John Facenda
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| John Facenda | |
 John Facenda
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| Born | August 8, 1913 Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S. |
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| Died | September 26, 1984 (aged 71) Havertown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | broadcaster , sports announcer, news anchor, disc jockey, radio personality |
John Thomas Ralph Augustine James Facenda (August 8, 1913 – September 26, 1984) was an American broadcaster and sports announcer. He was a fixture on Philadelphia radio and television for decades, and achieved national fame as a narrator for NFL Films. Through his work with NFL Films, Facenda was known by many NFL fans as "The Voice of God".
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Radio and television work
John Facenda attended Villanova University but dropped out. It has been speculated that this was for economic reasons, particularly because of the Great Depression. After leaving school, he found employment with the now-defunct Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper. The Public Ledger also owned a radio station, WHAT. Facenda's radio career began when the announcer for WHAT's Scholastic Sports Review program became sick one day, and Facenda was asked to substitute. Soon after, WHAT hired Facenda as an announcer.
Facenda left WHAT after the station's manager refused to reimburse Facenda $5 for a pair of pigskin gloves he wore while knocking ice off the station's antenna (one of his duties). He moved to New York City and worked for a few years as the program director for the Ticker News Service, another radio-based business.
He returned to Philadelphia in 1935 and started working for WIP Radio, where he would remain until 1952. He began his work in television at WCAU-TV, then the Philadelphia CBS television affiliate, in 1948. His anchored his first newscast on the station on September 13, 1948. He started working full-time at the station after leaving WIP in 1952. Facenda ended his newscasts with the familiar refrain, "Have a nice night tonight and a good day tomorrow. Goodnight, all." The phrase even found its way into the 1956 film The Burglar, starring Jayne Mansfield and Dan Duryea.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Facenda's was the dominant news broadcast in the Philadelphia area (beating the combined ratings of the two other network affiliates) and he achieved iconic status in Philadelphia as both a face and voice before his rise to national prominence. His newscasts, originally just five minutes long, were eventually expanded to 30 minutes.
Among Facenda's writers was John Du Bois, a noted newsman with the Philadelphia Bulletin and County Press.
[edit] NFL Films
One night in 1965, Facenda went to a local tavern, the RDA Club, which happened to be showing footage produced by NFL Films. He enjoyed the slow-motion game sequences that were already an NFL Films trademark and would later recall:
| “ | I started to rhapsodize about how beautiful it was. Ed Sabol, the man who founded NFL Films, happened to be at the bar. He came up to me and asked, 'If I give you a script, could you repeat what you just did?' I said I would try. | ” |
Thus began Facenda's association with NFL Films, one that would continue until his death. Facenda narrated countless highlight films during his career with the company. His stentorian baritone was the perfect match for the highly dramatic nature of the footage he narrated, and earned him the nickname "The Voice of God." Probably one of the best-remembered (and most frequently-quoted) examples of Facenda's NFL Films narration is something he never actually said: "the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" was a quote the sportscaster Chris Berman made up, mimicking Facenda's voice when he said it. Steve Sabol, (son of Ed) claimed that "John may have made a game seem more important than it was because he read lines with a dramatic directness"[1]
Facenda was undoubtedly at the pinnacle of his deliveries in 1974's "The Championship Chase" with his recitation of “The Autumn Wind,” a football poem written by Steve Sabol, personifying fall weather:
The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.
His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.
The Autumn wind is a RAIDER
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.
The poem and its accompanying theme music have become an anthem of the Oakland Raiders. It is also known as the "Battle Hymn of the Raider Nation."
[edit] Speaking style
Facenda's speaking style is frequently emulated, often in a parodic manner, in contemporary sports news and advertising, and to this day remains the sound most closely linked with NFL Films. Similarly, Facenda's voice is so closely associated with the NFL that in July 2006, Facenda's son filed a lawsuit against the NFL, claiming that Facenda's voice was used without permission in an NFL Network program promoting the video game Madden 2006.
A room in the internet virtual Professional Football History Museum is called "The Facenda Audio-Visual Room" in Facenda's honor.
[edit] End of Facenda's anchorman career
In the early 1970s, rival WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV) adopted the Action News format based on the news broadcasts heard on Top 40 radio stations and heavily influenced by tabloid newspapers. WCAU-TV's news broadcast fell to last place in the ratings and management considered Facenda too old to appeal to youthful viewers. In 1972, a new co-anchor, newscaster Judd Hambrick was brought in for Facenda's newscast. Facenda, aware of the growing youth movement in Philadelphia's tough television news market, decided to step down as anchorman at the age of 60. His last newscast as anchor for WCAU was on March 23, 1973. Many viewers were upset over the loss of Facenda, and the newscast's ratings did not improve.
Facenda continued his association with WCAU, serving as host and narrator of various WCAU public affairs series. He was co-anchor for the station's coverage of Pope John Paul II's visit to Philadelphia in 1979. Twelve days before Facenda died, he was presented with the Governors Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Philadelphia chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
John Facenda died of cancer on September 26, 1984. His final voice-over work for NFL Films was the highlight film for Super Bowl XVIII.
[edit] References
- ^ NFL Lost Treasures episode #19 2002
