Ed Herlihy

Ed Herlihy
Herlihy in 1959.
Birth name	Edward Joseph Herlihy
Born	(1909-08-14)August 14, 1909 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 30, 1999(1999-01-30) (aged 89) New York City, U.S.
Show	Radio: America's Town Meeting of the Air The Big Show The Falcon Mr. District Attorney Recollections At 30 The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour Television: The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour Kraft Television Theatre Your Show of Shows All My Children As the World Turns
Station(s)	WLOE, Boston
Network	NBC
Spouse(s)	Fredi Herlihy
Children	Lori Jeanne Donald Stephen

Edward Joseph "Ed" Herlihy (August 14, 1909 – January 30, 1999) was an American newsreel narrator for Universal-International. He was also a long-time radio and television announcer for NBC, hosting The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour in the 1940s and 1950, and was briefly interim announcer on The Tonight Show in 1962. He was also the voice of Kraft Foods radio and TV commercials from the 1940s through the early 1980s. When he died in 1999, his New York Times obituary said he was "A Voice of Cheer and Cheese".

Educated at Boston College, graduating in 1932, he gained his first radio job in his home town, at Boston's WLOE. When he was hired by NBC in 1935, he decamped for New York, along with his friend, fellow Boston announcer Frank Gallop, who was hired by CBS. In their early days as network announcers, Herlihy and Gallop shared an apartment on West 45th Street. Herlihy was immediately successful in network radio, at that time in its sharpest ascendancy. He was the announcer for many radio shows from the 1930s, to the 1950s, among them: America's Town Meeting, The Big Show, The Falcon, Mr. District Attorney, and Just Plain Bill. He became the host of the The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour on radio in 1948, remaining its announcer when the show went to television. He continued his success in the new medium: his early television credits included Sid Caesar's hit Your Show of Shows and soap operas As the World Turns and All My Children. He was also the host of Recollections At 30, which was a special NBC Radio series created for the network's 30th birthday.