John Cameron Swayze

 

John Cameron Swayze was a popular news commentator during the 1950's. Born in Wichita, Kansas, Swayze first sought to make his way as an actor but his move to Broadway was derailed by the scarcity of acting roles following Wall Street's stock market crash. He returned to the Midwest and was hired on with the Kansas City Journal Post as a reporter. From there he graduated to radio doing news updates for Kansas City's KMBC in the 40's, an experimental early television newscast. Four years later, Swayze went farther west, to LA and Hollywood where NBC hired him for its western news division before moving him to its New York news operation in 1947. During 1948 Swayze provided voice-over work for the "Camel Newsreel Theatre", an early television news program that broadcast Movietone News rewsreels. NBC made him the host of their national political convention coverage in 1948 - the first commercial coverage ever on television. NBC and the public liked what they saw so Swayze was picked to host NBC's first television newscast, the fifteen-minute Camel News Caravan. He read items from the news wires and periodically interviewed newsmakers but he's remembered best for his two breezy catch-phrases: "Let's go hop scotching around the world for headlines" and his somewhat cartoonish sign-off: "Thats the story, folks - glad we could get together." By the late 50's Swayze fell out of favor and was dismissed and replaced by a new anchor team - Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. Swayze was also known for his Timex watch commercials where he said, "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking". He also appeared on commercials for Studebakers and make periodic cameos in films as well as daytime game shows. John Cameron Swayze is the first person shown in the montage of former anchors that currently begins the NBC Nightly News.