Phillips Lord
Encyclopedia
Phillips Haynes Lord was an American
radio
program writer
, creator, producer and narrator as well as a motion picture actor
, best known for the Gang Busters
radio program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1957.
, the son of a Protestant clergyman. He was still an infant when his family moved to Meriden, Connecticut
, where his father accepted the pastorship of a local church. As a boy, Lord spent his summers with relatives in Maine
and after completing high school, he studied at Phillips Academy
in Andover, Massachusetts
, before going to Bowdoin College
in Brunswick, Maine
. While still in college he established a myriad of businesses including a book-selling operation, a shoe repair service and a taxi cab company. After graduation, the 22-year-old was hired as the principal at the high school in the small town of Plainville, Connecticut
, reportedly the youngest person in the United States to ever hold such a position. He soon grew bored with the job and headed to New York
where, after a series of jobs in publishing, he began writing scripts for radio.
humor that included the playing of old time songs. On his own initiative, he communicated with several stations across the U.S. and sold them scripts he labeled as "Seth Parker's Singing School". An instant hit, Lord was soon contacted by NBC Radio
who contracted to buy scripts for a show to run six days a week that NBC called "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's". This was followed by other magazine publications who acquired his scripts and before long Lord was earning close to $100,000 a year. Not limited in his scope, during this time he wrote other successful radio programs that were designed to conclude after a specific number of episodes were broadcast. Lord's growing popularity resulted in his publishing two books in 1930 titled Seth Parker's Album and Seth Parker's Hymnal that led to the release of 78rpm gospel
records
by the "Phillips Lord Trio". Lord and the radio show gained a wide audience and the September 1931 issue of The American Magazine had a feature article on him under the heading: "At 29 He Has Made a Million Friends".
In 1932, Lord published a book titled Seth Parker & His Jonesport Folks: Way Back Home from which he also wrote a stage play titled Seth Parker's Jonesport Folks; an entertainment in two acts. The book was published to coincide with the release of his 1932 motion picture produced by RKO Radio Pictures Inc. who used the shorter title from the book, Way Back Home. Starring opposite Bette Davis
, Lord was billed as "Seth Parker, Preacher". Because the radio program was unknown in England
, the motion picture was released there with the title Old Greatheart.
In 1933, Lord came up with the idea of buying a sailing ship and broadcasting his show via short-wave radio while sailing to exotic places around the world with a team of celebrities. LHe purchased the 188-foot, 867-ton four masted schooner
Georgette, which he renamed Seth Parker. Much promotional material was released in advance of the adventure including that Mr. Eugene Nohl would be bringing the "Hell Below", a diving shell
to be used for undersea exploration. Equipped with the necessary under-water photographic equipment donated by the Pathé
film studios, the hype surrounding the voyage promised that Eugene Nohl would photograph "the sunken civilizations of the South Seas Islands, of its deep marine life and formations" and of course "search for sunken treasure
and bring back film of shipwrecks".
Sponsored by the Frigidaire
appliance company, in June 1934 the schooner Seth Parker set sail for the South Pacific
via the Panama Canal
. Departing from New York City, the ship docked at various ports along the eastern seaboard
such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, and Jacksonville, Florida
, from where they broadcast their short wave radio program that was retransmitted by NBC
. For the listening public, this was a grand adventure by a group of wholesome Americans led by the creator of Rev. Seth Parker. However, the broadcasts revealed a bit of the frivolity behind the scenes of a voyage filled with wine, women and the kind of songs that were not found in any Seth Parker hymnal
. In February 1935, disaster struck in the form of a tropical storm off the coast of American Samoa
. The ship was severely damaged to the point where the expedition had to be abandoned which spelled the end of the radio program. Despite everything, the shortened expedition proved immensely popular with the listening audience and the Frigidaire company promoted a 32-page illustrated booklet called Aboard the Seth Parker to publicize the voyage and as an advertisement for Frigidaire equipment on the ship. The schooner was eventually sold and its new owner managed to sail it to Coconut Island
in Kane`ohe Bay, O`ahu, Hawaii
, where it was permanently anchored for use as a bar and movie theater by Fleischmann Yeast heir, Christian Holmes II. It can be seen in the 1948 Republic Pictures
movie Wake of the Red Witch
starring John Wayne
and Gail Russell
. In 1999, broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod listed the Cruise of the Seth Parker as one of the top 100 old-time radio moments of the 20th century.
