Announcer
Tony Randall, the actor and comedian who lives in New York, was about 20 when he was an announcer for Worcester radio station WTAG-AM. He was a newly-wed, and he and his wife lived at 48 William Street, in the city's downtown.
His radio job only lasted only a year, between June 1941 and June 1942, and it was one of many preludes to his eventual success as a movie and television personality. Before his stint in Worcester, Randall had never been in New England, and wasn't quite sure to expect.
'I remember that the man who auditioned me said my audience would be mostly farmers, and that I shouldn't sound too cultivated,' Randall said.
'Worcester seemed very dark and dingy and run-down. But at the time, most of the country looked like that. We were just coming out of the Depression.
'We didn't have enough money to do anything. We just stayed home, except for the occasional movie.
'I was considered a huge success story at WTAG because my salary more than doubled -- from $35 a week to $90 -- in my year at the station. Still, it wasn't enough for a car. Everyone would offer me a lift when they saw me roller-skating to work.'
---RDC
(This snapshot of Tony Randall was written in 1978. It appearance here is its first publication).