---

HISTORY

In November 1932, on the eve of that year's Presidential election, Jerry Belcher and Harry Grier began broadcasting from the streets of Houston, Texas over station KTRH. They challenged passers-by with trivia questions for cash prizes. Sponsored by Metzger's Dairies. Grier was soon replaced by Parks Johnson and the program proved to be so successful that it was brought to the Soutwest Broadcasting System network in 1935.

NEW YORK YEARS
(1935-1939)

In July 1935, Richard Marvin, a representative of the J. Walter Thompson Agency heard the program and brought it to New York as a summer replacement for Joe Penner on NBC. For the next four years, Vox Pop broadcast from locations all over New York City, including hotel lobbies, train stations, and the lobby of the NBC studios at Radio City. Its sponsorship also varied, first by Fleischman's Yeast, then Molle Shaving Cream, and finally Kentucky Club Tobacco. In 1936, co-host Jerry Belcher left the program and was replaced by the program's announcer Wally Butterworth. In 1939, Parks and Wally made frequent broadcasts from the New York World's Fair and that same year, moved from NBC to CBS.

The year 1940 was a turning point in the history of Vox Pop. Broadcasting from hotel lobbies in New York City had allowed Parks Johnson and his co-hosts to speak to men and women as they travelled through New York from locations around the country, but beginning in 1940 and continuing until the program went off the air in 1948, Vox Pop brought its microphones to where people lived, to their hometowns. Between 1940 and 1948, Vox Pop broadcast from 39 states and 6 foreign countries, as well as Alaska and Washington, DC. In January 1940, they visited Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the first of many visits they would make to college campuses. In February, Parks and Wally traveled to Hollywood, California to broadcast from the premiere of the Paramount Picture "Seventeen", the first of nineteen motion picture premieres Vox Pop would attend by 1948.

The most significant period in the history of Vox Pop also began in 1940. In July, they visited the Merchant Marine training ship "Empire State" in New London, Connecticut, beginning a practice of interviewing servicemen and women and others involved in the war effort. By bringing the voices and experiences of the serviceman to the American public, Vox Pop served an important role in maintaining the nation's morale during the war. By the end of 1945, Vox Pop had visited over 200 military bases, hospitals, and warplants all over the country, highlighting members of the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Army Air Force, as well as the women's service organizations, the WACS, WAVES,and SPARS. Wally Butterworth joined in only a part of these visits. In 1942, he left the program and was replaced as co-host by Warren Hull, a veteran radio announcer and motion picture actor. Warren would continue with Parks until the final Vox Pop broadcast in 1948 and would later find fame as the host of the long-running television game show Strike It Rich.

POST-WAR YEARS
(1946-1948)

After the war, Vox Pop continued to visit locations highlighting American culture. Problems with Lipton Tea. However under sponsorship of American Express Travelers Cheques on ABC, and with wartime travel restrictions lifted made trips to Alaska, London, and Paris. Final broadcast May 19, 1948.

Back to Top