Ed Herlihy

When he died in 1999, his obituary in The New York Times said he was "A Voice of Cheer and Cheese". • Illustration — Herlihy's voice in Universal Newsreels inspired national pride or national mourning, depending whether the topic was terrestrial war on Earth or the first step of a trip to the Moon (1946)

• Name — Ed Herlihy • Birth Name — Edward Joseph Herlihy • Born — 14 August 1909 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 30 January 1999 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Show — Radio: America's Town Meeting of the Air The Big Show The Falcon Mr. District Attorney Recollections At 30 The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour Television: The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour Kraft Television Theatre Your Show of Shows All My Children As the World Turns • Station — WLOE, Boston • Network — NBC • Spouse — Fredi Herlihy • Children — 4

Educated at Boston College, graduating in 1932, he gained his first radio job in his home town, at Boston's WLOE. When he was hired by NBC in 1935, he decamped for New York, along with his friend, fellow Boston announcer Frank Gallop, who was hired by CBS. In their early days as network announcers, Herlihy and Gallop shared an apartment on West 45th Street. Herlihy was immediately successful in network radio, at that time in its sharpest ascendancy. He was the announcer for many radio shows from the 1930s, to the 1950s, among them: America's Town Meeting, The Big Show, The Falcon, Mr. District Attorney, and Just Plain Bill. He became the host of The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour on radio in 1948, remaining its announcer when the show went to television. He continued his success in the new medium: his early television credits included Sid Caesar's hit Your Show of Shows and soap operas As the World Turns and All My Children. He was also the host of Recollections At 30, which was a special NBC Radio series created for the network's 30th birthday.

In 1947 Herlihy began his long association with Kraft Foods on radio, and continued it when the company sponsored the Kraft Television Theater on television in the 1950s. Richard Severo writes in his obituary of Herlihy that the show—and Herlihy's talent—suited Kraft well: A dramatic offering, all of it done live, the show featured everything from Shakespeare to Rod Serling; it was at the center of what critics would come to call television's Golden Age. During commercials for Kraft products ("Good food and good food ideas," Mr. Herlihy would say), audiences heard only his voice, a voice he said he tried to make sound friendly. It was an avuncular, next-door-neighbor, deep, mellow kind of voice, a digestive guide through the preparation of all manner of souffles, dips, marshmallow salads and fondues. He was noted for his ability to ad lib through commercials when dramatic presentations ran too long or too short. Herlihy's role as Kraft spokesman lasted nearly 40 years, his voice becoming as familiar as a next-door neighbor's. From his obituary in The New York Times: "He liked to recall a summer day in Times Square when he helped a blind man to cross at 44th Street. He took the man's arm, and the man said it was a beautiful day. "Yes," Herlihy replied, "this is the kind of day the Lord made for the good guys." The blind man replied: "I know you. You're the cheese man on TV."" In his capacity with Kraft, Severo writes, Herlihy "introduced Cheez Whiz, offered innumerable entreaties to buy Velveeta and delivered eloquent apologias for the entombment of almost anything edible with Miracle Whip".

• Illustration — Herlihy reports on the Vietnam War on the February 8, 1965 edition of Universal Newsreel For Universal Newsreels in the 1940s, Herlihy narrated editions describing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Allies' early setbacks against the Axis powers, the turning of the tide of World War II, the death of President Roosevelt, the execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the detonation of the first atomic bombs. In the next decade, during the Cold War, he narrated the first American newsreel on the launch of Sputnik.

Herlihy made his last TV appearance on a PBS tribute N.Y. TV: By the People Who Made It in 1999.

Herlihy died of natural causes at his home in Manhattan, New York City, aged 89. The Herlihy family is one of the supporters of the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey; the foyer, with its oil portrait of Herlihy, is named in his memory.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1973 — Ten from Your Show of Shows — The Narrator • 1981 — The Chosen — Newsreel Announcer • 1983 — The King of Comedy — Himself — (announcer for The Jerry Langford Show) • 1983 — Zelig — Newsreel Announcer — Voice • 1985 — Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment — Officer Dooley • Pee-wee's Big Adventure — Mr. Buxton • 1986 — A Fine Mess — TV Reporter • 1988 — The Speeches of Winston Churchill — Voice (archive footage) • Who Framed Roger Rabbit — Newscaster • 1992 — Malcolm X — Joe Louis Announcer • 1994 — Don't Drink the Water — Narrator — TV movie (final film role)