Phil Tonken (born Philip Simon Tonken; April 13, 1919 – February 4, 2000 in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

) was an American

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acce ...

announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience on a broadcast media programme or live event either on radio or television. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaki ...

and

voice-over artist Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animated, off-stage, off-sc ...

Career

Tonken was born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

, and was a graduate of

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

(where he majored in

public speaking Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

) and served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He started with the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Golden Age of Radio, ...

in the mid-1940s as an announcer via its

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

outlet, WOR radio, announcing on such shows as ''Passport to Romance'', ''

The Mysterious Traveler ''The Mysterious Traveler'' was an American media franchise created by Robert Arthur, Jr., Robert Arthur and David Kogan. All versions of the franchise focused on suspense and crime fiction, with occasional elements of horror or science fiction. ...

'', ''High Adventure'' and ''

Quiet, Please ''Quiet, Please!'' was a radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating '' Lights Out''. Ernest Chappell was the show's announcer and lead actor. ''Quiet, Please'' debuted June 8, 1947, on the Mutual Bro ...

''. After WOR ended its long-time affiliation with Mutual in 1959, Tonken was among many New York-based Mutual staff announcers (also including Carl Warren, Russ Dunbar, Frank McCarthy and Ted Mallie) who stayed on with the station. For a few years, he hosted a Sunday morning program on WOR, ''Hyacinths and Biscuits'', which featured poetry readings and little vignettes. By the 1970s Tonken had moved on to the TV outlet, WOR-TV (now

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York metropolitan area as the flagship of the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alon ...

), handling

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...

s, promos, bumpers and program introductions, up to his retirement from the station in 1989. However, Tonken's voice was still heard on the station sporadically into the early 1990s at the end of movie trailers during commercial breaks, announcing the dates the movies would begin playing at theaters. Besides his long association with WOR, Tonken was a

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

for

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

Movietone News Movietone News was a newsreel that ran from December 1927 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Spain in the early 1930s a ...

in the 1950s and 1960s, and also was announcer for a 15-minute syndicated afternoon radio

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

program, ''The Planet Man'', which was in the tradition of older sci-fi radio shows such as ''

Buck Rogers Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily American newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, b ...

'', ''

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'' ...

'' and ''

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of ''Tom Corbett—Space Cadet'' stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, and other media in the 1950s. The stories followed the adventures of Corbett, Ast ...

''. The show was produced by New York City-based Palladium Radio Productions in 1952 and aired through 1953. Seventy-eight episodes were produced, all but two of which are in existence today. Besides Tonken, only two other people were known to have participated:

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

Jon Gart and

voice artist Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animated, off-stage, off-scr ...

Joseph Boland, who played the

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

characters. The rest of the cast remains a mystery to this day. Tonken's distinctive modulated

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

voice – once described by

Jean Shepherd Jean Parker "Shep" Shepherd Jr. (July 26, 1921 – October 16, 1999) was an American storytelling, storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, and actor. With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is known for the film ''A Christm ...

as sounding like "a combination of

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

, the organ at Westminster Cathedral, and wind whistling through

Mammoth Cave Mammoth Cave National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in south-central Kentucky. It encompasses portions of Mammoth Cave, the List of longest caves, longest known cave system in the worl ...

" – was also heard in two

feature films A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

, ''The Secret of Magic Island'' (a 1964

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

release of a 1956

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

movie called ''Un fée... pas comme les autres'') and ''In Search of Bigfoot'' (1975). In addition, for many years he did

radio commercial In the United States, commercial radio stations make most of their revenue by selling airtime to be used for running radio advertisements. These advertisements are the result of a business or a service providing a valuable consideration, usuall ...

s for different products and services, including a long-running ad campaign for

Barron's Magazine ''Barron's'' (stylized in all caps) is an American weekly magazine and newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp, since 1921. Founded as ''Barron's National Financial Weekly'' in 1921 by Clarence W. Barron (1855–19 ...

, as well as voice-over work for

corporate A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of s ...

and other clients. In his final years, he did some narrations for

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

s that were put out by ''

Outdoor Life ''Outdoor Life'' is an outdoors magazine about camping, fishing, hunting, and survival. For years, it was a sister magazine of '' Field & Stream''. Together with '' Sports Afield'', they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publish ...

'' magazine.

Death

Tonken died of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

, aged 80.

References

External links

*
Phil Tonken radio credits
*Obituary in

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 ...

, February 13, 2000.
''The Planet Man'', Part 1 1982 WOR-TV sign-on by Phil TonkenDigitally Obsessed review
of ''

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

'' (1963) DVD release
1979 Nickelodeon promo hosted by Phil Tonken
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonken, Phil 1919 births 2000 deaths American radio personalities American male voice actors Radio and television announcers Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Washington, D.C. Male actors from Hartford, Connecticut City College of New York alumni Male actors from Washington, D.C. 20th-century American male actors United States Army personnel of World War II Television personalities from Connecticut