As a kid, I began listening to Jack Cullen on CKNW in the early 1980s. I'd often listen to the Owl Prowl because it had the greatest variety of music and shows from different decades. So much variety that you didn't know what he'd play next! Very often what he played depended on his mood. It was a miss-match of unrelated tunes and programs. I remember he once played cardboard records - these were actual records recorded on pieces of cardboards to save money during the war years. When I listened in the 80's he'd sign on his Owl Prowl shows with an intrumental version of a song called "Girl Talk".
NETWORK REPLAY
Network Replay was at 11:05. My brother and I would fall asleep each night listening to the
adventures of The Mysterious Traveller, Suspense, X-Minus-One, Dimension-X, Inner Sanctum, The Shadow, I Love A Mystery (Venture), the Jack Benny Program, Lux Radio Theatre, my
favourite: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and many more!
These programs built imagination. As someone recently said to me: It's incredible to think that these radio serials
were recorded by people just standing around in front of microphones reading scrips. They
were so well put together that you could actually 'see' in your mind what's going on.
In the 80s, Jack's Network Replay old time radio (OTR) shows were heard throughout Canada on the WIN Western Information Network (WIN). I don't the name of the theme music he'd use to sign on Network Replay (no it wasn't Girl Talk).
CKNW still plays them at 12 midnight but it's just not the same without Jack!
98 MEMORY LANE
Sunday nights at 8pm was "98 Memory Lane". That's when he'd go *way* back and pull out records from the 20s, 30s, 40s and the 1950s. I had always been curious as to what my parents and grandparents were listening to back then (before TV), and listening to 98 Memory Lane was *the* excellent way to find out! I don't know the name of the tune he'd use to open his 98 Memory Lane but I know it well.
Jack would even play records recorded before 1925. Before 1925-26 records were recorded
acoustically and were meant to be played by a gramophone. But there's no reason why they can't be played on modern equipment. And that's what he did. Many times I'd turn my radio dial back and forth and when I'd hear scratchy old tunes, I knew it had to be on CKNW. I mean, who else on radio would play records that far back but Jack Cullen! I looked forward to Sunday nights to find out how far back he'd go and what rare tune I'd hear.
For me it was an opportunity to hear songs I'd never heard of before! It greatly expanded my musical interest.
Before long I'd visit second hand stores and flea markets and bought 78RPM records. Most will play well with the proper equipment.
I was the only kid who knew who sang a particular tune, in what movie, who wrote it and that Jack Benny visited Vancouver back in the 1940s (few, if any today know who Jack Benny is).
And I was probably the only kid in high school whose parents couldn't object to the lyrics of the songs! And yes, I can safely say, most of what I know about past entertainment I learnt from listening to Jack Cullen!
Found Old Tapes:
One day around 1984, I visited a Salvation Army Thrift store on West Broadway to pick up a
few cassettes to use as blanks to tape off the radio. There was a box of old tapes someone
had donated and I noticed that some cassettes had "Owl Prowl" and "98 Memory Lane" written on
them! Someone had donated old tapes they had recorded off air. I took a few home to listen
and noticed they were from the early 1970s. One in particular is dated Dec 1972. And on it he
only plays tunes from 1947 - the year Sev Morin opened his restaurant in Burnaby. I learnt a
lot about his past shows and antics from these tapes. I guess I wasn't the only one recording
his shows!
Today I wish I had bought all the tapes. Because when I returned the next day,
all other cassettes and the box itself were all gone.
His last broadcast on CKNW was May 18(?) 1999. When I listened in the 80's he'd close all of his shows (Owl Prowl, Network Replay and 98 Memory Lane) with an instrumetal version of Goodnight Sweethart. The very last time I heard Jack Cullen was around the year 2000, for a few months on CKST AM 1040. He did the Owl Prowl and Network Replay, but not 98 Memory Lane.
Then suddenly CKST changed it's format. And Jack was unfortunately, taken off the air for good. [Coincidentally, this was also talk show host, Pat Burns' last stop before the same station had previously changed format around 1993: www.angelfire.com/ok2/PatBurns]
There's a lot of history in the large record collection he left us. Unfortunately,
the 'guide' for the collection left us on April 27 2002. He was born John Francis Cullen on February 16Th 1922 in Vancouver and passed away at Saint Mary's hospital in New Westminster.
You can find more information on Jack Cullen thru various search engines. For example I found
what looks like Jack's office where he did his shows at: http://www.rayteam.com/1999a.html
Go to www.google.com and type ["jack Cullen" AND cknw or "Owl Prowl"] or something similar to find his radio air checks etc.
