCI. The program, later heard over KGIL and KMPC, became radio’s longest running old-time radio show. “The Golden Days of Radio” began play in 1966 in Germany over the Armed Forces Radio Service. It went on the full network in 1967 and became one of the main features of the AFRS for 29 years. When the Korean War broke out, Bresee joined Bob Hope’s staff. He loved talking about his time with Hope, including the comedian’s legendary 10-minute power naps. For years during his time in Vaudeville, Bresee said, the naps were the only sleep Hope got between gigs. “He could still fall sleep anywhere, any time.” Over the years, he interviewed scores of entertainment celebrities, among them Jim Jordan, who played Fibber McGee on the “Fibber McGee and Molly Show,” and Hal Peary and Willard Waterman, both of whom played Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve on “The Great Gildersleeve.” Both programs were mainstay comic relief for war weary Americans. His conversations with entertainment’s greats included newsman Walter Winchell (“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea,” and the narrator of TV’s “The Untouchables”), Art Linkletter (“People Are Funny”), Edgar Bergen (and his woodenhead dummy, Charlie McCarthy), Milton Berle (Uncle Miltie), and comedians Eddie Cantor, Georgie Jessel, Jimmy Durante, and George Burns. Mel Torme, Elvis Presley, and Natalie Wood were among the celebrities who watched films in Bresee’s home theater. And he enjoyed a particularly warm relationship with radio and film actor Arthur Q. Bryan who became the voice of cartoon character Porky Pig. Monty Hall and Steve Hadeck ran “Let’s Make A Deal” for six months there before they sold it to the network. Bresee was asked often to repeat the story of his 1971 four-hour interview with Mae West in her whiteeverything apartment on Rossmore Ave. in Hollywood that he described as the inside of a bonbon box. “On the wall in the living room was a large oval painting of a nude reposing on a chaise lounge and under it, it said ‘Mae West 1937.’ I told her it was a very nice likeness. She said in her signature voice, ‘Mmm, yes. They painted it when I wasn’t looking.’” During his colorful and eclectic career, Bresee added TV to his growing credits. Prizes for many of the most popular shows came through his advertising agency; he worked with Ralph Edwards Productions on the wild quiz show “Truth or Consequences”; and he developed a TV game show of his own. It wasn’t picked up, but his hostess, Vanna White—the “Wheel of Fortune” tile turner—was. He acted in, co-produced and researched TV productions and was game show announcer for “Star Slammer” in the 1980s. A board game Pass Out grew out of an idea he aptly sketched out on a cocktail napkin. The game is still available and to date, more than 6 million are in play. In 1981 and 1982, Bresee served as president of the prestigious Pacific Pioneers Broadcasters, and in 1977 he was nominated for an Emmy for his TV special on the Golden Days of Radio. Bresee became one of the most respected authorities on old-time radio, its performers, programs, writers and productions. In the early 1940s he began what today would be described as Dumpster diving and rescued recordings, scripts and other radio artifacts from oblivion. His collection is recognized as one of the world’s greatest private radio-history collections and is now housed in the Thousand Oaks Library’s Special Collections Library in Thousand Oaks, Cal. Even after two serious strokes and health issues that dogged him, Bresee continued to do live appearances through to this year on “The Friday Night Show with Walden Hughes and Frank Bresee” on the Yesterday USA network. He offered introductions to the recorded interviews with celebrities (which are still featured each Friday night) and talked about the personalities and their work. His sense of humor never waned. In answer to how he and some of his contemporaries managed to stay so active in the industry and on pace, he said that earning a living in radio came with such a grueling, nonstop schedule that they never learned how not to work. And he always gave a nod to a restaurant called Brittingham’s that was across from the CBS studios where live radio shows were broadcast. “They had a great bar. We were all well preserved.” When asked a few years ago how to best identify him for a press release, he said simply, “Little Beaver is fine.” In addition to his wife Bobbie, Bresee is survived by a legion of friends and ardent admirers. Recordings of his celebrity interviews continue to be broadcast on the Yesterday USA radio networks.