Himan Brown (July 21, 1910 – June 4, 2010Himan Brown obituary.
''The New York Times'', June 6, 2010.), also known as Hi Brown, was an American producer of radio and television programs. Over seven decades, Brown produced and directed more than 30,000 radio shows, for all of the major radio networks and syndication. He worked with such actors as

Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur (; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress. Often referred to as the "First Lady of American Theatre", she was the second person and first woman to win EGOT, the EGOT (an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and ...

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, active first in Europe and later in the United States. Known for his timidly devious characters, his appearance, and accented vo ...

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

and

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

. A recipient of the American Broadcast Pioneer and

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

s, Brown was inducted in 1990 into the

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicati ...

Early life

The son of a tailor from a

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

near the Ukrainian seaport of Odesa, Brown first learned about radio from a shop teacher at Brooklyn's Boys High School. At the age of 18, he began broadcasting on New York's WEAF, reading newspapers with a Yiddish dialect. One of his listeners was

Gertrude Berg Gertrude Berg (born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic old-time radio, radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a ...

, who wanted him to play Jake, her husband on '' The Goldbergs'', which he did for six months. He continued as a radio actor but soon began to pitch shows directly to advertising agencies. While at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

, he recruited fellow student Irwin Shaw to write scripts, giving the author his first paid writing job. Shaw later based a character on Brown in his 1951 novel about the radio industry, '' The Troubled Air''. In 1931, he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Brooklyn College and a law degree from

Brooklyn Law School Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a Private university, private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and adjunct faculty. ...

, where he was valedictorian.

On the air

Over 65 years, Brown produced more than 30,000 radio programs, including '' The Adventures of the Thin Man'', '' The Affairs of Peter Salem'', '' Bulldog Drummond'', '' CBS Radio Mystery Theater'', ''City Desk'', '' Dick Tracy'', ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...

'', '' The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater'', '' Grand Central Station'', ''Green Valley, USA'', '' The Gumps'', '' Inner Sanctum Mysteries'', ''Joyce Jordan, M.D.'', ''Marie, the Little French Princess'', ''The NBC Radio Theater'', ''The Private Files of Rex Saunders'', '' Terry and the Pirates'' and numerous daytime soap operas. During World War II, he worked with the Writers' War Board, producing patriotic serials to aid the war effort."Himan Brown; Produced 'Dick Tracy', other radio hits". ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', June 8, 2010. Brown directed many episodes of shows he produced. In 1951–55, he directed the NBC detective drama, '' Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator''. In the 1950s, he bought Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Studios at 221 West 26th Street (now Chelsea Studios) to produce his shows. When television arrived, Brown produced 26 episodes of the syndicated ''Inner Sanctum'' TV series, plus a daytime show, ''Morning Matinee''. Realizing that "all these guys making TV, they have to have a set," he profited by acquiring the studios in Chelsea; they were used for 35 years by New York TV production firms. Through his non-profit educational foundation, Brown produced ''They Were Giants'', radio programs dramatizing the lives of such literary figures as

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

and

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

, and ''We, The Living'', fact-based dramas about the lives of senior citizens. Brown also taught audio drama at

and the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

Personal life

In 1938, Brown moved to a ten-room apartment at 285 Central Park West, where he would live the rest of his life. Brown had two children, Barry Kenneth Brown and Hilda Joan Brown, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Hi Brown’s second marriage was with Shirley Goodman who was the President of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Brown died on June 4, 2010.

Legacy

Brown's legacy lives on in the Himan Brown Charitable Trust, which has endowed a Senior Program at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. He also has an archive of his work at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

References

External links

*
''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (complete collection)
Internet Archive, Retrieved September 15, 2011
''Inner Sanctum Mysteries'' (166 episodes)
Internet Archive
Himan Brown official site
*

* ttps://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1692116/m1/ Pop Chronicles Interviews #136 – Himan Brown, Part 1
Part 2
April 18, 1977. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Himan 1910 births American radio directors American radio producers Radio personalities from New York City 2010 deaths Peabody Award winners Brooklyn College alumni Brooklyn Law School alumni Boys High School (Brooklyn) alumni