1) Both Jack Cullen and Dal Richards did a TV series on CTV in 1961. But I don't know the name of it.
2) In October 1977, Jack Cullen, Bobby Hughe, and Dave MaCormick were guess on a 1/2 hr TV game show hosted by Red Robinson called "Trivia" on CBC(?). On the game show they called themselves The Prowlers and played against 3 others. Jack got most of the answers correct.
3) I read somewhere that a photograph of Jack appeared in the movie, "A Piano for Mrs. Cimino" (1982 movie). In this movie his photograph appeared as Betty Davis' long lost husband.
"CBC Flashback" TV January 1968.
"Jack Cullen Radio Broadcast Collection" (CAIN No. 12783). I found it in the Canadian Archival Information Network Web Site: (http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/search/BasicSearch.asp) under the same title. 73 radio broadcasts on cassettes by Jack Cullen of musical broadcasts, news, plays and variety of shows including 'Saturday at Shaughnessy Hospital'. Have anyone seen this? Does any one know what this is? Please let me know. Also found in: http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/bcarchives/default.aspx
"Take 30. Hard Times
A television public affairs program with host Ed Reid who talks with Vancouver broadcaster Jack Cullen... Cullen shows some of his 200,000 records,
Probably 30mins
May 26 1975.
A News magazine on CBC. Also known as Hard Times Take 30 Broadcast.
"Alan Hamel Show" (TV) summer 1976(?)
Jack was interviewed by Alan Hamel as he talks to the audience about his life and radio career. The guest sitting next to him was the late Yvonne De Carlo - his high school friend from King Edward High School in Vancouver. Alan Hamel shows us a record album that Yvonne made. I only have about 10 minutes of the interview so it may be longer. Al (Alan) Hamell was at one time, Susan Sommers's husband.
"Don Hamilton show" CBC-TV March 2 1980. About 10 minutes. In it he discusses some history of showbisness he compiled of Vancouvers' past.
"Saturday Show" CKVU-TV March ? 1980. This 8 minute interview takes place in his studio. He shows us a 16inch LP record transcription.
(- unknown title - ) by Delta Cable TV 10, in 1990. This is the excellent TV interview I saw playing at both of his memorial but I don't know the name of it. It takes place in his studio and we are shown his large record library.
Jack interviewed many entertainers in his career. But I only found these two in library cataloges:
Louis Armstrong on CKNW Jan. 20 1954. This interview is available on LP at some universities and colleges in the US. Also available is an interview of Duke Ellington he did on Oct. 30 1962.
Jazz Giants 33 1/2 RPM record - a five album collector's treasury
Publisher: Redwood Records, Vancouver 1001 Redwood Records (5 records discs, 33 1/3).
Recordings of various jazz artists taken from Jack Cullen Collection. (Program notes by Jack Cullen and G. Wood)
In Passing / Jack Cullen
Pub: Vancouver
A poem written by Henry Herbert Stevens. Shaughnessy Military Hospital, Vancouver, PS8505 U4 I5 1921
Remembering Jack Cullen Recollection; Memories Lane, Millestones, Owl Prowl.
An audio CD Published by SPARC (Society for the Preservation of Antique Radio in Canada).
Tunes taken from various "98 Memory Lane" an Owl Prowl shows. Exactly at it was heard on radio. All tunes introduced Jack Cullen.
http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/personalities.php?id=219
http://www.cknw.com/station/history.cfm
http://www.rayteam.com/1999a.html
(Wilf Ray and Jack Cullen)
http://www3.telus.net/radiomuseum/
http://www.pugetsoundradio.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl - a forum (message board) on radio on the west coast; Canadian and US.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Oq7Ia9V0M
'Cullen Corner'
Many of Jack's video collection were up for sale at the Cloverdale Antique Mall &
Auction in Cloverdale.
There were old and recent TV shows on VHS and even Betamax
(remember Beta?), as well as some of Jack Cullen's rare interviews of himself I mentioned
above. Proceeds from the sale benefited the CKNW Orphan's fund.
TRIBUTE
CKNW did a 2hr tribute to him on and played favourite clips of his shows. More on this later...
Brentwood Mall paid him a tribute on August 23 - 25 2002. On hand was the Society for the Preservation of Antique Radio in Canada (SPARC) who did live broadcasts by playing clips of Jack Cullen's opening and closing themes and more; It was a real radio broadcast that could be picked up on any AM radios in the mall. So, in a way, Jack was back on the air! They even used some of Jacks radio broadcasting equipment as shown here: http://www3.telus.net/burnabeans/studio_news
One of Jack Cullen interviews played on a large sceen TV.