program, billed as "The Crime Fighters of American Broadcasting". A law enforcement reality series using authentic case histories, during the 1930s the program was hosted by Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
and featured various actors such as Art Carney
. The thirty-minute program ran on Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. on CBS
radio and opened with the portentous sounds of machine gun
fire, police whistles screaming and tires screeching, causing the phrase "coming on like gangbusters" to be coined. Copied years later by the television show America's Most Wanted
, each episode of Gang Busters had up-to-the-minute reports of criminals wanted by the FBI or other law enforcement officials, many of whom were later arrested due to tips from listeners. To accomplish this, Lord hired actor/writer/civil servant Helen Sioussat (1902-1995) who later became the head of the Talks and Public Affairs Department at CBS
. Such was the influence of Lord that Sioussat was given a Washington D.C. office next to J. Edgar Hoover
at the Justice Department where she was allowed access to official information from files upon which the radio series was based.
The Gang Busters radio show was an enormous long-running success with 1,008 radio broadcasts over twenty-one years from July 20, 1935, to November 20, 1957. It also spawned a long-running DC Comics comic book
of the same name, and was the basis for a motion picture with the same title, as well as a half-hour weekly television series in 1952, both of which were narrated by Lord. In 1954, several episodes of the television series were used to create another documentary
-style motion picture of the same title. The film proved successful enough that a second was put together in 1957 from more of the old television episodes and released under the title Guns Don't Argue. In 1998, Gang Busters was part of the 30-hour audio cassette called CBS's 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows.
and the Battle of Britain
raging in Europe
, between December 1939 and August 1940 Lord produced a radio show about aviators that opened with an interview of a real-life pilot recounting an exciting adventure in the air after which the show moved to a dramatization played by radio actors. From 1939 to 1952, he produced Mr. District Attorney
, a 30-minute crime show inspired by the real-life exploits of New York's racket-busting district attorney
, Thomas Dewey
. The radio broadcast spawned a 1941 motion picture from Republic Pictures
of the same name and a 1947 Columbia Pictures
production.
Lord's contribution to the radio industry was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6912 Hollywood Blvd. He died in 1975 in Ellsworth, Maine
. In 2004, his story was told by author Martin Grams, Jr.
in the book Gang Busters: The Crime Fighters of American Broadcasting.
Phillips Lord was also instrumental in raising awareness and money for the restoration of the USS Constitution.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
program writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, creator, producer and narrator as well as a motion picture actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known for the Gang Busters
Gang Busters
Gang Busters was an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered as G-Men, sponsored by Chevrolet, on July 20, 1935.-History:...
radio program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1957.
Early life
Lord was born in the small town of Hartford, VermontHartford, Vermont
Hartford is a town in Windsor County in the U.S. state of Vermont. It is located on the New Hampshire border, at the intersection of Interstates 89 and 91. It is the site of the confluence of the White River and the Connecticut River; the Ottauquechee River also flows through the town...
, the son of a Protestant clergyman. He was still an infant when his family moved to Meriden, Connecticut
Meriden, Connecticut
Meriden is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 59,653.-History:...
, where his father accepted the pastorship of a local church. As a boy, Lord spent his summers with relatives in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and after completing high school, he studied at Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
in Andover, Massachusetts
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
, before going to Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
in Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,278 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, , and the...
. While still in college he established a myriad of businesses including a book-selling operation, a shoe repair service and a taxi cab company. After graduation, the 22-year-old was hired as the principal at the high school in the small town of Plainville, Connecticut
Plainville, Connecticut
Plainville is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 17,328 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 9.8 square miles , of which 9.8 square miles is land and 0.1 square miles is water...
, reportedly the youngest person in the United States to ever hold such a position. He soon grew bored with the job and headed to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where, after a series of jobs in publishing, he began writing scripts for radio.
