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Fred Foy's place in radio and television history is a special one. I'd like to offer some
memories of Mr. Foy from the perspective of an officer in the National Lum and Abner Society
as well as an instructor/broadcaster for a school system.
When I answered the telephone one evening early in 1999 and heard the words "This is Fred
Foy," I immediately felt I had to have been dreaming. It was actually Fred Foy! I knew nobody
was imitating that voice to pull a practical joke. Nobody could! Then I remembered, "That's
right, I wrote him a letter! And I asked him if he'd consider being a guest at the National Lum
and Abner Society Convention one day!" After I recovered from my shock and told him how
happy I was to speak to him, he said, "I'd be delighted to be a guest at your convention." I was
stunned! Was it that easy to invite a radio legend to guest at a radio convention? Executive
Secretary Tim Hollis had been handling this job for almost 15 years; I was new at this!
Of course, Mr. Foy had never appeared on Lum and Abner. The NLAS Convention seemed to
have run out of L&A associates for the time being, so we were opening up the event to other
stars of "Old Time Radio," and Fred Foy was certainly a star!
Since I had listened to countless radio episodes of The Lone Ranger, I was awarded the job
of writing a new script. "Lum and Abner Meet the Lone Ranger" was the working title, and it
never changed. I couldn't think of a clever title. That title said it all. Mr. Foy received his copy
and called to say he was "delighted" with it. He did let me know I misspelled "stealthily" which
somehow escaped my spell-checker. I wish I could have escaped the other "ossifers" when
they let me know I'd failed to spell it correctly. "And you're supposed to be an educator!" Well,
our narrator-announcer-star forgave me. That meant the Lone Ranger forgave me and that was
good enough for me.
Mr. Foy's professionalism impressed everyone who met him in Mena, Arkansas that June
weekend in 1999. Some attendees came primarily as Lone Ranger fans but left learning a great
deal about Lum and Abner.
"Will you cue me?" he asked at rehearsal. How could I refuse? Hearing that familiar voice
reading lines I had written was one of the highlights of my involvement with OTR. It was all I
could do to remember whether I was reading lines for Squire Skimp or Abner. What an
experience! Tim Hollis played Lum as well as Cedric Weehunt, and Sam Brown had the
enviable task of firing those familiar gunshots and clopping the "pounding hoof beats" of the
Great Horse Silver! Mr. Foy had understudied Brace Beemer on The Lone Ranger, and many
are familiar with the fact that he stepped into the role one evening when Beemer was too ill to
perform. "The Lone Ranger (rode) again" into Mena, Arkansas one memorable June day in
1999 in the person of Fred Foy!
One of the ongoing projects in my Carthage High School (Carthage, Texas) broadcast
journalism classes was our live OTR program, The Golden Age of Radio. In 1999 we were still
producing the program live as an audio-only presentation on our local cable TV channel (with a
graphic of an antique radio displayed on the screen as a listing of our programs rolled over it). I
invited Mr. Foy to be our guest for our 1999 Golden Age of Radio Marathon, and he happily
accepted. At a scheduled time, a nervous group of students gathered around the phone with
prepared questions, we made the call, and we were on the air! To this day I see or hear from
students who remember this exciting half-hour. One young lady even asked, "Mr. Foy, you're
not available to be a prom date, are you?" He got quite a laugh out of that! Of course, the
students asked him to demonstrate his "Hi-yo Silver" which he cheerfully did. We reprised this
interview a few years later when our Golden Age of Radio program went weekly on an East
Texas FM station (KZQX) which streamed its programming on the Internet. We received
wonderful comments from listeners in many states. When I retired from Carthage ISD in
January 2010, our Golden Age of Radio program ended. For the final program, I concluded with
the 1999 performance of "Lum and Abner Meet the Lone Ranger."
In the classroom I used Fred Foy's announcing as an example. Of course, we citizens of the
United States have various regional dialects. In East Texas alone there are several dialects
native to the area. Teaching announcing for radio and television is a challenge in any area, and
a powerful voice like Fred Foy's serves well for students to study. Many would chuckle and roll
eyes at the melodramatic tone of the narration of The Lone Ranger, but I always explained the
program to the students. "This was the style, and this program was huge! This style reached
out and grabbed the listener!" I'd tell them to listen to Mr. Foy. I usually told them, "He doesn't
just say the words... He sculpts them like a fine artist! His words have body and weight! You
can feel them!" That was the best way I could describe the quality and impact of Fred Foy's
announcing style.
For the opening segment of our radio programs, Mr. Foy kindly gave us permission to use a
recording of a phrase that is as identified with him as it is with The Lone Ranger: "Return with
us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear." He has left us now. He is part of yesteryear, but
to those who were honored to know and work with him he will always be part of our lives. The
broadcasting students who came through my classes and were able to speak with him by
telephone certainly remember. One of those students, Daron McDaniel (CHS-TV class of 2002),
led the local KGAS Radio News today with a heartfelt statement about the passing of Mr. Fred
Foy, "one of the true pioneers of radio and television."
- "Uncle Donnie" Pitchford
December 23, 2010
memories of Mr. Foy from the perspective of an officer in the National Lum and Abner Society
as well as an instructor/broadcaster for a school system.
