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(189?-1971) Birthplace: California
Bilko Chaplain, John Gibson was one of the most well-liked performers
in Radio. With a self-reported ten-thousand radioappearances over a
32-year career one would well imagine that someone liked him very much,
indeed. We whole-heartedly agree.
Beginning with silent pictures, John Gibson was in on the ground floor of every
modern technological medium. He was the voice of 'Sleepy', one of the Seven
Dwarves in the original Walt Disney Snow White animated feature. Indeed, he
not only voiced the animated character, he acted it--his facial features were
actually filmed and replayed by the animators as they drew his frames.
He inaugurated his Radio career with 1932's Globe Headlines.
He recalled his first memorable experience in Radio as the first coast-to-coast
network broadcast from the RCA Studios in California, to the NBC/RCA studios
in New York. Although performing in hundreds of juvenile action/adventure
roles, he's most affectionately remembered for his long-running role as
Ethelbert, the world-weary, nostalgically philosophical bartender at The Blue
Note. The Blue Note was the fictional watering hole that usually began and
ended most adventures of the various Casey, Crime Photographer programs
over an eleven-year span.
Having begun his Radio career on the West Coast, he soon made the
pilgrimage to New York City, lured by the extraordinary volume of programs
orginating there. From the moment he landed in New York City, he never
stopped running. He recalled doing as many as twelve episodes a day at
as many as seven different studios within walking distance of each other.
An early Union member, he described having to run back and forth around
Manhattan to keep up with all of his assignments--and their Union requirements.
Although he loved performing in Radio Comedy, he was most often cast in
straight dramatic roles and action/adventure serials. But his great good
humor and natural comedic timing made him a natural talent for virtually every
genre. With leading and recurring roles in Don Winslow In The Navy, Terry
and The Pirates, Adventures of The Red Feather Man, The Air Adventures of
Jimmie Allen, The Adventures of Dick Cole, and Dick Tracy, John Gibson
quickly gained an extensive and loyal following of young--and older--Radio
fans alike.
Gibson performed both on Radio and in Film with Clark Gable, a Hollywood
actor that greatly impressed Gibson with his humility and natural shyness.
But after his long-running success in Radio, Gibson saw the Golden Age of
Radio in decline well before many of his peers. He began his Television
career in 1945, and by 1951 he was already reprising his Ethelbert role in
Radio's Crime Photographer in the CBS Television version--directed by no
less than Sidney Lumet! But Lumet's direction wasn't enough to save it, nor
was the entry of Darren McGavin into the role of Casey after the first two months.
TV's Crime Photographer jumped the shark and Jan Miner and John Gibson
jumped back into the last year of its radio incarnation in 1954.
John Gibson enjoyed an extensive Television career spanning twenty-two years, completing his Television career in
advertsing while in his 60s.
Radiography:
1932 Globe Headlines
1932 Police Headquarters
1932 The Family Doctor
1935 Ann Of the Airlanes
1935 The Tottering Van Teeters
1935 Calling All Cars
1935 Town Hall Tonight
1936 Lux Radio Theatre
1936 Front Page Drama
1937 Speed Gibson Of the International Secret Police
1937 The Jello Program
1938 Captains Of Industry
1938 Silver Theatre
1939 Columbia Workshop
1940 Command Performance
1940 The American School Of the Air
1940 The Bishop and the Gargoyle
1942 Michael Piper, Detective
1942 Terry and the Pirates
1942 Radio Reader's Digest
1942 Suspense
1942 Don Winslow Of the Navy
1943 This Is Our Enemy
1943 Flashgun Casey
1944 Treasury Star Parade
1944 Nick Carter, Master Detective
1944 Casey, Press Photographer
1944 The Sportsmen's Club
1944 Two On A Clue
1944 Matinee Theatre
1944 Theatre Of Romance
1945 Boston Blackie
1945 Molle Mystery Theatre
1945 The Adventures Of the Falcon
1946 Adventures Of the Red Feather Man
1946 Air Adventures Of Jimmie Allen
1946 The Adventures Of Dick Cole
1946 Dick Tracy
1946 This Is Your FBI
1946 Casey, Crime Photographer
1946 Murder At Midnight
1947 Lest We Forget
1947 The Milton Berle Show
1947 The Big Story
1948 Ford Theatre
1948 Romance
1948 The Eternal Light
1948 The Adventures Of Archie Andrews
1948 Texaco Star Theatre
1949 You and Your Security
1949 The Morey Amsterdam Show
1949 You Are There
1949 Cavalcade Of America
1949 The Henry Morgan Show
1950 The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show
1950 Mysterious Traveler
1950 Murder By Experts
1950 MGM Theatre Of the Air
1950 Crime Does Not Pay
1950 Dimension X
1950 The Magnificent Montague
1950 Theatre Guild On the Air
1951 The Bickersons
1951 Now Hear This
1951 The Silent Men
1951 Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator
1952 The Chase
1952 Best Plays
1954 Crime Photographer
1954 The Marriage
1954 Inheritance
1954 Dr Six-Gun
1955 X Minus One
1956 CBS Radio Workshop
1957 Studio One
1958 The Couple Next Door
1959 You'll Never Get Rich
1959 Suspense
1962 Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
1964 Theatre Five
John as an Ad man, in 1961's
Car 54 Where Are You?
Gibson with Art Carney and Jackie Gleason in
The Honeymooners, ca. 1956
John Gibson as a Pastor, in 1962's
Car 54 Where Are You?
John Gibson poses with WTIC's Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran, ca 1970.
