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Harry von Zell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harry von Zell (July 11, 1906 - November 21, 1981) was a U.S. radio announcer and a film and television actor.
As a young announcer, von Zell made a memorable verbal slip when he referred to U.S. President Herbert Hoover as "Hoobert Heever". This Spoonerism was made in 1931, as part of a live tribute on Hoover's birthday. It came at the end of a long reading of Hoover's career, during which von Zell had correctly pronounced the president's name several times. The accident did not occur during a broadcast at Hoover's presidential inauguration, as is often believed: That version was fabricated by Kermit Schaefer for an album titled Pardon My Blooper.
Von Zell developed into an excellent announcer; he delivered commercials persuasively and displayed a good sense of humor on the air. Scripted dialogue routines were brightened by ad-libbed interjections from announcer von Zell. Radio comedians recognized von Zell's quick wit; he worked successfully opposite Eddie Cantor and Burns and Allen. In the 1940s he also worked in motion pictures, both in feature films and in his own series of short subjects for Columbia Pictures.
His greatest fame came on the The Burns & Allen Show of the 1950s, wherein he played the befuddled friend of the Burns family, and their show-within-a-show's announcer.
In his later years he was a commercial spokesman for Los Angeles-based savings & loan Home Savings of America. In 1976 he was one of the many leading radio announcers who participated in a television special, "The Good Old Days of Radio."
He died of cancer at the age of 75 in Los Angeles.
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