When I answered the telephone one evening early in 1999 and heard the words "This is Fred
Foy," I immediately felt I had to have been dreaming. It was actually Fred Foy! I knew nobody
was imitating that voice to pull a practical joke. Nobody could! Then I remembered, "That's
right, I wrote him a letter! And I asked him if he'd consider being a guest at the National Lum
and Abner Society Convention one day!" After I recovered from my shock and told him how
happy I was to speak to him, he said, "I'd be delighted to be a guest at your convention." I was
stunned! Was it that easy to invite a radio legend to guest at a radio convention? Executive
Secretary Tim Hollis had been handling this job for almost 15 years; I was new at this!
Of course, Mr. Foy had never appeared on Lum and Abner. The NLAS Convention seemed to
have run out of L&A associates for the time being, so we were opening up the event to other
stars of "Old Time Radio," and Fred Foy was certainly a star!
Since I had listened to countless radio episodes of The Lone Ranger, I was awarded the job
of writing a new script. "Lum and Abner Meet the Lone Ranger" was the working title, and it
never changed. I couldn't think of a clever title. That title said it all. Mr. Foy received his copy
and called to say he was "delighted" with it. He did let me know I misspelled "stealthily" which
somehow escaped my spell-checker. I wish I could have escaped the other "ossifers" when
they let me know I'd failed to spell it correctly. "And you're supposed to be an educator!" Well,
our narrator-announcer-star forgave me. That meant the Lone Ranger forgave me and that was
good enough for me.
Mr. Foy's professionalism impressed everyone who met him in Mena, Arkansas that June
weekend in 1999. Some attendees came primarily as Lone Ranger fans but left learning a great
deal about Lum and Abner.
"Will you cue me?" he asked at rehearsal. How could I refuse? Hearing that familiar voice
reading lines I had written was one of the highlights of my involvement with OTR. It was all I
could do to remember whether I was reading lines for Squire Skimp or Abner. What an
experience! Tim Hollis played Lum as well as Cedric Weehunt, and Sam Brown had the
enviable task of firing those familiar gunshots and clopping the "pounding hoof beats" of the
Great Horse Silver! Mr. Foy had understudied Brace Beemer on The Lone Ranger, and many
are familiar with the fact that he stepped into the role one evening when Beemer was too ill to
perform. "The Lone Ranger (rode) again" into Mena, Arkansas one memorable June day in
1999 in the person of Fred Foy!
One of the ongoing projects in my Carthage High School (Carthage, Texas) broadcast
journalism classes was our live OTR program, The Golden Age of Radio. In 1999 we were still
producing the program live as an audio-only presentation on our local cable TV channel (with a
graphic of an antique radio displayed on the screen as a listing of our programs rolled over it). I
invited Mr. Foy to be our guest for our 1999 Golden Age of Radio Marathon, and he happily
accepted. At a scheduled time, a nervous group of students gathered around the phone with
prepared questions, we made the call, and we were on the air! To this day I see or hear from
students who remember this exciting half-hour. One young lady even asked, "Mr. Foy, you're
not available to be a prom date, are you?" He got quite a laugh out of that! Of course, the
students asked him to demonstrate his "Hi-yo Silver" which he cheerfully did. We reprised this
interview a few years later when our Golden Age of Radio program went weekly on an East
Texas FM station (KZQX) which streamed its programming on the Internet. We received
wonderful comments from listeners in many states. When I retired from Carthage ISD in
January 2010, our Golden Age of Radio program ended. For the final program, I concluded with
the 1999 performance of "Lum and Abner Meet the Lone Ranger."
In the classroom I used Fred Foy's announcing as an example. Of course, we citizens of the
United States have various regional dialects. In East Texas alone there are several dialects
native to the area. Teaching announcing for radio and television is a challenge in any area, and
a powerful voice like Fred Foy's serves well for students to study. Many would chuckle and roll
eyes at the melodramatic tone of the narration of The Lone Ranger, but I always explained the
program to the students. "This was the style, and this program was huge! This style reached
out and grabbed the listener!" I'd tell them to listen to Mr. Foy. I usually told them, "He doesn't
just say the words... He sculpts them like a fine artist! His words have body and weight! You
can feel them!" That was the best way I could describe the quality and impact of Fred Foy's
announcing style.
For the opening segment of our radio programs, Mr. Foy kindly gave us permission to use a
recording of a phrase that is as identified with him as it is with The Lone Ranger: "Return with
us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear." He has left us now. He is part of yesteryear, but
to those who were honored to know and work with him he will always be part of our lives. The
broadcasting students who came through my classes and were able to speak with him by
telephone certainly remember. One of those students, Daron McDaniel (CHS-TV class of 2002),
led the local KGAS Radio News today with a heartfelt statement about the passing of Mr. Fred
Foy, "one of the true pioneers of radio and television."
- "Uncle Donnie" Pitchford
December 23, 2010
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| "He doesn't just say the words... He sculpts them like a fine artist! His words have body and weight! You can feel them!" |
| Fred Foy poses for a publicity photo at the 1999 National Lum and Abner Society Convention. CHS-TV students often used the very microphone used by Mr. Foy in this photo. |
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| Photo by Richard King, copyright 2010 by the Estate of Fred Foy, published by permission. |
| St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was very important to Mr. Foy. If you would like to honor his memory, please make a donation to this worthy cause. Please click here to visit their website. |
| Other articles on Mr. Foy: |