On This Day in Radio - Don Wilson Is Born September 1, 1900
On This Day in Radio - Don Wilson Is Born September 1, 1900
Don Wilson was born on September 1, 1900, in Lincoln, Nebraska. He began his broadcasting career in 1923 and eventually became one of the most familiar announcers of radio’s golden age, but generations of listeners remember him best as an indispensable member of The Jack Benny Program. Wilson joined Jack Benny’s radio company in the 1930s and remained associated with Benny for more than three decades. He wasn't simply the voice delivering introductions and commercials. Wilson became a character within the comedy itself, trading lines with Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson and enthusiastically delivering advertisements for sponsors including Jell-O, Grape-Nuts and Lucky Strike.
Wilson’s booming voice and cheerful personality made him the perfect contrast to Benny’s famously stingy, vain and perpetually 39-year-old radio character. Jack regularly made Wilson the target of jokes about his size and appetite, while Wilson could give as good as he got, becoming an important part of the ensemble rather than simply an announcer standing on the sidelines. His career stretched from the early days of network radio into television, but his voice remains inseparable from the sound of The Jack Benny Program and the remarkable cast that made it one of radio’s great comedies. Today we remember Don Wilson, born September 1, 1900, whose unmistakable voice, comic timing and decades alongside Jack Benny made him one of the most beloved announcers and performers of old-time radio.
