Bob Elson Interviews

Bob Elson was born in 1904. In 1928, he was vacationing in St Louis and took a tour of a radio station. The day he was visiting, the station was holding auditions, and when the station receptionist saw Bob hanging around she assumed he was auditioning like the other fellows and herded him in with the rest. Quite by accident, Bob won the announcing spot. Just a few days later, someone from WGN heard the St. Louis broadcast and wondered why a Chicago son was announcing there. In no time, Elson was hired back to his hometown and began calling the home games for the Cubs and the White Sox during the 1929 season.

During the 1930’s Elson became the voice of the World Series on Mutual. He also began announcing for the Bears. Elson enlisted in the navy during WWII, earning the nick-name "The Ol’ Commander". In the fall of 1943, orders came from the Commander-in-Chief, Franklin Roosevelt, for Cmdr Elson to be released from his military duties so that he could announce the World Series.

Although Elson was primarily known as a sports announcer, a large portion of his career was spent simply interviewing people. He was very good at spotting celebrities at Chicago’s famous Pump Room night club and drawing them into a conversation over the airwaves. Later, he put together a very popular program, Bob Elson on the Twentieth Century Limited by stationing himself with his broadcasting equipment at the LaSalle Street Station. When someone famous got off the train from New York, Elson was there to get some comments.

This collection of interviews are from the late 1970s, and took place in the lobby of Northwest Federal. The theme was usually sports, and Elson had a huge variety of retired ballplayers, horse racing figures, boxing officials, and other sports personalities who were willing to spend some time on a Saturday or Sunday morning talking. Elson’s interview style was easy going and non-confrontational, and the listener gets the feeling that he is listening in on a pair of friends enjoying a friendly chat.

See also: Vox Pop and 20th Century Limited.