The Seth Parker years
Lord was still in his twenties and living in New York City when he became a national radio personality. Creating the character "Seth Parker", a clergyman and backwoods philosopher based on his real-life grandfather, Hosea Phillips, Lord wrote stories for radio of rural New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
humor that included the playing of old time songs. On his own initiative, he communicated with several stations across the U.S. and sold them scripts he labeled as "Seth Parker's Singing School". An instant hit, Lord was soon contacted by NBC Radio
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
who contracted to buy scripts for a show to run six days a week that NBC called "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's". This was followed by other magazine publications who acquired his scripts and before long Lord was earning close to $100,000 a year. Not limited in his scope, during this time he wrote other successful radio programs that were designed to conclude after a specific number of episodes were broadcast. Lord's growing popularity resulted in his publishing two books in 1930 titled Seth Parker's Album and Seth Parker's Hymnal that led to the release of 78rpm gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
by the "Phillips Lord Trio". Lord and the radio show gained a wide audience and the September 1931 issue of The American Magazine had a feature article on him under the heading: "At 29 He Has Made a Million Friends".
In 1932, Lord published a book titled Seth Parker & His Jonesport Folks: Way Back Home from which he also wrote a stage play titled Seth Parker's Jonesport Folks; an entertainment in two acts. The book was published to coincide with the release of his 1932 motion picture produced by RKO Radio Pictures Inc. who used the shorter title from the book, Way Back Home. Starring opposite Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, Lord was billed as "Seth Parker, Preacher". Because the radio program was unknown in England
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the motion picture was released there with the title Old Greatheart.
In 1933, Lord came up with the idea of buying a sailing ship and broadcasting his show via short-wave radio while sailing to exotic places around the world with a team of celebrities. LHe purchased the 188-foot, 867-ton four masted schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
Georgette, which he renamed Seth Parker. Much promotional material was released in advance of the adventure including that Mr. Eugene Nohl would be bringing the "Hell Below", a diving shell
Submersible
A submersible is a small vehicle designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vehicles known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is...
to be used for undersea exploration. Equipped with the necessary under-water photographic equipment donated by the Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
film studios, the hype surrounding the voyage promised that Eugene Nohl would photograph "the sunken civilizations of the South Seas Islands, of its deep marine life and formations" and of course "search for sunken treasure
Sunken treasure
Sunken treasure may refer to:*Goods , treasure and/or other artifacts lost in a shipwreck, some of which is sought after and/or found by marine salvors, divers, underwater archaeologists, and/or treasure hunters during marine salvage*Sunken Treasure , a Milton Bradley game*"Sunken Treasure," a...
and bring back film of shipwrecks".
Sponsored by the Frigidaire
Frigidaire
Frigidaire is a brand of consumer and commercial appliances. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first self-contained refrigerator in 1916. In 1918, William C...
appliance company, in June 1934 the schooner Seth Parker set sail for the South Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
via the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
. Departing from New York City, the ship docked at various ports along the eastern seaboard
Eastern seaboard
An Eastern seaboard can mean any easternmost part of a continent, or its countries, states and/or cities.Eastern seaboard may also refer to:* East Coast of Australia* East Coast of the United States* Eastern Seaboard of Thailand-See also:...
such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, and Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, from where they broadcast their short wave radio program that was retransmitted by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. For the listening public, this was a grand adventure by a group of wholesome Americans led by the creator of Rev. Seth Parker. However, the broadcasts revealed a bit of the frivolity behind the scenes of a voyage filled with wine, women and the kind of songs that were not found in any Seth Parker hymnal
Hymnal
Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymns, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity...
. In February 1935, disaster struck in the form of a tropical storm off the coast of American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
. The ship was severely damaged to the point where the expedition had to be abandoned which spelled the end of the radio program. Despite everything, the shortened expedition proved immensely popular with the listening audience and the Frigidaire company promoted a 32-page illustrated booklet called Aboard the Seth Parker to publicize the voyage and as an advertisement for Frigidaire equipment on the ship. The schooner was eventually sold and its new owner managed to sail it to Coconut Island
Coconut Island
Coconut Island, or Moku o Loe, is a 28-acre island in Kāne'ohe Bay off the island of O'ahu in the state of Hawai'i, USA. It is a marine research facility of the Hawai`i Institute of Marine Biology of the University of Hawai`i....
in Kane`ohe Bay, O`ahu, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, where it was permanently anchored for use as a bar and movie theater by Fleischmann Yeast heir, Christian Holmes II. It can be seen in the 1948 Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
movie Wake of the Red Witch
Wake of the Red Witch
Wake of the Red Witch is a 1948 drama film from Republic Pictures starring John Wayne and Gail Russell, produced by Edmund Grainger, and based upon the novel by Garland Roark...
starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
and Gail Russell
Gail Russell
Gail Russell was an American film and television actress.-Career:She was born Elizabeth L. Russell to George and Gladys Russell in Chicago, Illinois, and then moved to the Los Angeles, California, area when she was a teenager. Russell's extraordinary beauty brought her to the attention of...
