Warren Hull and Vanessa Brown

by Frank M. Roberts

April 2016

In the mid to late 1940s, the Army decided I was badly needed--I mean, someone had to deliver telegrams around Nome. Alaska was a territory then (so we got overseas pay) and there was no Western Union so, the Signal Corps took over. It was arduous - we wore civilian clothes and found our own homes in town. I shared with Doug Scott from Seattle, and our two doggies.

The Alaska Communications System in that community consisted of about a dozen of us, led by Lt. Morgan, an area native. It was a great life but, there was one drawback. With one exception we never got those travelling star-studded shows. The one show that did make it was a delight, and it arrived not for us but for the GIs at the tiny Marks Army Airfield, about four miles from town. Nine officers and 42 enlistees were stationed there. I visited once a week - my turn to drive the beaten, ugly Army bus back and forth.

I learned to drive on the spot. In my hometown of NYC I got around by subway. The guys on the base were learning how to train air crews in survival techniques on sea ice and tundra.

I was Signal Corps by day, and an Armed Forces Radio Service deejay by night - WXLN, The Voice Of the Arctic, Nome, Alaska - a job I got because I had prior radio experience in the Big Apple plus, I worked for the Mutual Broadcasting Service - delivering mail, a job that, daily, put me in touch with Gabriel ("ah-h, there's good news tonight") Heatter, the most listened to radio commentator of the 1930s, and the ace sportscaster of the day, Bill Stern. They wrote glowing letters and their recommendations got me hooked up with the AFRS.

The only stars that shone in Nome were - and you have to be a senior-senior citizen to recognize these names - Warren Hull and Vanessa Brown. In appreciation of their visit we had a very small banquet serving a dish popular up there - reindeer tongue (gray in color as opposed to red cow tongue which seems to be history). It was good with horse radish.

Both of the visitors were warm and friendly and I got close to them by yapping with them on the air:

Warren Hull was a movie actor and a radio personality, most famous for a 'pre-historic' quiz show called "Vox Pop." One of the things for which it was known was offering phone calls between servicemen and the home folks.

He was t.d.h. - tall, dark, and handsome - and alternated between comedies and musicals. He was born in Quaker country in Gasport, N. Y. He moved to New York City where small jobs gave way to bigger jobs, usually as a radio singer. In films he couldn't quite cut it in 'A' pics, so he languished in the 'B's. He starred in a slew of 'em. And, he starred in serials, most notably, "The Spider's Web," "The Spider Returns," "Mandrake the Magician," and "The Green Hornet Strikes Again." In radio, he emceed, "Strike It Rich," the forerunner of today's quiz shows - minus the sleaze.

Hull, who was married four times, died in 1974 - heart disease.

Now - his co-star in Nome -- the most lovely, Vanessa Brown, the Vienna-born lass who gained fame as a youngster as a Quiz Kid - one of the kids with a very high i.q. Would you believe - 165?.

In later years she conducted interviews for the government's "Voice Of America." She broadcast using her stage name - changed from Smylla Brind.

She had a healthy Hollywood career in the 1940s, usually as an ingenue. One of her flicks was "Big Jack," Wallace Beery's last movie. She hit the teevee tubes in the early years appearing in such prestigious shows as, "Robert Montgomery Presents," and the "Philco Television Playhouse."

There was also success on the Broadway stage. Politically, she was an active Democrat and, on top of everything else, she yielded a mean paintbrush. She had a one woman show in Beverly Hills.

Miss Brown, who was twice married, weathered tragedies. She had breast cancer, believed she was cured, but the dreaded disease returned. In 1989, she lost her house in an earthquake.

So-o - those were the two, the only two, personalities who warmed up a couple of the 'usual' cold days in Nome which, I must say, in spite of the low temperatures, was a 'warm' place to live and work.

* * * *

This is a 'for real' quote from Orville Wright: "Airplanes would fly themselves if you left them alone." Well, it's happening these days with cars.

I think it was 'Dead End'-er Huntz Hall who said, "when I was born, I cried like a baby." Which reminds me - great granddaughter number three came into my life four months ago. Cute, and unusual - she hardly ever cries.

Finally, as a favor to editors everywhere, I note that there is a village in northern Wales named: Lianfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwymdrobwllllandysiliogogogogoch. You can pronounce it as it's spelled. Now that you have that mastered, let's take a trip to New Zealand to visit Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauot. Hey, they'd be fun at a spelling bee. By the way, actress Naomi Watts lived for awhile in that Welsh town which has a population of about 3,050. By the way, do you remember the Tony Bennett song, "I Left My Heart In Lianfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwymdrobwllllandysiliogogogoch?" Let's have a sing-along.

Note to editors: Please spell them correctly - I'll be checking.