Monday, November 29, 1999
Name Braun a Great Living Cinicinnatian
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
How can you thank Bob Braun for 50 years of entertainment?
Why not express your gratitude by suggesting that Mr. Braun, who retired Wednesday from WSAI-AM (1530), be honored as a “Great Living Cincinnatian” by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce?
Mr. Braun, 70, who is battling Parkinson's disease, has been a fixture on local airwaves since 1949, shortly after WCPO-TV signed on.
He jumped to WLW-AM (700) and WLWT (Channel 5) in 1957, after winning $1,000 on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts national TV show.
Mr. Braun replaced the legendary Ruth Lyons as host of Channel 5's top-rated live daytime variety-talk show in 1967 and hosted the show until it was canceled in 1984.
There was no bigger Cincinnati TV star in the late 1960s and the 1970s.
As with Ruth Lyons before him, everyone who was anyone appeared on the weekday Channel 5 show when they were in town:
Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Perry Como, Duke Ellington, Bill Cosby, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Lawrence Welk, Rowan and Martin, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Ed Ames, William Shatner, Lionel Hampton, Mel Torme, Bobbie Gentry, Merv Griffin, Dick Clark, Guy Lombardo, Barbara Eden, Herb Alpert, Vidal Sassoon, Oleg Cassini, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and the Fifth Dimension.
Just to name a few.
His fans base extended far beyond the reach of Channel 5's signal. His show was broadcast throughout the Tristate on sister AVCO stations in Dayton, Columbus and Indianapolis. It was also simulcast on WLW-AM (700) into cars, kitchens, bedrooms and barns across the Midwest.
At its peak, the Bob Braun Show aired in nine other cities: Dayton, Columbus, Huntington, Charleston, Lexington, Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville and Indianapolis.
Bob, not Rob
Sure, some people laughed at his TV commercials for the Craftmatic Adjustable Bed, filmed 16 years ago, which still appear on cable channels.
He laughs about them, too, particularly when somebody tells him that the youthful-looking man in those ads must be his son, Rob, the WKRC-TV (Channel 12) news anchor.
“They think I'm my son!” he joked in April, before his 70th birthday.
But nobody can argue with how he promoted Cincinnati events, charities, sports teams and other organizations — plus the companies that advertised on his show, products like Jergens soap or Nu-Maid Margarine.
Don't know about you, but I think of him whenever I see Kahn's hot dogs.
Jay Leno, a Braun Show guest whenever in town to appear at the the old Playboy Club, years later would greet Mr. Braun in the Los Angeles International Airport by shouting: “Hey, Bob! Kahn's wieners!”
Mr. Braun's show also attracted a young Indianapolis weatherman named David Letterman to Channel 5 in the 1970s, though he never appeared on the air here. “Letterman would come up and sit in the control room and watch every once in a while,” former Braun producer-director Dick Murgatroyd recalls.
Tireless entertaining
Like Ms. Lyons, if he didn't believe in a product, he wouldn't endorse it. That was his policy on TV and during his five years on WSAI-AM. “I've turned down enough commercials to start another show,” he told me in April.
Nobody can argue with how he tirelessly entertained folks at state fairs, county fairs and thousands of places in between. Some say he did it for himself; others say he did it to maintain his program's popularity. It was a little of both.
“I'd go out and meet every star who came to Cincinnati every Friday and Saturday night,” he said.
Being a big star in a relatively small town wasn't always easy at times. “It takes a certain amount of confidence, and that's often misunderstood as conceit,” he said.
Bob was a trooper. He knew the show must go on, even when taking 39 radiation treatments for cancer a few years ago. He never missed a day on WSAI-AM; he never told listeners until the cancer was in remission.
Over lunch in April, he mentioned the four people who had influenced him the most: Dottie Mack, Arthur Godfrey, Ruth Lyons and his wife, Wray Jean.
“Each step in my career was a building block. I was lucky, and I worked hard, and I got a few breaks along the way,” he said.
“I have so much to be thankful for, beginning with Ruth Lyons. And pantomiming records (with Ms. Mack) was not exactly my ambition in life. Then I was lucky to get the Godfrey show,” he said.
“Ruth spent a lot of time grooming me. She was, in some respect, difficult to work with, because she wanted you to be your best. She wanted you to really care about the show as much as she did.
“She was a big, big influence in my life, and my work ethic.
“And I couldn't have continued to do this without Wray Jean.”
When he retired Wednesday, drained from his battle with Parkinson's, he thanked loyal fans who had kept him on the air 50 years.
If you want to thank him, write a letter to the chamber. With this column, I'm filling out the chamber's nominating form for the 2001 award. (It's too late for the awards to be presented Feb.4.)
Let's say thanks to a great living Cincinnatian before it's too late.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. His column appears Monday and Wednesday. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.