. In 1999, broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod listed the Cruise of the Seth Parker as one of the top 100 old-time radio moments of the 20th century.
The Gang Busters era
After returning from his sailing adventure, Lord immediately set about writing and creating a new radio program. He switched from the kindly Seth Parker persona to a dark and ominous narrator's voice for his Gang BustersGang Busters
Gang Busters was an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered as G-Men, sponsored by Chevrolet, on July 20, 1935.-History:...
program, billed as "The Crime Fighters of American Broadcasting". A law enforcement reality series using authentic case histories, during the 1930s the program was hosted by Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr.
Major General Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf was the first superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. He is best known for his involvement in the Lindbergh kidnapping case. He was the father of General H...
and featured various actors such as Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
. The thirty-minute program ran on Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
radio and opened with the portentous sounds of machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
fire, police whistles screaming and tires screeching, causing the phrase "coming on like gangbusters" to be coined. Copied years later by the television show America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
, each episode of Gang Busters had up-to-the-minute reports of criminals wanted by the FBI or other law enforcement officials, many of whom were later arrested due to tips from listeners. To accomplish this, Lord hired actor/writer/civil servant Helen Sioussat (1902-1995) who later became the head of the Talks and Public Affairs Department at CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. Such was the influence of Lord that Sioussat was given a Washington D.C. office next to J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
at the Justice Department where she was allowed access to official information from files upon which the radio series was based.
The Gang Busters radio show was an enormous long-running success with 1,008 radio broadcasts over twenty-one years from July 20, 1935, to November 20, 1957. It also spawned a long-running DC Comics comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
of the same name, and was the basis for a motion picture with the same title, as well as a half-hour weekly television series in 1952, both of which were narrated by Lord. In 1954, several episodes of the television series were used to create another documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
-style motion picture of the same title. The film proved successful enough that a second was put together in 1957 from more of the old television episodes and released under the title Guns Don't Argue. In 1998, Gang Busters was part of the 30-hour audio cassette called CBS's 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows.
Other accomplishments
Among his numerous other radio creations, with World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
raging in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, between December 1939 and August 1940 Lord produced a radio show about aviators that opened with an interview of a real-life pilot recounting an exciting adventure in the air after which the show moved to a dramatization played by radio actors. From 1939 to 1952, he produced Mr. District Attorney
Mr. District Attorney
Mr. District Attorney is a popular radio crime drama which aired on NBC and ABC from April 3, 1939 to June 13, 1952 . The series focused on a crusading D.A., initially known only as "Mister District Attorney," or "Chief", and was later translated to television. On television the D.A...
, a 30-minute crime show inspired by the real-life exploits of New York's racket-busting district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
, Thomas Dewey
Thomas Dewey
Thomas Edmund Dewey was the 47th Governor of New York . In 1944 and 1948, he was the Republican candidate for President, but lost both times. He led the liberal faction of the Republican Party, in which he fought conservative Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft...
. The radio broadcast spawned a 1941 motion picture from Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
of the same name and a 1947 Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
production.
Lord's contribution to the radio industry was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6912 Hollywood Blvd. He died in 1975 in Ellsworth, Maine
Ellsworth, Maine
Ellsworth is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Maine, United States. The 2010 Census determined it had a population of 7,741. Ellsworth was Maine's fastest growing city from 2000-2010 with a growth rate of nearly 20 percent...
. In 2004, his story was told by author Martin Grams, Jr.
Martin Grams, Jr.
Martin Grams, Jr. is a radio historian who has written extensively on radio, television and films. The son of magician Martin Grams, Sr. and librarian Mary Pat Grams, he was educated at South Eastern School District in York County, Pennsylvania and graduated from Kennard Dale High School in Fawn...
in the book Gang Busters: The Crime Fighters of American Broadcasting.
Phillips Lord was also instrumental in raising awareness and money for the restoration of the USS Constitution.