Wendell Niles

Wendell Niles was an American announcer in radio's golden age and later on television. Born in Livingston, Montana, he grew up there and started in entertainment in the 1920s by touring with his own orchestra. In the early 1930s he announced for KOL in Seattle, and in 1935 he moved to Los Angeles to work with George Burns and Gracie Allen. His radio work included The Bob Hope Show and The Burns & Allen Show, and he starred in the 1950 pilot for The Adventures of the Scarlet Cloak. With his brother Ken, he helped develop one of the first radio dramas, which became Theatre of the Mind. He narrated an Academy Award-winning short film about Bill Tilden. His film credits include Knute Rockne, All American (1940) and Hollywood or Bust (1956). On television he announced It Could Be You and Your First Impression and was the original announcer for the first season of Let's Make a Deal.