Himan Brown: Legendary Radio Producer

Legendary Producer/Director/Creator, Himan Brown's productions included audio works such as Inner Sanctum, The Thin Man, Radio Mystery Theater, Terry and the Pirates, Bulldog Drummond,  Dick Tracy, Adventure Theater, Grand Central Station, and an endless list of daytime soap operas.

Hyman Brown On accepting his American Broadcast Pioneer Award

"If you stop to think about it you’ll have to admit that listening has become a lost art these days.

Who really listens?
Because, really, who has to?
But, the basic appeal of radio drama was and is the fact that you have to listen if you want to follow the story.
It isn’t enough to merely “hear” it.  You have to listen.
The word listen implies a conscious effort to pay attention…to participate.
All the senses are activated…the curiosity is sparked…the imagination is fired, and the listener finds himself participating!
He is a collaborator.
In his brain he matches a face and a body to the voice.
In his mind he sees the action. And that is the basic difference between radio and every other visual medium.
The spoken word version is sharper.  The picture made by the mind is clearer.
Of all the forms of theater, radio drama commands, the most effective stage.
Not theater, not film, not television has more sheer space in which to achieve the basic goal of drama, telling a story.
Theater is bounded by the bare boards and the footlights and flats.  Film by the wide screen, and television by the comparatively tiny tube.  But radio plays itself out in boundless space—the listener’s mind!

We in radio have always called it “the theatre of the mind.”  We proudly trace our lineage clear back to the primitive campfire, the tribal storyteller.  As those passers-on of tribal legend, of heroic adventure, of the mysteries of nature told their stories, by word of mouth, so do we!  We do not show you—we tell you!  We leave the trappings to your imagination.
We take you anywhere, everywhere.  We put you in glass slippers or atop a mountain peak, harpoon you a white whale, let you ride with the Musketeers and raise Atlantis from the sea…without any props or animation.
We do all this with what the creator used in the very beginning of all things—the word. The spoken word.
 Ironically enough, we are the nation where radio drama was born—and the only one where dramatic radio is now all but nonexistent.  Nevertheless, when two years ago the Voice of America sought to tell the rest of the world through English language broadcasts, the drama of the American past, stories of men and women who wove the fabric of our national life—they didn’t turn to television for a zillion dollar star studded series.  They turned to radio.  To me, to be honest.
I am told that the present generation is interested only in pictures…that they have forgotten how to listen.  Not so!  Proof?
Fan mail.  A mother writes to me “Thank you for the story about the little girl and the Unicorn.
You gave my daughter back the world of fantasy.  Fantasy is something that the child, the world, can not do without.
And that, I suppose, is really what it is all about.  The inward vision is sharper, the picture made by the mind for itself is clearer.

To me, the spoken word and the printed word have much in common.
Both make demands beyond passivity, beyond mere sitting and watching.  It is my belief that radio, beyond all other media, can make the strongest contribution to the battle against illiteracy….the development of reading skills that can make the difference between the mind impoverished, and the mind fulfilled.
Name me if you can a little boy or girl who has not begged, over and over, “tell me a story.”
A child does not specify “tell me a story in stereo or color—just tell me a story.”
And from there the next step, “Read me a story.”  After that, the next and most important step to the three magic words that will fill out the empty spaces in living throughout a lifetime: “I can read!”
It is, I sincerely believe, a short step from turning the radio dial to turning the pages of a book.
Through two foundations which I fund I hope to create a new generation for “the spoken word” to help children discover the joy of listening.
Share with me one final moment of emotional happiness which is a highlight of my career.
Always, my mother, who lived to be 98, monitored my radio programs.
And, always she would report to me, “They say your name!”
Of course I would tell her “It is part of the script, produced and directed by Himan Brown.”
And she would look into my eyes and repeat, “They say your name.”
 You here have, today, “said my name,” and I shall never forget.

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At the 1999 American Broadcast Awards program, Hyman Brown said:

"I never dreamed when I was winding copper wire around a Quaker Oats box to create my first crystal set, that I would spend seventy wonderful years as a radio producer." Those were the first comments of Himan Brown upon learning of his American Broadcast Pioneer Award. Hi Brown is, in every sense, "Mr. Radio Drama." In the 1930's through the 1950's, millions upon millions of listeners heard his productions, which included such long running hits as Inner Sanctum, The Thin Man, Grand Central Station, Bulldog Drummond, Nero Wolfe, Dick Tracy, and Joyce Jordan,M.D.

 Himan Brown was born, raised and educated in New York City. He became interested in radio drama while still in his teens. Even as he was earning his B.A. at Brooklyn College and his L.L.B. at Brooklyn Law School. Brown was acting in radio, and in 1929 packaged The Rise of the Goldbergs, which he partnered with Gertrude Berg and sold to NBC. Because of his love of radio drama and fast start in the business, he never practiced law.
 Himan's career was exclusively radio until the late 1940's when he began to do television dramas. He was responsible for LightsOut, the filmed series of Inner Sancctum Mysteries, and the Chevy Mystery Show. Realizing that to remain an independent producer he would need facilities, Brown built Production Center on East 26th Street in New York. The center's two sound stages soon became the busiest in New York and today are owned and operated by All Mobile Video, and are called Chelsea Studios.
 The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a continuation of InnerSanctum Mysteries with the legendary creaking door. It ran on the Radio Network, with 350 affiliates, from 1974 until 1984, seven nights a week. Brown Produced, Directed and cast every production. In addition to his love for radio and the spoken word, Hi is an ardent collector of impressionist art. Brown has received dozens of awards including a Peabody. He is deeply involved in community affairs in his beloved New York City.

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