Phillips H. Lord
| Phillips Lord | |
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Lord in 1936.
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| Born |
Phillips Haynes Lord July 13, 1902 Hartford, Vermont |
| Died | October 19, 1975 (aged 73) Ellsworth, Maine |
| Occupation | Broadcaster actor |
Phillips Haynes Lord (July 13, 1902 – October 19, 1975) was an American radio program writer, creator, producer and narrator as well as a motion picture actor, best known for the Gang Busters radio program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1957.
Lord was born in the small town of Hartford, Vermont, the son of a Protestant clergyman. He was still an infant when his family moved to Meriden, Connecticut, where his father accepted the pastorship of a local church. As a boy, Lord spent his summers with relatives in Maine and after completing high school, he studied at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, before going to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. While still in college he established myriad businesses including a book-selling operation, a shoe repair service, and a taxi cab company.
After graduation, the 22-year-old was hired as the principal at the high school in the small town of Plainville, Connecticut, reportedly the youngest person in the United States to ever hold such a position. He soon grew bored with the job and headed to New York City where, after a series of jobs in publishing, he began writing scripts for radio.
Lord was still in his twenties and living in New York City when he became a national radio personality. Creating the character "Seth Parker", a clergyman and backwoods philosopher based on his real-life grandfather, Hosea Phillips, Lord wrote stories for radio of rural New England humor that included the playing of old time songs. On his own initiative, he communicated with several stations across the U.S. and sold them scripts he labeled as "Seth Parker's Singing School". An instant hit, Lord was soon contacted by NBC Radio who contracted to buy scripts for a show to run six days a week that NBC called "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's".
This was followed by other magazine publications who acquired his scripts and before long Lord was earning close to $100,000 a year. Not limited in his scope, during this time he wrote other successful radio programs that were designed to conclude after a specific number of episodes were broadcast. Lord's growing popularity resulted in his publishing two books in 1930 titled Seth Parker's Album and Seth Parker's Hymnal that led to the release of 78rpm gospel records by the "Phillips Lord Trio". Lord and the radio show gained a wide audience and the September 1931 issue of The American Magazine had a feature article on him under the heading: "At 29 He Has Made a Million Friends".
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