Eugene Smalley

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Eugene Smalley

Postby cart_machine » Sat Oct 18, 2014 8:44 pm

Here's an odd one. I can't track down anything about this guy, other than what you see below. I have no idea when and where he was born.

He first appears in the Vancouver City Directory in 1946 as a salesman for the Vancouver Sun, then in 1948 and 1949 as a continuity writer at CKMO. These two entries are from Broadcasting magazine.

July 8, 1968
Eugene B. Smalley, 46, VP of Pepper & Tanner, Memphis, died following coronary attack June 15. Composer-lyricist had been with firm since 1962, earlier was with CBS Radio, Hollywood, his radio career began in 1946 at CKMO Vancouver, B. C.

May 3, 1954
E. B. Smalley, script department, CBS Radio, Hollywood, named manager of special section, radio mimeograph department.

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Re: Eugene Smalley

Postby jon » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:12 pm

All I could find was this (complete with OCR errors):
Mr. and Mrs. F. Parker, Arden Man., announce the engagement of their daughter, Muriel Kathleen, to Eugene Bernard Smalley. son of Mrs. E. G. Smalley, 1125 Cypres j street. Vancouver. B.C., and the late Mr. Smalley. The wedding wlllj ake place June 28 in St. Augatine Anglican church, Vancouver, B.C.

From the The Winnipeg Tribune » 17 June 1946 » Page 9

The main problem I found is that Eugene B. Smalley is also the name of a famous plant pathologist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Byron_Smalley
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Re: Eugene Smalley

Postby cart_machine » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:27 pm

Let me add a bit more information, since I can't edit my last post. Smalley was known as Bud and died in Memphis.

The Ubyssey of Oct. 13, 1948 calls him "a CKMO comedian" who emceed a dance. Billboard of July 17, 1948 described his on-air show “...in which comic Smalley plays a schmoe in the classic tradition, who runs thru 30 minutes of travail due to his own lack of gray matter.”

Variety of Aug. 9, 1950 puts him at KOL in Seattle and performing in a stage version of The Drunkard.

His obit in Variety (July 10, 1968) includes the following:

Smalley had been a copywriter at CKMO in Vancouver, Canada, in 1946, and later developed his own comedy series, "The Bud Smalley Show." In 1949, he went to KOL, Seattle, to write and produce the "KOL Breakfast Club" until 1951 when he joined CBS Radio in Hollywood. Smalley worked in the publicity department, wrote comedy material and arrangements for vocal groups with which he also sang. He returned to Canada in 1958 and wrote a three-a-week comedy show for CBC television. In 1960, he joined KCBQ in San Diego.


It goes on to say he was hired at Pepper-Tanner on the basis of station ID jingles he wrote for the San Diego station. Smalley also wrote the words and music to "Christmas Day," which was copyrighted on January 17, 1961.

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Re: Eugene Smalley

Postby cart_machine » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:28 pm

jon wrote:All I could find was this (complete with OCR errors):


That's him, Jon. The City Directory lists him at the Cypress St. address in 1946. Thanks a lot.

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Re: Eugene Smalley

Postby cart_machine » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:43 pm

His family was musically inclined. Here's the biography of one of his brothers (who was on CJOR), with a note about his father (who died in Vancouver in 1942). http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/e ... alley-emc/

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Re: Eugene Smalley

Postby jon » Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:11 pm

According to the research that Gord Lansdell did for CCF, Smalley moved to CKMO in 1947 in the Continuity department.

By 1948, he wrote and narrated his own show, called "The Smallest Show in the World", and was promoted the same year to Continuity Editor, which sounds like the equivalent of Managing Editor in the Print Media business.
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