Harry Bartel

If you wish, you can ask your questions directly to Mr Bartell. He appears frequently in Lois Culver's chat group, #OldRadio.

For more info on #OldRadio, click on the prompt, below.

Lou

Radio Personalities: Harry Bartell

By Stewart Wright

Copyright 2002

There was a voice on the radio, a voice that I noticed on an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Then I then began to notice that voice in many episodes of that series and many other radio series. The actor behind the voice played good guys, bad guys and everything in between. Sometimes he played the lead, other times a supporting role. The actor also did lots of dialects and accents. No matter what role he was playing there was always a common quality in his performances; his characters were always believable. Finally, I connected a name with that voice: Harry Bartell. He seems to be everywhere during the Golden Age of Radio.

In 1998 I joined the Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound and received the flyer for their annual Showcase. There, listed among the guests, was Harry Bartell. I decided then and there to go to Seattle for the REPS Showcase. Not only did I meet Harry and get a chance to see him perform, I got the chance to interview him.

Radio Work:

Harry's radio credentials are impressive to say the least. He has more than 10,000 appearances on radio, including 182 series. But Harry describes his "first real running part" as 12 years with Dear Abby on CBS, long after "radio had died a horrible death."

During the early 1930's Harry got his start in radio in Houston and appeared in local radio show condensations of motion pictures. His pay for these condensations: two 25 cent movie tickets.

In 1937, Harry moved to the West Coast working as a DJ, doing commercials, and performing at the Pasadena Playhouse. In his first role on network radio, in Raffles, Harry was cast as a Hindu. He had never played a Hindu, but managed to do it. It was the first of many dialect and accent roles he did, including many Spanish roles on Romance of the Rancho, Dragnet, Have Gun Will Travel, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Pick a drama or light comedy series and there's a good chance that Harry was on it. All of the following series and over a hundred more had appearances by Harry Bartell: A Date With Judy, Adventures By Morse, Alan Young Show, Amos and Andy, Broadway Is My Beat, Cavalcade of America, CBS Radio Workshop, Columbia Presents Corwin, Crime Classics, Defense Attorney, Dr. Christian, Eddie Cantor Show, Frontier Gentleman, Green Lama, I Love A Mystery, Let George Do It, Lux Radio Theater, My Favorite Husband, Nightbeat, On Stage, Red Ryder, The Saint, Suspense, Tales of The Texas Rangers, and This Is Your FBI.

His acting abilities made Harry a favorite with many of the best directors in Hollywood including Jack Webb (Dragnet, Pete Kelly's Blues, Johnny Modero - Pier 23), Norman Macdonnell (Romance, The New Adventures of Philip Marlowe, Escape, Have Gun Will Travel), and Jack Johnstone (Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, The Man Called X, The Six Shooter, Hollywood Star Playhouse). He was a member of both Macdonnell's and Webb's stock companies. Harry appeared in both the first and last episodes of Gunsmoke and 173 more. Although Harry played villains on Gunsmoke, he was never cast by Jack Webb as a "bad guy" on Dragnet. There were advantages to having a regular ensemble of actors on a series. Harry told me, "One of the major benefits was that you had great trust in the other actor. You knew if for some reason if you got off-track or you made a mistake, they were going to cover for you. And you would cover for them. As a result, there was an ensemble feeling that was very different than if you had a different cast on the show every day."

With thousands of supporting appearances on radio, Harry also had many starring and featured roles. Along with John Anderson, Harry co-starred in Horizons West, a very fine radio documentary drama series on the Lewis and Clark Expedition that was produced for Armed Forces Radio. Harry played Cpt. Meriwether Lewis, Anderson played Cpt. William Clark. He also had starring or features roles in Adventures of Nero Wolfe as Archie Goodwin, Fort Laramie as Lt. Siberts, The Charlotte Greenwood Show as Tommy Brooks, and Rogers of the Gazette as Officer Ed Miller. One of Harry's favorite series was Escape; 56 appearances on that series. Harry originated the role of Auguste in the Escape classic - "Three Skeleton Key." He also had leading roles in several other episodes including "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge," "A Shipment of Mute Fate," and an episode written by actor John Dehner - "The Man With The Steel Teeth." In the 1998 interview Harry told me about Escape, "The scripts were wonderful, many of them were based on Classics that stood the test of time. They offered me, as an actor, parts that I never would have gotten on any other program. They were exciting, fun to do and very rewarding from a performance standpoint."

In addition to acting, Harry also worked as an announcer. "I announced Silver Theatre, Sherlock Holmes, and The Casebook of Gregory Hood. I never considered myself an announcer; I sort of played an announcer as an actor." Harry told me how he literally walked into the announcer's role on Sherlock Holmes. "That was the reason I got that job, a fluke. They had a huge audition and every name announcer in town was over at CBS. I walked into the foyer and I couldn't understand what was going on. I asked the secretary. She said, 'Edna Best was conducting an audition for the announcer for Sherlock Holmes.' I said, 'May I go in and say hello?' I had worked with her as an actor. I said, 'Hi, Edna' and started to leave. She said, 'Aren't you going to read? As long as you're here, pick up the script and read.' That's how I got the job."

Television Work:

According to Harry's show logs, he performed on at least 77 television series. These included performances on series such as Branded, Dragnet, Dragnet 1967, Get Smart, Gunsmoke, I Love Lucy, Laramie, Perry Mason, Peter Gunn, Police Woman, The Rebel, Richard Diamond Private Detective, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, The Veil, The Walter Winchell File, and The Wild, Wild West.

Other Accomplishments:

Harry co-wrote two Gunsmoke scripts with fellow actor and close friend, Vic Perrin: "Chester's Inheritance" and "Father And Son."

During times when acting roles were scarce Harry worked as a professional photographer. OTR fans have also benefitted from his photographic endeavors. He took photographs during show rehearsals and many of these photos have appeared in Old-Time Radio books.

Radio As An Entertainment Medium

Harry is justly proud of his work as a radio actor. He told John Dunning that, "Radio was a dream medium, every day or twice a day was like a first night. There was always a freshness, a challenge. Radio offered an actor or actress opportunities to play roles they couldn't obtain anywhere else."