Later, the Burnaby mayor unveiled a commemorative plaque across from Radio Shack where
the Jack Cullen Records store used to be. Brentwood Mall staff decided that coins from the malls' water fountain be donated to the CKNW Orphan's fund which was Jack's favourite charity.
MEMORIAL
A much Larger memorial service took place on May 2th 2002 at Shriners Hall in Burnaby! A
celebration of his life. Thanks to all who organized it, it was excellent!! On hand was
Severin Morin, Lorne Cullen, Bill Hughes, John Ashbridge, DJ Red Robinson and many others who
spoke their memories about him while Jack appeared on a large TV screen. The place was jam
packed!
Read these excellent articles about it:
http://www.thecommentary.ca/archives/20020503.html
http://www.thecommentary.ca/archives/20020430.html
On display at the ceremony were many newspaper clippings that had been collected over many
years - A scrapbook commemorating his life. There were so many that it would have taken hours
to read them all.
I also have a few that I'd like to mention here below. This is definitely not a complete list - just a few I happen to have collected.
I'm sure most major public libraries have old copies of these newspaper articles.
Province, Jan 22 1971 p23
Province, April 28 2002 pA3 [more may be added later]
"Dick Machean's Leisure Guide" Jan 1972 p24 [biography]
"Province Magazine" April 1, 1972 p.7
The Sunday Times (North Van), vol 1 no.15, Oct 3 1976 p.2-3
(Biography)
Vancouver Sun, Sept 22 1980 p
Province, Oct 31 1982 p8 [biography]
Van Sun, May 23 1987 pG3
Vancouver Courier, Oct 21 1987 [biography]
Van Sun, July 23 1994 p.A15? - Jack gets his star the Granvile street sidewalk
Van Sun, Aug 22 1994 p.B3
Van Sun, May 11 1995 p.B1 (mentions his school)
Van Sun, March 29 1995 p.B1 (mentions his school)
Van Sun, Aug 21 1996 p.B9 "CKNW clip wings of Owl Prowl..."
Van Sun, August 24 1996 p.B2
Van Sun, August 24 1996 p.A18 - mentions his show winding down
Van Sun, Aug 24 1996 p.b2 [biography]
Province, May 11 1997 p.b6
?? April 9 1997 pB4 - CKNW goes 'all talk'
Van Sun, April 10 1997 pA2
Van. Sun, Aug 13 1997 p.c5 - Cullen plays rare Elvis
Province, Feb. 26 1999 p.B11 - Cullens record collection the largest...[biography]
British Columbia Report, vol.10 ??? 1999 p.28
Province, May 19 1999 p.A3 - CKNW lay offs
Van Sun, May 19 1999 p B1 - CKNW lay offs
Tri-Cities newspapers, May 19 1999 p. B8 - CKNW lay offs
Province, May 21 1999 p.A37 - (reader says they'll miss Jack Cullen)
Province, Aug 27 1999 p B13
Province, Oct 8 1999 p.B13 "the owl is back on the prowl"
Van. Sun, Oct 14 1999 p.C43 [biography]
Canadian Press Newswire, 2000/09/03
Van. Sun, June 21 2001 pB5
Province, July 6 2001 p.B21
Van. Sun, Feb 16 2002 pB3 (80th birthday)
Province, April 23 2002 pB12
Canadian Press Newswire April 29 2002
Globe & Mail, April 29 2002 p
Province, April 29 2002 pB8
Van. Sun, April 29 2002 pB1
The Gazette, April 30 2002 pF6
Van. Sun, April 30 2002 pA10
The Expositor, (Ontario) May 1 2002 pC8
Van. Sun, May 3 2002 pB1
Province, May 06 2002 pB8 (mentions the special tribute to Cullen on CKNW)
Globe & Mail, May 7 2002 p.??
Variety, July 1 2002 p44 (short article)
Burnaby Now, Aug 22(?) 2002 p.? (memorial plaque at Brentwood Mall)
Van. Sun, August 23 2002 p.B5 - tribute and memorial dedicated at Brentwood Mall
Burnaby Now, August 29(?) 2002 p.?
Van. Sun, August 29 2002 p.B3 (short note on memorial plaque at Brentwood Mall
Van. Sun Jan 2 2003 A15
North Shore News, August 20 2004 p.6
Van. Sun, October 16 2004 p.B5 Louis Armstrong at Kitsilano
Vancouver Courier, October 19 2005 p.31 Louis Armstrong at Kitsilano
Van. Sun Jan 19, 2006 D9