Wendell Niles Collection

Wendell Niles
(1904 – 1994)

Show business dynasties are almost commonplace in New York and Hollywood. After all, for the entertainment industry, these are practically "factory towns'' and it is only natural for offspring and siblings to want to go into "the family business". While not quite a dynasty, two brothers from Livingston, Montana, separately came to Hollywood and not only became part of radio history, they helped to shape the Hollywood Cultural landscape.

Wendell Niles was born in 1904, and as a young man began his own dance band which toured with the Dorsey Brothers and Bix Beiderbecke in the Twenties. Younger brother Ken was born in 1906, and after Wendell was done touring with the band, the family settled in Seattle, Washington. Wendell became an announcer for KOL in the Northern Life Tower at 1212 3rd Ave and Ken went to work for KJR (now the oldest station in Seattle) broadcasting from flatiron shaped Times Square Building at 414 Olive Way. KJR was part of the Don Lee Network, and Ken and Wendell worked together to create Theater of the Mind, one of the earliest radio dramas. Wendell later reported that Don Lee did not believe anyone would be interested in a drama where they could not see the actors, but OTR fans know how wrong he was.

Don Lee called Ken to Los Angeles in the mid-Thirties where he produced and co-hosted Hollywood Hotel with Louella Parsons. Wendell was hired as an announcer by George Burns when The Adventures of Gracie switched sponsors from White Owl Cigars to Campbells Soup in 1935.

Although the movie colony in Hollywood was well established at the time, Hollywood as a radio capital was just beginning, and the magical corner of Hollywood and Vine meant little to the rest of the country. In May 1936, Wendell stretched a microphone wire from the studios of KFWB out to the soon-to-be-famous intersection and began taking "Man on the Street" interviews. Based on the popularity of Wendell's interviews, newspapers began using the phrase "Hollywood and Vine" as a symbol of the entertainment industry's local glamor.

Wendell also gathered 46 movie acting credits, usually doing uncredited voice over work or playing a radio announcer. In the fall of 1942, he joined Bob Hope's gang, not only as a radio announcer but as part of the company entertaining troops at USO shows around the globe. Several years later, Ken worked as Hope's announcer on television. Both of the Niles brothers were honored by a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and they were the first set of brothers to be so honored. Ken's Star lies at 6715 Hollywood Blvd and Wendell's is at 1737 Vine St. There is a Radio Star at 7076 Hollywood Blvd for Chuck Niles, but the Massachusetts native is not related.

Ken Niles passed away in 1988 in Santa Monica due to heart failure at the age of 82. Wendell Niles passed away at his home in Toluca Lake on March 31, 1994, at the age of 89 after battling cancer.